Frederick Wyngarde

Concept: Theater Professor

AKA: No, that’s his real name. He also answers to “Doc”

Desc: Rail thin and severe looking. Cheekbones that you could slice roast beef with. Blue eyes that seem mildly unfocused, yet see EVERYTHING. receding hairline which has gone silvery. Often he forgets to shave for days at a time, but never long enough to develop an actual beard or mustache. Favors dark colors, often going in for the black turtleneck look with dark slacks or jeans. Never wears jewelry. Broken capillaries across the bridge of his nose from too much drink. His laugh is a harsh bark-like thing.

History: He’s erudite, articulate. and his sense of humor is bone dry. He’s been with the university long enough to have tenure and has risen to the position of the artistic director. (Although the Dean of Fine Arts is almost always a music professor) He’s taught an endless parade of young impressionable youths about the craft of theater, which he considers to be more of a religion, and over the course of a long and distinguished career in academia and in the theater. He’s gone mad.

   Ok. that may be overstating it a bit. He’s always been a bit of an Elitist. He’s also always been the sort of theatrical practitioner to gather a cult of personality. The standard rap being something that essentially boils down to, “Everything you are doing is wrong, but I see a feeble glint of promise within you. Do everything I tell you, and maybe you too can have a serious career in the theater.”  With certain impressionable female students, this goes further...as you can imagine.  He’s pretty bitter about not having gotten further in the business, but that’s nearly ANY actor/director his age.  

  But madness? Really?

Well. I should point out that over the years he’s read a LOT of plays. And like any field of endeavor, there are dark corners. Oh sure, The Music department balked at helping him produce “Massa Di Requiem per Shuggay” And his copy of “The King In Yellow” is well thumbed. He’s made several attempts over the years to adapt it into a stage play but there are certain problems and he hasn’t gotten it EXACTLY right yet. And he wants it exactly right. At least, being a theater TEACHER, he’s not shackled by the demands of keeping a professional theater afloat by producing the thrice-damned “Odd Couple” every few years.

Essentially, Frederick has begun to see Theater as a form of public ritual, and rituals are meant to DO things. Changing attitudes in a local society and bringing emotional catharsis to serious societal issues is all well and good, but certain works hint that maybe that’s just beginning of what can be accomplished with this sort of ritual. And while he wouldn’t produce a play which involves a live blood sacrifice or anything like that...He IS fascinated by that sort of thing.  He’s even been casting around trying to determine if there is a Voodoun or Santeria community in this town to see if he can sit in on their services. Fortunately for everyone involved, anyone with ties to those communities divine incorrectly that he’s just another white tourist looking for cheap thrills.

One hopes that a person like Frederick will never actually find the dark grail he doesn’t even know he looking for...But this being the World of Darkness, it is likely to find HIM.

Attitude: “If have learned anything in my many years of practice of the craft of theater, it is this. The Universe responds to Passion and Intent, especially if you follow it up with a healthy dose of repetition. You must demand that the Audience, and by extension, the rest of the universe give you what you want. The practice of magic is much the same in my opinion, if perhaps a bit less refined. “

Skills: Academia has made him an expert researcher and a seasoned intriguer. Theater has made him a master manipulator (Seriously, Manipulation4+) He is very socially skilled and has a number of dots salted away into skills that in any other profession would seem weird. (a couple of languages, a bit of carpentry, lighting design and some of the math that goes along with it. He can sew a tiny bit and has some skill with sword and quarterstaff.  His own peculiar studies have given him a smattering of occult understanding, but not nearly as much as he thinks.

Gear: Refuses to own a cell phone. Seriously, he’s a real douchebag to anyone who brings one into his classes. Has a moleskin notebook that he takes with him everywhere and keeps his keys on a fist sized D-ring which he normally clips to a belt loop.

Home: Has an immaculate little efficiency apartment that is overstuffed with memorabilia and the sort of Mathoms one collects from a life in the theater.Strangely, the place lacks warmth. Watches all his DVDs and all of his television on his computer. Usually with some writing project on the other side of the screen. Keeps one dresser drawer for occasional female guests. Eats many meals over the sink. No pets.

Circle: Has lots of acquaintance, but very few friends. Most of the women he’s been with are driven away by the fact that he rarely lets anyone in.  Normally, he tends to break it off before they get too attached, and if they get annoyed about it, He then does his level best to hound them out of the department or even out of school. he's about got it down to a science by this point.

Story Uses:

“From the top of scene please, and this time, make me believe it!”

Doctor Wyngarde is essentially a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later he’s going to run across some play or opera that is going to do something truly horrific magically and then it will be on like barbecue sauce. The question is, will anyone notice before it’s too late?

“You know my door is always open”

Weirdly, he might not be the worst choice a character, especially a young character, might have for a mentor. He’s very smart, is willing to share his knowledge, and wants to see his students get ahead. Unless of course, they call him on his guru attitudes. At that point, they are dead to him.

Connections:

* Marcie Hawkins knows him and doesn't like him much. He made Adam's life a living hell during his last two years of school. Weirdly, Frederick doesn't remember it that way,("The young man needed toughening up.") and always was privately convinced that Marcie was one of his great successes as a student. is convinced he taught her everything she knows.

* Once while looking around for "found spaces" to perform interesting work, decided to enter Grace Cook's church. He sensed power there, but the building is so unstable you couldn't stage anything in there safely.

* Knows Clarinda Hale and Dr. Dennis McMurtry as a matter of course, but they don't have a lot of overlap aside from being faculty at the same place. Both have heard the gossip about his special proteges that he bones and then hounds out of school.

* Darla Grumman has done work for him in the past. He's a bit high-handed in her opinion, but work is work. Also, Darla still hasn't learned to stay away from actresses.

* Lara X was a theater minor, Frederick would have liked her to be a theater major, and much more interested in older men.

* Doris Badenov was a student of his, and a good one too. Jordan still considers his teaching to have been pure gold. Milo Karanikas took some directing courses as a cross-over with the Cinematography department and feels much the same.

* Lewis Flowers has seen every play that Dr. Wyngarde has produced and directed. He feels as if he's being sent messages. They had a long conversation once at a reception after an opening night for "The Butcher's Dance" Which Wyngarde has likely forgotten about, but Lewis has not. Lewis senses a kindred spirit.

* The Caboose is usually home to at least one girl, if not more, who is working her way through school by stripping, and is interested in theater. Wyngarde has visited the club more than once following rumors of this or that student taking it all off for money. He's fairly low key about this.

* John Patmos created an endowment for the theater through one of his front companies. He wants Wyngarde's work to continue. They've never met in person, but Patmos has seen a number of his shows. He rather enjoyed "The Cannibal's Garden".