And now, the long awaited interview with Robert Keiper, who voiced the majority of the iambik audiobooks production of The Painting and the City. (He handled the contemporary parts and Ulf Bjorklund read the Philip Schuyler journal sections. I’m hoping to interview Ulf later.)

To go with this interview, iambik will be offering a give-a-way. Please check their blog for details.

Keiper began his theater career in the fifth grade, singing in operetta and acting in child roles with the Cleveland Playhouse. He studied theater at Ohio State University, and has directed educational television, toured the country as a platform speaker, worked as an actor in New York, and directed and wrote shows for the stage, one of which has had 2500 performances.

He took a 30-year break from theater to work in business, and returned to acting because of his daughter, Alex Keiper. Since getting back into acting, he has worked in stage plays and film, training people in businesses to improve their presentation skills, and, of course, as a voice artist, including commercials, audio plays, and audio books.

Keiper is appearing in a new movie, The Sophmore, with Amanda Plummer and Patrick Warburten, out in January 2012.

Laconic Central: Hi Bob, thanks for doing this interview.

In your bio, you say you got back into theater because of your daughter’s love for acting. I’m assuming that her interest was sparked originally by your past–or did you stop before she was born?

Robert Keiper: My daughter got the theater bug all on her own. Then, taking her to an audition landed roles for both of us, and I got bitten again. So she’s more responsible for my theatrical aspirations than I am for hers.

But some of my fondest memories—and hers—are her childhood hours we spent in the living room working on monologues.

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