Bob Colter grew up in Ipswich, Massachusetts. His mother was an English teacher; she eventually stopped and was a substitute teacher, while raising a family of six children. His father was an engineer - a methods planner. Bob didn't go to plays as a young child; he didn't even watch much television. On looking back Bob feels his first exposure to live theatre was in the form of a minstrel show that a local youth group would put on every year. It was done in black face with skits and lots of funny bits. Eventually it changed into a hillbilly theme because the local NAACP disapproved; they thought it was racist. Bob wanted to do theatre but never had an opportunity until he was a senior in high school. He was in a play called THE INSECT COMEDY, playing a butterfly who was in love with another butterfly.

Peter Eberhardt & Bob Colter (right) in PYGMALION at Unicorn Theatre

When Bob was about 22 he had the opportunity to house-sit in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. He soon got involved with the Westwood Playhouse, a then 99 seat house which was later remodeled into a 499 seat theatre near UCLA. He stayed there a few years, and then a friend encouraged him to come up to the Monterey Peninsula telling him that it was a beautiful area. As Bob explains, "And I came up here and opened the newspaper and there were open auditions in FOUR different theatres." In the summer of 1976 he started taking an acting class at Monterey Peninsula College. It was taught by Don Porter, and that's where he learned mime; the class was five days a week and very intensive. He continued taking theatre classes at MPC, then went for six months to San Luis Obispo with some other actors from the Peninsula to do repertory theatre, and eventually returned and did some shows at the Barnyard Theatre in Carmel.

While taking classes at MPC Bob met his future ex-wife, Carole Crockett and through Carole met her brother Carey. Carey was from the Monterey Peninsula but was attending art school and doing theatre including children's theatre in Seattle, Washington. Bob and Carole moved to Seattle for four years, and Bob did children's theatre with World Mother Goose, community theatre including the Brass Ring and the Mountainer Players, and was an assistant director for an improv group called The Off-The-Wall Players. Bob and Carole and their young son Bryan returned to the Peninsula in 1982 and by 1983 Bob, Carey, and Max Robert were beginning to put together Unicorn Theatre. Carey and Max were friends since their childhood days at Children's Experimental Theatre. Bob remembers Carey making a comment over the dinner table in 1977, "If I ever formed a theatre it would be called Unicorn." Carey liked the name because he saw a unicorn as magical and wanted to do some theatre with a magical nature to it.

Max had written a musical called CROWD OF STARS based on the poems of William Butler Yeats, and what was then called Unicorn Theatre Presents (they eventually dropped the "Presents") presented it in the Green Room (now called the SRO) at MPC. They would also present Max's THE PRIVATE LIVES OF THE TEDDY BEARS at the Carl Cherry Foundation. Max was commuting back and forth to Los Angeles; he was writing and creating costumes for the television show Pee Wee's Playhouse. Bob's job moved him out of the area for a few years. but when he returned to the Peninsula in 1987, he continued building the sets and sometimes acting for Unicorn. Carey was the Artistic Director and Bob was the Technical Director for Unicorn.

Unicorn would put on productions at various places on the Peninsula including MPC, the Carl Cherry Foundation, Hidden Valley, David Avenue School, and Robert Down School. What they were hoping for was to find a home for their theatre company. They did about seven shows at the River Inn in Big Sur. They discontinued this in 1995 when they moved into their present location, the Hoffman Playhouse in New Monterey. In 1993 Bob had taken a full-time job in maintenance at Santa Catalina School, so he was less often building sets for Unicorn. For the last five years his primary position at Unicorn has been as Actor In Residence. One role Bob has played year after year is Ebineezer Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The last production was in December of 1998. After ten seasons straight of the production, Carey decided to "give it a rest."

Bob talks about live theatre and why he enjoys being a part of it, "As far as I'm concerned theatre is basically story-telling, and as far as I can tell that's one of the oldest professions there is. It's one of the ways that we communicate with each other. Story-telling is something that I've always enjoyed as a performer and as a listener. And theatre for me is how I'm able to express myself creatively. I played trumpet and French horn all through high school, and although I enjoyed it, somehow I felt that it wasn't enough. I needed to express myself in a different way, and I found that outlet with theatre - acting. And then there is the satisfaction from building a set, from actually watching it go up and seeing that it actually works."

Bob Colter as Malvolio in THE TWELFTH NIGHT Unicorn Theatre

The subject of sets leads to a discussion of theatre "pet peeves." Bob describes one of his biggest pet peeves, "people who don't pull speed screws out all the way. Instead of using nails we use screws and staples for building sets, and when people are taking the sets apart and don't take the screws out all the way, then somebody ends up getting their hands ripped apart while picking up flats."

Bob concludes with the comment, "There are times when I get tired and frustrated, as we all do, but one of the greatest joys that I have in life is doing theatre and entertaining people and having the opportunity to get up there on stage and work in front of an audience. As far as I'm concerned, to be able to move them, to tell a story and to have them effected by it, is one of the greatest joys that I can have. My reason for living, my reason for getting up in the morning, is knowing that I can participate in something like that and be a contribution to people's lives."