His name is Mark Shilstone, but when he's on stage he's Mark Shilstone-Laurent. He says it's a way to say "thank you" to his wife, Adrienne Laurent, for being so supportive of his participation in theatre and accepting of the time it takes away from his home life.

Mark grew up in Redwood City, California. His father was a sales representative for the Pennsylvania Railroad and his mother was a librarian. His first participation in theatre was when he played Long John Silver in THE ATOMIC BOOKSTORE when he was in the 6th grade. He did no more acting until he was about to enter his freshman year in high school. Early in the summer before he would start the 9th grade, Mark and a friend were skateboarding outside of the theatre of the local high school. It was a summer repertory theatre and they would be doing two musicals that summer, BRIGADOON and CAROUSEL. BRIGADOON needs lots of men, and the high school student playing Meg (Mark calls her "the loose lady") spied Mark and his friend and, true to her character, flirted with them and coaxed them into joining the production. Mark says, "It was that first BRIGADOON that hooked me and I was gone." He stayed and did CAROUSEL that summer and then THE MUSIC MAN the following summer. He also performed in high school productions during the school year.

When he graduated high school in 1968 Mark went to college for two years - first to a junior college in Redwood City and then to San Jose State. But it was the late 60s, and he didn't want to be there. He says he did all the things you were supposed to do at that time, "I sang lead in a rock 'n roll band for four years and I owned a head shop. Golly, I think I might have even smoked a joint once - AND INHALED! I was a classic 60's cliche. It was great fun seeing Hendrix, Zeppelin, The Who, Cream - pretty much everybody." By 1974 Mark decided to give up being a hippie and moved with a friend to Eureka, California and re-entered college. First he went to the College of the Redwoods and then to Humboldt State College. He got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Humboldt State, but didn't like their theatre department. He preferred doing independent productions. One production he feels is probably the most creative thing he has ever done - a mime and dance production of the Who's rock opera "Tommy." This was years before the creation of the movie or the recent Broadway production. He also directed independent productions of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and EQUUS.

It was at Humboldt State that Mark met Adrienne. He first noticed her when she stood up the first day of English class, had the teacher sign a "drop" form, and walked out. He says it was "love at first sight, just like Tony and Maria in WESTSIDE STORY." Two days later she showed up in some other class as a "speech rep" talking about needing people in an oral interpretation class. Mark says, "So I thought, 'What's oral interpretation? I don't care. She's in it. I'm there.' And the rest is history. We celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary next year." Adrienne was in speech competitions, so Mark started doing that also, earning Second Place Overall Speaker at the national tournament in 1978. He ended up getting a Masters Degree in Speech, and in 1980 they were married.

In 1978 Adrienne had taken a radio news job which lasted three months and then she went over to television as a "weather girl," eventually becoming news director. It was Adrienne's job that eventually led them to the Monterey Peninsula. She took the job as Santa Cruz bureau reporter for KSBW for a short time and then began anchoring the 11:00 news in Salinas. And that's when Mark got involved with the Western Stage. His first season there was as an actor - in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, CYRANO and DEATH OF A SALESMAN. By the next summer he was production manager and soon was also teaching theatre classes.

Mark as Richard III Carmel Shake-speare Festival

In 1984 Adrienne accepted a position to teach Journalism at the nation's number one broadcast journalism school, The University of Missouri at Columbia. So Mark, Adrienne, and their 6-month-old son Brady moved to Missouri for four years. Adrienne would teach and be news anchorperson and Mark got a part-time job as publicity director for the University of Missouri Theatre. Eventually he got on the faculty of the university teaching speech classes. He did some repertory theatre at the university during the summer, playing Toby Belch in TWELFTH NIGHT, Actor 3 in THE DINING ROOM, the realtor in FOXFIRE and directing ZOO STORY. But soon son #2, Tyler, was born, and at night instead of changing costumes he was changing diapers. While in Missouri, Adrienne and a colleague started a business, originally over the phone and now computer-based, providing television newsroom people around the country with information on job opportunities (and vice versa). Mark has run the day-to- day operations ever since.

Mark, Adrienne, and their two sons moved back to California in 1988, spending a year in Cupertino and San Jose, and when Adrienne became news director at KMST they moved to their present house in Pacific Grove. Five years ago they had their 3rd son, Austin - as Mark says of his son's names, "They're all towns in Texas and there's no rhyme or reason for that..And no, we're not planning for a cute little Corpus Christi." Mark resumed teaching part-time at Hartnell and became more heavily involved in theatre. For MPC he did LAST MEETING OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE MAGNOLIA and LOVE LETTERS (with Adrienne), THE NERD and SLEUTH. He also did a lot for Grovemont Theatre (now Pac Rep) when it was still in Monterey. First he took a role in DADDY'S DYING, WHO'S GOT THE WILL? Later he did A WALK IN THE WOODS and LIFE IN THE THEATRE. In Grovemont's Shake-speare Festival at the Outdoor Forest Theatre he played Friar Lawrence in ROMEO AND JULIET and one of his favorites, the title role in RICHARD III. He also directed two productions for Grovemont - EQUUS (he also played the lead, Martin Dysart) and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. Most recently he performed in MIZLANSKY/ZALINSKY - a production of the MPC Players at Cherry Hall directed by Conrad Selvig. And last February he got to play a role he'd been wanting to play ever since he was very young - George in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? He says that's the most fun he's ever had in a play - that and playing King Arthur in CAMELOT. In addition to acting, directing, and teaching, Mark has been a theatre reviewer locally, first for the Coast Weekly, next for the Salinas Californian and last for the Carmel Pine Cone. And Mark continues running the job-listing service - with Adrienne as president/CEO and himself running the day-to-day operations. Adrienne retired from being a television anchorperson about 2 years ago.

Mark talks about directing versus acting, "I love acting. I love making the connection. My favorite time is, and this happens maybe once or twice in a run, when you've done your work and everything is working and you can literally get outside of yourself and watch it happen. New things are coming in the characterization just out of nowhere. It's like the muses have decided to drop in and take over – it's just the most wonderful, exciting feeling. Acting is pretty much in your own hands, but directing is different. It's like walking seven dogs and trying to keep the leashes from getting tangled. If you're a good director, you want to know about every little bit and piece. EQUUS was probably the most satisfying play I directed because it has so many weird elements that depend on so many things being right, that illusion thing. You want it to click and I think it did - the same with ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST."

In 1998 Mark started developing the idea that a theatre company could build it's 2000 season around a look back at theatre in America in the 20th century. He talked to Peter DeBono at MPC, and now the series SETTING THE STAGE will be presented in the SRO theatre as a compliment to their Main Stage 2000 Season. It is a series of five productions which will each preceed an upcoming Main Stage production. The five productions cover the state of theatre in America during the following time periods: 1900-1930, 1930-1955, the American musical (to be created and directed by Jerry DeBono, covering musicals of the entire century), 1955-1980 and 1980 to the present. The Main Stage productions move chronologically through the century, starting with THE FRONT PAGE, produced in 1928, and ending with SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, which opened in 1990. The SRO productions will "set the stage" for each Main Stage show. Mark gives more details, "It's basically a look at what's going on in theatre and in the country as a whole during a given time period. The format is NOT academic. There is a pompous Master Thespian who spouts and bellows most of the historical stuff, but the main focus is on his troupe of seven actors who perform scenes from major works of that time period. For instance, in the first one - 1900-1930 - we do LOTS of O'Neill since he was really the main man of the period. We cover a few other playwrights as well - scenes from THE ADDING MACHINE, WHAT PRICE GLORY? and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU - but the main part of the evening is devoted to O'Neill with scenes from DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, AH! WILDERNESS, THE ICEMAN COMETH, A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT."

Mark concludes with some thoughts about doing live theatre, "I love the process. I love rehearsal. I love it when that creative thing happens, when the choices start to be made for you, when the muses visit. I love it all except learning lines. I HATE learning lines. And then there are those fun moments on stage, those terrifying moments, when someone goes up (forgets his lines) - yourself or somebody else. You can just see the part of you that is you-doing-the-play calling out to all those other parts of you, 'Everybody get in here now! I need you all now!' It's the most alive you ever are."