Thomas grew up on a small cotton farm in Texas outside of a town called Slaton. He was raised in his grandfather's house. It stood at the crossroads between FM (Farm to Market) Road and Dead Man's Road. He lived with his grandparents, mother and two brothers. His grandfather grew cotton, peppers, and peanuts so he'd have something to eat while he drank his beer. Thomas did no theatre as a child. But he was always interested in music. He played clarinet (very poorly) in junior high school, switched to drums and was first chair percussion through high school. He also played piano. He explains, " My mother had a piano when I was growing up. She eventually moved it into my room and I just sat around and banged on it. She tried to give me piano lessons which I despised, and fortunately, well unfortunately for my teacher, her house blew away in a tornado. So I didn't have to take piano lessons very long."

Thomas played with a country and western band and later with a rock band when he was in high school and until he went off to college. He decided to become a rehabilitative therapist and went to college in Colorado, doing his pre-internship at a mental institution in Big Springs. He did his post-internship at the Native American Hospital in Sitka, Alaska. Along with this, he was writing his own music, predominantly folk-rock, and performed some as a single musician. Then he met some people and formed a band. In 1979 bits and pieces of that band moved to the Monterey Peninsula. The sound engineer for the band had been in the army at Fort Ord and said the area was good for the kind of music they were playing. The band eventually became known as the 812 Band because they

One of the members of the 812 Band was Jeannie Wooster. It was Jeannie who suggested he take an acting and a speech class at Monterey Peninsula College, as he describes it "to help me improve my stage presence, which it didn't." It was around 1983 and Jeannie was doing the music for SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, directed by Morgan Stock. Jeannie asked Morgan if Thomas could join her as a musician and this became Thomas' first time in a theatrical production. Besides Jeannie, Thomas remembers the cast as including Bill Lindsay, Phil Pratt, Bill Cates, and Sandy Williams. Now Thomas' "interest was pricked." Jeannie got him the job of running lights and sound for CRIMES OF THE HEART, being directed by Sid Cato and put on at the Carl Cherry Center. His first acting on stage, outside of class, was also for a production directed by Sid Cato. It was THURBER CARNIVAL, an MPC Mainstage production of vignettes of Thurber's different writings, as Thomas says, "all-out bawdy, just short of slapstick."

Then Thomas met Carey and Diana Crockett. He explains: "I did a comedy THE REVENGE OF THE SPACE PANDAS, a children's show by David Mamet. It was an incredible play; I had a great time with it. That's when I got to know Carey and Diana; they were space pandas. And Carey did an incredible set for it." As Thomas continued in theatre, probably about 50% of his work has been for Carey Crockett and Unicorn Theatre. He states, "Carey has always been good for pushing me into things that nobody else would have done. He's been real good at making me stretch and work at things." Not only could Thomas act, run lights and sound, but he also began creating soundtracks for plays. Thomas describes the process, "I've had to write everything from some kind of space background music to classical to country and western. I like all kinds of music, so it's not difficult. Usually I have a synthesizer; I put in an instrument that would be an interesting feel to go with and start tinkering."

Thomas took a part in TWELFTH NIGHT presented at the Outdoor Forest Theater and felt "totally inept at it," so he took a few years off from acting, but continued writing music for plays -- for Carey Crockett, Conrad Selvig and others. Then, when he was writing music for a Unicorn production of KING LEAR, an actor dropped out of the play and Thomas replaced him as the King of France. Then Stephen Crane asked him to play Orsino, again in TWELFTH NIGHT, to be put on at the Wharf Theater. Thomas tells about it, " It was real scary and intimidating because it's a great role. I'd got scared off of Shakespeare earlier, but there were people in that play that helped me realize that I shouldn't let my ego keep me from continuing to get better. Then Carey started saying 'Why don't you do this part, that part' and next thing I know I'm doing theatre again. Because of Carey's help and exposure I got other people approaching me about doing other things and parts. I've never been and still am not good at all in auditioning. I primarily get parts because directors see me in something else and then ask if I'd be interested in doing a part for them. The only role I've auditioned for and actually got that I can think of was Mac in CANNERY ROW for The Western Stage."

Thomas talks about working on his inconsistency. He says that one night he may give what he considers a stellar performance and the next night he may feel like going off and hiding afterwards. He thinks that a lot of the time it has to do with how the audience is responding. He explains: "Professionally you're supposed to go beyond that and do a good performance regardless, but personally I feed on the audience response, and if it's not there it affects my performance and sometimes I want it so badly that I tend to go overboard, stretching it and hamming it up and trying to milk it. It has the opposite effect. I think it starts the moment I walk on stage. And don't tell me there's a critic or friends in the audience. Ideally it shouldn't make a difference, but it does. And I'm notorious for frustrating directors from the fact that I never do the same thing twice. And fellow actors. There are a lot of people who don't like to work with me because of that. If I don't feel comfortable with the language, unless it's old language, I tend to personalize it some."

Thomas Burks in DOG LOGIC

Thomas considers his favorite role the one he played in DOG LOGIC. The director was Elsa Con for Magic Circle Theatre. He played a man who inherited a huge pet cemetery -- kind of a philosopher who lived on the edge of reality. Thomas describes him as a very passionate character and describes the role as a very therapeutic experience. And recently Thomas has been working with the director Marsha Taylor in KINDER TRANSPORT which will be presented in September in Santa Cruz. Marsha teaches at UC Santa Cruz. He talks about her: "She's totally different from any other director I've worked with. She's a person who reads you immediately. It's a real frightening thing. You can't get away with acting around her, no acting. It's either real, in the moment, or not at all. Don't talk in this affected voice, don't put on those clich‚d, standard mannerisms. She's a person who's very much in the moment and you can't fool her."

You can't fool children either. Thomas again will be in TOAD OF TOAD HALL in March for Unicorn Theatre. It's one of his favorite children's shows to do. He explains: "Children are a very hard audience. Carey told me once a long time ago that children's theatre is a very good place to develop acting skills and I thought 'Phooey, that's silly.' I just go out there and act silly and kids will love it. It's not true. You have to be very engaging and be very real and even if you're acting goofy as heck, it turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be and a lot more fun. It is one of those few opportunities where you can just go out there and let go."

Thomas talks about acting and being on stage, "Acting is therapy at its best and numbing at any less. There are times when I feel the more I think I know, the weaker my performance is. I know that's just a rationalization for lack of preparation, but it still scares me -- sometimes enough to stick my neck out. I love the stage and hate the emptiness a good show leaves with me, the lost chances to have stepped even further out."