{"id":545,"date":"2016-08-15T00:19:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T00:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/?p=545"},"modified":"2016-08-15T00:21:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T00:21:04","slug":"an-open-heart-and-a-hard-shell-better-call-sauls-patrick-fabian-on-acting-and-his-memories-of-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/an-open-heart-and-a-hard-shell-better-call-sauls-patrick-fabian-on-acting-and-his-memories-of-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"‘An Open Heart and a Hard Shell’ : Better Call Saul\u2019s Patrick Fabian on Acting and His Memories of Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PennStateLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"pf1_0\"Patrick Fabian (\u201987 B.F.A. Theatre), a native Pennsylvanian, has come a long way from playing one of Christopher Columbus\u2019 ships in a second-grade play. Today he is one of the lead characters on the hit television series Better Call Saul, the Emmy-nominated spin-off prequel to Breaking Bad, airing on AMC. He says it was the time in between his early stage debut and current role that has made him the actor he is today, including his years at Penn State in the School of Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate and very lucky in a very tough business,\u201d admitted Fabian. \u201cMy training at Penn State absolutely has been something that I have relied on, whether I knew it or not, especially early on. What I found was that the only reason I have a career is because of the groundstrokes that were given to me at Penn State as the basis of how to behave as a professional actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabian used his Penn State training\u2014including his warm-up of Gilbert & Sullivan\u2019s \u201cModern Major-General\u201d that former professor Michael Connolly taught him\u2014to land his role as Howard Hamlin in Better Call Saul.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is a real crowning achievement in a lot of ways. People ask me, \u2018How did you get this job?\u2019 I got this role exactly the same way I got my first job twenty-six years ago. I went in, prepared like Penn State had taught me, and I did to the best of my ability what I saw on the page, and in this particular instance I was their answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

On September 18, Fabian will attend the Emmy Awards, for which Better Call Saul is nominated for six. Earlier that morning, he will participate in his tenth Nautica Malibu triathlon to benefit Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles. As the father of two young daughters, the cause is very special to him.<\/p>\n

Fabian\u2019s wife, Mandy, is also in theatre and is currently working on her first television feature. When the power couple is not juggling their busy schedules, the family is playing beach volleyball and, as Fabian joked, \u201clooking like we\u2019re in a Sunkist commercial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his love of California, Fabian still reminisces about growing up in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, including tubing down Yellow Breeches Creek. He continues to cheer for Pittsburgh\u2019s sports teams and returns to visit family. At times, his Steelers and Penn State gear lead to random interactions, from friendly team rivalry to shouts of \u201cWe Are!\u201d between strangers.<\/p>\n

Fabian is currently working on an independent film called Shoot, in which he plays a soccer coach who helps an Iranian boy. He also recently finished an independent film, DriverX, about a man who ends up driving an Uber to support his family.<\/p>\n

Recalling his time at Penn State, Fabian described rehearsal in the Pavilion Theatre and ice cream breaks at the old Creamery location (Borland Building). He also fondly remembers working at Zeno\u2019s, his first and favorite bartending job. However, he wasn\u2019t sorry to give up waiting tables as his career progressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1992, I stopped waiting tables, and I haven\u2019t looked back,\u201d he proudly stated.<\/p>\n

Fabian\u2019s appreciation for his success is only second to his humility. He loves being recognized by fans and interacting with them through social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled by it. I\u2019m not too jaded. All that it tells me is that what we are doing is good. Sometimes I forget the reach and the power of television. The audience is your lifeblood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his television career, Fabian still has a love for live theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe power of live theatre is so great. Witness the phenomenon that is Hamilton! Who would have thought that the musical genre could be turned on its head and reinvented?\u201d<\/p>\n

While a theatre student at Penn State, Fabian performed in midnight theatre and was in Spring Awakening, directed by professor emerita Helen Manfull, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Much Ado about Nothing (set in India!), directed by Bill Kelly.<\/p>\n

Fabian said Manfull and Kelly molded him as a student, in addition to Michael Connolly, Tom McNally, Barry Kurr, Bob Leonard, Jim Hoskins, and Peg French. He particularly remembered his first impression of Penn State\u2019s theatre department \u2013 taking an introduction to theatre history class in the Forum with Manfull.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer sunshine, optimism, and enthusiasm for what I thought I had decided I wanted to do with my life cemented it for me,\u201d revealed Fabian. \u201cShe showed me that as an adult you could have an almost childlike enthusiasm for the love of art and the love of wanting to be an artist and that there is no shame in that and that one should embrace that. I will never forget that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that Fabian is in a position to mentor aspiring actors, he advises them to make the most of their auditions. \u201cTrying to figure out whether or not you are going to get the job is not your job. What\u2019s in your control, to a degree, is the five minutes you have afforded to you to go and show them that you know what you are doing. If you can do that to your satisfaction, that is your job. You\u2019re not in control of the people across the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabian said he is grateful for his Penn State education and proud to be an alumnus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe educators there gave me a base that allowed me to launch a life against all possible odds,\u201d he explained. \u201cI remember Bill Kelly giving us The Paper Chase speech on the very first day. I remember him saying, \u2018Look to your left, that person will be gone in six months. Look to your right, that person will be gone.\u2019 And he ends up saying, \u2018Maybe one of you in this room might have a shot.\u2019 Everybody in that room thought, \u2018It\u2019s me.\u2019 And it turns out, at least in my case, it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally from: artsandarchitecture.psu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Fabian (\u201987 B.F.A. Theatre), a native Pennsylvanian, has come a long way from playing one of Christopher Columbus\u2019 ships in a second-grade play. Today he is one of the lead characters on the hit television series Better Call Saul, the Emmy-nominated spin-off prequel to Breaking Bad, airing on AMC. He says it was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":550,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}