BWW Interviews: ONCE Comes to San Antonio and John Steven Gardner Chats about His Experiences

ONCE is the musical about Guy and Girl meeting and falling in love. It is more than a love story, though. There are a lot of ups and downs and plenty of antagonists they have to deal with along the way. One of them is Eamon, the sound engineer at a recording studio. His own jaded past threatens the future for Guy and Girl. We recently caught up with John Steven Gardner, who plays Eamon and he shared his unique road to the role and how he feels about living the dream.

How did you get interested in performing?

I grew up in a bit of a music and performance family. My mom was an opera singer for a long time. I grew up with her doing gigs around the country and every now and then go over to Germany or France so I got a taste of that with her and my dad has been obsessed with folk and bluegrass music so I grew up with instruments laying the house. So when I got bored, I would pick something up and fiddle with it. They never pushed me to do anything in the performance world, but I think about halfway through high school, I caught the bug and they've always been very supportive. So, that's how I got into it from there and auditioned for colleges and ended up here. I grew up in a small town in Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. It's about two hours southwest DC, it's called Harrisonburg. I moved to New York after graduating in September of 2012.

How did you get the role of Eamon in ONCE?

I had a bit of a unique journey to get there because I was not part of the Union and I also did not have an agent when I started auditioning for ONCE. I had to go to one of those big massive open calls kind of "American Idol" style and did callback after callback over the course of the next month and a half. I did probably seven callbacks and then got the job late April of 2013. Our first performance for an audience was October of 2013.

Tell us more about ONCE and your character Eamon. What are your similarities and what are your differences?

I play Eamon who is a sound engineer at a recording studio. It's the last obstacle that you see the guy and the girl go through. The whole show leads up to them trying to make a demo of his music so he can take it with him and try to make it in the music business. Eamon is a professional who has a very discerning eye and is also very cynical and has very high standards. When you first meet him, he's not the kindest to these characters that we've fallen in love with. I think I also have unrealistic expectations for art and theater and music; I look at things with a critical eye. Not because I want to hate something but because I think if we don't hold ourselves to high expectations, or high standards then the work will not be as good as it could. That's one of the things I share with him. I think one of the big differences is that he is so beaten down. I think one of the reasons he is dry and not very friendly to these characters is I think he's seen so much music come through his recording studio that is just terrible. I think he's feeling very uninspired at this point in the show which is opposite for me because I get to walk out and play with this band of musicians that is better than anything I've ever done in my entire life. Every day, somebody does something that is very cool and really inspiring and I think Eamon is feeling the opposite way. It's been a long time since he's felt that spark of electricity.

What are some of the things you like most about being on the road?

Before this tour, I had the mindset that if you were going to travel, you had to do it outside of the United States. You had to see places that were out of the country. While I think that is really valuable, I think touring has been an amazing reminder of how much is within our own borders. It's crazy. It's like one week we're in Denver where it's lush green mountain surroundings then suddenly, you're at the desert next week then suddenly, you're on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and then who knows, you're in Texas the next time. You get to see so many different climates; so many different places. I think giving the opportunity to visit all these big cities and smaller cities and get enough time to get into that community is really fun.

If you had not gotten into show business, what do you think you would have done?

Oh, I have no idea. I think growing up, something that always interested me was the world of sciences and biology and genetics. I was into taking the unnecessary science classes that my high school offered. So, I think something along those lines. I don't know though, to be honest. And with this business, I think there is a school of thought that if you can be happy doing anything else, go do that. This industry is not very forgiving.

What advice do you have for anyone who is thinking about getting into the business?

Taking a look at yourself and making sure this is what you want to do is an important first step. But also, once you get going on auditioning and preparing material, taking voice lessons or dance classes; when you think you're working as hard as you can, find a way to work harder. It's what I always tell myself because one of the things that I've found in in that world is that it's not really about who's the most talented person who makes it. That definitely plays a part in it but there's so much luck and there's so much preparation that goes into it. You will be asked to do things in auditions that (people) never warned you about. If you have prepared yourself for every single angle, you'll be way more prepared to rise to the occasion. I think also being a nice person is the biggest thing especially with a tour like this where people are stuck with each other for a long time. They're looking for people that they want to be stuck in a room with for a long time almost as much as they're looking for people who are good instrumentalists or whatever it is. So, I think being good to those around you will take you very far.

ONCE plays at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio from March 3-8, 2015. Tickets are still available and you can go to the Majestic Theatre website to purchase tickets.

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