Communicating has been Carl Hunnell’s job for most of his life.
First, for 30 years after graduating from Ohio University in 1983, Hunnell worked in the newspaper industry before retiring as Managing Editor of the Mansfield News Journal in 2009. From there, Hunnell picked up writing again as Public Information/Outreach Supervisor for Richland County Children Services, where he currently works full time. Hunnell also has moved from communicating on paper to communicating on stage in various community theater performances.
After working long, inconsistent hours in the newspaper industry for 30 years and keeping up with his three sons’ extracurricular activities, Hunnell suddenly found himself with more time in his new job at Children Services and after sending his youngest son off to college in the fall of 2010. He decided to pick up his acting career again, an interest which first began in college.
“I saw something in the paper about ‘Skits, Bits and Halfwits IV,’ and I knew the gentleman who was directing, Gordon Wendling from when I used to work at the News Journal,” said Hunnell. “I called him and I said, ‘Do you think I can do this?’ And he said, ‘Anybody can do it.’ I went to an audition and got cast, and that was 10 shows ago.”
Hunnell has performed all around Richland County in productions at Malabar Farms, the Ohio State Reformatory, and at the Mansfield Playhouse. It’s a hobby he’s happy to indulge again after so many years as a full-time journalist.
“That’s a job that has lots of long hours, and lots of times when you have to work when you weren’t planning to work, which makes it tough to really plan anything outside of the business,” remembered Hunnell. “I had a chance to work for Richland County Children Services doing communications work, and couldn’t pass it up. It’s a full-time job Monday through Friday and pretty set hours. There are sometimes evening meetings or a weekend event, but I know about it in advance. It has freed up my evenings to do other things.”
Hunnell has not quite let go of the newspaper industry, offering his services as a freelance sports writer for Richland Source as well as the News Journal. However, theater is something he always makes time for.
“If there are people who like to collect stamps, they’re going to find time to collect stamps; if there are people who like to ski, they’re going to find time to go ski; you always find time to do the stuff you want to do,” said Hunnell. “Fortunately, I’m in a situation where my kids are grown and my wife is very understanding, she probably gets me out of the house more that way. I have the time to do it, and you just have to try and schedule stuff around.”
Recently, Hunnell appeared in the Mansfield Playhouse’s fifth installment of “Skits, Bits and Halfwits” for two weekends in February, where he appeared in 19 of the show’s 50 short skits. Some of his characters included a rabbi, a parrot, a little kid, an Asian physician, and a pirate, to name a few.
“I love Skits Bits because I’m probably ADD, and with Skits Bits you don’t have to remember anything for very long because you’re on and you’re off, and it’s lots of different characters and voices,” said Hunnell.
Hunnell admits those voices sometimes slip into his real job, though he noted his coworkers at Children Services have learned to ignore his terrible English accent.
“I grew up watching Monty Python, ‘Oh six o’clock and it’s time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode,’” said Hunnell, immediately transitioning into an English accent. “You slip in and out.”
Many times, Hunnell said he ends up playing parts where he can easily draw from real-life experience to add to his character.
“I’ve been lucky, most of the parts I’ve played I’ve done them, like I played a drunken newspaper editor out at the show at Ohio State Reformatory; I played a prosecutor down at Malabar Farm in ‘Ceely Rose,’ and covering cops and courts (for the News Journal) I’ve watched an awful lot of lawyers work,” Hunnell explained. “In ‘Leaving Iowa,’ I’ve been the angry father, I’ve been the anal-retentive father, very rough on the surface but his kids know deep down he loves them.”
When it comes to learning lines, Hunnell finds time to study from late at night when everyone including the dog is sound asleep, to early in the morning over a steaming mug of coffee. He noted seldom having a major role works to his advantage, as it means fewer lines to memorize.
Hunnell described being on stage as both a rush and sometimes a cathartic experience, but one thing that stuck with him the most is the camaraderie of the theater.
“There’s a part of that team building thing that I think is just about as much fun as the actual, lights on, ‘oh my god I forgot what I’m supposed to say’ part,” said Hunnell. “You know what goes into it, you experience it together, and the highs and lows and everything that goes into it.”
Despite sometimes juggling his full-time job at Children Services along with sports writing and theater, Hunnell is quite content with his schedule.
“You just have to take the time where you can get it,” he said. “There was a saying when I was at OU, which was ‘I can sleep when I’m dead.’ I got stuff to do.”
Hunnell will be appearing next in the upcoming production of “Drop Dead!” at the Mansfield Playhouse on April 4, 5, 11, 12 and 13.
Actors and actresses are mostly thought of as celebrities living extravagant lifestyles in major metropolises, unaware of a simpler existence and unattainable to the common person.
In Mansfield, local actors and actresses are writing your news, teaching your children or simply passing you on the street. Richland Source takes a look inside the lives of local theater contributors who are our neighbors by day and actors by night.
