Robert Deike
Robert Deike received his Bachelors in History from the University of Texas at Austin. While at the University, he stumbled across the Shakespeare at Winedale program and spent one spring and five summers exploring Shakespeare in Performance. Afterwards, instead of taking his History degree and becoming an 8th Grade teacher or somesuch, he basically tooled around performing in plays, taking his newfound enjoyment of language into other theatrical works. He's helped to form and guide a few austin theatre companies, notably the Theatre Collective at UT, the Wheetzah Players, the Barefoot Players, and now the Bedlam Faction. The principles of the Bedlam Faction, risk, playing, creativity and community, these he upholds as best as mortal flesh can. Sometimes he fails, and sometimes is failed by others, but never does he lose his faith that these principles are worth the sometime failures. Life is a process, filled with false starts, betrayals, sadness, but also with celebration, compassion, and hope. To mimic life, theatre must also be a process, of learning, frustration, and finally understanding, to have a hope of communicating to the people that watch the wonder and beauty it is to be human. Tall order, but using BF principles as a start, an order that is an absolute joy to fulfill. Or so says Robert. If you don't believe it, why not try it for yourself? Believe me, you'll see.