Michael Mayes

Hi, my name is Michael Mayes. I'm a stage, and film actor living in Boulder, Colorado. I've done a lot of theatre, a few shorts, some commercials, and industrials. I worked as an for a number of years in Louisville, Kentucky, and am currently residing in Boulder, Colorado. I am currently doing work in the Boulder/Denver area. I have been acting for over 10 years, and I have a Master's Degree in Fine Arts (Performance). I am currently looking for film work in Colorado. If you are in the area, and think you might be interested, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I am highly interested in acting in films that will be entered in film festivals in, and around Colorado. I am also highly interested in acting in films that will be entered in Holly Shorts in 2018, or The Burbank Film Festival in 2018.

I stumbled into acting by way of an acting for non-majors class, for which I used one of my electives. I fell in love with the craft. It felt spiritual to me, and I still have that sense of reverence for acting. I felt then, and still do feel like it's my life's mission. I was encouraged by my acting for non-majors professor to keep acting, and I felt the same encouragement inside myself. Compelled, I used every elective I could to take more theatre classes. I performed in a small studio show around the same time, which was the first play I had been in since the first grade when I played Tiny Tim in our school's production of The Christmas Carol.

A couple of years after graduating with a degree in English, I ran into one of my acting professors on the street. He asked if I had been acting, and I said no. I was just waiting tables at the time, being a twenty something year old skater, just partying & enjoying life. This professor told me on the spot, "...you should be acting. You were the most talented one in the class, I still think about your scene from "As You Like It" to this day. You should come to grad school." I was 26 at the time, and hearing that rocked my world. I had never lost the love of the craft, and I still thought about my days in the acting classes as an undergrad, but I was just a bit lost by that point. I thought about that encounter for a few months, then on my 27th birthday, after spending the summer reading some books on acting, and reflecting a lot, I decided that I was going to dedicate my life to acting. I applied for the grad program, auditioned, and got accepted to the University of Louisville's Theatre grad program.

After a few semesters, I still had not received an assistant-ship, which were almost always given to students from out of town. Having been born, and raised in Louisville, and after many discussions with the department chair, it was pretty obvious I was not going to get one. So, since I was paying for school out of pocket, I decided I had gotten enough training at that point to strike out on my own to do community theatre. And that's what I did.

I went to a unified audition for the many theatre companies in Louisville, and the ball began rolling. I was offered gigs left, and right. One of the newest, and still to this day (in my opinion) coolest theatre company there called Theatre 502 called me back for a role in their very first show "Broadsword". I got the part, and I could feel something important was happening. I got parts for other theatre companies as well. It wasn't long before I had worked with several companies in town, and had a good reputation as an imaginative, dynamic, dedicated, hard-working, professional actor. During those years I also got with a talent agency, and started auditioning for commercials, and other film projects. I booked some commercials, industrials, did 48 hour film festivals, and acted in one short film. All the while I was still doing plays, which I never stopped doing all that time. Things were really cooking. My world was expanding, I had a network of amazing people, and I was so happy with my progress and how I was embraced into the Louisville theatre scene.

Then, around the end of 2014 I decided that I wanted more. I wanted to expand, to do more, to learn more. That's when I started looking for schools to further my education. I found Naropa University, and thought "this is my soul mate in school form". By that time I was already on a spiritual path, had been meditating for a few years, was heavily into astrology, doing tarot, and using all that to feed into my art. I wanted to deepen my relationship to art, and Naropa was the perfect place for that to happen. I auditioned, and got accepted into the grad program starting in 2015.

At Naropa, my knowledge base and world of performance expanded even more. I was introduced to the principles of improv, devising, dharma art, art as activism, experienced the cohort setting, and so much more. It was an incredible journey of self-discovery, and transformation. Learning the Somatic Technique got me more in tune with my body than I had ever been, and the Roy Hart Voice Technique led me to find ability & range with my voice I never knew I had. I even began creating modern dance. It was such an amazing two years of education in performance. In addition to our core curriculum, we were taught by many guest artists from unique performance backgrounds from all over the world. We had guest teaching-artists from China (Beijing Opera), Iran, and South Africa just to name a few.

Now, I've graduated with an MFA in Contemporary Performance, and I'm ready to keep growing, and keep working to hold the world together by way of performance. As mentioned in the first paragraph above, I am currently delving deeper into film, and I have a strong interest in honing my craft in front of the camera. I think film is such an amazing medium, and I find the process to be just as rewarding as theatre. I also do stand-up comedy because I enjoy writing about life experiences, and making people laugh. Performing is my life blood. It's how I tap into something greater than myself. It's how I live in the service of spirit. Maybe we will one day cross paths out there, and create something together.