Patrick Page

Personal life

John Patrick Page was born in Spokane, Washington, and raised primarily in Monmouth, Oregon. His father, Robert Page, was a theatre educator at Western Oregon University (then named Oregon College of Education). Page's early love of Shakespeare took hold when Robert, his father, was an actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, in 1964-65. His mother, Geri, was an administrator at Oregon State University. Patrick has two brothers, Robert and Michael, and one sister, Gayle.

In his teens, he developed an interest in magic and illusion. In 1978 he won the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians Stage Competition and in 1979 he was chosen by the International Brotherhood of Magicians as the Outstanding Teenage Magician in the stage-magic category.

He was married to actress Liisa Ivary from 1989-91. In 2001, he married actress and TV personality Paige Davis (TLC's Trading Spaces, Broadway's Chicago, and Boeing-Boeing). The Pages said in 2009: "We've been a couple for 14 years and married for eight of them..."

Education

Page attended Central High School in Independence, Oregon, graduating in 1980. During high school, Page was active not only in theater, but also in speech and debate tournaments and became the first person to win the national championship title twice, as the National Forensics League's Speaker of the Year in both 1979 and 1980. Next, he attended The Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts. He then graduated Cum Laude from Whitman College in 1985 and was chosen as the valedictory speaker for his class. During his time at Whitman, Page was twice chosen as the Outstanding Competitive Speaker in the Nation by the American Forensics Association, leading the Whitman team to an overall second-place finish at Nationals.

Early career

Page's early career was spent primarily in Utah and Oregon. Page spent six seasons with the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, becoming a Resident Artist and the Director of Development, during which time he helped oversee the creation of the new Randall L. Jones Theatre. During the off-season he frequently performed with the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. Subsequently, he spent several seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, before branching out to other regional theatres and eventually moving to New York.

Career

Page's Broadway credits include originating the role of The Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Scar in The Lion King, Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden, Decius Brutus in Julius Caesar (opposite Denzel Washington), and multiple roles in The Kentucky Cycle. His performance as King Henry VIII (opposite Frank Langella) in the Broadway revival of A Man for All Seasons.[1] in 2008 was nominated for the Outer Critics Award and chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of the outstanding theatre performances of that year.

Off-Broadway, he has been seen in Richard II, Rex, and The Duchess of Malfi. Page is also widely recognized as one of America's leading classical actors. He is an Affiliate Artist of The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC and an Artist in Residence at The Old Globe in San Diego. As a member of The Shakespeare Theatre Company he received the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre (Will Award) along with other company members in 2007. Past recipients include Ian McKellen, Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Anthony Hopkins, and Kevin Kline. In 2006 Page was awarded the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Leading Performance by an Actor for his portrayal of Iago in Michael Kahn's production of Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre. Washington Post critic Peter Marks cited Page's Iago as one of five outstanding American performances of Shakespeare in his lifetime; along with Stacy Keach, Liev Schreiber, Kevin Kline, and Michael Hayden. Page's other performances at STC include the title role in Macbeth (opposite Kelly McGillis) and Claudius in Hamlet.

At the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego Page's performance in the title role of Cyrano De Bergerac won the Craig Noel, San Diego Critics, and Patte Awards for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play. He has also been seen at the Globe as Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Pogo Poole in The Pleasure of His Company and Geoffrey Cordova in Dancing in the Dark (aka The Bandwagon) for which he also received the Craig Noel Award. Page has performed at many of America's leading regional theatres. His classical performances include Cyrano, Sergius, Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III, Oberon, Henry V, Talbot, Pinch, Armado, Mercutio, Brutus, Antony, Dr. Caius, Autolycus, Pandarus, Brazen, Hortensio, Malvolio, Horatio, Claudius, Iago, Jaques, Macbeth, and Benedick. Page is also a playwright. In 2004 his play Swansong debuted at the Lucille Lortel White Barn Theatre in Norwalk, Connecticut and was named one of the top ten plays of the year by the American Theatre Critics Association. It later played at the Kennedy Center, The Seattle Shakespeare Company, and Off-Broadway on Theatre Row.

Page is also the author of the one-man shows Passion's Slaves and Love Will, and the co-author (with Doug Christensen and Larry Baker) of Nothing Like the Sun. He is also the author of a popular stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Page is also an acting teacher who has worked at NYU's Tisch Graduate School of the Arts, The Old Globe's MFA program, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's MFA program, The University of Southern Utah and many others. He now teaches privately in New York City. He has directed Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night and many more.

Page created the dual role of Norman Osborn and his alter ego the Green Goblin in Julie Taymor's new Broadway rock musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which played at the Foxwoods Theatre until January 2014. Premiered in June 2011, it features music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Page's performance gained universally ecstatic reviews and was quoted as being one of the main reasons to see the show. For this performance, he received a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. Page left the show on August 5, 2012, to star in the new Broadway production of Cyrano De Bergerac which ran for a limited engagement from September to November 2012. His role in Spider-Man was taken over by Robert Cuccioli.

Page played the title role in Shakespeare Theatre Company's Coriolanus from March to June 2013.

Page appeared in the Broadway production of John Grisham's A Time to Kill. The production started on September 28, 2013 and officially opened on October 20, 2013. He appeared in the new play, Casa Valentina, which opened on Broadway in April 2014. He originated the role of Frollo in the U.S. premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, made his Shakespeare in the Park debut in Cymbeline, and in fall 2015 will play Adult Men in the Spring Awakening revival, produced by Deaf West and directed by his Hunchback co-star, Michael Arden.

Awards

Page has received a variety of awards and accolades throughout his career, including the Helen Hayes Award, The Princess Grace Award, The Emery Battis Award, The Utah Governors Medal for the Arts, The Whitman College Young Alumni Award, The Craig Noel Award and The Joseph Jefferson Award.