Part I: Iowa City

From Renata in 2000: Okay, last week in Rosemont, I asked Curtis if I could maybe ask him a few questions to put on my website when I saw him the following week in Iowa City. He said, "Sure," and then scurried off to mingle with his more sane fans :) Anyway, the next week, my cool friends Megan and Elmo and I went to go hold him to his word in Iowa. We rushed, so we had spent about 6 hours in the line with nothing to do except think up questions to ask him and play with the 5 pound or so bag of animal crackers Megan had. We got creative and started making Rent character animal crackers (we colored on them with the pens we had.) I saved the Gordon cracker I made to give to Curtis. It was really neat looking but I don't think the picture I took came out. (It didn't come out great, but if you want to see it anyway, click here).
We gave the Gordon cracker to Curtis and explained its orgins, and he laughed and put it in the collar of his sweater (it had a turtleneck) and said he'd keep it safe. (We told him what happened to the Roger cracker... it got crushed in my wallet.) Well, enough babbling, on with our interview. Megan and I will be represented by italics, and Curtis' answers will be in not italic :) I may have vaguely misquoted because I couldn't exactly interpret my shorthand, but it's close.

When did you first start acting?
Acting out, or acting?
Oh, either one.
Well, I would always get in trouble in 2nd grade... um, 6th grade, yeah, I think I started acting in 6th grade.

What do you like about being in Rent?
I love the opportunity to travel... to meet new people and to share such a great story with people.

What would you do if you couldn't act? Like, it was outlawed or something, not like you were bad at it...
I would find a way to live on a sailboat on the Greek Isles and I'd just sail around all day... wouldn't that be fun?
(Laughing) Yeah, it would.

Who is your hero? Or someone you admire?
Um... I admire my father... I don't know that I really have one [hero]... um, anyone that lives for enjoyment, who searches for the fun in life.

If you could play any role in anything, what would it be?
I would play Mimi, in the musical Rent... no, um, I would like to play Jack from Into the Woods.

If you could be any chemical element, what would you be?
Um... nitrogen, 'causre it's life. Wait, nitrogen? Carbon, hydrogen... yeah, nitrogen.

Okay, um, we have this thing about actors' socks, so tell us about yours. (Megan: Yeah, see, in Chicago, Scott Hunt had these really cool socks, so I asked him for one of them, and he gave it to me, so we have a thing about socks.)
(Laughing) Um, they're usually black, or white. (He shows us his socks)
Can we take a picture of your socks?
Sure!

(Isn't that cute? I love that picture. I show it to people randomly, like, "Hi! Do you want to see a picture of Curtis Cregan's socks?" "Uh, no, not--" "Shut up and look at it!")

What kinds of music do you like?
Jazz and classical. And Frank Sinatra.
Okay, that's all, thanks so much! [And other assorted babbling that I didn't write down.]