Multiple Muses Inspiration Pays Regular Visits To Actor, Artist
Patrick Treadway Age: 38 Occupation: Actor, artist
Patrick Treadway defies definition. An actor, artist, musician, woodcarver and puppet maker, the 38-year-old Spokane man does it all.
And that doesn’t count what he considers his most gratifying talent: the ability to teach children to use their creativity.
How can one man possibly be talented in all these ways?
“They’re all the same, in a way,” he said. “The thing I do to make a puppet is the same thing I do to make a character. It’s like the same breath being blown into different-shaped balloons.”
And what balloons.
People still are marveling over his hysterical turn as the punk entrepreneur Lewd Fingers in “Angry Housewives” way back in 1988. Soon after, he established himself as one of the best actors in Spokane with his memorable roles as Huck Finn in “Big River” and Capt. Hook in “Peter Pan.”
Yet, Treadway’s most legendary performance wasn’t in a show at all. It was in his first Spokane Civic Theatre audition in 1987.
A ragged bag man walked slowly into the audition hall. When his name was called, he tottered up front and began to sing. As he sang, he began to strip off his tattered clothes, revealing a tuxedo underneath. Under that, a skintight leather suit. The song was “Unforgettable.”
“He transformed himself from an old street person into a beautiful young man before our eyes, simply by changing his voice and removing his outer layer of clothes,” said Marilyn Langbehn, a Spokane actress and director who was there. “It was one of the most astonishing auditions I’ve ever seen. ‘Unforgettable’ was an understatement.”
Treadway remembers it, too.
“I swear, I’m still getting work out of that one audition I did at the Civic,” he said.
This was immensely gratifying for Treadway because he had moved to Spokane from the San Francisco Bay Area partly in hopes of finding more outlets for his creativity.
He was born and raised in Berkeley and Oakland and - as a boy - was in the San Francisco Children’s Opera and the Young Conservatory of the American Conservatory Theatre, the Bay Area’s leading professional theater. But when he got out of high school, he found that professional theater was a cutthroat world.
“I had to be a piranha like the other actors were, and I didn’t want to do that,” he said. “I still don’t want to do that. It just doesn’t feel like me.”
So he found another performing outlet, not nearly as careerist. He became a singer in a punk band.
They did one gig, opening for the Dead Kennedys in 1977. Then he founded several other bands, including one called Little Ritual and another called the Young Blondes. Finally, he came up with a band called P.T. and the Pleasers, who would play anything.
“If we had a heavy metal gig, everyone would crank up their instruments,” he said, laughing. “If it was a punk gig, everyone would drink a little more.”
But by 1985, Treadway already had soured on the rock ‘n’ roll life. Thinking he would like the country, he moved to Newport, Wash., where a friend owned a business. He couldn’t have been more wrong. He got cabin fever in six months and moved back to the Bay Area.
Yet he kept thinking about the friends he had made in Spokane while he was in Newport.
“I thought, ‘It’s a great vibe up there, and I think that’s the place for me.”’
He moved to Spokane in 1987 and got a job right away as the voice of the remote-controlled “Recycling Robot.” He would hide behind trees and trash cans while children would banter with the robot.
Then came that famous audition, and he was immersed in the world of Spokane’s performing arts.
He admits he started out with a big-city attitude.
“I had it in my head there would be a difference in the talent caliber here,” he said. “I was really put in my place by meeting the people at the Civic, like Jean Hardie, who can really knock ‘em dead. It dawned on me they’re here because they love it. They could (perform) anywhere in the country.”
Soon Treadway had all the theater work he could handle, but in Spokane that often means unpaid work. He needed something to pay the bills.
“I’ve always drawn, but it didn’t even occur to me that it was a viable talent until I was at my wit’s end,” he said. “The cupboards were bare, and I had paper and pastels. I thought, ‘I think I can do a portrait.”’ So he drew a few. They sold. Then he started getting commissions. Now, he regularly produces portraits of local faces - and not just humans.
“I get commissions from dog owners and cat owners,” said Treadway. “They’re more precious to them than babies are to mothers.”
He also got into the surprisingly lucrative field of voice-overs for commercials. He started out reading books for audiotapes, and when commercial studios heard his character voices, they signed him up.
“I do Pizza Pipeline, Taco Time, Pontiac, Ford,” he said. “I’m that obnoxious guy saying, ‘It’s ‘97 clearout time at your Pontiac dealer.”’
Somewhere along the way, he discovered an unexpected talent: carving wooden puppets. Even Treadway has no idea where this came from. All he knows is that one day, he decided to carve a puppet of one of his rock heroes, Todd Rundgren. Soon, there it was, a real marionette.
“I really don’t know how I learned it,” he said. But “I thought, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.’ Again.”
Treadway later branched out into giant papier-mache stick puppets, such as the 12-foot-tall policeman he made for “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” at the Civic.
There’s not much of a market for puppets, but Treadway soon discovered that there is a market for carved walking sticks. Once again, he just sat down one day and made one. His inspiration for this project is a textbook example of the way creativity in one field feeds creativity in another.
“Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest’ was on my mind, and I was thinking that I would really love to play Prospero at some point,” he said. “And whatever’s in my brain, I try to make it into reality.”
So he found a pine stick and an Exacto knife and started carving. He carved the faces of many of the characters in “The Tempest” into that stick, with Prospero getting top billing near the knob.
Now Treadway makes walking sticks to order. Give him a theme and he’ll execute it. His theater colleagues are in awe of the man’s versatility and drive.
“His portraits are incredible, and the detail is just astonishing,” said fellow actor and director Troy Nickerson, who has a Treadway portrait of himself as Petruchio. “He can create anything. He has a back yard full of stuff that will eventually become something.”
“Patrick soaks up the world around him like no one else I know,” said Langbehn. “His gifts of mimicry are legendary and his powers of observation remarkable. He sees jewel tones where the rest of us see pastels.”
This summer, Treadway is teaching a theater workshop for children at Eastern Washington University. He sees more of this in his future.
“It’s one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done,” he said. “If I could keep this all year, I’d be really happy.”
He also sees himself staying in Spokane, probably forever. The Bay Area, even with its vast arts scene, was stifling to Treadway.
“I couldn’t focus on anything bigger than I was, which is something I’m allowed to do here,” he said. “I’m supported to do that here.”
WE’RE STILL LOOKING Do you know someone who should be part of our “Creative ‘98” project? Someone who is passionate, inspiring and energetic? It’s easy to tell us about such people. Send us their names, how we can reach them, their ages and why you think they are creative. Please include your name, too. You can write to: “Creative ‘98,” The Spokesman-Review Newsroom, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210. Fax: (509) 459-5482 in Spokane or (208) 765-7149 in Idaho. Call Cityline: (509) 458-8800 or (208) 765-8811. The category is 9882. Or e-mail: shellyd@spokesman.com