Suburban actor-teacher fit for stage, gym class

Some people have their hands full with one job. Greg Caldwell, who appears in Raven Theatre's production of "Misamerica," juggles two.

During the day, he teaches physical education at Booth Tarkington Elementary School in Wheeling. In the evening, he acts.

For some this would be a hardship. For Caldwell this is how he has always lived.

"I was a triple major in college," Caldwell says, "History, sports medicine and P.E. Also ran on the cross country and track teams."

That was at North Central College in Naperville. Caldwell is very much a product of Chicago's suburbs.

"I grew up Des Plaines in the house my grandmother was born in, the house my mother was born in, the house my great grandmother had built," Caldwell says, "It was one of the first houses built in Des Plaines."

Caldwell now lives in Glenview.

His interest in theater began at Glenbrook South High School, but it didn't really flower until college. "We were required to take some kind of artistic class," he says, "I took two classes in acting and I started to audition for things on campus. Before I graduated I was in over a dozen shows."

Caldwell took a job teaching in West Chicago right out of school, but he continued to do theater. He auditioned for shows and studied acting at Second City's Conservatory.

"As soon as I could I got head shots," Caldwell says, "I did my first professional show at The Funny Bone. I appeared in the female version of Neil Simon's 'The Odd Couple.'"

He also took theater into his teaching. "My class is not the typical P.E. class. I challenge my kids to be creative with what we do," Caldwell says, "I try to take the sting out of P.E. class."

He has even co-directed some theater events at his school, including a version of the energetic and noisy dance-musical revue, "Stomp." But mostly, Caldwell keeps his two worlds separate.

Caldwell currently appears in "Misamerica."

"The play is basically about an advertising firm going to a war-torn third-world country to sell them sandals," Caldwell says, "That's what we call it, a war-torn third-world country. It is a satire.

"The character I play is Walter," he says, "He is a consultant in an advertising agency. Part of the team trying to sell these sandals. As you can imagine we are not the best received."

That is where the comedy comes in.

"I know my schedule is crazy," Caldwell says, "But I don't like to sit around. If I sit around doing nothing I feel like I am wasting my time. Besides, this way I get to do the two things that I absolutely love to do: teach and act."