From The Fire
  • Home
  • ABOUT
    • Maps and Locations
    • testimonials
    • Contact Us
  • The Light of Fire
  • Purchase FROM THE FIRE
  • Contributors A - L
    • akka b
    • Alan Gilliam
    • Alexa Gerrity
    • Amanda Colon Rogers
    • Amber Lennon
    • Amun Levy
    • Angela May
    • Barbara Muska
    • Becca Fuchs
    • BoKU
    • Brenton Butler
    • Brian Berman
    • Brian Lisus
    • Brian Ziegler
    • Camp Ramah
    • Carlos Grasso
    • Carlotta Mastrojanni
    • Carolyn Cricca
    • Carolyn Vondriska
    • Cassidy Linder
    • Charlie Whitman
    • Chris Newell
    • Christie Rice
    • Christina Fortney
    • Christopher King
    • Claudia Figueiredo
    • Clay White
    • Conrad Reeder
    • Crow Lauren
    • Dan Lang
    • Daren Magee
    • Darrel Wilson
    • Dave May
    • David Baker
    • David Taylor
    • Dawn & Dana Ceniceros
    • Debi Otto
    • Deborah Lyon
    • Deva Temple
    • Didde Heidler Chastain
    • Domonic Dean Breaux
    • Duane Eells
    • Dylan Dawes
    • Ecotopia
    • Elaine Unzicker
    • Elizabeth Rose
    • Ellyn Jarvis
    • Emily Burger
    • Emily Florence
    • Emily Vedder
    • Erik Wilde
    • Erin Parker
    • Esther Van Der Werf
    • Evergreen Wellness
    • Friend's Ranches
    • Food Harmonics
    • Fly-Hope-Dream
    • Gail Mortensen
    • Garth Rose
    • Gary Morales
    • Gayel Childress
    • Grant Fortney
    • Greater Goods
    • Hannah Atkinson
    • Harriette Jump
    • Harvey Rawn
    • Heather and Bob Sanders
    • Help of Ojai
    • Humane Society of Ventura County, Ojai
    • Irasha Pearl Talifero
    • Jack Nesbit
    • James Bryan Davis
    • Jasmine Williams
    • Jeff D. Muth
    • Jeffrey Stuteville
    • Jessica Altman-Pollack
    • John Brooks
    • Johnny Ortez-Tibbels
    • Jose pulido III
    • Judy Gabriel
    • Julia Thomsen
    • Julie Tumamait-Stenslie
    • Karal Gregory
    • Karen McMahon
    • Karina Aroha
    • Kate Mack
    • Kate Pond
    • Kathleen Collins
    • Katrina MacLachlan
    • Kelly Fenton
    • Kent Butler
    • Kiera Van Gelder
    • Kris Humphries
    • Kristen Finch
    • Lee Ann Manley
    • Leighanne O'Brien
    • Leisa Fusco-Foster
    • Les Dublin
    • Leslie Ferraro
    • Lisa Isbell
    • Lori Hansen
    • Love Heals
  • Contributors M - Z
    • Mallory Murphy
    • Marc Whitman
    • Mark Anthony
    • Martha Moran
    • Mary Neville
    • Meditation Mount
    • Michael Gabriel
    • Michael Wood
    • MiMi Alain
    • Nadia Natali
    • Nancy Gross
    • Nathan Wickstrum
    • Nicholas Franklin
    • Nora Herold
    • Norman Clayton
    • NoSo
    • Ojai Beverage Company
    • Ojai Digital
    • Ojai Foundation
    • Ojai Print Works
    • Ojai Raptor Center
    • Ojai Valley Land Conservancy
    • Ojai Valley Museum
    • Ojai Vineyard
    • Oliver Newell, "Oliwa"
    • Pamela Luna
    • Paul Michael Taylor
    • Paulette Mahurin
    • Perry Van Houten
    • Peter Stuart
    • Point de Chêne
    • Rainbow Bridge Market
    • Rancho Grande
    • Randy and Cindy Melzer
    • Ray Powers
    • Rhonda Lee
    • Rick Monzon
    • River Sauvageau
    • Robin Catherine Lawson
    • Ryan T. Murphy
    • Samuel Tibbels
    • Shahastra Levy
    • Sharon Butler
    • Skip Demuth
    • Soni Wright
    • Susan Florence
    • Susan Bronstein
    • Susanna Joslyn Johansen
    • Tania Parker
    • Ted Temple
    • Thacher School
    • Tracie Topp
    • Travis Escalante
    • Trevor Cox
    • Upper Ojai Relief
    • Valerie Freeman
    • Ventura County Fire Department
    • Ventura County Sheriff’s Office
    • Vera Long
    • Victoria Aja
    • Vina Lustado
    • Wendy Tremiti
    • Wrona Gall
    • Zhena Muzyka
    • Zoe Murdock
  • Press

david taylor

David Taylor

I like to people watch. Since I was a baby, I would bounce my head back and forth, tennis-match style, between my parents, my siblings, my friends. Observing, interpreting, learning, cataloging.
Then I found theater, where the artifice of the stage allowed me to literally and figuratively disrobe, shake off the armor of adolescence, and step into the life of a stranger, and make that stranger my friend, my lover, my self. Attending The American Academy of Dramatic Arts further honed my body and voice to allow my personal instrument to be a vessel of creative and expressive storytelling, allowing others to connect to the reality within.
Shortly thereafter, I engaged in my self-stylized “Human Condition” studies at Hofstra University, where I further pursued theater arts, coupled with philosophy and anthropology. Here I reveled in the power and importance of the director, the thinker, the ethnographer, the listener, and the educator. Where some believe, “Those that can’t do, teach,” I believe “Those that want a deeper understanding, teach.” And so I did. For seven years I taught theater, math, writing, and the history of ancient civilizations to young minds in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I learned, I grew, I expanded, and most importantly, I knew at the end of seven years that I was ready to step back on stage to create and tell stories through all the knowledge and skills I had acquired on my journey.
I began by co-founding In Vino Productions, and delving into the complex role as the young, naïve, and ambitious Bobby in esteemed playwright Israel Horovitz’s Rats. After a successful run and inclusion in The Barefoot Theatre’s Horovitz 70/70 Festival, I began producing, directing, and acting in original one-act plays through In Vino. Casting auditions, directing fellow actors, and producing fully mounted shows gave me incredible insight and perspective into the myriad moving parts that encompass creative storytelling. Throughout those experiences, I wrote. What I saw, what I felt, what burned within. My secret reflections, judgments, opinions, and musings, initially monologues, have become a cohesive whole, performed as The Man-Boy Monologues.
Throughout the years of my formal education and employment experiences, worldwide travel played an integral part in further cultivating and exciting my passion for the human spirit. Whether hiking in the mountains of Mexico, antique hunting in southern France and Belgium, touring the Tuscan countryside, teaching the untouchables of tsunami-ravaged southern India, or driving coast-to-coast through America's heartland, meeting the peoples of the world has stimulated and enhanced my awareness and compassion, and strengthened my resolve to live a life of authenticity and purpose.
During the time that followed, I explored many facets of performance artistry, stretching my acting muscles on stage and on camera in numerous commercials, films, and television programs. I've hosted fashion shows, fundraisers, and corporate events, warmed up audiences across the country, and continued to enrich the young minds of tomorrow as a teaching artist, meeting wonderful souls along the way. And while I no longer bounce my head back and forth, I do still love to watch people, observe behavior with an open mind, listen to stories with an open heart, and bring those lives into the characters I create and the stories I tell as an artist, with honesty and compassion and empathy.
So here I am: Actor, Writer, Warm-Up, Improviser, Director, Producer, Storyteller, Educator, Adventurer, People Watcher.
Are you ready?
I am.


​
  • Home
  • ABOUT
    • Maps and Locations
    • testimonials
    • Contact Us
  • The Light of Fire
  • Purchase FROM THE FIRE
  • Contributors A - L
    • akka b
    • Alan Gilliam
    • Alexa Gerrity
    • Amanda Colon Rogers
    • Amber Lennon
    • Amun Levy
    • Angela May
    • Barbara Muska
    • Becca Fuchs
    • BoKU
    • Brenton Butler
    • Brian Berman
    • Brian Lisus
    • Brian Ziegler
    • Camp Ramah
    • Carlos Grasso
    • Carlotta Mastrojanni
    • Carolyn Cricca
    • Carolyn Vondriska
    • Cassidy Linder
    • Charlie Whitman
    • Chris Newell
    • Christie Rice
    • Christina Fortney
    • Christopher King
    • Claudia Figueiredo
    • Clay White
    • Conrad Reeder
    • Crow Lauren
    • Dan Lang
    • Daren Magee
    • Darrel Wilson
    • Dave May
    • David Baker
    • David Taylor
    • Dawn & Dana Ceniceros
    • Debi Otto
    • Deborah Lyon
    • Deva Temple
    • Didde Heidler Chastain
    • Domonic Dean Breaux
    • Duane Eells
    • Dylan Dawes
    • Ecotopia
    • Elaine Unzicker
    • Elizabeth Rose
    • Ellyn Jarvis
    • Emily Burger
    • Emily Florence
    • Emily Vedder
    • Erik Wilde
    • Erin Parker
    • Esther Van Der Werf
    • Evergreen Wellness
    • Friend's Ranches
    • Food Harmonics
    • Fly-Hope-Dream
    • Gail Mortensen
    • Garth Rose
    • Gary Morales
    • Gayel Childress
    • Grant Fortney
    • Greater Goods
    • Hannah Atkinson
    • Harriette Jump
    • Harvey Rawn
    • Heather and Bob Sanders
    • Help of Ojai
    • Humane Society of Ventura County, Ojai
    • Irasha Pearl Talifero
    • Jack Nesbit
    • James Bryan Davis
    • Jasmine Williams
    • Jeff D. Muth
    • Jeffrey Stuteville
    • Jessica Altman-Pollack
    • John Brooks
    • Johnny Ortez-Tibbels
    • Jose pulido III
    • Judy Gabriel
    • Julia Thomsen
    • Julie Tumamait-Stenslie
    • Karal Gregory
    • Karen McMahon
    • Karina Aroha
    • Kate Mack
    • Kate Pond
    • Kathleen Collins
    • Katrina MacLachlan
    • Kelly Fenton
    • Kent Butler
    • Kiera Van Gelder
    • Kris Humphries
    • Kristen Finch
    • Lee Ann Manley
    • Leighanne O'Brien
    • Leisa Fusco-Foster
    • Les Dublin
    • Leslie Ferraro
    • Lisa Isbell
    • Lori Hansen
    • Love Heals
  • Contributors M - Z
    • Mallory Murphy
    • Marc Whitman
    • Mark Anthony
    • Martha Moran
    • Mary Neville
    • Meditation Mount
    • Michael Gabriel
    • Michael Wood
    • MiMi Alain
    • Nadia Natali
    • Nancy Gross
    • Nathan Wickstrum
    • Nicholas Franklin
    • Nora Herold
    • Norman Clayton
    • NoSo
    • Ojai Beverage Company
    • Ojai Digital
    • Ojai Foundation
    • Ojai Print Works
    • Ojai Raptor Center
    • Ojai Valley Land Conservancy
    • Ojai Valley Museum
    • Ojai Vineyard
    • Oliver Newell, "Oliwa"
    • Pamela Luna
    • Paul Michael Taylor
    • Paulette Mahurin
    • Perry Van Houten
    • Peter Stuart
    • Point de Chêne
    • Rainbow Bridge Market
    • Rancho Grande
    • Randy and Cindy Melzer
    • Ray Powers
    • Rhonda Lee
    • Rick Monzon
    • River Sauvageau
    • Robin Catherine Lawson
    • Ryan T. Murphy
    • Samuel Tibbels
    • Shahastra Levy
    • Sharon Butler
    • Skip Demuth
    • Soni Wright
    • Susan Florence
    • Susan Bronstein
    • Susanna Joslyn Johansen
    • Tania Parker
    • Ted Temple
    • Thacher School
    • Tracie Topp
    • Travis Escalante
    • Trevor Cox
    • Upper Ojai Relief
    • Valerie Freeman
    • Ventura County Fire Department
    • Ventura County Sheriff’s Office
    • Vera Long
    • Victoria Aja
    • Vina Lustado
    • Wendy Tremiti
    • Wrona Gall
    • Zhena Muzyka
    • Zoe Murdock
  • Press