Timothy Sean Fitzgerald discovered earlier this year that he has quite the flair for acting, so much so that is he currently in rehearsals for his third play at downtown Washington’s Turnage Theatre.

As a member of the Arts of the Pamlico’s Brackish Bard Theatre Collective, Fitzgerald is cast in the starring role of “Tinsel Almost Sorta Saves Christmas.” The original comedy written by Stuart Lannon opens Dec. 16.

“Tinsel is an unorthodox elf,” Fitzgerald said of his character. “He goes around to all these holidays trying to get money from people.”

The role is in much the same vein as his previous two Arts of the Pamlico performances, both of which found him playing a bit of a bad boy. He played Padraic in “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” in March and April; he followed up with a turn as a high school graduate who never grew up in September’s “Stay As Dead As You Are.”

Both were well received by audiences. But that’s where the comparison ends. This new show is more family friendly, much to Fitzgerald’s delight.

“I like it because my 4-year-old daughter can come to it,” he said with a smile.

Fitzgerald, 24, is a New York native but he’s lived in Beaufort County since 1994. He made his theatrical debut in the P.S. Jones Middle School production of “Cinderella.”

“But I really wasn’t super into it,” recalled Fitzgerald, who claims distant kinship with the Boston family that married into the famous Kennedy clan of Massachusetts.

Ironically, performing soon became a primary interest, albeit in a different manner.

“I was in a band with my buddies for a year and a half before I was sent to a boys’ home when I was 15,” he said, acknowledging that he was laid low by poor decisions. “When I came back I played in a band with some guys I went to high school with.”

When Lannon, director of the community theater’s group, contacted Fitzgerald back in January of this year and asked if he was interested in auditioning for “Inishmore,” he figured he’d give it a shot.

“I ended up doing that, and here I am,” he said. “That was the first time I’d ever been a lead in a play and I had a great time. We had 170 people in the audience for closing night.”

Theater life has its ups and downs, Fitzgerald added.

“I like being on stage and I like performing, but the biggest thing is just getting up there in front of everyone,” he said. “Learning monologues can be super hard, but I love it. But what I love the most is the camaraderie, all the stuff backstage that nobody sees, the stuff that happens in rehearsal.”

Fitzgerald and his fellow cast members have three performances of “Tinsel” this month, and he’s already looking ahead to the 2017 schedule of shows. He hopes to put his singing and dancing skills to good use by landing a part in February’s “Love on Broadway” musical, which will be followed by May’s “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” And he admits he covets a certain role in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which the group plans to stage next summer.

“I love performing,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve had a million jobs, I’ve done all kinds of stuff, but I definitely want to try to make a career in acting. I don’t care about being famous, I just want to perform.”

 

Turnage to host “Tinsel” this month

Arts of the Pamlico’s Brackish Bard Theatre Collective brings a bit of Christmas mischief to the Turnage stage with three performances of “Tinsel Almost Sorta Saves Christmas” Dec. 16-18.

Local performers cast in the show are Timothy Fitzgerald, Tinsel; Tori Banks, Star; Hunter Summers, St. Patrick; Maree Richards-Benson, Fairy Godmother; Jonathan Clayborne, Santa; James E. Casey, Easter Bunny; Aisling Casey and Saoirse Casey, Bunny Henchmen; Norm Hawn, reporter/police officer; Raven Simpson, police officer; Riley Simpson, Frosty the Snowman; Mandy Lannon, Grim Reaper; Victor Wright, Arbor Day; MaKayla Carroway, Cupid; Carolyn Shaffer, Good Conscience; Crystal Holman, Bad Conscience; and Kate Griffin, bank teller.

For ticket information, visit www.artsofthepamlico.org or call 252-946-2504.