Name: Christopher Herr
Year: Senior
Major: Economics and Theater; Musical Theater Certificate
Hometown: Lenox, Massachusetts
Birthday: September 24, 1990
Relationship Status: Single
What are you involved in on campus?
There’s Asterix, my a capella group. I’m a tour guide; we’re just starting up training stuff so I’m Exec Board for that. Obviously, there’s the Phi Psi guys; I’m still really involved there. I do play club lacrosse when I have time, which is hard with being in shows and stuff like that in the theater world. I was a PA, back in the day. I used to be on a theater board. I’ve dabbled here and there. I used to be on IFC at one point too. I was president and risk manager of Phi Psi. And I was treasurer of Asterix for two years. I got involved. I got really, really involved.
What productions have you been a part of?
Godspell was probably the coolest one I did, summer after my sophomore year. I was in company this year. In Waa-Mu for the past two years, which has been a blast. I was in the Dolphin Show last year, which was 42nd Street. That was a lot of fun. I was in Equus, which is like, you know, I was not a part of that show at all. There were naked people on stage, so everyone remembers it.
What’s your favorite part of being in Asterix?
It’s family. It really, really is family, which is weird to say, you know, because there’s certainly a sense of brotherhood in the fraternity community and that kind of thing. It is really a drinking group with a singing problem. Those are the guys I know are going to be at my wedding. The fact that there’s only 15 or so of us makes this really close bond. You don’t love the crap out of everyone. You really enjoy being with everyone, and everyone has things that you love to death and also piss you off. You know everyone has each other’s back; there really is a sense of kids looking out for each other. Which is kind of nice to have on a college campus.
What do you have in store for your show this week?
It’s our first time doing a show in Shanley, perhaps in the history of Asterix, which is probably very indicative of how disorganized we are as a group. It’s going to be good. Sound design is coming together; for the first time ever, I think, I’m not doing the sound design which is really exciting that we found someone else more competent in doing sound design than me, which is really a positive. We have lights set up. Skits are going to be real strong. The songs are real strong. It’s obviously the seniors’ last show, so it’s a big thing for all of us. I feel like this has been a very important class in terms of what Asterix is and what Asterix has become, so it’s kind of going to be sad to end that chapter. It will get weird. Hopefully not too emotional, but it will get weird.
What’s your favorite memory from Northwestern?
I’ve been a PA twice, which is no question the most rewarding thing I’ve done at Northwestern, period. I have 21 kids, I call them my kids. They got me a Northwestern dad cup for my birthday. My birthday falls right at the end of Welcome Week, or at the end of the first week of classes. And at the end of my sophomore year, my birthday was on a Friday, and I was in class and I got a call from one of my PA kids who was like, “Oh my God, I’m freaking out. I have to drop a class, and I have to add this class but it’s going to be like at six to eight, and I don’t know if anyone’s going to want to cast me because I have class.” It was a classic freshman freakout moment, and I was like, “Okay, breathe, relax.” And she was like, “Can you meet with me as I walk over to my advisor?” And I was like, “Oh yeah, of course.” So I met with her at like five, we walked from like Shepherd where she lived over to the theater building, and we’re going through all the possible scenarios of like adding a class and dropping a class, why this was not going to end her world and be a big deal, and we’re walking through the sculpture garden and we get about halfway through and she literally starts screaming and running off and sprinting around a tree. I’m literally thinking to myself, kid’s gone crazy. I’ve failed as a PA; it’s the end, my job is over. And I round the corner around the tree and my whole group was standing next to a sculpture with cards and a cake and they all sang Happy Birthday to me, and it was the closest I came to crying that whole year. They went out on a limb and took care of me that way. It was such a heartfelt moment for me.
How do you feel about graduation?
It’s so interesting. I’m so not ready to let go yet. There’s so much more I want to do, so many people I have to see and hang out with before I graduate it’s absolutely overwhelming. I don’t know how I’m going to say goodbye to things. The Asterix show this weekend will be a very big “walking away” moment. Not being really involved in Phi Psi this year was a hard process for me. Not being involved in rush was a very difficult process for me; this is the first class of kids that I didn’t know every one of before they joined the house, which was kind of scary for me. On the other end of the spectrum, though, if you said, “You have an extra year,” I don’t know what I would do. I’ve run my course with every group I’ve been involved with. I’ve spent two years as a tour guide; I’m going to be recreating the training program this spring which is going to be awesome and a blast for me. I’ve done so much more for Asterix than I ever planned on doing. I was a risk manager and a president. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do with all these groups I got involved with. I don’t know what I would do if you suddenly gave me an extra year, so it’s a very odd feeling, both not wanting to let go and not knowing what I would do if I stayed.
What are your plans for after graduation?
Isn’t that the question? I’m going to do the acting thing, probably New York. I’m 90 percent sure I’m going to New York right now. I’m still doing Chicago Showcase, which is a theater program. But unless I get a job that keeps me here for a while, I’m going to be moving out to New York. I have people I’m planning on living with next year, and planning on trying to sublet for July and August and get a real job, anything but waiting tables is my objective right now. It’s interesting, so many of my friends have jobs, they have things they’re going to. I think the thing that scares me most is not having that structure, where I have class every day from two to three. Being in the real world and having work and taking up projects and still having to audition, it’s a little freaky. It makes you nervous. We’ll see how it goes.
What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?
32? Hopefully I’ll have kids. I always joke, perhaps a little too seriously, that I’m a little certain that at some point or another I’m going to have to give up acting because the most important thing for me is I want to be a dad. I have to be a dad, it’s just what I need to do with my life. It’s something I know is really important to me to do that, and it’s really hard to do that as an actor. And, who knows, I catch a lucky break and suddenly I’m the next Barney on How I Met Your Mother? Great. But that’s a lucky break for a reason, and I’m not the kind of person that is talented enough to be nearly certain that I’m going to make it. I will take what takes me. I really believe in, the more diverse skills you have as an actor in multiple fields, the better chance you have in getting hired for something. So, be that theater, musical theater, tv, film, commercials, voice overs, whatever, I’ll take what I can get. Because I enjoy doing it all. I really have. That’s been the cool thing about getting to have as diverse a theater experience here as I have had. There’s a very good chance ten years from now I could be graduating from law school, or be racking up an NBA, or be teaching or coaching. Ten years from now is tough to predict for me. It all kind of depends on the next three, which is kind of freaky.
What do you look for in a girl?
This is something I’ve actually thought about a lot in the past year, because I’ve never really had a stable relationship in college. I’ve dated here and there, but I’ve definitely fell prey to the hook-up culture, which is something I don’t think is unique to Northwestern, I think it’s what you find at lots of college campuses. That’s not to say I haven’t tried; there are lots of people I’ve actually tried to engage in some kind of relationship but either I blow it, or they get disinterested, or I get disinterested. Something always doesn’t seem to click or make sense. I think the thing I’ve really found is first they have to be someone who’s okay with me being me. I’m kind of goofy; I’m a little dorky. And yes, I’m modicumly charming at moments, but generally I have this perpensity for saying the wrong thing nine out of ten times. One time, I’m going to nail it and it’s going to be great and there will be stars and fireworks in the back and you’ll be really happy with me. But nine times out of ten I will not hit the nail on the head, so if you’re okay waiting for the one then there, you probably got me. And someone who’s willing to both laugh with me and at me, and vica versa, I think is pretty important too.
What’s your ideal date?
You have to be able to have a conversation. I like walking; I think better when I walk. If I could plan out a day, I’d go to some sporting event, like a Cubs game or a football game or a lacrosse game. A happy event, and then walk home together, preferably along a beach, in dusk, along a sunset. With some kind of romantic moment at the ending. That would be my ideal, without me ever having to recite poetry because Lord knows that would go badly.
Do you have any funny first date stories?
The worst date I was ever on, I met this girl literally via Facebook. She had seen me in a show and she friended me, and I was like, “Okay, don’t really know you.” I was 17, maybe. I think she was 16 at the time. We got to literally the randomest Facebook chatting ever. I had no idea who this girl was, but somehow we started talking to each other, and we decided we were going to go watch a movie together. We saw “Gone Baby Gone,” which is this really intense, not rom-com. This kid has been kidnapped, and it’s all about the south of Boston. She was texting some other boy for the whole movie. I was like, we’re sitting pretty close to the front, there’s no one else here, I’ll engage in some conversation. She was not having it. I don’t know whether I showed up and was not as cute as she thought I was going to be or what. It was really, really unfortunate. It ended up working out okay, because we had a mutual friend who her friends were hanging out with that night, and he texted me and was like, “Yo, I heard you’re hanging out with this girl,” and I was like, “Yo, heard you need to save me.” And I drove over to his house and we hung out for a little while, and then her and her friends bugged out and we got drunk and played Halo, which is what you do at 17. It was just a terrible, terrible choice of first dates.