Arianna Ruvalcaba | Contributing Writer
(Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Azusa Pacific University professor Theodore Szeto is a quadruple threat; he’s skilled in singing, acting, dancing and teaching. The former stage and screen actor had stints on Broadway and is still connected to the stage as a member of the Academy for New Musical Theatre. His main focus now is teaching math, physics and computer science. Collide sat with Szeto to gain a deeper understanding of his musical passions and how they coexist with his love for teaching.
A: Well, I was a double major when I was in undergrad, in music and math, and I ended up choosing math for many reasons. Mostly, my parents wanted me to go to a career that would pay a little more and have some security in it. … I stuck with math and went all the way through undergrad to a master’s and Ph.D. in math at UCLA. The second I graduated with my Ph.D., though, I got cast in my first professional production in a local theater here, East West Players, an Asian-American theater. So I got cast in a big musical there, and it went on to win a ton of awards and that’s how an agent found me, and from that point on, I went to more TV/film stuff.
Q: Do you still have an agent?
A: No longer. I stopped when I got married and had kids about seven years ago, and that’s when I kind of, not really quit the business, but I put it on hold.
Q: Do you do anything musical-related now?
A: I do! Music-wise, I actually serve as the worship coordinator at my church. I also lead worship nationally. I just did a conference for like, 1,200 people in Wisconsin for the summer for a week. And I’m a member of the Academy for New Musical Theatre. We meet every Monday night and develop new musicals. It’s pretty fun; one week I’ll play an old Jewish man and work with that project for three weeks. This week I’m playing the leprechaun king, so it’s really random. We’ll develop a work from its inception, all the way to the entire first act or the whole show. Eventually it’ll get picked up and become a full production. So that’s nice; it keeps my feet wet.
Q: I was told you were in Pharrell’s “Happy” music video. How did that happen?
A: That was through my church! The church is used a lot as a location. Actually, Pharrell found the church first before finding us. He had a couple of singers, but then he wanted a full-blown choir. We happened to have a choir, so we all showed up and did the shoot in one day.
Q: What show or project are you most proud of?
A: Gosh, there are so many! I think two. “Sweeney Todd,” my very first musical ever, ran for, I think, almost a year and it won every big award. It won the Ovation Award, which is the biggest theater award in LA. And then my dream role had always been Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors.” I did two productions of that that ran forever. It was fun! There are roles I’d still love to play, but maybe I’m too young to play now or maybe too Asian to play, but that’s a whole other thing. I did TV shows where I’d be “Chinese teenage boy” or whatever. In a McDonald’s commercial it was “Random Asian Couple.” They had a white couple do the same shot as the Asian couple. This was almost 20 years ago, and America apparently wasn’t ready for an Asian couple going to McDonald’s! So my commercials only ran in Asia, whereas the white couple got a lot more money for doing a national [commercial]. So I’ve kind of been on a mission to say Asians are everywhere now, so the only projects that I would audition for would be non-traditional casting, … things they wouldn’t typically cast an Asian person in.
A: I was OK inside not to do this dream job [Broadway] because I had something here at APU that was worth so much more, and I felt like I made a lot more of a difference in students’ lives. Because that’s really why I’m doing this. I do have an impact on students in a different way, and I think in a way that I feel is a little bit more valuable.