Meet me at the piano
“He asked if I would be around and I said well no, but I've got the day off so I could I could come down from Chicago,” said Love. “I’d do that any day. He's the guy who’s really inspired me to do what I'm doing so I’d make a trip just to see him.”
The friendship between the two performers began when Love was just in elementary school. Bradbury, a young high school English teacher at the time, had fallen into handling the school’s theatre program and was looking for an elementary student who could memorize lines and not get scared in front of an audience. All the teachers pointed him toward Love, who was already showing a fondness for acting by staging plays for neighbors in his grandmother’s living room.
From that time on, Love says that Bradbury remained his greatest source of theatrical opportunities, including performing arts camps and a traveling theatre troupe in high school. When it came time for Love to choose a college, he was drawn to Bradbury’s alma mater. He liked the small-school atmosphere, and many of his family members are IC graduates. Love was offered a scholarship in theatre, and later graduated with a double major in theatre, and communication and rhetorical studies.
While Bradbury has still never taken a theatre class, he said that he steers his students toward Illinois College — both for the diverse theatre experiences they can have pursuing any major and for the valuable liberal arts education. He says his experiences as a student at IC and as a member of Pi Pi Rho literary society have helped him throughout his career.
“It’s all about being well-rounded,” said Bradbury. “I wouldn’t have had so many experiences if I had gone to a big university and had to take the same kind of classes for three years in a row. IC exposed me to such a wide range of things, and that's been my biggest advantage.”
Bradbury has put his education to use throughout his expansive career. He is nationally beloved for his impressive body of work that includes the hundreds of theatrical pieces he has written. He has been honored with numerous awards, and his plays still serve as the first introduction to theatre for the countless elementary students across the county who perform them in school competitions each year.
Bradbury shows no signs of slowing down since recovering from cancer in recent years. He describes his schedule on a typical day, starting with writing a newspaper column in the morning, working on a play in the afternoon and directing a community theatre piece in the evening. He has remained humble throughout the years, embracing small-town life and the relationships he’s forged in the community and especially with his students.
“To this day, I don't consider myself to be a writer. I'm just a teacher at heart. I get a lot more joy watching my students succeed than for me to be published somewhere,” said Bradbury.
He has a lot to be proud of, especially in Love, who was active in the theatre program and community theatre while at IC. Love moved to Chicago after graduation to continue his theatre career, and he is currently working and taking classes at Second City.
When Love was a senior at IC, the pair collaborated on “The Boys from Nantucket,” a musical they co-wrote. Love also starred in the production alongside Jim Yale after graduation in the summer of 2016.
“Writing and creating a show for the first time was just the coolest thing ever for me. Ken’s been my hero since I was a kid and now he’s turned into one of my closest friends, so to be able to work with him was a great experience,” said Love.
While the two have started working on another production together, they are taking a break from that piece while Love continues his studies in Chicago and Bradbury focuses on his work in the Jacksonville area. For now, fans of the pair can look forward to the duo’s spontaneous and always entertaining meetings at the piano.
