Diskin has taken his studies in Theater at Florida State seriously, and has fun doing it.

Cameron Diskin

Honors in the Major, Theatre

As an actor, Cameron Diskin takes on the personalities of many different people. If done well, the imaginative identification with a character can translate the emotional weight of a story to the audience.

Diskin has taken his studies in Theater at Florida State seriously, and has fun doing it. He has become Ottavio, the 17th century Italian lover who, in his attempts to obtain his father’s approval of the woman he loves, is led into a comical farce by the hilariously deceitful Scapino. Not to play the dupe continually, Diskin took on a master’s role—that of Philostrate, the leader of the revelry in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

An actor must be thoroughly trained in voice projection, enunciation and body movement. Diskin says, “FSU’s Theater students are led by a team of skilled professionals: Jean Lickson, Michael Richey, George Judy, Lynn Hogan, Paul Steger, Debra Hale, Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, Guy Molnar, Ombra Sandifer, Adam Mclean, and Fred Chappell. All the faculty and staff have greatly influenced my work, my career, and my life.”

His training was taken to the limits in his role as a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in Lanford Wilson’s “5th of July.” Diskin had to embody the character Ken Talley, who must walk with the help of wooden prostheses and crutches.

He had devilish fun playing Ferraillon, a hotelkeeper with a sadistic streak, in “A Flea in Her Ear,” a 19th century comedy of situation involving marriage and deception. And in “Romeo and Juliet,” he played the opposite in personalities, that of Friar Lawrence, the wise and practical priest whose only efforts are for the good of others.

Behind the scenes of this Shakespearean play, Diskin took on the role of assistant fight choreographer, directing his fellow actors for their various on-stage sword-fights. Diskin learned stage combat, using such weapons as the rapier, dagger, sword, and knife, in workshops offered by The Society of American Fight Directors. For his Honors in the Major thesis, he will perform a stage combat of his own creation.

As an actor, Diskin will “go where the work leads,” but will take a part of Florida State with him. “A person changes drastically here in four years. No one leaves the same as when they came in.”