I'm pleased to see Mr. Doyle breaking out as your choice for Olympia's Best Actor this year, as he's accumulated one of the most consistently solid resumés in town. I nominated him for Best Actor myself for his work in Harlequin Productions' Stardust Serenade (2011). You may remember that show for his lovable impersonation of Charlie Chaplin, easily as dead-on as any Little Tramp at Universal Studios. More recently, he's distinguished himself as a fine rock wailer, fight choreographer, and ad-lib impresario. In his latter role, he manages Harlequin's improvisational troupe, Something Wicked, which held its first performance Feb. 12.

"I was born in Tacoma," Doyle says, "but I moved away when I was six. So the first thing my mom did when we moved was put me in a play, because I didn't know anybody ... I moved back in '96, finished high school in Gig Harbor, and then moved over to Tacoma and I've stayed here ever since." I ask him which roles he's found most challenging over the years. He cites Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead from The Outfit Theatre Project at Lakewood Playhouse and The Seafarer at Harlequin. "I like both of those shows a lot," he says. "I'm very proud of them." And he should be.

He's a studiously physical performer, which makes him the perfect fit for Olympia Family Theater's presentation of The House at Pooh Corner. Doyle calls his Tigger the "plot hammer" of the show. "It's so much fun," he says, grinning. I ask him how he decided to approach the character. "Really," he says, "just make yourself as ‘five' as possible. A little caffeine is necessary at my age." Doyle will soon be 37, but looks 10 years younger. "Thanks," he says. "It's how I keep getting work."

Our conversation turns to method. "I can't learn my lines until I learn my blocking," he reveals. "I see the motion. I like to see the walk (and) everything. And I'm obsessed with fights." Doyle's most recent fight choreography was for Tacoma Little Theatre's touching To Kill a Mockingbird, in which he staged a fight scene that played out in the dark. That changes things. "The actors have to touch each other," Doyle explains. "Everything is contact stage fighting, and it's really scary. And none of them had any combat experience at all." Usually, actors make direct eye contact, then guide each other through a series of near misses. In a blackout scene, however, "When they're hitting each other, contact is being made."

We gush about our mutual love for the Bard. "I only do Shakespeare because I'm scared to death of it," Doyle admits. "I love it, I understand it, I teach it during the summer; but when it comes time to do it I get so nervous. ... There are so many takes on the right way to do Shakespeare." What's next for him, after Pooh Corner winds down? "I'm gonna be playing Feste (in) A Rock ‘n' Roll Twelfth Night," he says, referring to Harlequin's revival of a popular, house-written musical this summer. "It's a very energetic, very challenging part, and now I have to make him John Lennon on top of that." He adds wryly, "I'm sure it'll be super easy."

LINK: Best of Olympia 2014

LINK: Best of Olympia 2013

LINK: Best of Olympia 2012

LINK: Best of Olympia 2011