Actor Michael Turner

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Byline: Deborah Voorhees

Actor and sound designer Michael Turner marvels at the unlikely circumstances that brought him to Kitchen Dog Theater.

Four years ago, he was living in a middle-class Detroit neighborhood where he was a gifted architecture student at Lewis Cass Technical High School, a college preparatory school. He never imagined himself living in Texas or even studying theater.

"Texas was too hot and too far from home, " says the 22-year-old Southern Methodist University theater graduate. But SMU offered him a free ride, and it was there that he met Dan Day, artistic director for Kitchen Dog Theater.

These days, Mr. Turner fills two meaty roles at Kitchen Dog. He not only is the sound designer for "Jesus Hopped The "A" Train" but also plays Lucius Jenkins, a serial killer who finds God and tries to convert a fellow prisoner.

His guide for the sound design was in playwright Stephen AdlyGuirgis' words.
"There's a flow, a rhythm, a pulse to the language, " says the multitalented Mr. Turner, who is also a jazz musician and writer. "I didn't want to be cliché, but I knew hip-hop and rhythm and blues had to play a part in the play's sound."

For information on the play, see the listing under Continuing Theater below or go to www.kitchendogtheater.org.