THEATER:Acting contract for local student

He’s been Hamlet, Oedipus Rex and “The Crucible’s” John Proctor — all for the sheer fun of it. Now Mark Bedard is making all that stage experience pay off.

Bedard — who appeared in many roles, mostly leads, at Golden West College before transferring to UC Irvine, from which he recently graduated — has been given a 10-month professional acting contract at the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore.

For a year or so, Bedard divided his talents between UCI and Golden West, returning to the Huntington Beach campus to take pivotal roles in “Guys and Dolls,” “The Liar” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” At UCI, he was featured in “Othello,” “Kiss me Kate,” “Under Milkwood” and “The Cripple of Inishmaan”. “He is extremely deserving of this opportunity and we are all immensely proud of him,” said Tom Amen, Golden West’s theater professor, who stages most of the college’s productions. “Having directed Mark in over a dozen shows during my tenure here at GWC, it has been a delight to see a young, talented acting student grow into a professional theater artist.”

Amen notes that Bedard “did some outstanding work for us here at GWC, and also was a major player in helping us reinvigorate our theater program.”

From the gripping tragedy of “Hamlet” and “Oedipus” to the pratfall comedy of “The Liar” to the drawing room humor of “Holiday” and the slick operating of “Guys and Dolls,” Mark Bedard has made his mark on Golden West College.

His director, for one, believes the young actor’s potential is virtually unlimited.

“Mark’s a multi-threat, and would be a tremendous asset to any professional theater company,” Amen said. “He can do the classics, contemporary drama, comedy, musicals — you name it, he’s got the chops for it.

“Furthermore, he’s got discipline and drive, coupled with the intelligence to recognize that he has chosen an extremely difficult profession, and that a sustainable career as a professional actor will take a sustained commitment on his behalf, along with a few big kisses from Lady Luck.”

At Ashland, Bedard will appear in Tom Stoppard’s “On the Razzle” and Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” And, presumably, he will send progress reports and press clippings back to Huntington Beach.

“If anyone has a shot, Mark does,” Amen said. “And I hope that his hard work, discipline and positive, generous approach to his craft will not only pay off big for him, but will serve as a powerful reminder to our younger students at Golden West that success is most often the product of hard work, focus and professionalism, and that good things come to those who are willing to aggressively pursue their dreams.”