When he was around six-years-old Patrick Page wrote a play called Dr Jekyll Meets Frankenstein. “I loved monsters,” shares Page. “It starred me and featured my brother in a wordless role.” His father, who taught theater at what is now Western Oregon University, contributed actual lights and scenic pieces from the college and made a poster with Gothic-style print. The brothers performed for all the kids in the neighborhood.As he began to transform from Dr. Jekyll into Frankenstein, Page remembers knocking over one of the big scenic trees which then hit one of the lights above. “I made quite a fuss,” he recalls. Even as a young child, Page was completely committed to his on-stage world. It was the ultimate refuge for him, especially since he was uncomfortable around people. “I have always been very introverted. There is something about being on stage that feels very safe, comforting and liberating,” says Page. “I can show parts of myself that I wasn't able to access at other times.For Page it wasn't so much about hiding behind the character, but revealing aspects of himself through his characters that he otherwise could not reveal or access any other way. “When I shut my dressing room door and begin to prepare, something chemically changes inside of me,” he says. “I begin to feel a kind of comfort and ease with myself.”That kind of transformation has served him well. Page has been an actor for over 35 years playing a variety of eclectic roles. On Broadway he has starred in Saint Joan, Casa Valentina, Spring Awakening, Cyrano de Bergerac, Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, The Lion King and countless other musicals and plays. For years he was a fixture with both the Oregon Shakespeare and Utah Shakespeare festivals. He also had recurring roles on Elementary, Madam Secretary and Flesh and Bone. Page is known to step inside the skin of whoever he plays, making them so human.Currently Page plays King Hades in the musical Hadestown. Intertwining the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and King Hades and Persephone, the production has been nominated for 14 Tony awards including Best Musical. Anaïs Mitchell wrote Hadestown’s uplifting and soul-nourishing music, lyrics, and book, which was developed with director Rachel Chavkin.Using folk music and New Orleans jazz, Hadestown tells an ancient story and yet it is so relevant to our culture right now. The piece is a standout in an already standout season. “It’s hugely entertaining, has fantastic music and is a heartbreaking and beautiful love story,” says Page who skillfully manages to be both tender and terrifying. The rest of the first rate cast includes Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Kay Trinidad, Afra Hines, Timothy Hughes, John Krause, Kimberly Marable, and Ahmad Simmons.In the piece Hades is the ruler of the underworld. He is also married to his beloved Persephone. Yet, each year, for six months, Persephone leaves Hades to be “livin’ it up on top” as she sings. For Hades, that deeply impacts everything. “He is so frightened of losing Persephone. But she is not going anywhere. She just needs to be free and have her own life,” says Page. As Page observes, in order to deal with his terror and insecurity Hades builds a factory and walls. “He creates this underworld to compensate for his own insecurity about not being enough for her.”Part of why Hadestown is so universal is because the piece delves into the pain of being human. It offers insight about trusting the struggle to believe in ourselves. Throughout the show there is a motif where Orpheus keeps asking “Who am I?” When talking about his relationship with Eurydice he says, “Who am I to think that I should get to hold you?” The Fates say to him “Who are you to think you can walk where nobody has ever walked before?” And Hades asks him. “Who the hell do you think you are? Who do you think you're talking to?” As Page explains, “None of us think we are worthy to be the change. But you have to be willing to say, ‘I am worthy to walk this path. And I trust that others will walk with me.'”Jeryl Brunner: You make Hades, the ruler of the underworld, very relatable. What qualities does Hades have that you like?Patrick Page: I like how broken and in love he is. Those two things are connected. Anaïs created this metaphor of a wall that surrounds him. To me it seems like he is walling himself in. He is walling himself from emotion. He is a kind of a physical wall. The trajectory is the play is that this wall has a crack in it. Eventually Orpheus will find his way through and open up Hades.Brunner: How has playing Hades changed you?Page: Virtually every great role you play enlarges you somehow. Hopefully this has made me more aware of my own insecurities, more willing to live with them and to act in spite of them. It's not that you are going to get rid of insecurity. But can you act as if you didn't have doubt? For me this has been an exercise in trust.When we were putting the piece together many times I thought, the work is good. We're finished. That is the version. And yet Rachel and Anaïs still wanted to make changes. For example, when Persephone and Hades have reconciled, Amber and I do a dance. In our first production [at New York Theater Workshop] and when we did the production in Canada and London, I thought we had a beautiful version. It made the audience cry and deeply moved Amber and I. And in this version the song changed which entirely changed the dance. It used to be to a piece of music called “Lover’s Desire.” I didn't say much, but inwardly I thought this is a terrible mistake. Well, of course it's much better now. It's learning to be uncomfortable, to work through the discomfort, to be patient and to trust the other artists. For me, that has been a big part of this journey.Brunner: You have been very open about your struggle with depression.Page: About one in nine people have depression. Among artists and creative people, it's about 50%. For many years I lived with the misunderstanding that if I took medication, I would no longer be able to act. It’s a very common misunderstanding and hard to get rid of because many people who have depression don't want to talk about it. So I decided to start talking about it.I had lived with depression and went without medication until I was 40 years old. Once I found the right medications, I have not had another episode of depression for the last ten years. Incidentally, I don't think it should be called depression. Depression sounds like a mood disorder, which is not this particular illness. People think something is wrong with them and they should be able to handle it. People will say, “I’m depressed. I had a bad audition.” No. You're rightly disappointed or sad. Depression is an illness. If it was called serotonis, people would feel more comfortable medicating it.If I had not found the right doctors and medication, I wouldn't be alive now. I used to have recurring depressions every year. I had a breakdown during rehearsal when I was in a production of Hamlet playing Claudius which was very public. I couldn’t speak or function and had to be taken to the doctor. I wasn't able to do that every year anymore. That is the case with a lot of people.Brunner: What would you like people to know about depression?Page: I try to tell people, particularly artists, that help is available with talk therapy and medication. And certainly medications should not be undertaken without talk therapy. It's still an imperfect science. You may not get the right prescription immediately. In my case, it took over a year to find the right combination of medications. One of the myths I also try to dispel is that depression is conditional based on circumstances in your life. My depressions almost always coincided with the greatest successes in my life. They were not triggered by any kind of downturn. Nor were they alleviated by any kind of upturn. For the first time in history you don’t have to die from this illness. It has taken many, but it does not have to take you.Brunner: In addition to being in Hadestown, you also teach acting. What does teaching give you?Page: Without question, teaching makes me a better actor. I teach twice a week and on those days I am always better in the show. I hold myself to the standard that I hold my students. Every actor has tricks. And tricks are a way of putting something over on the audience, fooling them. In class, I can spot an actor's tricks, the places where they haven't done the work and tried to cover their tracks. Sometimes I think maybe my own tricks are undetectable. They are as obvious as anyone else's.I also get a lot of joy out of watching my students make a breakthrough and open up a new part of themselves. Everything that it takes to be a good actor precisely coincides with what it takes to live a meaningful and happy life. There’s the ability to be present, listen, make real contact with another, focus, not let the mind wander, accept one's self with all of the imperfections and allow those imperfections to be visible to others. I love watching students open up to all that.