|
Despite being busy on Dr.
Quinn, Chad was one of the co-founders of The Creative Outlet theater
company in 1995, and has appeared in several theater productions during the
summer breaks. He considers theater to be "my first love, without a doubt".
Chad has continued focusing his career on the theater since the end of Dr.
Quinn, appearing in well received theatrical productions of
*Change at Babylon, in Los Angeles,
Temporary Help, in Seattle and Westport, Connecticut and
Sons of Lincoln, in L.A.
Courageously, in the October 9, 2001 issue of The Advocate, Chad came out as
a gay man. He also acknowledged past problems with drugs and alcohol.
He also has spoken to a
number of groups and at events about gay rights issues including taking part
in a forum on Larry King Live on the issue of gay marriage.
He has also lent his support to a large number of charities over the years,
including The American Diabetes Association, The March of Dimes, Project Angel Food,
the Autistic Children's Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Gay &
Lesbian Victory Fund, AIDS Project Arizona, and AIDS Project Los Angeles.
In 2001,
the same year as he came out in the Advocate issue,
Chad proved to all the
critics that said he would have a hard time finding work as actor wrong.
Three movies followed that year
–
A
Mother’s Testimony (co-starring with Kate Jackson) the
horror movie
Do
You Wanna Know a Secret and the critical acclaimed
independent movie
What
Matters Most. The latter one earning him several
nominations in the best actor category.
In addition to the movies he made that year he also stepped back on stage in
two theatre productions; Mike Ambrose's play
Dearboy’s War
– which addressed the treatment of gay soldiers and the meaning of freedom
and the controversial
Corpus Christi
in which he starred and produced for it’s
Los Angeles premiere.
In
2002,
Chad packed his bags and
moved to
New York City. He went back to
college to pursue a psychology degree as well as teaching in one of his long
time passions - oceanography. While in NYC, he took on the character of
Vincent Castelnouvo-Tedesco in
Temporary Help
for the third time. This time it was on off-Broadway Revelation Theatre.
Chad joined their
creative board, and the reviews from such respected sources as Variety, The
Hollywood Reporter and NY Times all agreed, that this actor was to keep an
eye on. On the movie scene
Chad starred in two
movies that year. One feature film -
Downtown: A Street Tale and one short film –
Getting Out for which
Chad won Best Supporting
Actor in a short film, at the NY International Independent Film and Video
Festival,
Las Vegas.
|
