ROLE OF A LIFETIME: DANIEL MAY: Father at heart has his eyes on two Shakespearean roles
> Meet the actor: The 33-year-old Snellville native has something in common with American Idol Diana DeGarmo: Both went to Shiloh High. He was on track to be an engineer —- until he got cast in a play while studying at Georgia Tech. Suddenly, "electromagnetic theory and chemistry was really beginning to get in the way of my theater work," he jokes. He's been in 70 shows since his first professional gig at Theatre Gael in 1994.
> Favorite role: Stanley Kowalski, "A Streetcar Named Desire," Georgia Shakespeare, 2005. "From the moment he sees Blanche, he knows that they are exactly the same, and it drives him crazy that she puts on this facade." He got some interesting responses: "People don't necessarily run up to Stanley and say, 'Oh, great job! You were so mean!' "
> Dream role: Prospero ("The Tempest") or King Lear ("King Lear"). "It's not just that I want to play them because they are these fantastic Shakespearean roles, but because I'm a father and because they are stories about men who honor fathers and their connections to their daughters specifically." (May and wife Rachel are parents to 18-month-old Harper.)
> Unfortunate experience: Playing the Wild Man of Borneo in Zoink Productions' "She-Crab Soup," 1995. "It meant spending most of the show backstage, attaching tufts of hair and dirt and mud and sticks. And then crawling under the set and sitting and waiting in the dark and the cobwebs." For all this, he appeared in a dream sequence and spoke no lines.
> Currently: Orlando in "As You Like It" and Solanio in "The Merchant of Venice." Georgia Shakespeare. Through Aug. 2. (404-264-0020, gashakespeare.org)
