Headshot of Reggie Herbert, a white male in his early thirties. He has long brown hair undercut on the sides, striking blue eyes, a reddish brown trimmed beard and mustache. He gazes intently into the camera, his strong jaw set.

Hi, if you haven’t figured it out already, my name is Reggie Herbert and I’m an artist residing in Missoula, Montana, USA. I’m an actor, teacher, academic, theatre-maker, audiophile and musician.

Blindness

I’m a Performer With a Disability (PWD). As I live with a visual impairment, I’m Blind and/or Low-Vision. I was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a congenital eye condition that causes retinal decay. I am partially sighted, and I currently have only been cast as a sighted character. I use a white cane in my daily life, and it’s especially important for navigation during commutes or in new environments. Generally, when working, I use it until I’m familiar enough with the area and the public/co-workers near me.

Though I might be partially sighted or “low-vision,” I simply refer to myself as blind because not only is it accurate, but I use non-visual life skills and strategies to live my life. My blindness skills are a more efficient and better way for me to approach living and functioning, and I’m proud to be part of a larger Blind community who champion these methods.

I know like most people, you’re probably curious about what I can (and can’t) see. While I certainly understand why people ask this question, I find that there is no way for me to communicate the symptoms of my impairment that will meaningfully convey my life experience.

Next time you are considering asking someone with a disability the specifics of their symptoms, ask instead, “Is there anything I can do to help in this situation?” This way, you don’t have to intuit what accommodations may be necessary based off a list of symptoms, and shows you understand that our societal structures do more to impair us than our physical symptoms do.

Education

  • MFA in Theatre
  • BA in Theatre, minor in Native American studies
  • Access Acting Academy Professional Actor Training Program Intensive
  • The Good Work Studio Meisner Acting Intensive
  • Summit Independent Living Center Peer Advocacy Training

I began studying performance at the University of Montana at the age of 25. I had no acting experience at the time, but found myself cast in the School of Theatre and Dance’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard before the end of my first year.

My undergraduate acting coursework was eclectic, consisting of a mixture of whole plays, scene studies, monologues, devised work as well as skills development in movement and voice and speech. I worked with Shakespeare, Restoration comedy, comedies of manners, American Classic canon and a few contemporary works, applying a mixture of Stanislavski, Hagen and Rodenburg methodologies. I was cast in a fully funded, main-stage production with a professional faculty director each year, and worked with both fellow undergraduate and graduate students alike. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a minor in Native American studies with High Honors in 2016.

in the summer of 2017, I enrolled in a summer-long Meisner course taught by Hillary Sea-Bard who holds an MFA in Directing. This course showed me the value of the Meisner technique for actors, and found valuable tools for stage and screen.

In February 2020, I completed a five-week long intensive Professional Actor Training Program for Blind/Low-Vision actors. Dubbed the Access Acting Academy, this program is the first to attempt to create a professional, rigorous program for Blind and Low Vision actors with the aim of providing them the tools to become a working actor. This program was held in Los Angeles and consisted of a Legally Blind Executive Director and head instructor, as well as several faculty members considered to be venerable experts in their respective fields. This experience was nothing short of life-changing, and has contributed immensely to helping me become thest actor I can be. I have since taught an online workshop for AAA and look forward to contributing as an instructor at the next in-person intensive. Here’s a link to AAA’s website: https://www.accessacting.com/

I received my MFA in Acting from the University of Montana in the spring of 2021. In this more advanced educational experience, in my capacity as both an instructor and student, my knowledge and skills in movement, speech, narrative style, acting methods/styles, new play development, devising, stage tableau and teaching have been developed.

I will never stop learning and hope to continue my education both formally and through self-led exploration. However, I learn the most from teaching and hope to make the sharing of knowledge and the fostering of wisdom a focus of mine moving forward.

Background

I was born in Spokane, Washington. I grew up in Billings, Montana, in the south-central/eastern part of the very large state. I moved to Missoula, six hours and nearly 400 miles to the northwest of Billings in 2009. I was very active in the alternative/DIY music scene here until I began graduate school, playing with my band Shramana (and a few others) over the years. I booked shows for touring acts, housed them and spent countless hours handing up thousands of posters for these small events.

A black and white photo of Reggie screaming into a microphone while playing electric guitar. Stage lights show his bandmates whirling in motion in the background.

I participated in regional environmental, social and economic justice groups during this time, working on several campaigns and hoped to foster a community of giving.

I began playing tabletop role–playing games in 2011, and started my own group the following year. I’ve played and game-mastered/dungeon-mastered both Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and 5th editions, but have spent most of this time using the Pathfinder (1e) rules and published adventures, at times creating my own adventures. I’ve also developed a small future sci-fi universe in which I’ve created several scenarios. Tentatively called “Agency and Entropy,” I am working on producing content in this universe.

I’ve taught several local acting classes and am a substitute high school teacher with Missoula County Public Schools. At the end of 2023, I founded the non-profit arts accessibility advocacy organization and theatre company A Quantum Dream. When I’m not at work or the game table, I’m with my beautiful and brilliant fiancee camping, hiking or at the gym.