Like many in his cohort at Dent Middle School, 12-year-old DB Bonds was all sports, all the time. The last thing his mother, Sarah Vann Bonds, expected was a call from the school inquiring as to whether or not DB had mentioned his recent fascination with the class play. Jane Fancher, DB’s teacher on the other end of the line, went on to explain to Sarah that her son had not only developed an interest in the class play, he was talented in her objective opinion and exhibited a remarkable level of attention to detail. DB recalls his teacher explaining to his mother, “He gets mad at everybody when they don’t run their lines.”

Nearly four decades have passed since DB’s foray into theater with Dent Middle School’s production of Off the Track, a play he recalls as being “kind of a mystery that went on with these people while they were delayed on the train,” and which he credits as being the impetus to his Broadway career. Though he kept up his tennis game throughout high school, theater quickly assumed the primary spot on his list of extracurricular activities. Shortly after Jane’s call to DB’s mother, he began taking classes at Workshop Theatre of South Carolina under the skillful direction of Bette Herring. When Bette branched out on her own to open Upstage Children’s Theatre, DB followed and to his delight was soon introduced to the inimitable Broadway experience.

Throughout middle and high school, DB spent the majority of his spring breaks with Bette and her troupe of young thespians drifting from one velvety theater seat to the next, covering every square inch of New York’s internationally acclaimed theater district. They became engrossed with classics such as Cats and Phantom of the Opera and also enjoyed one-offs, including Into the Woods and Starlight Express.

Needless to say, DB’s first impression of what he refers to as “the spectacle of the theater” was profound. He says, “The idea that so much went on in a 10-block radius of New York was and still is just an energy that is unmatched in any other place I’ve ever seen.”

By the time DB commenced his senior year of high school at Richland Northeast, in addition to having become well-acquainted with New York’s theater district, he was fresh off the heels of an intensive summer theater program through the S.C. Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina. DB recalls choosing to give up a three-week tour of the East Coast with his best friend — or any other semblance of a normal summer — in order to train with other aspiring entertainers and production professionals. “The fact that I loved it and didn’t resent it or question why I did it said a lot to me.”

The following spring, DB enrolled as a musical theater student at Florida State University — nearly 400 miles south of his hometown of Columbia. After two years in the Sunshine State, he traversed 2,000-plus miles northwest to Ogden, Utah, where he participated in yet another summer theater program — this time with auditions on the line.

In an entirely unscripted flicker of fate, DB came across an advertisement in the local newspaper for an open call opportunity in neighboring Salt Lake City. On a whim and a wish, he postponed his return flight to Tallahassee and joined roughly 700 other Broadway hopefuls for a three-day series of auditions that for DB culminated in an on-the-spot offer to join the cast of the highly celebrated musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables.

Immediately after receiving the outcome of what he considers a dream scenario, DB phoned his two lifelong captive audience members to report the results and to ask, “What do you think?” Despite the magnanimity of the opportunity at hand, the second half of his college career looming in the distant future had not escaped him. However, his father’s practical response — “Well, you’re not in dental school. It’s what you’re in school to do!” — empowered him with the affirmation he needed to adjust both his travel plans and his career timeline to accommodate his new vocation as a touring actor. In the fall of 1995, he joined the Les Miserables tour in Salt Lake City and started rehearsing for the rest of his life.

DB spent the next two and a half years playing a track in the show’s ensemble on stages in more than 60 cities. After concluding his premier theatrical emprise across America, he settled in The City That Never Sleeps, where, as a youth accompanied by his mother, mentor Bette Herring, and a gaggle of giddy theatergoers, he had been enraptured by the sights, sounds, and scenes within New York’s Theater District.

For the next decade or so, DB adapted to a variety of roles, rounding out his onstage repertoire with leading roles in both Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Legally Blonde. By the end of the Legally Blonde tour, DB was squarely one of the more seasoned cast members. In light of this, greener actors started to seek him out as a mentor. “I started to get asked by actors to coach them on auditions. I started to get a lot of satisfaction in helping other people succeed and thinking about the process from another side.”

Upon the conclusion of the tour, DB continued to ponder the process from a different perspective. He became increasingly perceptive to pain points related to the relationship between actors and directors as well as to audio/visual elements that contributed to a show’s delivery.

He recalls ranting to a friend about what was wrong with a particular show he was involved in, to which the friend retorted, “You know, this is not your job, but it could be if you wanted it to be.”

DB says, “After that show, I did one more musical, and the next day after that show closed, I said, ‘I think it might be time for a change.’”

After peppering off a string of emails to the network of directors he had accumulated over the years, DB promptly received a reply from Jerry Mitchell. In a stroke of what DB recognized as fortuitous timing, Jerry, who had choreographed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and directed Legally Blonde, was looking to hire an associate director and felt confident that DB was well suited for the position.

Jerry’s belief in DB set the stage for the following decade — and counting. The two have since worked together to bring Kinky Boots, Pretty Woman: The Musical, and most recently, Boop! The Musical! to life on stages across the globe. DB describes Jerry as a mentor, boss, collaborator, and companion, adding, “He’s been my lifeline for 13 years in the business.”

Early on in their working relationship, Jerry entrusted DB with casting the international productions of Kinky Boots in Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, England, and Canada. Along with this came the task of script translations. In order to ensure that the show’s humor, quips, and melodrama were accurately relayed in a non-English language, DB was responsible for comparing the back translation — translated from English, to another language, and then back to English — with the original English version.

Korea, he says, was particularly challenging for the translation of Kinky Boots. “They didn’t even have a word for drag queen,” he says. So that the Korean audience was not left behind as the show’s plot developed, DB and his team inserted an exposition within the scenes to explain drag queens and other foreign concepts that were critical to the understanding of the show.

As he closes in on three decades of a career in an industry that is known for its quirky menagerie of characters, the most compelling character in his life as of late is his young daughter, whom he and his wife welcomed into the world in early 2024. He says of this addition to his family’s cast of characters, “She’s the most important variable now to consider. I’ll be gone much less now.”

As he begins to navigate the future of his career in his new role as a father, he also takes time to reflect on the breadth of experiences he has amassed over the years. “I have a lot of actor friends who ask me, ‘What do you wish that you knew then, as an actor, that you know now being on the other side of the table?’”

To this, DB responds, “I truly believe that if actors could see what I now see on the other side of the table, it would do one of two things: It would make you quit; or, it would free you up so much because you would know that so much of it is not in your control. This is the hardest part about the business, both as an actor and as a director. You need to have a good work ethic and you need to put in hard work, but this is a business that doesn’t necessarily give you back what you put into it.”

Q&A

What advice do you give actors?

You have so little to control; control that. That’s your job. Your job is to control the small amount that you do have control over. Doing your best, leaving the room, and saying ‘I’m really proud of what I did.’ That absolutely does not mean ‘I’m going to get the job.’ It means that you’ve done what you can.

What was your biggest asset as an actor?

I think that I had an honest, likeable quality about me. I had some people say, ‘You just walk in an audition room and I say, ah, that’s a guy I want to spend a couple hours with on stage.’

How has your stage presence changed over the years?

My confidence definitely has grown and also the knowledge of getting older and auditioning enough to know that you just have to go in, do your job, put your best foot forward, and then try to walk away and forget about it. If you get the job, great, and if you don’t, you don’t. Control what you can control; I started to be better at this as my career went on.

What character trait do all successful actors/actresses share?

Perseverance. I don’t know that you could really say talent, because that’s fairly subjective.

How do your experiences as an actor play into your implementation of job responsibilities as an associate director?

Hugely. I don’t think you have to have been an actor to be a good director, but I certainly think that a lot of the good directors have been. You know, it’s just the best compliment — I love it the most when an actor says, ‘I can tell you’re an actor; thank you for knowing how to talk to us.’

What is your favorite Columbia restaurant?

Cola’s.

What is your favorite location in Columbia?

Williams Brice Stadium.

What is your favorite thing to do with your family in Columbia?

Go to University of South Carolina sporting events.

What advice would you give to a young person just starting out?

Try a lot of different things and be nice to work with!