ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
Patrick Keleher pulled off a convincing email performance to land an audition for a Los Angeles stage production, and then things got real — and quickly.
Living in Carbondale in January, Keleher, 21, was eyeing a move to LA in around April or May — despite emailing the writer, director and producer of “Fatherland” that he was already residing there and eager for a tryout.
“I told him I was already living in LA — to not be that out-of-towner who’s trying to get in,” Keleher recalled during a recent telephone interview. “I said, ‘I live in LA and I’d love to audition.’ And he said, ‘OK, come in on Monday.’”
Not a problem, Keleher replied — nevermind that it was a Thursday and he actually was states away from California. Keleher quickly arranged to be in Los Angeles a day later. Having a friend living in LA also helped.
“I arrived in LA on a Friday and slept on my buddy’s couch from college for three nights while I’m preparing for this audition,” Keleher recalled. “This is my first audition in LA, so I’m just stoked to be in Los Angeles and getting the ball rolling. I walked in and did my thing and I felt great and I walked out feeling great.”
Keleher auditioned at the Fountain Theatre in front of “Fatherland” creator Stephen Sachs, who also co-founded the theater, which, in 1990, the Los Angeles Times said “has long been one of the city's most dynamic intimate theaters.” This is Sach’s last year as artistic director at the venue.
Keleher left Los Angeles on Jan. 22, the same date he auditioned. On the ride home to Carbondale with his dad from the airport, the younger Keleher’s cell phone buzzed. He looked down and learned he’d booked the role.
Keleher had to move to the West Coast in a week. He enjoyed teaching skiing — it runs in his family — but the stage was calling. Keleher also beat out more than 500 other contenders for the role. What he first deemed a longshot was now a career-launching opportunity.
“That weekend, I told them I would not be coming back to teach skiing for the rest of the season,” he recalled. “And my boss was thrilled for me, so that was all good — Aspen Skiing (Co.) and I are still on good terms. And I got in my car and I moved out.”
Keleher arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 and started rehearsals the next day.
In the documentary play “Fatherland,” which premiered Feb. 25, Keleher plays a leading role as Jackson Reffitt, a 19-year-old who tipped off the FBI about his father’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Taking note of Keleher’s performance, The Los Angeles Times said, “Patrick Keleher, who’s making a notable L.A. stage debut, delivers a gripping performance as the son. … Keleher’s character, a Bernie Sanders supporter who describes himself as ‘moderately left,’ has reason to be disturbed by the transformation of his dad from someone with ‘moderately right’ views to a rabid member of the Three Percenters, a far-right, anti-government militia. Still, he can’t help agonizing over his divided loyalties as citizen and son.”
“Fatherland” has enjoyed so much success at the box office that its original March 30 closing date was extended through late May. It is topical also: The insurrection remains in the news cycle because of legal developments regarding the alleged inspiration for the storming of the Capitol, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I think this show is very important for both sides, left and right, to come and see,” Keleher said. “When I first read the script without seeing the audio, the visual and the actors, I was left at the very end thinking who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s such a Greek tragedy where you can’t pick a side at the end. In my opinion, they both give valid arguments and you feel sympathy for both sides.”
One person had seen “Fatherland” at least four times through around the third week of March — Patrick’s father, a stage actor himself who’s been in nine Aspen Community Theatre productions.
“He’s always been vivacious and charismatic,” said Brian Keleher, who also does improv at The Arts Campus at Willits. Patrick also was fortunate to grow up in an area where “our community is so full and vibrant with theater and opportunities for kids, whether they want to go on to pursue it later down the line or just have a little fun,” Brian Keleher said.
Brian Keleher called it a “damn good play” and “more of a story of love between a father and son.”
Another local Keleher is Patrick’s grandfather, John, a member of the Aspen Hall of Fame who’s done about all the volunteer work one can do locally — including having a little fun on the stage.
As far as plays go, “Fatherland” is serious stuff. The play is known as “verbatim theater,” meaning the script’s dialogue was used straight from public records that were part of the court proceedings and the FBI’s investigation involving Texas resident Guy Reffitt. The script borrows from court documents, court testimony, evidence of text messages and voicemails — all public records, and all fair game to be used in “Fatherland.”
The father Reffitt joined and recruited for the Three Percenters, a far-right militia group that went to the Capitol on Jan. 6. He also was a member of the Oath Keepers, another militia with participants on Jan. 6.
Reffitt, wearing a helmet and body armor and armed with a handgun, never entered the Capitol Building himself but was the first person to be convicted — in March 2022 — for having a role in the insurrection. Prosecutors said he helped stir up the crowd that stormed the building. He was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.
Prior to his arrest, Reffit’s son reported him to authorities and provided them with evidence that included incriminating images and recordings of his father.
Far away from Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, was Patrick Keleher. He was skiing in Snowmass when rioters, claiming that Joe Biden’s November 2020 presidential election victory over Trump was fixed, breached the Capitol Building.
“I was on the Big Burn chairlift with my history teacher,” he said. “We were going skiing together … and what a guy to be on a chair with when such a traumatic event in U.S. history happens. I remember him saying this is going down in history and this is going to change the course of U.S. history. That stuck with me.”
Playing the son of an extremist, Keleher said, “opened my eyes to just how crazy people can get sometimes with the guns and believing that we need to start a revolution. We have a pretty well-established government already.”
After graduating from Roaring Fork High School in 2020, Keleher considered attending a performing arts school in LA but opted for a gap year, road-tripping throughout America for two months. He lived in Paraguay for the next six months through an exchange program before enrolling at Full Sail University in Florida, where he earned a four-year degree in two years by taking courses year-round, graduating in 2023 with a degree in film science.
Keleher has been performing in the Roaring Fork Valley since he was a kid. He has found a home on the stage for now, and said he was drawn to film long ago. Both skills naturally intersect.
“I knew I was always going to go into film,” Keleher said, adding he entered a piece in the 5Point Film Festival in Carbondale when he was 15. “They need actors in film school, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I go learn the business side of film and get into that aspect as an actor?’ I would say that was one of the coolest things I could have done for myself in the college experience, because I was known as the actor and I did over 35 short films in my two years acting in 35 student-made short films. I never made any money but I got a ton of footage and met a ton of people.”
After graduating, he traveled to Africa with a female companion he’d known since he was 13 and had more recently fallen in love with — they roamed around the continent for 75 days, then it was off for successive one-month stays in Thailand, Vietnam and Australia.
“It was six months total of traveling the world,” he said, “then I came back and I hadn’t been teaching skiing since I was a senior in high school and I picked up that job and was teaching, but I knew I was going to move back to LA with some friends.”
Keleher proudly spreads the credit for his recent triumphs — to his mother, father, brother Finn, sister Kate and the local theater, stage and film educators in the valley. He also has been staying sober for nearly the last two years; that once-impediment to his growth as an actor and person is now at bay, he said. He said he stopped drinking while he was in school in Florida.
“I’d definitely still be doing what I’m trying to do, but it would be a lot more tough,” he said. “Being sober has totally opened up a world of possibilities.”