After Hours: The Fred Fan

Don Marquardt in character as Frederick Law Olmsted

For UCLA Extension's four-year landscape architecture program, longtime instructor Don Marquardt uses slides, maps and plans to tell the history of the profession. Outside the classroom, he actually acts out that history with a one-man show devoted to landscape architecture’s founding father: Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who designed the world's first public park — Central Park in N.Y.C. — and set in motion the preservation of two national treasures, Niagara Falls and the Yosemite Valley.

After some 15 public performances since 1981, Marquardt now stars in a DVD version. "Frederick Law Olmsted: The Father of Landscape Architecture" was produced by the Southern California chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Title: UCLA Extension instructor in landscape architecture since 1979.

Night Job: "In my one-man show, Mr. Olmsted discusses his life and work and shows pictures of his projects."

How Started: "I started admiring Olmsted when I was a landscape architecture student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1975. Since then, I've continued my interest in the man who founded our profession. He didn't seem to be well-known. So I decided to bring him to life to emphasize his significance to my colleagues by acting as opposed to simply lecturing."

Olmsted;s Great Contributions: "We never had parks in America before Olmsted. There were royal grounds for the kings in Europe that were open to the public. But they weren't really designed as public parks. That's very significant. As a nation, we've exported parks everywhere, and they're all over the United States. They're a unique American invention, and Olmsted's the one who started them."

The Difficult Part: "Because he died before moving images or voice recordings, there's nothing to show how Olmsted talked or how he moved. I basically had to put that together by reading about him. I also wear clothes of the period, a full beard, long hair and speak in a New England accent. He was also seriously lame all of his adult life, which I portray in my performance."

Scriptwriting for DVD: "Because of my extensive study of Olmsted's writings, I attempt to imitate the period. Olmsted’s language was very Victorian. He'd take a paragraph to say a sentence."

Learning Lines: "The best place for me to rehearse my lines is walking in the morning. I visualize all the images I use in my performance and then I mentally match the script to the images. I just walk and talk to myself."

Shared Traits: "We both came to our new careers in midlife and have enjoyed landscape architecture immensely. He loved the outdoors, as do I. And we both work long hours and weekends, the primary reward being enjoying the endeavor."