Mark Hopkins is a busy man

Mark Hopkins would be the first to admit that his name is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Calgary Flames fan favourite Jerome Iginla.

“They’re both huge deals and I’m just a dude!” he says.

While the two boldface names may have higher profiles in the city neither is more deserving of the title Hardest Working Calgarian than Hopkins who took third place on Fast Forward Weekly’s Best of Calgary list this year.

While the self-described theatre artist arts administrator community builder and political hobbyist is probably best known for his involvement in Calgary’s theatre scene he’s got his fingers in a lot of pies.

In addition to his full-time job with One Yellow Rabbit Theatre helping put together the High Performance Rodeo Hopkins has stitched together an impressive array of occupations to occupy his time including co-artistic director and co-founder of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre president of Calgary Young People’s Theatre host of the We Should Know Each Other party series not to mention sundry volunteer work and political advocacy.

It makes for a dizzying schedule but one that’s not entirely unheard of from a local cultural worker.

“I think to be successful in the arts you often need to be working two three four different jobs and occupying a number of different roles” Hopkins says. “It’s hard to make a living just as an actor or a writer or a musician so often people will find themselves in all sorts of unexpected places.”

Though he’s undeniably a hard worker the University of Calgary English grad admits he hasn’t always been working towards any particular goal.

“My career path has been a series of happy accidents and I’ve stumbled from role to role” he admits. “I never expected to run a theatre company or to get involved in politics or to invite a horde of strangers to my living room every two weeks. But when I look back with some perspective everything has had a… I don’t know a flow? You can draw a through-line between all of the choices I’ve made.”

Right now the biggest decision facing Hopkins is what’s got to go if anything.

“I’m trying to identify the things that are most fulfilling” he says. “It’s a work in progress though. I have too many things on the go because I truly love the work I’m doing… but when I overload myself details start to fall through the cracks.”

He pauses for a moment. “Oh yeah I forgot — I also do a weekly guest blog for Mike’s Bloggity Blog every Friday.”

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