Standing six feet three with dark hair, a boyish smile, and intense blue eyes, Ben Topping makes a strong impression. But it's his easy-going nature and off-beat humor, combined with an aggressive intelligence and industrious work ethic, that makes him memorable.
Ben's interest in performance came early. At age three and a half, after weeks of watching his sister Natalie ( www.nataliemcneil.com) practice piano, Ben sat down and began to play. No one imagined that he had already taught himself to read music. With a natural gift to sight-read and play elaborate scores, Ben was a hit with recital audiences.
Performing recitals inspired Ben to take part in school plays and later to take up improv, singing, and film roles. Ben loves all genres, from musical theatre and comedy to Shakespeare and opera.
After performing with the Michigan Opera Theatre at the Detroit Opera House in 2006, Ben signed with the Michigan Shakespeare Company, the only fully professional Shakespeare Company in Michigan. Each fall, sword-in-hand, he takes part in the Michigan Renaissance Festival, one of the largest festivals of its kind in the country.
In the Indie feature film "Dying To Make a Change", an urban drama exposing the dark world of college fraternity hazings, Ben was the only caucasian cast from all who auditioned. "Dying to Make a Change" was accepted and screened at the Magic Johnson Theatres in Los Angeles. Reportedly, it is being optioned by SHOWTIME Television. In 2009, Ben portrayed Corporal John Toornman in award-winning Director/Producer Pamela Peak's WWI PBS documentary "Voices of a Never Ending Dawn", which will air nationally via PBS starting May 2010.
In school, Ben is a life-long honor student in advanced studies who's won awards in every subject as well as instrumental and vocal music, and has taken part in the production-side of over a dozen student films.
As an Eagle Scout, Ben initiated the complete design, management, and construction of a community garden obtaining 100% donated materials, heavy equipment, and labor with a vision to create an on-going gardening program that also pairs at-risk youth with senior citizens as a mentorship program. Ben was inducted by his peers into the "Order of the Arrow", Scouting's elite National Honor Society. Recently, Ben became an Assistant Scoutmaster.
Personal interests include singing, playing sports (basketball, baseball, tennis), camping, archery, rifle marksmanship, survival training, science programs, stage combat, and sword fighting. Ben also volunteers at theatres, is an active advocate for the Arts in Michigan, and a member of the Michigan Opera Theatre Volunteer Association (MOTVA).
Ben is a top recruit to Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the University of Southern California, Northwestern, The University of Michigan, and more for Engineering and the School/Conservatory of Music for Vocal Performance.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
-- Albert Einstein
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
-- Benjamin Franklin