He has taught acting, screenwriting and acting for the camera since starting at Marquette in the fall, and this month he directed a production of “The Velveteen Rabbit” for local school children. Garinger also recently completed a short film for his master’s thesis project. Clocking in at just over 11 minutes, “The Newer Comfort” is a story about grief and surprise that he directed and for which he wrote the first 11 script drafts (a classmate revised the final version that was filmed).

While he enjoys both stage directing and film making, Garinger likes the experience of the former just a little bit more.
“ There’s something wonderful that happens between the audience and the people on stage,” he said. “It’s fun to watch something come to life from a piece of paper.”
And given a choice between acting and directing, Garinger, whose first stage role (like so many other promising young thespians) was as a tree, would choose directing. Although he performed frequently in graduate school, he said, “I like acting, but I like being behind the scenes more.”