For senior safety Craig Loston, afternoon practice can be portrayed as play rehearsal.
Memorizing the playbook turns into memorizing a script. “Action!” replaces “Hike!” and instead of walking out of the tunnel and onto the football field, the curtain rises and the limelight shines.
On Saturday nights, suited up in his No. 6 jersey, there is no bigger stage than Tiger Stadium. But for Loston — who doubles as a theater buff — there is a stage equally as important.
Loston is the only LSU football player minoring in theater and acknowledges that theater and football make an unusual pair.
“I don’t fit in,” Loston said. “I’d say I’m the outcast in the major.”
But Loston may be alone in that assumption. Junior defensive end Jordan Allen notices many of Loston’s acting antics.
“He acts out all the time, behind the scenes and whatnot,” Allen said. “He’s always just being Craig. Now I know where he’s getting most of his stuff from.”
Loston was introduced to the stage as a junior at Eisenhower High School in Houston.
“I kind of got into it for the wrong reasons,” Loston said with a laugh. “Every year, we used to take a theater trip to Corpus Christi for four days out of the school week, and I just wanted to get out of school.”
Strangely enough, that ulterior motive to skip school sparked his spontaneous passion for theater and dramatic arts. Soon after his first experience in Corpus Christi, Loston designed sets for plays like “The Wiz,” “Grease” and “A Raisin in the Sun” in and around his hometown of Houston.
His improvisational reading of the play “Miss Evers’ Boys” landed Loston his first acting role, and his newfound hobby quickly rivaled his love for football.
Loston was a five-star recruit and widely considered the best high school safety in the country. When the chance came for “Miss Evers’ Boys” to premiere in a statewide theater festival, Clemson University wanted to meet with him.
A shot to play at a premier football university seems to outweigh acting in a small production, but not for Loston.
“I had a tough decision,” Loston said. “I already had my trip to Clemson planned, but I didn’t know if I was going to go to Clemson or go there [to the play].”
Loston ultimately talked to Clemson but signed with LSU and continued exploring his theater talents beyond the realms of acting and set design.
While at LSU, Loston even wrote his own play, titled “Jamaica, Jamaica,” and worked with classmates and fellow teammates to act it out in class.
“This was around the time [former LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne] was here,” Loston said. “[Former LSU linebacker] Josh Johns was also in the class. It was just something to have fun with. It was in-class improv stuff.”
But not every teammate understood Loston’s career choice.
“I have a couple of guys that make fun of me. [Senior linebacker] Lamin [Barrow] always makes fun of me and is like ‘You think you’re an actor, huh? You’re going to be an actor, huh?’” Loston laughed. “[Former LSU wide receiver Russell Shepard] used to make fun of me, and a couple more other guys. Claiborne used to make fun of me.”
Loston takes the playful joking lightly as his enjoyment in theater overrides his teammates’ ridicule.
“[Theater is] the thing I love, and after football, it’s what I plan on doing,” Loston said. “We all have to be uncomfortable to be able to do the things we want to do in life.”