| “ | The theater! The cruelest mistress of all! My career, like the mistakes of so many teenage girls, has been aborted. | ” |
Preston Goodplay is a Theater Camp camper at Camp Campbell. His time is spent composing, performing, and occasionally watching plays.
Appearance[]
Preston is most likely modeled after the famous playwright and stage actor, William Shakespeare, due to his similar hairstyle and outfit which resembles 1500's fashion.
His hair is dark auburn, contrasting with his pale pink skin, and his eyes are a golden-yellow. In Seasons 1-4, he wears a yellow shirt and a matching yellow neck ruff. Preston has two puffed sleeves, which are a striped mix of dark and light green. He has dark-green jeans with visible pockets, which are tucked into small purple boots.
In Season 5, he wears brown pants, black shoes, a 3/4 sleeve yellow dress shirt with prominent lapels and a white scarf bunched into the neck hole. Over the shirt, he sports a black and white pinstriped vest that buttons along his lefthand side, small circular sunglasses with pitch black lenses, and a slouchy grey beret.
Personality[]
One of Preston's most defining characteristics is the volume of his voice. He is usually yelling when communicating with others, and usually this is in the form of passionate outbursts- whether they be positive, or negative. Because his grandmother attended Parents' Day instead of his parents, it is heavily implied that he lives with her. As she is very hard-of-hearing, he has to raise his voice quite high to talk to her. This then became a habit at Camp Campbell. He is easily angered when his grandmother does not understand him when speaking in a normal voice.
He is deeply passionate when it comes to all things involving the theater. He has a wide knowledge of many plays, such as "Les Miserables", "Hamilton" and Romeo and Juliet. He's also tried his hand at writing his own plays; to date, he's created performances for a sequel known as Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected and even mentions plans for a potential trilogy, as well as his Wacky Camp Counselor series in the episode "Preston Goodplay's Good Play". In that same episode, he mentions he's been working on a sequel to the film Forrest Gump, titled "Forrest Gump 2: Too Much Shrimp." Although he clearly loves to write sequels, he may not be very good at coming up with ideas. He is often looked down on by the other campers as they state that his plays are mediocre and his personality is annoying.
In The Order of the Sparrow, he is shown to have the energy and ability to clean the entire forest in a very short amount of time (less than a day). When David tells him that the forest was dirty because "it's the forest" Preston seems momentarily surprised before replying "I know! I really did some good today!" His excessive energy may be fueled by an addiction to soda; in the episode "Camp Cool Kidz", he can be seen drinking two 2L bottles of soda simultaneously.
And sometimes, Preston can come across as clueless. Such as when he mistakes Viagro for Penicillin in the episode "NIGHT OF THE LIVING ILL", and remarks "the pills do nothing!" when all he did was throw them at Nikki and not have her swallow them.
Preston is very ambitious and dislikes anything that goes against his vision, being quick to anger if something goes awry. He is very strict with himself as a creator, and with others performing his plays, and will not hesitate to let anyone know if their performance is poor (or good, on rare occasions, such as Tabii and the platypus in the episode "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected").
In "Preston Goodplay's Good Play", Preston is shown to have some deep-seated mental health issues. His Wacky Camp Counselor routine (which is merely an overdramatic caricature of David) skyrockets him to popularity at the camp, as this is the first time his creative efforts do well, and though he is initially thrilled with the response, things quickly get out of hand. He finds himself deeply pressured to keep doing well and continuously churn out more of the exact same content. This leaves him in a severe creative funk, as the campers don't want any other type of performance from him. Their constant demands become to much to bear, causing him to faint and have a nightmare. Upon waking up, he experiences hallucinations of his own reflection mocking him as he runs through the camp, and even pulls out a cardboard dagger to try and hurt himself (in reference to the final scene of the well-known Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet). While David ultimately wound up as the inspiration to follow his own passions and put an end to the Wacky Camp Counselor routine, this episode gave a glimpse of more serious aspects of his character.
In the Season 5 premiere "Welcome Back, Campers!", Preston informs the camp that he starred in a local TV commercial. The fame apparently went to his head as he used Space Kid as a footrest and personal assistant.
Preston's Theatrical Projects[]
"Romeo and Juliet II Love Resurrected"[]
Preston's first foray into theater is in the titular episode "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected". This was an attempted sequel out of a possible trilogy, featuring the previously deceased cast from the canonical Shakespearean play coming back to life.
"Nature Presentation"[]
Shown in "Jermy Fartz (episode)", where he asked the campers to grab an item that represents their love for nature and make a brief presentation on it.
"A Preston Goodplay Production by Preston"[]
Shown in "Nikki's Last Day on Earth", he played Nikki in a re-enactment of her life, in the belief that she was about to die. Other campers stepped in to perform as each other, instead of themselves.
"Improvisational Theater"[]
Shown in "Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper]", he sat in as a moderator while Nurf, Nerris, Harrison, Dolph, Campbell and David performed.
"Wacky Camp Counselor"[]
Shown in "Preston Goodplay's Good Play", he put on an exaggerated impression of David dropping his juggling balls. This took him across multiple costumes and performances.
"Forrest Gump 2: Too Much Shrimp"[]
In "Fashion Victims", Preston is shoved on-stage to stall the fashion show, wearing a dress and white stage makeup, and announces he's prepared an exclusive selection from his new masterwork, "Forrest Gump 2: Too Much Shrimp". While the play hasn't been shown yet, it is still being written, and is now the second piece of existing fiction he's made his own sequel for (with the first one being Romeo and Juliet, of course).
Affiliation[]
- Main article: Affiliation
Trivia[]
- Preston's full name was first revealed in the teaser trailer. He is the first character whose first and last names were revealed.
- Preston, alongside Meredith Miller, Cameron Campbell, Neil Armstrong Junior, Edward Pikeman, Jermy Fartz, Billy Nikssilp, Stephen van Petrol, Penelope Priss, Dolph Houston, Gaylord Nurfington, and Cameron Junior "CJ" Campbell are the only characters in the show so far to have their last names revealed.
- Although Preston's first appearance was in "Escape from Camp Campbell", Preston's voice actor was not revealed until the fourth episode "Camp Cool Kidz".
- In the same episode, Preston is seen holding a pen as he pursues Space Kid. This is most likely a reference to the idiom, "the pen is mightier than the sword".
- Preston is shown to vomit easily, as stated by Nikki in "Parents' Day" and is shown in "Quartermaster Appreciation Day."
- He is also shown to scream like a girl when in peril, as shown in "NIGHT OF THE LIVING ILL" and "Arrival of the Torso Takers".
- A common animation error involving Preston is how he disappears after the first few scenes of an episode, as shown in the episodes "Mascot" and "Camporee".
- Besides acting, another talent or hobby Preston may have is dancing, which is mentioned by Neil in "Arrival of the Torso Takers," when informing Max that the scream he heard was from Preston after Nerris had accidentally spilled juice all over his new dancing shoes.
- Alongside Max, Preston may be the second person in Camp Campbell who can also dance. However, what style of dancing he specializes in is unknown.
- Preston also seems to enjoy singing and regards it as a romantic gesture, as he gets overly excited when granted the opportunity to do so in "Bonjour Bonquisha." A cover of "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel can also be heard sung by him on the stereo that Dolph holds up in the same episode.
- Another instance of Preston enjoying singing is in "St. Campbell's Day," where he kicks off the "St. Campbell's Day (Song)."
- In "A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever", Preston appears topless with no nipples, although both Max and Neil are shown to have nipples in "Camp Cool Kidz" while David was also shown to have nipples in "The Order of the Sparrow". In "Preston Goodplay's Good Play", Preston's nipples are visible while he takes a bath.
- Based on the quote "Well as the children of divorced parents often say, TWO CHRISTMASES!!" (from "A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever", it's possible that his parents are divorced, but Preston is known for using metaphors it could likely be a false claim.
- Preston is one of Ainsley's followers on Photoglam and according to him, Ainsley is his second favorite influencer on Photoglam. He holds Ainsley in high regard and frequently praises her, and goes as far as to temporarily ditch Camp Campbell to participate in the Flower Scout fund-raiser.
- Given the poor quality of Camp Campbell's WiFi and the lack of cell-phones seen by the campers, it is likely that Preston followed Ainsley before the events of "Camp Camp".
- His first favorite influencer on Photoglam is described to be an account that "only posts videos of babies laughing at animals."
- It's hinted that Preston does not trust Catholics and views them a pedophiles, as in "St. Campbell's Day" he implies that St. Valentine was probably a pedophile since he was Catholic.
- Nicholaus Weindel's Preston voice has a British accent, referencing Shakespeare's English nationality.
- However Whitman's Preston voice has a American accent, the sudden change in accent is unfortunately never addressed.
- His previous voice actor, Georden Whitman, was also a concept artist and character designer for Camp Camp, and is the creator of Rooster Teeth's sister series, Nomad of Nowhere.
- Whitman also revealed that the amount of yelling as Preston has costed him his voice once.[1]
- Whitman may have also been the one to design Preston Goodplay, provided through some concept art he has done for the show, which includes Preston's final look used in seasons 1-4 (top right). However, they are no longer available to be viewed in his current art portfolio.[2]
- In a Tumblr Q&A posted on May 14, 2019, Georden Whitman revealed that he had offered to continue to voice Preston after leaving Rooster Teeth, discussing that it would have allowed him to maintain a professional relationship with the show and keep the fans happy since the character had meant a lot to them. However, Whitman continues that he never received a callback from any Rooster Teeth representative about his VA role and only found out that he was no longer voicing the character through a call from a close friend. At the end of the post, Georden Whitman concludes that he felt sad that he was not invited back to voice Preston—stating that he "loved" voicing him too.[3]
Gallery[]
- To see the full gallery, go to Preston Goodplay/Gallery.
References[]
- ↑ Fun Fact* I actually managed to lose my voice by yelling so much of Prestons lines in the recording booth this season, but it was also the most fun ive ever had with a character!
- ↑ majormeilani: Concept Designs for Preston Goodplay Drawn by Georden Whitman - Tumblr
- ↑ pudge23 asked: Why did you stop voicing Preston... Tumblr Q&A - Gordon Whitman's Art Place Tumblr Archive