Randy
Nott as Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, and 34 others
in Doug Wright’s “I
Am My Own Wife”
Randall
Jay Nott: 1959-2019
"An
Egoless
Theater
Zealot”
It is with great sorrow the family of Randall Jay Nott of Pacheco, CA, announce his unexpected passing at age 60 on October 3, 2019. He was born Randall Jay Lothson on September 13, 1959, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the youngest son of Roger Lothson and Helen (Miller) Dragavon. He moved with his mother and siblings to Lafayette, CA in 1964 and was adopted after his mother's remarriage by Willard (Bill) Nott.
He
attended Stanley Junior High School and Acalanes High School,
graduating in 1977. He began his college coursework at Diablo Valley
College, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of acting.
In
the late 1970s, Randall became an original member of the Onstage
Repertory Theatre group where he was an active member and later a
board member the rest of his life. This group, now at the Campbell
Theater in Martinez, where all the actors were his best friends and
his second family.
In
the 1980s, Randall honed his improvisational theater and comedy
writing skills with the Groundlings theater group and studied film
acting with Film Industry Workshops at CBS Studio City, where his
various roles and networking exposed him to many famous actors and
writers.
After
joining a traveling theatre group where he played Elvis in Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, he moved back to the Bay
Area and received his BA in Theater Arts with a minor in Music from
UC Santa Cruz.
Most
recently, he was widely recognized in East Bay community theater
circles as an actor, director, photographer, videographer, writer,
lighting engineer, sound designer and all-round stage-tech guru—the
guy in the booth the actors salute after they take their bows. “An
egoless theater zealot,” as a fellow actor put it.
A
few of his accolades include, participation in the exclusive and
prestigious San Francisco Fringe Festival with his original one-man
show, a Shellie Award, and a People’s Choice Award for his original
play Streams of Affection at the Last Frontier
Conference.
His
most recent acting credits include I
Am My Own Wife, Funny
Little Thing Called Love, Catfish Moon, Book
of Liz, and Random Exits, the one-man show he
developed for the 2016 Fringe Festival, directed by Jamie Jobb. Some of Randall’s stage
directing credits include Shipwrecked, Cherry
Orchard of the Living Dead, and Reefer Madness.
Randall
also worked in IT for Entrix, Inc. and most notably, with Nestlé
Dreyer’s Ice Cream for 16 years as a client management specialist
and network analyst. Even while on business trips, Randall
was never far from his passion for theatre. He attended plays in New
York, built sets in Minneapolis, and attended concerts in San
Francisco.
Randall
Nott is survived by his cat Coco and by his siblings, Jeffrey Nott
and his wife Debra Nott, Lori Nott-Hallock, Cory Nott and his wife
Gail Beltran Nott, and Patti (Dragavon) Hess; his dad Willard (Bill)
Nott; nieces Andrea Miles, Valerie Peabody, and Caidynn Nott; and
great nephews, Landon Peabody, Evan Peabody, and Soren Miles.
[obituary prepared by Andrea Miles with help from Jamie Jobb]