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WRENTHAM - Kevin Mischley is a doctor, AND he's played one on stage.

Mischley, 37, has been a musical theater lead with various groups in the area for more than a decade while maintaining a thriving dental practice in Walpole.

It's become his business to evoke wonderful smiles, whatever he does. First, stage billings, then fillings. The Stoughton native received a bachelor's degree in biology from Bridgewater State College in 1993 and his DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 1997.

Mischley started in community theater with Actor's Collaborative in 1993 and worked pretty much just with that group for 10 years until it closed its doors. He has been in shows with Mansfield Music & Arts Society and, in 2003, began to work with the Norton Singers, playing the leads of Bobby Child in "Crazy For You," both Jekyll and Hyde in "Jekyll & Hyde," Will Parker in "Oklahoma!" Fred Graham in "Kiss Me Kate," Fred Butler in "Annie Get Your Gun," and, this past June, stealing the show as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in "Anything Goes."

Mischley and his wife, Jennifer, a musical theater star in her own right, have two young children, one of whom has already been on stage. SUN CHRONICLE: An acting, singing dentist. Pretty rare. What came first in your life, fillings or billings?

KEVIN MISCHLEY: I guess it would be billings, although I knew I wanted to be in the dental field when I was in grade school. I started dental school the same year I began doing community theater. I used to work on my dental projects in the green room at the Orpheum in Foxboro during rehearsals.

SC: What was your first role on stage? Did that hook you to it?

MISCHLEY: I was in the dance ensemble for Actor's Collaborative's production of "George M!" in '93 at the Orpheum and I was hooked right away. Afterwards, when I was about to start dental school, I said 'Well, this has been GREAT meeting everyone, but I have to go to school now. I'll see you in four years when I'm done.' I ended up doing two shows a year with AC throughout dental school.

I think it kept me sane.

SC: When did you realize you wanted to keep acting and singing as an avocation, rather than a vocation? That this could work hand in hand?

MISCHLEY: I had always been involved in a lot of music through school and I had to make that decision right after high school graduation: Music or science.

When I got the audition notice from AC for "City of Angels" - after I had done "George M!" - I decided I enjoyed the George M experience too much not to try and squeeze theater into my life while in dental school. It made school all that much more busy, but it was worth it. Living in Somerville at the time, it let me get back this way to visit my family in Stoughton on a regular basis as well.

SC: You met your wife, Jennifer, in a play. Tell us about that.

MISCHLEY: The following year, the fall of 1995, AC was producing "Bye, Bye Birdie." Jennifer played Kim MacAfee and I played Conrad Birdie. The sparks between us were palpable from the very beginning. Man, could she sing and dance! Oh, and she was pretty cute, too. We all had a great time during that show and when it was over, there was just this big void that I couldn't seem to fill. I mean, it's not uncommon to feel a little something at the end of a show, having worked for three-plus months on a big project with people you really like to be around and then BAM!, it's over... but this feeling didn't lessen over time.

Then it hit me one day that it wasn't what, but who, I was missing. Jennifer and I have been together ever since. We got married in 2001 and now we have the two absolute joys in our life in our children, Warren and Greta.

SC: Do your two distinct worlds ever cross? I mean, do you sing in the office to patients or did you ever play the sadistic dentist in "Little Shop of Horrors?"

MISCHLEY: I knew that one was coming. No, I've never played the dentist in "Little Shop." I've been asked a few times, but, for some reason, I haven't been able to pull that trigger. I mean, it's hard enough to make people comfortable in the dental chair!

As far as singing in the office, it's a bit cliche, but I guess I do here and there. Usually it's something by Elvis, though.

SC: You did play a doctor, however, Dr. Jekyll in "Jekyll and Hyde." How unlike your real self was that and did that make it more fun, letting go?

MISCHLEY: Well, "Jekyll & Hyde" was really something of an experience. Playing the Hyde side was pretty intense with all the rage that had to be brought out in the character. I would hope that Hyde and I don't share too many of the same characteristics.

However, you really do find yourself wondering about man's darker side and about your dark side when you take a look at a part like that. I suppose when you really come down to it, that part had to be an amplification of whatever craziness is inside myself. I guess that's a little scary in a way. Scary, but, oh, what fun! It's great to play a villain.

SC: Do patients come to see you on stage? Do they view you any differently when they do?

MISCHLEY: I put up the show's poster that I'm working on in the window of the office and also at the check out desk to promote the shows and I do have a good number of patients that come out to see them.

To this point, there hasn't been a part that I've been skeptical about my patients seeing me play on stage. However, that could quickly change if I play that dentist in "Little Shop," taking pleasure in delivering pain? You know, on second thought, maybe I won't play that part, after all!

SC: Every actor has a great backstage or onstage story, something the audience would never know as the world is crashing around them. What's yours?

MISCHLEY: The first thing that comes to mind is having a fake mustache start to fall off and having to hold it on with one hand and sing during a song in "Crazy For You."

However, as far as an audience not knowing something big was going on, on stage, I would have to say having my son, Warren, come on for the opening of "Scrooge: The Musical" with MMAS in 2005.

He was 3 months old at the time and my wife rolled him across the stage in an antique carriage and when I went over there, in character, I almost lost it. I was really just overwhelmed with joy to have the three of us on stage together. Luckily, I didn't have to sing or speak by myself at that moment because I don't think I would have been able to.

SC: Would you prefer that your children be actors or dentists? Why?

MISCHLEY: Between the two, I would have to say dentists. I mean, I don't know from what platform I have to make that distinction as I've never tried to make a living through acting, but it's a tough, tough road to succeed on. That much I know.