2013 Interview with Tim Cummings

About to costar at the Fountain in The Normal Heart, opening September 21, actor Tim Cummings discusses his role in the play and his award-winning role in The New Electric Ballroom at the Rogue Machine, as well as other theatrical interests.

The Normal Heart hasn't been done in years. Tell me about the play's relevance today, from your perspective.

The play mentions gay marriage, which is relevant today: DOMA being struck down, Prop 8 being ruled unconstitutional, more and more states are voting to allow for it. The play also brings up the failures of the health care system, and those are relevant today as well. We’ve yet to see what Obamacare results in, ultimately, but I have hope. The play discusses homophobia, bigotry, closeted gays, politics, conspiracy theories, etc. Those are all relevant now. 

Suicide among LGBT youth has been tragically high, of course there’s this putrid Putin/ Russia debacle. The gay-bashing rate in NYC is currently on an alarming rise, which includes the murder of Mark Carson on May 18th, shot directly in the head after his assailant hurled anti-gay slurs at him and his companion. Right in the heart of the West Village. To be honest, I don’t think there will ever be a time this play is not relevant. It’s only a matter of who is brave enough to produce it, as it is not an easy play to do.

What about your character and how he affects the issues at hand? What are the challenges in playing him?

Ned Weeks goes from hesitant participant to full-blown activist and loses nearly everything along the way: his family, his friends, his love, his station in life. Ned is a fighter. A warrior. He does not understand why other people cannot fight back the way he does, and ultimately this alienates him from his community. He will do whatever it takes to wake people up and make them pay attention to this epidemic. He wants pride for the gay community, not shame, not hiding. He wants gay men to think with their hearts and minds, not their pecs and cocks.

The challenges in playing him are that his intensity, passion, Jewish intellectualism, rallying, rants about promiscuity, confrontational nature, and bursts of outrage are not things that can be handled delicately. Yet, we are in this intimate space—so it’s about striking a balance. Where can we hold back? Where do we need to go forward full throttle?

Talk a little about Lisa Pelikan and your working with her - now in 2 plays.

with Lisa Pelikan in The New Electric Ballroom at Rogue Machine 2012

A passionate perfectionist, a questioner, a force, a presence, a joy. With those mesmerizing blue eyes, to boot. Definitely an actor’s actor. Oddly enough, she is also making me take off my clothes in this, just like she did in The New Electric Ballroom. Ha.

Your participation in Ballroom was the best. I really enjoyed your performance. Was that harder to do than Heart, or easier since you are Irish and probably have lived through a lot of similar experiences in Ballroom? (Or am I all wet?)

Thanks, Don. That was a fantastic experience. Yes, I am Irish, but I tend to play Jewish men a lot, too, as I am now. I grew up in New York, surrounded by an abundance of Irish, Irish/Italian,
and Jewish heritage. It comes naturally, I suppose.

What I loved about Ballroom was the transformational aspect: my character, Patsy, goes from smelly chubby fishmonger to sexy, slick, pop idol—right before the audience’s eyes. No special effects, no cutaways, no magic. Just good old fashioned in-your-face theatre. Brilliant playwriting and storytelling.

Was that harder than The Normal Heart? I don’t think anything will be harder than The Normal Heart. The role of Ned might be bigger than Hamlet. He barely leaves the action. He never stops talking. He rarely calms down. The level of stage skill—physical prowess, emotional intensity, collaborative endurance—required to play Ned assures he will likely never be conveyed by any actor that is incompetent, lazy, or timid. Larry Kramer was clever to have
written Ned the way he did.

Speak about your writing career.

Eurydice at South Coast Rep 2012

I write novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, and poetry.

I released a collection called ORPHANS in the summer of 2011. It’s an idiosyncratic assemblage of short stories, poetry, screenplays, plays, and a film treatment. I wanted to put all the different writing forms together in one weirdly prismatic vessel, and unleash it unrepentantly
onto the world. So, I did.

I have a full-length novel called Jake Curve that my agent in NYC is working on. It’s a story of a brilliant little boy who loses his identical twin to a mysterious disappearance, and how he contends with the difficulties of his family falling apart. Ultimately it is a story questioning the validity of family, and whether it is okay to leave them behind if you don’t fit in there.

My most recent play, Bully, is an exploration of this pandemic of teenagers committing suicide for being bullied for being gay. It’s a deeply polemical slaughtering of what masculinity is supposed to mean in today’s day and age. It pays homage to William Golding’s seminal masterpiece about savagery versus civilization, Lord of the Flies, probably my favorite book.

Writing or acting, if you had to make a choice?

Yikes! Can’t I conjoin them and be both? We’ll call it wricting! ‘Hi, I’m Tim, and I’m a wrictor.’

Who are your favorite actors?

The Walworth Farce at Theatre Banshee 2011

Argh, this is a hard one—

Meryl Streep, Mark Rylance, Kate Winslet, Simon Pegg, Edie Falco, Sean Penn, Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, Kristin Wiig, Gene Wilder, Jack Lemmon, Gene Hackman, Bryan Cranston, Richard Pryor, Benicio del Toro. I like people with passion. Jack Nicholson, he’s another. Gary Oldman. Cate Blanchett.

Also, many of our brilliant LA locals, like Anne Gee Byrd, Jenny O’Hara, John Getz, Hugo Armstrong. Our town is so ridiculously chockablock with talent. And no, not all of it is in the
Fame and Fortune industry—it’s right there, in your face, on our small stages.

Your favorite playwrights?

Tracy Letts, Maria Irene Fornes, Enda Walsh, Ruth Margraff, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Albee, Chekhov, O’Neill, Shaw.

Any role you haven't played yet that you are yearning to play?

Jonny ‘Rooster’ Byron (Jerusalem).
Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman).
Eddie Carbone (A View From The Bridge).
George (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf).
Thomas in Enda Walsh’s Misterman.
Father Brendan Flynn (Doubt).
Medea, in some awesome, twisted, all-male version.
A one-man version of The Crucible.
I’d also like to do The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh.


As I get older, I get to play increasingly interesting and substantial roles. The best is yet to come, I feel. I don’t fear or ward off age in any capacity. Bring it, I say. Look at Judi Dench, for fu**’s sake. Clint Eastwood. Bette White!

Anything else you care to add?

Looking forward to taking part in The Skylight Theatre Company’s honoring of Terrence McNally in a four day event at the end of Sept. called Salute. I was very honored to be asked. And, of course, I’m looking forward to The Normal Heart opening, and audiences experiencing it for its beauty and intensity. I hope it encourages conversations, think-tanks, and outrage.

See the talented Tim Cummings at the Fountain Theatre in The Normal Heart beginning September 18:
http://www.fountaintheatre.com/whatcoming.html

2013 Interview - Emrhys Cooper

Actor/singer/dancer Emrhys Cooper, winner of the 2012 BWW Award for Actor to Watch in 2013, has certainly made his mark on the entertainment world. After much TV and film work, the British born performer shifts to singing with his first single "Hypnotized" to be released Tuesday August 20. In our chat he discusses the career move. He also gives us a heads up on his recent trip to Bhutan, the film he made there, as well as other career breakthroughs. 

Fill me in briefly on what's been going on for you in film, TV and dance/music since you won the BWW award in January of 2013.

Well it's definitely been a very exciting, incredible journey, with lots of twists and turns I had never anticipated. After Entertaining Mr. Sloane I managed to book some great TV spots. I played Richard in the last season of Desperate Housewives (ABC), and a sharp tongued publicist on Touch (FOX) and most recently I shot a very funny new cable show From Here! On OUT - playing a rather naughty Scottish character named Haggis. I was also very lucky to work on a couple of great indie movies Birthday Cake and Blood Rush. The biggest event since winning the BWW was booking the starring role in the Bhutanese Film Kushutara - Pattern of Love. 

Having danced my whole life, I am delighted that I've been given more opportunities as a choreographer and director, and I've been working on several dance videos that tell a positive message through dance. I've really enjoyed the behind the scenes creative process of making a positive difference.

OK... "Hypnotized"... how did this singing thing all get started? Where do you hope it will take you?

It was a chance meeting on the set of a movie I was working on called I want to get married. I met a fantastic song writer named Elaine Macaluso. She had a terrific energy and we clicked from the get go. Elaine heard me sing karaoke one evening at my house and afterwards she told me she wanted to write with me. I wasn't sure I wanted to move in that direction as I wanted to give my all to acting, but after thinking about it for about 6 months I thought... why not? Elaine and I wrote a song for the soundtrack for a horror movie I was shooting at the time and that's how "Hypnotized" was born. Elaine introduced me to a a very talented singer songwriter at the time named Benj Heard - he also wrote and produced "Hypnotized" with us.

I didn't anticipate any of this happening, so I am feeling overwhelmed and delighted at the amount of support and buzz "Hypnotized" is getting. The video is going viral and lots of radio stations have picked up the track on their playlists; it has also just entered the European dance charts - so watch the space! I love performing live and creating new music. I really hope to start doing more live shows and gearing up for my first EP through my record label Inspire U Records.

Tell me briefly about your wonderful experiences in Bhutan.

A few years ago a dear friend Peter Alan Roberts told me he was working on a film for Bhutan as he was the Tibetan translator for the King of Bhutan. I saw photos of the country and was blown away by how unspoiled it was. He mentioned there maybe an opportunity for me to play the lead in the film. Then in mid December 2012 I was contacted by the director Karma Deki to see if I wanted to shoot the lead in the feature film Kushutara - Pattern of Love. The film started shooting on the 1st of Janurary 2013 so I didn't have very long to make a decision. I new I had to do it even though I would be missing some of pilot season. 

Going over to film in the remote kingdom of Bhutan was a life changing experience for me, one I will always treasure. I have never been treated so warmly and with such respect. The culture and people blew me away. I had a lot of time to think out there, as I had no phone or internet. The people of Bhutan are voted the happiest on earth and I now know why, they are content with what they've got and not always seeking the never ending rat race that our Western society has built into us. I was the first Western actor to star in a Bhutanse film and that feeling makes me proud - I pushed my self out of my comfort zone as an actor and person. I am really excited for the world to see this film, as hopefully they will discover Bhutan, the country I fell in love with.

Any future projects in film, TV, or stage you care to mention?

Right now I am gearing up for my LA debut performing some new materiel as a solo artist - please check out my twitter of Facebook for show dates. I've been on stage many times before but performing as a solo artist is new and exciting ground for me.

I will also be working on the new Live TV series Trend This - bringing you up to date on all new trends and a variety of skits.

Emrhys Cooper is a terribly resourceful and talented performer, who is determined to keep working in all aspects of this business we call show! I laud his ingenuity and vibrant sense of 'never say die'!

Also read our last interview from January 2012:
http://grigwaretalkstheatre.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

In Emrhys' own words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmvOQa1cRs&feature=player_embedded

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hypnotized-single/id689695664

from Trend This

2013 Interview with Valerie Perri

Actress/singer Valerie Perri, best known for her role of Eva Peron in Evita, will open as Norma Desmond in MTW's Sunset Boulevard Saturday July 13 in Long Beach. In our chat she discusses the challenges of portraying bigger than life fictional silent movie queen Norma Desmond.

How does it feel playing the grande diva of them all Norma Desmond?

     

 It feels great and so completely right for me for many reasons. I remember Hal Prince taking me aside after one of my opening night performances of Evita saying "You know playing this role so early in your career is both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is that it is probably the most challenging role for any woman of your age range in musical theater. The curse is that it will be hard to find another role to match it until you're much older." Fast forward 30+ years later and here I am playing Norma. The shoes fit perfectly, and vocally it is where my voice lives.

What are your challenges in bringing her to life?

I suppose my challenge for any role I play is to bring her as close to me as possible. Norma is right at my fingertips. Looking at my own career I have had the great pleasure of knowing what it feels like to be feted by the elite. When I did the Evita tour I was treated like royalty. In Washington DC I was invited to diplomatic parties and lunched with senators and taken to and from the theater by Limo every night. I felt just like a movie star. Evita was a very big deal back in the late 70s early 80s and I was living the dream much like Norma Desmond was in her early career.

I also saw the glory fade away when the tour was done much the way Norma felt when "talkies" came into fashion and newer and younger actresses took the spotlight. 

When I finished out my contract I had been doing the show for almost three years.  I left the tour and went into a small off-Broadway show at Manhattan Theater Club but it was having all kinds of problems and they ended up replacing the director two weeks before we opened . I got a call from my dear friend Loni Ackerman who was doing Evita on Broadway at the time. She was pregnant with her first child and starting to feel some dizziness and didn't think she could continue and said the Prince office wanted to ask me to come in and take over the role. At the time, my show at MTC was about to open and knowing how difficult it would have been to replace me at such a late date I made the decision to stay in the show. It turned out that one of the other actresses in the show got offered a replacement role on Broadway just a few days later and left a week before we were scheduled to open. Imagine my disappointment giving up the opportunity to go into the Evita Broadway production after being told our show at MTC  would never officially open to critics,  just run the weeks we were scheduled while they continued to work on it, but nothing ever happened afterwards and I was out of work. The following year was even tougher for me. I was so identified with the role of Evita that I couldn't get a job in another show.  I ended up on a daytime soap for a short time and although it was nice to have a job, it was no Evita. So when I sing, " I've come home at last" in "As if We Never Said Goodbye", I speak the truth and I'm going to enjoy every single moment of it. 

What do you believe is Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest strength in this musical?

Andrew has such a wonderful gift for being able to write very passionate sweeping romantic melodies. The score to Sunset is no exception and the orchestrations are very cinematic sounding which is completely right given it's based on a classic film.

You've played Evita, now Norma; is there another big, larger than life celebrity you'd like to take a crack at?  

Hilarita???  I just adore Hilary Clinton and I bet there will be a play or musical made about her life at some point in the future. I'm actually doing some research right now on the life of Anne Bancroft. I'd like to try her shoes on in a one-woman show. 

Is Evita your favorite role so far? 

Evita will always remain so special to me as it was such a Cinderella story getting the part, my equity card, and working with Hal Prince. Playing Louise in Gypsy many years ago was also a stellar moment.   It was the first musical album I owned as a kid  and I loved hearing the downbeat to that overture every night. 

Do you have a favorite musical of all time (whether you've played in it or not)? If so, what makes it a favorite?

...favorite musical of all time has to be West Side Story. I can listen to Leonard Bernstein's score and watch Jerome Robbins choreography over and over and never grow tired of it. I still weep at the end when Maria picks up the gun and says, "How many bullets are left in the gun Chino enough for you and you and you. How many can I kill and still have one left for me?" ...Breaks my heart all the time. I played Anita in college with film star Ray Liotta as Riff and later I had the privilege to work with Jerry Robbins in the Los Angeles production of Jerome Robbins Broadway which featured several of the musical numbers from the show in a dance suite. It was breathtaking every night! ...And after this run of Sunset Boulevard I do believe that Norma will be high on the list of favorite roles to play. 

Honest, intelligent and completely grounded, Valerie Perri has had resounding successes on the musical comedy stage...successes that make her the perfect candidate to inhabit the skin of the greatest star of them all...Norma Desmond. Don't miss her!

as Norma with David Burnham as Joe Gillis

This is the fourth and final show of the MTW  2012-2013 record-breaking 60^th season:  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SUNSET BOULEVARD directed by Broadway’s Larry Raben, with Musical Direction by David Lamoureux, and Staging by John Todd. 

SUNSET BOULEVARD will be presented July 12 – July 28, 2013 at the exquisite 1070 seat Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, CA

Valerie Perri as Evita

http://www.musical.org/MusicalTheatreWest/home.html

2013 Interview with Ana Isabel O - Part II Her Books

Internationally known biologist

and writer Dr. Ana Isabel O is constantly embarking on new projects. Educated in Europe and a self-taught Victorian patchwork maker since the early 90s, Ordonez has presented her work in France and Luxembourg. As a scientist she holds Masters and PhDs in Genetics, Forestry and Animal Biology and has lectured extensively throughout Europe, Africa, Japan, China, New Zealand and South America on insect-plant pathology and biological control research. She has also written several articles on the value of nature. Ordonez, however, has not confined her interests to the world of science. A true Renaissance woman, she is also a reputed jazz editor, independent filmmaker, music/art promoter and producer. In 2012 she contributed tirelessly to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial tribute with Christopher Kennedy Lawford, because she believes in her heart that true valuable art of any kind must never be forgotten. Five years earlier, in 2005 with trumpeter Herb Robertson she had founded Ruby Flower Records with the plan to produce avant-garde music, exclusively for connoisseurs and purist audiophiles with the slogan "Creatively speaking...Where the talents blossom". Only recently she decided to expand the company's offerings to also include poetry and literature for children. In our conversation she talks about her organization, how and why she is adapting it and manifests an amazing sensitivity and sense of humor on just about every aspect. Her beautifully poetic expression fills me with wonder.

PART II
What inspired you to write these books?

Meeting a man who could understand my mind and amusingly provide a counterpoint to my imagination was the spark. It was so unexpected. Throughout a year, I felt incapable of writing, All of a sudden I had this spark, this burst of generosity, love and caring. It became constant. My soul was nurtured, the wounds healed . Love brought a  complex melange of energies. ...and voila The Extraordinary Love Story of Aye Aye and Fedor was born. I cannot convey with words how important this person is in my life but I surely identify a muse who influenced my writing. He has  shaped my artistic and emotional vision. It keeps me waking up – love, the unexpected magic of it!

And the spark behind the second one? 

Inspiration can be tricky, as in life. Robert Lydon ran his eyes into mine one beautiful spring several years ago. He  was my second crucial muse. How Aye Aye Met Roibeard the Giraffe was born. Robert's rebellious impetus behind his character stroked me. The path was paved : mad concussion  become fuel. I wrote endlessly, absolutely mesmerized with the dark, moving, troubled, attached but also ruptured side.I became very fond of his courage and also became well prepared for this marginal Irish lyricist whom I call subliminal to say the least. I am fine understanding what's marginal. I gave to Robert the original illustrations of  volume 2, which in exchange, I know visualize rude-like rhetoric . Priceless...

Both volumes have been written through the mind  of ineffable love, compassion and music.

Tell me more about the characters of the lemur and the lion.

As a biologist, I believe the Aye Aye should be known as a main character and of course the white lion too.   Children will get familiarized with two species of threatened  animals. There are world campaigns to protect the Aye Aye. Sir Richard Branson protects them no matter the controversies! The plot of Aye Aye and Fedor is about the extraordinary love story of a lemur Aye aye and a white Lion, Fedor who finally got what they were dreaming about, wishing for. . 

Tell me briefly about the second book.

How Roibeard meet Aye Aye is a fascinating story about Roibeard a mysterious goofy giraffe  and the lemur Aye Aye. Their deep soul connection helps us to understand how to tame our own fears and demons.

How have you matched illustrations to the story? How did you decide what you wanted to draw? Were you guided much by character emotions and conflict? 

I'm always guided by emotions, I now channel their intensity through a spiritual way and I draw when I cannot talk. It took me years to put a story to Aye Aye. I did many drawings. They were boring at first; then I thought it would be interesting to give her a main role, but I had no plot. When love knocked at the door, Aye Aye and Fedor just cooked.  However, trying to figure out how this small animal could free that beautiful lion was not easy.

The day of my birthday Hurricane Sandy covered the city with water and it was catastrophic (still in some areas of NYC!) . Nothing happened to me. I had power, food delivery; everything was the same.  Except that the streets of midtown where unusually empty. Many of my friends struggled with Sandy. Sandy inspired me. As much as I like to run in the rain I was forced to stay in on the day of my birthday. We listened to the hurricane and I began to think about Aye Aye and I found it! Sandy! A hurricane could free the animals at the zoo. I did the illustrations first. I needed them to talk to me. The more I listened to the unfolding news, the more I drew. Every illustration was inspired by the events I listened to on TV regarding Sandy. The story was finished in three days.

What do you want readers to take away with them? Since they are children, what do you hope they will learn?

First of all awareness, I want them to learn the meaning of wildlife protection. We need to preserve the habitats of threatened species. A sense of values too. For instance the meaning of love, help and bravery is depicted in the first volume with Aye Aye and Fedor. I watch a lot of cartoons early in the morning; I see how important it is for children to prove they are brave. They dream big. The meaning of compassion and caring depicts the story of Roibeard and Aye Aye. Though Roibeard is wonderfully gifted, he can't see his beauty. The story teaches how to appreciate our blessings and how to share them instead of holding back. Children look at illustrations. They know all about what's up and coming. Parents often complain how hard it is to find new stories to thrill their imagination. Children are curious, so they will eventually find out more info by themselves and learn how to protect threatened animals.
www.rubyflowerpublishing.org/content/section/6/62/


Here's the Interview Part I:
http://www.playwrightgrigware.blogspot.com/2013/06/2013-interview-with-ana-isabel-ordonez.html

2013 Interview with Val Kilmer

Film and stage actor Val Kilmer, best remembered for his now classic movie roles in the 80s and 90s including Top Gun, Jim Morrison in The Doors, Doc Holliday in Tombstone, and Bruce Wayne/Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever, is set to workshop an engagement of his Mark Twain evening Citizen Twain at the Kirk Douglas Theatre from June 28 - July 28. In our chat he discusses how it all began and how he feels about  inhabiting the skin of one of the world's greatest humorists.

Why a play about Mark Twain? Has he fascinated you since childhood?

Why Mark Twain?...(pause)  because ...because... Lincoln was taken. (long pause) That was a joke. I tried my best. (we both laugh)...For many years I've been looking for a film to direct. I finally found a story between Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy that I knew I would remain passionate about and that would stick with me for all the years it takes to write and produce and direct something.

That's mega work!

Yeah. Particularly these days with independent films just not having the financing that they did even five or six years ago. Because of the crash, the money's really tight, and period films always have been a gamble. Every extra, every street, every street lamp, everything has to be ... everything costs money. It was about a ten-year experience putting together the film. Mark Twain was friends with Mary Baker Eddy and devoted a lot of time to her and her ideas. I found a really loving humorous story that is really a story about America, what I believe about America and what I love about it and where I think we're headed. So that's how the screenplay started. When I finally got close enough to start putting the financing together, I realized that producing is so all-encompassing as well as directing, that the day has gone every day by five or six o'clock and I would be saying, "OK, now I'm going to put some time aside to work on the role", because I'm going to play Mark Twain in the movie as well as direct it. I realized I just needed to stop everything and create the role. That's how the play developed.

You must have been fascinated by Twain to want to play him so badly! Did you love Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as a kid?

My father grew up with that oral tradition because he's a southerner who was raised in the Southwest, literally in the wild, on Indian land in New Mexico. My grandfather was a real prospector. My heritage is real live wild west stories. My father would tell stories around the campfire, and the way that he would tell them was out of that oral tradition, like Mark Twain learned how to tell the story...long nights on the river and on the riverboat with everybody talking, telling the story. Something I didn't know when I first started putting the movie together is that Mark Twain was really our first great or maybe first period...stand-up comedian and not just a comedian but a social commentator and critic. You think of guys like Lenny Bruce or Redd Fox, how they utilized race and language...Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, Jack Black, Lewis Black and people who are still able with a lot of love to be accurate and honest about some of our greatest hurdles like race and language.

How have you structured the piece? Is it chronological as to his life events?

No. Twain wasn't big on plot.(he laughs) What I've tried to do is mirror his thoughts that were his interests about autobiography, that he was never able to complete. Fascinating...I have lots in the play of how impossible it is to tell someone a story and have that kind of be a parallel to encourage the audience to contemplate maybe a more nonjudgmental position about America today. But it just wasn't as entertaining as other ideas of Twain's...a genuinely wise man who understood everything about human nature. It was just too great a temptation to resist trying to tell a complete story of him. I have kept some original rules; I've said this out of order, but I started out wanting to just do a stand-up routine...an hour five minutes, an hour ten minutes like stand-ups do. It seemed to be shortchanging the audience, though, of as much as I had to give about the character, a complete character study.

Have you taken what you've written from a specific biography?

It's really from everything, letters and notes, his autobiography and his great novels and commentary and newspaper articles. What I try to represent is the idea that he never really articulated, what James Joyce completed in his masterpiece Ulysses. The idea is that any human being is living in three different atmospheres if you will. There's his subconscious going on that nobody knows but him, his thoughts coming into him seemingly mysteriously in a dream kind of state. Then there's the physical reality, like this dressing room that I'm talking to you in, what that means, he would go on about how to shoot a squirrel and how much cigars cost when he was a kid and how many cigars fit in a barrel and how many barrels fit on the steamboat...go on and on and on about these seemingly disparate or meaningless details and what he was attempting to do, which they said he seems to have perfected, was to give a whole or dimensional picture of a person' s essence. By studying the historical part of life, that I'm talking to you in Culver City in Los Angeles and there's a Native American reality to this face and the Spanish part of and the Gold Rush part of this story, that's right here in the dust and the dirt, that's what he was going for. Certainly evident, you feel a freshness and timelessness in his masterpieces, where he's really captured the essence of being a kid. Freedom, what it's like; no rules out there on the river, and it's quiet, and you can feel God, like he says.

Do you use any of his famous quotes?

As many as I can cram in there.

Did you ever see Hal Holbrook's famous Mark Twain Tonight?

I've seen it several times, and I've met him. I've met him about my play, and he's been very, very kind to me. I've been very mindful of his amazing work.

As a side note, what is your favorite film role of all those you've done?

Oh gosh. I truly enjoyed the collaboration with Tombstone. Kurt Russell was so much fun to act with, and I had some memorable lines to play in that, and I really enjoyed working with Oliver Stone, and singing those songs... that was like a theatre experience... that was live.

So, do you think in Mark Twain you've found your ideal role, your part of a lifetime?

I'll tell you very honestly it's so gratifying to play a genius and have it be received so warmly, because his mind is so unique and I would say his love, it's almost like an overwhelming love of America. That to me is the core of his greatness. He loves everybody, the lowliest river rat and the laziest maid back in the kitchen...he was at Andrew Carnegie's mansion. He remembered everybody's name and whoever had a great story, whoever needed help, he was really our writer, the whole country's writer...and it's not me trying to sell you, to sell tickets to the play. It's who he is; it's very real. It's a real privilege to be involved every day in that kind of intellect ... and genuine heart...

Val Kilmer speaks very slowly, methodically and intelligently, with meticulous care in choosing every word, every syllable he utters, like a painter who exercises great caution with every stroke of his brush. Maybe out of fear or insecurity... or maybe he intentionally wants to give his audience only the very best of what he has to offer. That is what I take from it. He has obviously been bitten by the brilliance of Mark Twain. I can't wait to see Citizen Twain playing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City from June 28-July 28 only, prior to a West End London premiere this fall.

http://www.valkilmer.com/

2013 Interview with Jo Anne Worley

Actress/comedienne Jo Anne Worley needs no introduction. One of the stars of  the classic TV variety show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Worley will be at Welk Resorts in Escondido displaying her comic versatility as she presents her one-woman show Keep Laughin' June 26-30. In our recent chat, she did indeed have me laughing as she talked about her show, her take on what makes something funny, her favorite stars, and Actors and Others For Animals, which remains close to her heart. She's a tremendously joyous lady with terribly strong vibes about people and the biz and proves an overall endearing human being.

Tell me about your one-woman show Keep Laughin'!

I just made copies of my rundown this morning. I have done a nightclub act for low these many years. This is really my nightclub act but much more personal, with some clips and pictures and things like that. My sister saved absolutely everything. I actually started doing this show to honor her. She would write the year, the date and put it in a special folder, so it was easy to chronicle things. I found a letter of acceptance to...when I went out of high school, I went away as an apprentice...I have that letter of them accepting me and how much it was. It was for three months; I think it was $225 for room and board.

Can you imagine how much that would be today?! 

Thousands for like two weeks. It's just amazing. And it was the most important thing...she also saved newspapers and had them laminated...the front page...I come from a little town called Lowell, Indiana. The front page of the Lowell Tribune... I was above...it said Lowell girl, Bob Hope's neighbor (she laughs). I have that and I can hold it up and show people. Also I have my prom pictures that I'll put up on the screen; I was engaged when I was a senior in high school. Things like that! The songs that I do throughout, musical comedy songs, certainly ones that I've done...and what I like to do with a song is change it and make it mine, with the exception of...I do "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy, that's certainly one of my favorites that I've done.

What about the song you did in the Billy Barnes tribute at Kritzerland recently, the one that he wrote especially for you?

"Inner Child", yes. God love Billy, God love him! Did I do some of the walk-acrosses at Billy's tribute?...(she sings) "What ever happened to the 3D movies...?"

I can't remember. Maybe.

It was so short...and by the way, you know of course that that was Billy (Barnes) playing the piano on Laugh-In!

Yes.

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I do "Too Long at the Fair" to honor Billy...and also I love props. I'm thinking of how much stuff I want to schlep to Escondido. I have a cardboard standup of Stedman, Oprah Winfrey's guy. (I laugh hard)

Oh my God!

That's right! I don't know, from your 'Oh God', it sounds like I really better bring Stedman. (we both laugh)

Who were your comedy mentors, the ones you absolutely adored?

Jerry Lewis. I loved how he would surprise people, and one of the biggest thrills of my life was actually working with Jerry Lewis on his television series. Before that, when I first came to Hollywood, they were having a contest at Paramount to start a comedy class, that's when he was King of Paramount. Literally thousands auditioned, and about a dozen of us were chosen to be in this class taught by a joke writer who taught at UCLA. Jerry would come in and play a week of takes, bits and sketches and things like that. He held up this big bottle, Jeroboam of champagne and said "The first person to make it in this class is gonna get this champagne". And he gave it to a girl by the name of Caroline Richter. (I laugh)...Exactly! (we both laugh because...Caroline who??) ...And so when he opened on Broadway in Damn Yankees, I happened to be there doing...golly I don't know...Grease...and I got him a big bottle of champagne and took it to his dressing room.

That's great! Who else?

Well certainly Lucille Ball...and Rosalind Russell, and the movie musical ladies like Betty Grable.

What about the newer ones coming up, is there anyone in particular that you're fond of?

Well, there's a little girl called Lily Tomlin. (we laugh)(she pauses)... Yes, Tina Faye. She's just magnificent, isn't she? I'm not aware of what's going on in the stand-up clubs with young people. It's just not on my horizon.

What do you look for in a new talent? What makes them funny? What is not funny in your estimation?

Well, dirty is not funny. I remember when I was coming up, we would work in the clubs to get a piece of material that we would then do on television. You would never waste your time doing dirty material that you couldn't do on television, in a club. Mainly what I look for is ...(she gasps) I think heart.  It's hard to describe, but when you see it, you know it.

A lot of people know you exclusively from TV and don't appreciate what a wonderful singer and stage performer you are. Of course, you've played Dolly and Mame, and, as of late, you've done Madame Morrible in Wicked and Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone. What role would you like to play that you haven't already done?

Well, obviously, I would like to create a wonderful role that has not been done. I'm going to be doing some of the music from Call Me Madame. Is that ready for a revival, do you think?

It's been done here and there, but...you would be great in that.

It's easy for me and I've done it. The time to do that would be in an election year, on Broadway. It's a period piece. I don't think it can be tinkered with and brought up to speed. It's from such a different world. There are full conversations built into the show that people don't have now.

Speaking of creating a role for yourself, what you written anything?

Not a full piece. I write stuff that I do in nightclubs. I find that when I was starting out, people would write things for me...and instead of writing for me, they would write at me, instead of coming from wherever it is I come from. So I like to do my own things... that tickle me. I figure if it tickles me, it will...
like that cardboard cutout of Stedman (she laughs)...

There's no one quite like you. You're an original.

Ohhh...I was at the theatre last night and all the people in the audience were going ...Ooo...ooo! (imitating that infectious cry that she does) That's nice!

What about Actors and Others For Animals, a charity I know that is close to your heart? Is it still as active as ever?

Our main thing is spay and neuter. We are saving animals by not having unwanted animals being born - and killed. As a matter of fact, we have a big fundraiser coming up September 28, which is a Saturday, at the Universal Hilton. It's called Best in Show. We're going to have a dais of about ten or twelve famous people with clips of their animal companions. The audience will vote on the best in show. Fred Willard and Jim Piddock will be making comments like they did in the movie. My friend Lily Tomlin has already committed to it, and Susan Sullivan...

Do you still have dogs of your own?

Yes, I'm looking at my Harmony right now. She's a rescue, a little Yorkshire terrier.She goes everywhere with me, and she is just the best.

What else is out there for you?

In a couple of weeks I'm dong a commencement speech for the graduation at American Music and Drama Academy. What I'm doing for my speech is..I've been asking people that have been in the business...What advice do you wish you had heard when you were first starting out?  What would you say?

You have to have your feet on the ground and be prepared to work hard. This pie in the sky attitude of "I'm going to be a big star" is ridiculous!

Yeah. And with Reality TV, people think  that's easy!

It's like a drug, you have to want it more than anything else.

More than anything else. I like the feet on the ground thing you mentioned.That's very important. And you not only have to have money to support yourself, but know how to save money. Mae West said once, "Keep a diary and one day, it'll keep you." We all wish we had written things down. Such good advice!

The very best advice? Go see one-of-a kind Jo Anne Worley in Keep Laughin' at Welk Resorts, Escondido June 26-30. She's worth the drive; she's a laugh riot!
http://welkresorts.com/san-diego-theatre/

Interview with Chicago Playwright Brian Golden

Playwright Brian Golden, who is currently artistic director for Theatre Seven in Chicago, hails from Iowa. His latest play Cooperstown is being produced at The Road Theatre's second space at the NoHo Senior Arts Colony on Magnolia Blvd. In town for the weekend, Golden held three talk-back discussions after the Friday June 7, Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9 performances. In our chat, he describes how the play got started and what it means to him.

Tell me first about Theatre Seven.

It's the company that I started and am artistic director of in Chicago. We do...we have not always done this in our history...but right now we exclusively produce work that is set in Chicago. So we have a goal, a mission of really telling local stories and engaging the community to see plays that are about their city, past or present. We have a real focus on producing local work, and this play Cooperstown was developed and world premiered there in 2009 before we had an exclusively Chicago focus. For a while we had this notion that we could tell stories not set in Chicago but that still really dealt with Chicago. Chicago is a very segregated city. Chicago is also a city obsessed with its sports and its sports heroes. We felt at that time (2009) that this play (Cooperstown) fit into our mission to be a play that would really matter in Chicago, but due to the new rules we wouldn't produce it there in 2013.

When did you change this rule?

We've sort of evolved into that newer focus for the mission in the last year. We get a lot of excitement out of...it's really exciting when someone will be like, "That part of town that I drove through this week, I thought of it in a whole new way because of that play." I like that about local storytelling.

Is Cooperstown your second or third play?

It's my third full-length play that has been produced. Cooperstown is the first to be produced in LA as well as Chicago, but I've had other full-length work produced in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis. One of my plays was in the midst of being translated into Russian for a production in St. Petersburg, but I just never heard from that person again. (he laughs)

You are young and didn't live through the 60s. How did you get the feel for it? I experienced the era you are writing about in Cooperstown and you have nailed it...and with such a wonderful sense of optimism!

I was born in 1982. Jackie Robinson has for a long time been a real hero of mine; I'm a baseball fan. I'm really interested in that time, but the play actually came about because I was taking a writers' workshop at Chicago Dramatists, which is a really special place to develop new plays there. That was a deadline workshop. Every week you had to come in with a certain amount of new pages, and they had to be pages written for a mixture of five actors that they gave you. These actors were: a 35-year old black man, a younger white man, a younger white woman, a 25-year old black woman and an Asian woman...as it happens, the makeup of this play. And on the first day of that class, we were doing a sort of meet and greet between the writers for the class and the actors. Cecil (Burroughs), who is in this Road production, was one of the actors in that class. I had the blue Brooklyn Dodgers hat that I have on... I had that on right then, and Cecil mentioned that he was originally from LA and liked sports. And I said, "Oh, Jackie Robinson. That's my guy! You must be a big Jackie Robinson fan." His response was sort of like "I don't know. I find him overrated." I became really interested in that interaction both because of what I was trying to do, "Oh, I'm a white guy who's going to prove something about myself by saying I love Jackie Robinson"...and I was also interested in why a sports fan who was a Dodgers fan who was an African American man like Cecil might not be as in awe of Jackie as I was. I was interested in at least starting as play that would investigate that question of why someone who looked and acted like Cecil would not think Jackie Robinson was as big a deal as I did. That was the initial seed for the play that grew more complicated and problematic with all the characters involved.

Talk a little about the hope expressed in the play.

When I first started writing the play, I had just finished reading Howard Zinn's book A People's History of the United States. I was really interested at that time and still am in what history or historical moments look like seen through the eyes of ordinary people. Writing a history play never crossed my mind in a million years ...that anyone famous like Jackie Robinson would be a character in this play. I'm interested in what history looks like from the ground up. In trying to capture that feeling of change I became much more interested in doing it about 5 ordinary people than about anyone who's been in a history book.

What do you want audiences to take away from Cooperstown regarding racism or anything else prevalent in the story?

I don't know whether I think like that necessarily as a writer. My job is to tell a really compelling story that engages. Baseball is the setting, but this is really a play about family, what family means. That's the core of the play for me. I wasn't sure how I could get there as I was writing, but I knew the last line had to be "We can hope." I didn't know why that was. The idea is said by one character to another. I think it's a bigger idea. A couple of months after we elected President Obama, that idea of "We can hope" as a remedy for things was an idea that I believe in. Whether or not that's exactly what the audience takes away is out of my hands, but it's a very intentional and purposeful way for these last words to hang in the air in this play.

Are you happy with the Road and this production?

It's a scary experience offering a play when you're not going to be in the room as it's being crafted. Everyone in The Road has been really great. The first time this play was produced it was my company. Although that company was on board obviously with the production and had a reason to support me, no one here actually does. To come to this town and to meet these people and to be able to walk into a room where people are feeling good things about the work and they feel like the work has given them an opportunity to tell a story they care about as well, when by all rights they are people I have never met before, it feels like there really is an investment in the story and that investment is backed up with a real artistic commitment and talent... this is...happiness. (He laughs like a little boy who has just been given the most joyous present.)

Brian Golden with DJ

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Director Darryl Johnson, who sat in on the interview, added that "it is not often that you read something that you hear in your head crystal clear, that you see the vision of it clear as day; it's like I knew exactly what this should look and sound like. I relate to this entirely. We share the same hopeful attitude about the world, so I totally connected with that right away. And we got really lucky with this cast top to bottom! And The Road had been producing such edgy material. I wondered whether anybody would be interested in Cooperstown, because nobody dies, there's no drug abuse, no blood. The response from the company was A breath of fresh air! A good classical old-fashioned story well told!"

So happiness abounds at The Road these days and for good reason. Just as a side note, Brian Golden confided in me that he's working on a new play that is 360 degrees different from Cooperstown, about conspiracy theories and the people who believe in them, citing a missing child case from Iowa, his state of birth. With this young man's integrity and fine writing skills, I'm sure it will be another insightful and riveting play. Go see Cooperstown at the Road through July 20 at 10747 Magnolia Blvd at the NoHo Senior Arts Colony!
http://www.roadtheatre.org/