2013 Interview with Nicole Parker

Actress Nicole Parker is onstage two more weekends as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in Fullerton, through September 22 and in Redondo through September 29.

How does it feel playing the classic Fanny Brice, knowing full well that Streisand put her original stamp on it at the start?

Well, it's a legendary role because a legendary person made it legendary. There is no way around it! That will never change. So it's a tremendous honor to get to play this part, and I don't take it lightly. But then in order to actually play the part I have to forget all that because it doesn't help to remind yourself you're not Streisand. So I accept it, and never think about it again, honestly. The only thing I can control is how I tell the story. That's all that's left. So that's what I focus on. Bringing my own personality to the role in order to tell a story. If I think about all the other stuff I'll go crazy. CraziER.

You are brilliant with physical comedy. I think you added more of this than any other actress I have seen play Fanny, and I like that. Where did you learn your technique? Did it start before MADtv? Did that show help to hone it?

Thank you, that's so nice! MADtv certainly helped, I learned so much about comedy from that show. I learned about every aspect: timing, writing, character development, physical comedy, improv etc. But I would say my initial interest in physical comedy began with Fawlty Towers. It is a British sitcom that was super short-lived, with John Cleese. And it will teach you everything you want to know about comedy. And at the center is Cleese, that wonderful gigantic tall man and he does hilarious things with his body that are all character-driven. That's what I was drawn to. I wore out those videotapes when I was seven years old and honestly can trace so many choices back to those episodes! So go watch them, everybody!  The other person I learned from firsthand was Martin Short. I did  Fame Becomes Me on Broadway with him, and he is a brilliant physical comedian. But I'd never seen someone break down a bit of business quite like him. He'll spend an hour on one moment--working out the timing, the look, because he's so smart, and knows exactly how and when something needs to happen. And then of course on stage it looks effortless. That kind of education was invaluable! I knew I wanted to make my Fanny physical, because in watching the little footage that's publicly available of Fanny Brice, I noticed she made very funny, specific, physical choices. She has a number in a movie where she's dressed as a swan, ("It's Gorgeous To Be Graceful") and she does this crazy skip that I love. I try to do a bit of it in "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" as a tip of the hat to her. Also, adding physical comedy is just another way to pepper the scenes with moments that aren't on the page. I feel like a lot of this role is filling in the spaces with humor and personality. 

You've played Elphaba in Wicked. That's another big, big role, which, like Fanny, requires a lot of stamina 8 times a week. How would you compare the challenges of playing both and the music? Is Jule Styne's score easier to perform than Stephen Schwartz's?

They are so, so different. Both are challenging I would say. Elphaba lives in a bit more of a pop world, where as the Funny Girl Score is rooted in the torch song era of Broadway, two completely wonderful styles of musical theater, but so very different to sing. Fanny just lives in a different place in my voice than Elphaba. I will say that Elphaba is wonderful training for a role like Fanny. The endurance you have to have for Wicked is pretty extensive, so I'm very glad I have experience knowing how to pace myself for three hours. And both scores require you to have power, and backup reserves of it! Funny Girl naturally sounds more old-fashioned, which it should--music from another time and place. It really transports you to hear it, so vocally it requires it's own technique to achieve that sound. It would be strange if I rocked the "Defying Gravity"-style "Ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh!" the the end of "Don't Rain on My Parade," although the cast has made it clear that they would really enjoy this one night : )

I would say the workload is very similar, but it's the material that makes the parts so different. With Fanny, yes, I'm on stage almost the entire time, change costumes every two minutes, and sing exactly 41 songs, but there are several scenes that are fun and silly. It makes a very big difference to be able to have moments on stage where you're playing with an audience, or other actors on stage, and engaging in a comedic moment. It affects the experience and makes the ride more light. Elphaba on the other hand, kind of has a rough go of it from the start. I mean, the poor girl has a MOUNTAIN to climb. She's not very happy for much of the show, even when she's kissing a guy, cause it's her best friend's guy!....so she has a lot of angst. With all the being green, flying, crying, running, and being a renegade, it takes an emotional toll on you 8 times a week. It's interesting how Elphie gets under your skin and can really affect you. Even though it's incredibly rewarding to be Elphie!  So I'd say that's the difference!

I would like to go on record and say I think Fanny and Elphie would be friends. But every once in awhile Elphie would have to say to Fanny,"Shhh...just...Shh. Please be quiet."

Who are your idols? Your favorite actors? On stage or film.

I have a bunch: Gilda Radner, Madeline Kahn, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Mel Brooks, the ENTIRE cast of Tootsie and Fawlty Towers, Stephen Sondheim, Emma Thompson, Judy Kuhn, Martin Short. I promise I didn't just google "Celebrities" for this answer. I just have been influenced by a lot of different people!

What role would you love to tackle next? Any one in particular that you are yearning to play? 

Oh my! I have weird ones, cause I started out as a high soprano, so some of my dream roles are super impossible because I'm not an ingenue! I'd love to play Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, my all time favorite musical. Or Magnolia in Showboat, and Amalia in She Loves Me. See what I mean? But of course someday I'd love to play Dot in Sunday in the Park. I've done Into the Woods twice, would happily do it again. There's Mrs. Lovett, and Mame: all the broads. I basically won't work again until I'm fifty, apparently.

How has it been working with Michael Matthews, this cast and 3-D Theatricals?

Michael is amazing. All I wanted was someone who would let me play and experiment, and he gave me exactly that. He asks great questions, and he doesn't let you off easy, he wants you to know the answers for yourself. I could have done three more weeks at least of scene work with him because he just keeps adding layers and layers. Most of the time a scene session began with him asking me,"Are you ready to play?," which, as an improviser, I really appreciated. He had a clear vision of how to tell this story, and approached it with a very calm and easy hand. There was no pressure, it felt as if this show was ours--almost like a brand new show. He was also super collaborative about making some structural changes in Act II to further serve the story. I trust him completely and hope that we work together again!!!!! The cast is dreamy. Josh Adamson, my Nicky Arnstein, is the most charming, talented, and supportive leading man a gal could ask for. We get along so well and it just made the process a blast. And everyone else is just as wonderful: from the hysterical poker ladies, to our fabulous Ziegfeld, to the AMAZING ensemble that stops the show with their tap number. The cast is very special. It's been a very positive and supportive experience from start to finish, which is clearly a reflection of 3-D and the environment that they're cultivating. They're great! 

Only two weekends left to see the amazing Nicole Parker as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. In Fullerton at the Plummer Auditorium September 20-22 and then in Redondo Beach at the Performing Arts Center September 27-29.

http://www.3dtshows.com/

2013 Interview with Larry Eisenberg by guest journalist Steve Peterson

You’ve been with The Group Rep for quite a while.   How did you first get involved with the company?  What keeps you excited about The Group?

In 1990 Bonnie Snyder who was a member of the company called me to play Richard III for a Monday night project she was directing. It was a good experience and I ran into several GRT members whom I had known and worked with over the years.  Then, after a conversation with Lonny, I decided to join.  They were auditioning for Room Service and I ended up playing Sasha, the Russian waiter which was great fun and a terrific experience.  I acted in a number of shows and wrote and directed an original project called Nautilus.  I left in 1994 to enter the MFA directing program at CalArts.  I was gone for almost ten years but remained close to Lonny and the company, visiting often.  One of those visits was for the 1999 renaming of the company as the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre.  In 2003 I joined again and have been with them ever since.

 There is a connection with the naming of The Group and the famous Group Theatre in New York.   How did the name for The Group Rep come about?

It was a deliberate tribute to that original company.  Lonny had been mentored by Elia Kazan who was one of the original members of the Group Theatre.  Kazan brought Lonny to California for a role in “East of Eden” opposite James Dean.  Lonny had also been a close associate of Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York and through him, learned about the early days of the Group.  It was Strasberg, Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford who created the Group.  Lonny felt that the original Group was the birthplace of modern American acting and the place where Stanslavski’s methods were first introduced.  In addition to Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sandy Meisner, and Bobby Lewis were among the original members.  These were the people who went on to teach acting the way Lonny had learned it and therefore, the original Group represented an ideal for Lonny; it was one that he wanted to honor and to use as an example of the kind of work and environment he wanted to create.

 Is there one particular moment that you treasure or stands out in your mind in regards to working with Lonny Chapman?

Quite a few…I acted with Lonny in several shows but by far, my favorite was as Kit Carson in William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life opposite Lonny’s Joe.  Most of my scenes were just me and him sitting together telling each other outlandish stories and drinking beer.  It was a particular treat because The Time of Your Life had been a big part of Lonny’s life, and William Saroyan was one of Lonny’s favorite playwrights.  Lonny loved to tell the story about how when he played Tom in a revival of the play presented at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958, Saroyan would sometimes walk onto the stage in the middle of a performance, sit at the bar and drink whiskey while watching the actors perform the play around him.

By the end of 2006 Lonny was starting to get very frail.  I directed a play called Chaim’s Love Song by Marvin Chernoff and despite Lonny’s declining health, he managed to come and see it eight times.  I can’t tell you how moved I was and how happy it made me that he would go to all that trouble.  He was no longer able to drive and had to get rides with people to the theatre, but there he would be rooting us on and encouraging us.

As it turned out, Chaim’s Love Song was the last play Lonny ever saw at The Group Rep.

Was there a particular reason that Awake and Sing was chosen for The Group Rep’s 40^th Season? 

The reason is simple.  Awake and Sing remains the signature piece created by the Group Theatre and we want to honor that past as we move into the future.

 What is the play about?

It’s interesting that Odets’ original title was I’ve Got the Blues.  On its face the play is about a second generation Jewish American family struggling through the depression in New York during the 1930s.  Three generations of the Berger Family are stuck together in this Bronx apartment.  They are dominated by mother Bessie who has no patience for daydreams or weakness.  Each of the children faces hardship, bitterness and struggle.  After work-shopping the script with Harold Clurman, Odets changed the name to Awake and Sing!  So essentially, the play is a celebration of the human spirit and a call for living life with joy.  “Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills.” 

The play has numerous themes.  As the play’s director, is there any particular theme or themes that you are focused on?

Well, some people have called it a socialist play.  I pretty much disagree and see it more as a family drama; perhaps even comedy/drama.  But it does explore the conflict between individual expression and serving the greater good.  Social consciousness and responsibility are major “topics” discussed and argued over by our characters.  The two children, Ralph and Hennie, each are struggling to find their personal independence, but are challenged by responsibility to family and the rest of society.  One question the play asks is should the individual sacrifice him/herself for the greater good.  Odets does not proselytize.  He takes no position, just presents the arguments beautifully and poetically.  In the end, the brother and sister choose two totally different paths.  He commits to laboring for the greater good and she chooses to follow her dreams.  I imagine that Ralph will one day go to law school and eventually become active with labor unions or with civil rights.  Hennie may end on a pleasure boat sailing to Havana. 

 What do you want the audience to experience or take away from having seen this production of Awake and Sing?

That life is not easy, and everyone does their best they can with the tools they have.  We must not let our lives stagnate by “singing the blues.”  It’s much better to Awake and Sing and grab life by the throat.

 What’s up next for you as a director, as an actor? 

There’s a production of Arthur Miller’s The Price that I’m hoping to do at another theatre next year.  I also suppose it’s time to start thinking about our 41^st Season.

The Group Rep presents

AWAKE AND SING!

Written by Clifford Odets

Directed by Larry Eisenberg

Produced by Drina Durazo for the Group Rep

Runs:  September 20 – November 3, 2013

Plays:  Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm

             Sundays at 2pm

             Talk-back Sundays with the Cast after the show - October 6^th & October 27th

Where:  Lonny Chapman Theatre   10900 Burbank Blvd.  North Hollywood 91601

Reservations:  www.thegrouprep.com or (818) 763-5990

Tickets:  $15 - $22 (Admission: $22; Senior/Student: $17; Group 10+: $15)

                Friday Night Ladies Night – Tix ½ price for ladies

Tickets/Information: www.thegrouprep.com or (818) 763-5990

Parking:  Ample street parking on Burbank Blvd. and on Cleon Ave. south of the Burbank Blvd.

2013 Interview with Marthe Rachel Gold

1.  

Playwright/doctor Marthe Rachel Gold's play Lake Anne is being produced by The Road Theatre Company and is about to open at the new theatre at the NoHo Senior Arts Colony on Magnolia in NoHo on September 20. In our chat, Gold offers us a sneak peek at the play and its background.

   
   Tell me briefly about Lake Anne, its plot and characters.

 As the play opens, Joe, a principal dancer for a world class dance company visits his aunt and some-time mentor Anne, a widowed former prima ballerina who long ago retreated to the country to care for her mentally disabled son, Will.  Broke, and threatened with the loss of her family home, Anne is in the process of finding money to save her house through the sale of her lake to a successful New York actress.  Anne also has important decisions to make about Will’s care that could change both her life and his and is encouraged to do so by Emily, her sister-in-law and Joe’s mother, a practical woman who is looking to help Anne find sensible solutions to her problems.  Over the course of a long evening, Joe paints a picture for Anne of a vanished life to which she begins to believe she might return.  But there are obstacles…   

What was your specific goal in writing it? How did your idea generate - through a workshop, a personal experience...?

I rarely have one specific goal for anything I do, and Lake Anne is no exception.  As with most writers, I expect, the story and characters emerge from a range of experiences and people who lead me to craft its story.  Some of the elements here:  When I was in training in medicine I was profoundly unsettled by a mother of an adult son who had Down Syndrome and was in critical need of cardiac surgery.  The mother did not want her son to undergo that operation because she was afraid that the operation would be a success, that he would then outlive her, and she feared that without her, he would be institutionalized and his life would be hellish.  So the idea of agency and when agency is lost in a cognitively limited individual is something that is a question I am thinking about in Lake Anne.  In writing this play I also set out to try to understand what makes a character tragic.  I have tried to discover that in writing Anne’s role.  On a lighter note, I am a swimmer, and while I was working on Lake Anne, I learned that “my” pond located in upstate New York was actually on a neighbor’s property.  So there is a bit of grieving about the loss of a pond (not a lake) within the play.  Finally, I want to say that I am not now and never have been a prima ballerina.  I realized during medical school that that path was unlikely to stay open.

What do you wish to accomplish? What would you like audiences to take away with them?

I wanted to create a strong woman character who audiences might not like, but whose actions they could understand in the context of the ambitions she held, and the responsibilities she felt obligated to take on.  I wanted to talk about the sacrifices we all make to help children and partners, and what they both cost us and give us.

Who inspired your writing the most? Is there a mentor or writer, playwright who stands out above all others for you?

I can’t answer that because my writing sensibilities are shaped as much by the literature I read as by the plays.  I am drawn to subtext and that is harder to accomplish in playwriting than in literature where one can place clues along the way without sticking them into dialogue.  In fiction I am a huge fan of authors like Alice Munro, William Trevor, John Banville.  In theater, I have been drawn to O’Neill, Miller, Williams, Pinter, Beckett, Chekov, but who hasn’t?  I have written one dark comedy that I hope would remind someone of Martin McDonough, but I doubt that it would.

In my young days I was an actor and I was excited by less traditionally structured plays – groups like the Living Theater and the Open Theater were riveting to me.  I grew up in NYC and was taken to see the classics early along, so I found these non-linear, spectacle-laden and movement driven plays emotionally wrenching in ways that were new to me.  I see some of that now in the work of Simon McBurney and the Complicite Theater and it still draws me.  I never imagined that when I came to writing for the stage that I would be as traditional as I have turned out.  Ah well.

With respect to mentors – I didn’t come through an MFA program so I’ve had workshops along the way.  The playwrights Leslie Lee and Keith Bunin and the dramaturg Maxine Kern have all been great and sensitive responders to my work.  And then there’s John Levey and Sam Anderson, more about them in the next question.

How did the Road become involved in producing your play? Is it a pleasant experience thus far?

My work with the Road has been extraordinarily pleasant and extraordinarily nourishing.  First you have to know that John Levey (Lake Anne’s director) and I go back a long ways.  In college I was an actor at the University of Rochester Summer Theater, and John was a director there.  (Despite that), we have stayed close friends these many years, and when I began to write for the stage several years ago, I sent my work to him to see what he thought.  He has been an early fan and it was he who arranged a reading of my play, Marsh Light, out here in LA.  It was the first time I heard my work read aloud professionally and it was a wonderful experience.  Since then, he has directed staged readings of two other plays, as well a production of Marsh Light.  He also sent plays of mine around to a couple of individuals at theaters in LA who he thought might be interested in them.  The Road was one.  Sam Anderson, Taylor Bryce, and Scott Smith were kind enough to read several of my plays, and developed an interest in my work.  At the time Lake Anne was least finished and they suggested that I work with the Road in its development.  We did a staged reading here 3 years ago, and then in fits and starts Sam (with input from other members of the Road’s Company) and I have engaged in conversations about the script.  I have found these interactions to be wonderful and they have been instrumental in adding nuance and depth to the play.  I have been deeply impressed by the commitment and creativity that members of the Road Theater have brought to bringing Lake Anne to life.

For more info and to purchase tix, go to:
http://www.roadtheatre.org/

Actor James Marsters, popular star of TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel (1997-2004) as Spike returns to the stage with his costar from Buffy Juliet Landau in a world premiere comedy The Bells of West 87th at Greenway Court Theatre opening September 7. In our chat, Marsters talks confidently about his successful rock band Ghost of the Robot, acting, doing other plays he would like to pursue as actor/director/producer...and of course, this new play by Elin Hampton The Bells... where he claims fans will not recognize him...his character is so radically different from the villains they're so used to seeing him play...

Tell me about the play and your role in it.

I play Chris Germain in a play called The Bells of West 87th (Street) by Elin Hampton. Elin Hampton is a comedy writer who worked on television for a long time very successfully. This play I think will be the first of many. I come from theatre and I like to think that I can recognize good writing, and I truly think that Elin is a great continuation of Neil Simon. She's able to combine pathos with a frothy light comedy. It's a character-driven comedy more than situation comedy, which is a lot harder to write. Like Neil Simon, she handles it so deftly that you don't really notice. I really think we will see more of her in the coming years; I'm excited that I get to be one of the first actors to get her work up onstage.

Are you responsible for bringing the project here?

No, I'm just lucky to be hitching a ride. My character is probably the most clueless character I have played in a long time. I got a note the other day to combine Stan Laurel with either Bill or Ted (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure from 1989). It would be my choice. I'm choosing...it's been so long... whoever is not Keanu Reeves. Nothing against Keanu, but I think the other guy was more exuberant. I think that that's what they were going for. He's a loving, pure soul, a very likable person...not an idiot, but not highly intelligent, and with a blind spot the size of Australia. Most of life goes over his head. He could probably watch news about Egypt and think it was a happy story. The play is about Juliet's (Landau) character Molly, who is waking up to the fact that she's servicing a bunch of freaks and needs to get out and start her own life. There's a great line in a Tennessee Williams play Camino Real "the violets on the mountains have broken the rocks up"; Juliet is the violet and we are the rocks, in a funny way. And so I'm loving, I'm likable, I'm happy, but I'm of very little use to my girlfriend.

Juliet is an astounding actress. I've interviewed her before when she did Danny and the Deep Blue Sea in North Hollywood. She's right there in the moment.

Yeah. I remember working with her back in Buffy... She would go straight for the insanity part of the character in a full-throated way that other actresses would be too afraid to go for. "Oh, I'm not going to look glamorous" or "I wonder if they're going to think I'm really insane". She went straight for it. She took no prisoners, and she earned my respect over and over again. I'm happy to be able to return the favor, 'cause this time she's the lead, she's the one who's a little more normal, and I'm the freak. And I'm trying to be as brave about going for that freak as she was about going for hers.

You'll have to forgive me but I never saw Buffy. I do remember you from Torchwood (2008, as Captain John Hart). I was a big fan of that show. It was so imaginative, but it didn't last as long as I would have hoped. That was a deeply subversive show. I produced theatre in Chicago and Seattle and we were a fairly subversive theatre company. The one thing about subversion, it doesn't last all the time. There's always a pushback against it. We subversives, we don't want to offend people, but we often do because we're trying to divest people of lies that we get taught before we know we're being taught. Some of these lies can be: You can buy Christmas. Violence works. Old people are boring. And Gay people can't be heroes. Torchwood just went straight at that last lie and tore it up. I was very very proud to be part of it.  Who is the favorite villain you've played in these TV shows? I understand besides Buffy and Torchwood, you played a villain in Smallville as well (2005).  (He laughs) Brainiac. I got to pretend care about Clark Kent. I remember Tom (Welling) and I had this scene up in a barn. It was like an inch away from a love scene; I was just reeling him in the whole time. I was like a father figure to him, giving him advice, (he gets into Brainiac's manner of speaking) "Clark, what's important about life, is you've got to love people..."  But...in reality, I'm going to kill him by the end of the episode, or I'm going to try; that was fun. To answer your question, I think I'm most proud of Buffy.   You certainly had a good run and you must have gotten a lot of teenage fan mail.  Yeah. It was about how do you get over adolescence, how do you wake up to the fact that your parents are idiots and your teachers only halfway understand what they're trying to teach you. The world is a very messed up place, and how do you face that without giving up? The vampires and all that were just a metaphor for all the challenges you face in that period of your life. I think that's a really great theme that never gets old, and that was a very imaginative way to approach it.  You've done a lot of great theatre. In Chicago you were at the Bailiwick, Goodman...Do you have a favorite play from that period? Robespierre was one of the ones I'm most proud of. That was an original play called Incorruptible at Bailiwick. A six hour play about the French Revolution, and I almost never left the stage. The second half of the play which is three hours, we only got that about two weeks before opening, but we got it up on its feet, sold out and won awards. A lot of heavy lifting in that play. You're also a rock musician.  Yeah. I'm going off to Atlanta  to play. The band is called Ghost of the Robot. Our last album debuted at 98 on the top 200 on iTunes. We've old out venues in London, Germany, Paris, Amsterdam, all over the United States...we haven't played Thailand yet (we laugh), but we've been almost everywhere else. I have to say, my favorite thing is when we go into rock clubs where the sound man has like heard everybody, and when we go into sound check, the guy's like, "Hi, Mr. James Marsters, television star and whoever the hell is with you..." No respect at all. Then after sound check, the guy's like, "Hey, you guys are pretty good." And then, without fail, after the show, the dud's got his fists up in the air going, (he feigns raspy voice) "You guys rock! You guys frickin' rock. I love you." And we earn it. I lucked into meeting some really good musicians, some of whom were playing jazz at Lincoln Center, but were teenagers at the time, so they had both the ability to bubble like jazz but the teenage thing about they could hit hard and really mean it. Yeah, we don't suck; we're good.  OK, here it comes, the big question, if you had to make a choice between being an actor or a musician, which would you choose? (laughing) I refuse to choose, man! I live my life thinking that one doesn't have to. I like to cross-train. Any way that I can express myself, that I can remind myself and the audience, that I'm not alone, express some strange idea that I have or a hard emotion that I'm going through, whatever it is, and put it in a delightful way hopefully. The audience can say, "Hey, I felt that too". We don't feel alone together. I paint, I write, I write music, I do about anything expressive that I can think of. Do you feel that you're good at all of them? I think I'm a good writer. I'm a mediocre painter who means it. My painting is not really to show people; it's more so that I can look at the world and notice how beautiful it is. Painting makes you stop and look at one thing for a long time, and really notice what light is doing to an object. That's a good experience. I write pretty darn good songs, I have to say. My chord structure tends to be simple, so I write good blues, folk, straight ahead pop stuff. I also like my lyrics which are pretty straight-forward. very honest and sometimes very funny, sometimes a bit naughty. A lot of guys that are at shows, they get dragged there by their girlfriends, and you see them with their arms crossed giving you the scowl, but by the end they're like bopping and going, "I felt that too. A girl did that to me one time too, man!" In all honesty, I did make the choice. I was playing guitar in bars when I was thirteen, but I chose to go to college for acting. It's acting. But later in life, you get to expand.  Is there a role you're dying to play? I have found that whatever I expect to happen, the universe has other plans, so unless I'm willing to produce it myself, there's no point in saying what role I really want to do. I like to be surprised by what comes ahead, but I would say that I would like to produce again. I have playwrights that I would love to do. I produced a play called Kvetch in Seattle, fabulous, very difficult for actors to perform. It was a difficult rehearsal process, but we got it. It hit like gold. George Walker, Canadian playwright, who writes about the under class in Toronto...I would love to get back to him. I directed Criminals in Love, and I don't think I quite got there. I'd love to direct a Mamet play. You have to have actors with a facility for jazz, actors who can speak languages if they're playing jazz, because it's all about rhythm. Mamet's a bit like Oscar Wilde in that there is a rhythm dictated that you have to do, and if you do that, it all goes off like gangbusters. If you can come up to the work, the work will do it for you. I'd like to do Wilde too; I love that sense of music. Any upcoming TV you want to promote? I do want to plug a book.on.tape series called the Dresden Files. Those are really quite good, a combination of Harry Potter and Sam Spade. Those books always have a little more meat on the bone than I expect. There's always a scene or two that stick with me as far as emotional impact. I think the author (Jim Butcher) has plans to do 25 books, and we've done 14 so far. It's a long series, and with every book the main character Harry Dresden gets more powerful as a wizard and as a private eye, as the world gets more and more chaotic. His ability to pick up the stakes with every book has just been incredible. One final thing about this play, The Bells of West 87th. Your ad! Come to the play and expect to be surprised! If you think that this is going to be like anything you've seen me in before, guess again. I'm going to shock you, but hopefully delight you by the end.

Marsters is a sharp, fast-talking and totally likable actor who knows who he is and what he is capable of..it seems to me after talking with him...the sky's the limit...Go see him in The Bells of West 87th at the Greenway Court Theatre! http://www.greenwayartsalliance.org/#!bells/c1p5e

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