Tag: Acting

Wipeout

I’ll be appearing in the Chain Theatre’s Winter One Act Festival in a short play called Wipeout, written by and featuring Jeryl Brunner. We met several years ago while doing some improv training in the city. Jeryl reached out to me to play two roles: a skiing enthusiast and a grade school teacher. It’s part of a full-length play she has been working on. It’s always nice to get a request out of the blue like this and Jeryl’s enthusiasm is contagious!

This project also gives me the good fortune of reconnecting with a friend from college Sara Thigpen, who is directing. This is the first thing we’ve worked on together since our days at UNC-Greensboro. It’s been so nice to reconnect while working on this.

With Amy Ziff from the indie rock band Betty rounds out the cast and plays three roles. I saw their show, Betty Rules, back when I first came to the city. It ran at the now defunct Zipper Theatre, which was located just one block north of where we’re doing this festival. Amy and I have similar senes of humor so we’ve been cracking each other up like misbehaving school kids.

This play is being presented by Jesse Eisenberg, who directed an earlier section of this play, Anna Strout, and Barbara Toy. And the festival is produced by my old friends from the Chain with whom I did a production of Hurlyburly when their space was located in Long Island City. It’s a big festival with 25 programs and over 90 plays altogether. The festival runs through March 2.

It’s been delightful to have several strands of my life draw together while working on this.

Program No. 2: We Were Girls Together by Jacklyn Collier, Wipeout by Jeryl Brunner, The Interlude by Jeff Checkley, and The Same Place by Rory Lance.

Tickets: Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m.,  Friday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. Use the code WIPE25 to get 25% off your tickets.

The Chain Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor MainStage, NYC

Taking Flight with Boeing, Boeing

My friend Naomi McDougall Jones called me out of the blue in May to ask if I knew anything about Marc Camoletti’s play Boeing, Boeing. I said I knew Mark Rylance was in it on Broadway awhile back. 

She asked if I could go out to Hailey, Idaho, to fill in for that very role for the Liberty Theatre Co., for whom she is the Artistic/Executive Director. Rehearsals were starting in five days. The show would open about three weeks after that and run for another three. “The fact that you haven’t hung up already is kind of amazing,” she said. 

Suddenly, I was air dropping into this production. 

My main request was to be put up in a place with good wifi and no cats. David Janeski and Aly Wepplo, a pair of talented actors and musicians, with whom I have a bunch of shared acquaintances in Richmond, were very kind and generous in putting me up. I had the added bonus of hearing them rehearse their music duo. 

The talent in Sun Valley is astounding. The low mountains nearby were striking. The theatre space, the Liberty Theatre, a separate organization from the producing company, was wonderful. An art deco gem, it was owned by Bruce Willis and Demi Moore for a number of years. The playing space was warm and the house was cozy. 

The Liberty Theatre in Hailey, ID

The play was a great challenge. My character was on most of the play. The language was specific and tricky. The intricacies of the farce and the need to be clear at every moment called on a lot of comedic skills. I decided to make it more of a physical role. How physical? I went through several pairs of pants during the short run.  

The cast from left to right: Hannah Nye, Naomi McDougall Jones, Tim Goodwin, Tiara Thompson, Chris Harcum, and Andrew Alburger.

The play was a great challenge. My character was on most of the play. The language was specific and tricky. The intricacies of the farce and the need to be clear at every moment called on a lot of comedic skills. I decided to make it more of a physical role. How physical? I went through several pairs of pants during the short run.  

Our director, Veronica Moonhill, has contagious energy and was so good at getting us to play and try a bunch of things. She also did the wonderful costumes. I can’t say enough about the cast—Andrew Alburger, Tim Goodwin, Hannah Nye, Tiara Thompson, and Naomi McDougall Jones. So alive and so giving! James Haycock designed and Tim Black made a beautiful set. Each door opened into another world. Tess Makena is someone who can do anything and she showed that every day with the lights and anything else that needed any attention. Joe Conley Golden masterfully handled the dialect coaching, Onni Peterson jumped in as the production stage manager and Castor Sullivan cracked me up each night doing backstage crew duties. Special shout out to Audra Honaker for the time she was able to spend with us. 

Chris Carwithen’s marketing and word of mouth did its thing, and we broke box office records. I loved loved loved doing this play and wish it could have run eight more months. But—blink, blink—it was over and, after a quick stop at Voodoo Donuts with Tim Goodwin in the Denver Airport, I was back in NYC. 

One of the many great sights to behold in Sun Valley.

Box Cutter

Max Clark asked me to do his short film “Box Cutter.” It’s on 16mm and shot in black and white. It also has no dialogue. (All my 90s indie film dreams come true!) Max and I met to develop the piece out near the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The story went through several iterations before it became what you see here. The ending changed in the editing room. To me, it is a dark poem to working people living in late capitalism.

We shot this at a storage facility near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Max is the one with the glasses looking at the viewfinder in the picture below. I spent most of the day kneeling and sitting on my feet. I also gashed the top of my head walking out of the storage unit as my eyes had not quite adjusted to the light. It’s not art if you don’t suffer at least a little. This was another very efficient shoot. We got through everything in one day because a big storm with gale-force winds was forecast for the next day. After the flooding back in July this year, we did not want to take any chances.

Last Rites

Back in March, I was asked by the writer and director Yohana Desta to play a role in her touching and funny short film “Last Rites.” She rented a very nice brownstone up by Strivers’ Row for the shoot. There was a Covid officer during the shoot. I spent most of my time in bed while wearing a pajama top and shorts to stay cool. The crew was very kind, full of humor, and efficient. Ronald Emile was also generous and supportive as a scene partner. What you always hope to experience.

It was a little surreal to die over and over again during this time. It was also strange to stop takes of our shoot because the TV series “FBI” was shooting an action sequence in the street below the windows behind me. They say dying is easy but comedy is hard. I guess this was somewhere in between.

Turing Test

Aimee directed a staged reading of Dominick DeGaetano’s play Turing Test for the John Drew Theater Lab at Guild Hall in Southampton this week. As you can see from this picture looking out into the house, this is an amazing theater. I don’t know what the design was based on, but it was very warm and inviting. Not to drop names but Alec Baldwin has a box in the back (the one in front of me in this pic, I believe) and Alan Alda has one across the aisle. Mr. Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce was one of my inspirations as an actor and as a person. Stand up against injustice and nonsensical authority but keep your sense of humor, even when things are at their worst.

The cast of Turing Test checking out the sound before the reading.

The cast of Turing Test checking out the sound before the reading.

It was cool to read with Minerva Perez, who is to my left in this picture. We worked on different readings of this and then were thrown together. Well, I was thrown with everyone else actually. I’m of two minds about saying this but Minerva was a child actor in the movie Caddyshack. She played the girl who threw the Baby Ruth in the swimming pool. I didn’t say anything about it and I’m sure she likes to forget about it but that was a real iconic moment from my childhood. She had quite a cold that night so she really deserves the MVP award for the night.

I like doing staged readings. There are many kinds. The trick is to make the script disappear. This is best exemplified by the Encores series at City Center. Really, that thing is a full production and they happen to have scripts in their hands. But for the most part the binders magically are invisible.

In a situation like this where we sit on the stools when we’re “off” and go to the music stands when we’re “on,” there can be a little pressure to keep things interesting. You don’t have staging to help clarify and tell the story.

I tend to work my music stand a lot. I pull it up and down. Use it as a podium. Aim it at other characters. Turn it into a bar and lean on it. Drum my fingers. Slap my script on it. So, I need to make sure it is pretty sturdy but also adjustable. The one in the picture was perfect for this. I’ll put one foot on one of the three feet pointed at me while the other two face the audience so it won’t fall over on the person in the front row.

I get very antsy before most readings. The best thing for me is to go for an hour or two-hour walk before it starts and think through the whole thing. It’s not memorized but I don’t want the audience to feel like I’m catching up to myself the whole time. I’ve seen those. They aren’t pretty. I also don’t like the feeling of only sketching where the character is emotionally. It’s like running alongside of a motorcycle, instead of being the motorcycle. In this situation, I have to keep reminding myself to keep up or get left behind. If you dwell on something that didn’t work, you run the risk of losing the next moment and the next moment.

Overall, I think this went over very well.

Hurlyburly

Had a great time working on Hurlyburly at the Chain Theatre. It’s such a great space. At one point it was a chain factory. They have space for small rehearsals downstairs. They can even build scenery there. The lobby is one of the biggest for Off Off spaces in the city and they always have a decent art show on display there. Plus the dressing room is big enough to hold 8 or more people without feeling crammed.

It was really nice of Rich Ferraioli and Greg Cicchino to ask me to audition for the show. It was one of those auditions where they’ve met me and like me but haven’t seen my work. That can be awkward if it doesn’t go well. Ever get in a relationship with someone and only find out too late that they’re not a talented actor? Or not as talented as they claim to be? I don’t recommend it.

Fortunately, this was not the case for me here. (Or, who knows, this may have been a pity casting.)

The cast was really great. Deven Anderson, Jackie Collier, Rachel Cora, Kirk Gostkowski, Brandon Hughes and Christina Perry pulled a lot out of this monster of a script, especially Kirk who was on nearly the whole time as Eddie. This is a long play, even though they got the okay to use the slightly shorter version New Group did in 2005. You don’t see many with that kind of running time nowadays. Part of the festivalization of the theater. I suppose I could argue the merits of both.

Me, left, Kirk, Deven and Brandon (on couch). I liked this set.

Me, left, Kirk, Deven and Brandon (on couch). I liked this set.

I played the role of Artie, who was played on stage by one of my heroes, Wallace Shawn recently and Jerry Stiller in the Broadway production from the ‘80s. I was a little nervous because a good friend of mine, Jackie Sydney, was his assistant back then and she came to see this production. (She gave me a thumbs-up personal review.)

Jackie Collier and me trying to out cool one another backstage.

Jackie Collier and me trying to out cool one another backstage.

It was good to be on stage with other people having spent most of last year doing a solo show. It is a bit strange to me now to not have to carry every moment of a play. But I did to have a ton of laughs backstage. I haven’t had that in a long time. Welcome relief due to a lot of sadness in real life recently. Aimee’s mom died suddenly last month and it’s been, well, tough. I flew out with her for the funeral and other arrangements in Ohio and barely made it back in time due to the snow and cancelled flights to make half-hour for the first preview performance. I’ll write more about this when I have processed it better. On the other hand, this may stay private.