photo by Winona Heyer
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photo by Winona Heyer |
Q - Tell me about how you got into theatre. A - After I'd experimented with some things involving performance as a child and a teen, my high school in Sacramento did a production of DRACULA. He was a character I knew. I'd read the novel and understood what that was about. So I played Count Dracula and that really got me started in theatre.
Q - How would you define the most important job an actor does in the theatre?
A - An actor's job is to live out somebody's life and to take the audience along for the ride.
Q - I was surprised to hear Judi Dench say, in a recent recorded interview, that her performances are done mainly by instinct, not by analysis or planning. Any comment?
A - To some degree that depends on the person. Some live their whole lives by instinct and others by analysis. Still, I think it's primarily true even for people like me. I'm a thinker type, and thinking's an enormously useful tool, but it will only get you so far. If the instincts don't kick in it's not going to amount to much. If you've been performing for a while, the analyzing becomes instinctive. Judi Dench, I'm sure, does a huge amount of analysis so instinctively now that she no longer thinks about it.
 KING JOHN GroveMont TheatreFest 1991 photo by Stephen Moorer |
 HENRY IV GroveMont TheatreFest 1988 photo by Ceridwen |
How do I make this character unique from others that I've played? What are the best ways to bring out different emotions and shadings of the character? With a role I don't feel so much connection to, my first focus will be to find that connection - how does he relate to me? Where in my life do I find some kind of equivalent to what that character's going through? Occasionally - not often - a character is so different, or so much something I normally want to distance myself from, that most of the rehearsal period is a struggle to be this person who is everything I have never wanted to be.
Q - Do you think academic training at universities and drama schools is a help - or (like David Mamet) a hindrance to good acting?
A - Both. A lot of things affect that. If you have good instructors they can do a lot for you - help you see things more clearly and help you understand what various people have done effectively before you. Bad instructors can not only not do that, they can destroy your confidence and confuse instincts that were right and set you radically back. Theory, if it's applied directly in the classroom and experimented with using an audience, is potentially enormously useful in understanding what you're doing. But often in academia the theories are not treated by or promulgated by anyone who has ever used them! They are an academic exercise. They don't mean anything and waste the actors' time as they try to focus on something that sounds impressive but doesn't really work. Essentially you've got to find that connection with the character and what it is that will make you be that person. Any theory that helps you to do that is good, any that doesn't is bad, no matter how clever.
Q - What have been your favorite roles and why were they favorites?
A - Oh, there have been a number. King Henry in THE LION IN WINTER, which I recently did and had wanted to do for many years. The play itself I think is brilliant - classical, yet modern. The characters are so distinct, and there's so much rich stuff to relate to. And the language is wonderful. It deals with, really, the most upsetting family and political problems and yet is quite funny about it. Drama and humor can both be fully realized in the play and that's exciting to me. . .
One I didn't expect to like a lot when I read the script was Neil Simon's LAUGHTER ON THE 23rd FLOOR, but my character was based on Sid Caesar and studying his work was so great. Talk about a fun thing to study! And the essential situation in that play, of highly creative people getting together to make a team - well, our cast got that feeling. We enjoyed working together and inspired each other like Sid's team of writers.
And for me, there was a strong personal element. My father was never much into entertainment, so when I would ask him what he had watched when he was younger, he wouldn't remember much. But Sid Caesar made a lasting impression on him. So to be able to play this person who had meant so much to my father was very special.
 LAUGHTER ON THE 23rd FLOOR The Western Stage -2002 photo by Richard Green |
 with Stephanie Walsh in A DOLL'S HOUSE The Western Stage - 2003 photo by Richard Green |
Q What roles have been most difficult and challenging and why?
A - Torvald in A DOLL'S HOUSE. It was difficult for a couple of reasons. Firstly the fellow himself is basically an unimaginative average guy. I knew from the beginning it would be hard for me to find a way to be this character I barely relate to. Secondly, the director basically spent the whole rehearsal period playing mind games on his cast. He represented himself as having this brand new concept, but he didn't actually present any consistent concept, he just demanded whatever doesn't work on stage.. .
For instance, he kept calling out, "Now, a close-up on the hand." When we pointed out that this was a stage play, not a movie, he said he had an arrangement with the scene designer to create some kind of wall that would somehow show a close-up! He had no clue that this was physically impossible. . . The whole experience was a nightmare that still makes cast members shudder.
There's a certain class of director who feels the only way they can grab all the glory is to undermine their actors, baffle the technicians and obscure the playwright's story, so the audience will only be able to see the director's concept . . .
Q - So, what makes a good director?
A - Someone who can identify the strengths of all the artists and resources they're working with and then find out how to most effectively support and use all those strengths. I've known directors, to give a crude example, who picked someone in the cast - inexperienced or capable, it happens both ways - and demanded a type of tour de force performance that just isn't what that particular actor could do. When it didn't work, the director then blamed the actor despite having known from the start that they would fail. If your cast can't do what you want as a concept, find yourself a concept that will use what your cast is good at.
Q - Should a performer direct a play in which he or she plays a main role?
A - There's no reason you can't. For many years the only directors were actor-managers - the leading man. It can work, but it has its limitations. If you're on stage there are certain things you just can't see, and you're always having to split your focus. It's tricky to really do a fulfilling job. I've done it. It wasn't the arrangement I wanted, but that's the way it ended up, and it turned out okay.
Q - Tell me about the experience of doing BUS STOP.
A - That's been an interesting experience in several ways. My character is 50, and so am I, but he only falls for teen-aged women and that is a little tricky to deal with. Fortunately, it's more comfortable than if I were playing with an actual 16-year-old actress. My scene partner is actually older and more experienced than her character, in spite of looking very, very young. If she was really sixteen, I'd feel uneasy wondering, 'How much does she understand of what's going on sexually in these scenes? Is it my place to broach these issues with someone that young?'
The director chose to make the show more naturalistic than is the norm, which made control of focus extremely difficult. The natural tendency of the eye is to go to whatever is moving - and having somebody making breakfast in the background while your scene is supposed to be the focus - well, it's that much harder to control your scenes. Hopefully it worked out in the end. . .
 Jeffrey and wife Nancy in JULIUS CAESAR GroveMont Theatre 1994 |
She's done quite a lot at Western Stage. In COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA she played the German neighbor and sounded just like a German aunt of mine - whom she never met. I got a real kick out of that.
Q - Is community theater in the Monterey-Salinas area in a healthy condition?
A - In some ways. The current financial climate is impacting theatre in general, and that is most definitely affecting local theatres as well. On the other hand, this particular area is unusually rich in theatre companies. I used to travel around from theatre to theatre for short gigs in different cities, and this much variety in the types of theatre that different companies produce is unusual. It seems to me the more variety in types of theatre there is, the better the whole theatre community does, because with limited resources if everybody is competing for the same target audiences, all they can do is compete. While to some degree that makes companies put their best foot forward, it also wastes huge amounts of money and energy. It works much better when companies choose different targets and aid each other. Sure, there are rivalries here, but there's a huge amount of cooperation too. One company will lend materials that would just sit in storage to somebody else, recognizing that they will get help in return somewhere down the line. What's important is building up the theatre community as a whole rather than thinking, "Oh, we have to seize all these audiences, actors and resources for ourselves."
Q - What questions do you wish I'd asked you which I haven't asked you?
A - Ah! There's something I'm working on in the background while the principal focus is on immediate shows. I've written a new adaptation of DRACULA! Actors' Collective is planning to workshop it at the PRT Circle Theatre in January. That's something I've wanted to do for a long time. We've finally got the resources to do it. Now we'll see if the script works the way I think it will. Dracula really got me started. I owe him a lot. I kind of want to see if I can pay him back down the line.