St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue at 50th St.
Patti LuPone signing my program at the Stage Door of Gypsy.
Archive Page 2
First Interview
Published March 3rd, 2008 davidryan in Acting, New York City and THEA435. 0 CommentsThis evening I had my first interview. I had a lot of nerves going into the interview because I didn’t want the actors I was meeting with to feel like they were wasting their time. I wanted to ask intelligent questions and wanted to make sure I listened to get the full experience I should from my discussion with them.
My first interview was with Christian Borle and Michael Rupert of Legally Blonde. I was so excited they agreed to meet with me. They both have thriving careers on Broadway and I was very interested to hear their stories. Christian came from Carnegie Mellon to the city in 1995. Michael is a longtime veteran and I would say a sort of Jack of all trades. He writes, directs and teaches. The energy in the room was so exciting.
I met Natalie Joy Johnson at the stage door this evening, which was another exciting moment because I have been looking forward to meeting her for some time. She had set up the interview for me and greeted me with a huge hug, which just put my nerves at ease. We then headed upstairs to Christian’s dressing room. This room was much more comfortable and larger than I ever thought it would be because I have always heard of the spaces in New York theatres being so cramped, but it was so homey.
They both were interested in who I was, but I was most interested in hearing them so I talked for a brief moment about where I am on my journey and then moved in to ask them about themselves. They had such interesting things to say. I asked them about their lives working in New York and what it was like starting out and how they find the drive and motivation to do the work they do.
They spoke about the need to really love this work because there is no other way you will survive. They told me to go for anything. I should do any work I can because even while working on something, no matter how small, it is an audition. You never know who is in the audience and who will remember you for a role. That is how they were found to be in Legally Blonde. They both had done work with the director or he had seen them in work somewhere and he remembered them and thought that they would be good for their respective roles. Christian was seen in a reading that he couldn’t believe the director found him interesting in, but was so honored to be asked.
These actors of course are at a very different place than I will be in a few short months, but to hear them speak of their struggles was cool. Christian told me about how I should I remember that everyone is on a different timeline in the business, and I shouldn’t get discouraged if there are successes around me and I am not finding work immediately. If I want it bad enough and I pursue the right training and I put my best talents forward it will find me someday. This gave me a great sense of hope. Michael also spoke about the need for me to establish a support system wherever I end up, which was an interesting point. He said that it was so important that you have people there for the good times and the bad times, people in the business and some outsiders because they will help you keep your motivation and keep you grounded. This made me think of Jon and Lucia who I am moving to DC with at the end of the semester.
They also said that I should spend a lot of time with myself. I should know myself really well. They said that they have heard so many times how important it is to casting directors and directors that an actor appears to know themselves when they walk in the room. I should know who I am as a person and I should know myself as an actor. I should figure out what kinds of roles I am built for and I should use this knowledge when I choose auditions. This is not to say I should stretch for roles, but that I will probably find more success if I can find the opportunities to show my true strengths. As a person I should have a good sense of who I am and what I want. It is like discovering a character. I need to know the ins and outs of myself and be able to show these people who are looking to hire me that I understand myself because it gives them faith that I will be able to discover the desires of the character I am playing and their essence.
My discussion with them was wonderful. I wished I could have had even more time with them, but the half hour they spared for me was worth more to me than any words I can find. I thank them so much for doing it.
Tomorrow, Steve and I will meet with Bryce Ryness who is an ensemble member of the show. I am greatly looking forward to it.
The Friends Building at the corner of Grove and Bedford.
Athol Fugard’s star in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher St.
The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.
New York City, Center of the Universe
Published March 2nd, 2008 davidryan in New York City, Shows I'm Seeing, THEA435 and theatre. 2 CommentsWell, here I sit at my complimentary breakfast in the hotel in New York. The time is 8:44 am when I begin this post. We have been in New York for only 36 hours and have attended three shows, walked numerous blocks, taken hundreds of photos, missed an interview, and the list goes on and on. On Friday evening we raced into the hotel and upstairs where we had only enough time to throw our stuff down on the floor and head to Gregg’s room to get pizza that he had waiting for us (I swear the man is a lifesaver). Then we booked it downstairs and out of the building, through Times Square and on to the O’Neill Theatre to see Spring Awakening.
What a great way to start a trip like this. There was just so much energy. The rush of energy that fills the life of the show just worked to make me more excited about being in the city and the possibilities here. I noticed that I would just tap my toe along to the music, and just allowed the show to wash over me. The text had a great energy to them that was missing to me when I read the show a couple of months ago. There were moments that I went, “Oh, that’s cute.” But the show moved at break neck speed and the text could move you to cry and to laugh and to invest in these people, well, at least for me. I went through a whole wave of emotions.
Friday evening we had our first discussion. The discussions are very interesting. It seems we are now being pushed to make the next step in our discussions. To go deeper. Gregg is also not letting us get away with things in the discussions. He seems to be pushing us to be able to talk about the theatre really intelligently based on our own individual experience. He tells us to try not to speak for anyone else, but ourselves. We also have been recording them. Don’t know what we will do with that yet.
Also, Friday evening, a small group of us went out to celebrate being in the city and another piece of exciting news we learned as we traveled into the city on Friday: Jon got cast in a show at Studio Theatre!!!! I am so proud. 
Saturday was a trek. I got up, came to breakfast (much like I am today) and then got ready to tackle the city head on. I met a bunch of people in Times Square and we all jumped on the subway to go downtown to Canal St. to experience what fabulous treasures the vendors have to offer. I was on the quest of finding myself some designer knockoff sunglasses for my stay in the city. After perusing at a couple little shops, I found them. White frames, little alligators on the arms. Lacoste knock-offs. I love them. I also had to take the opportunity to walk down the street and purchase the icon of New York tourism: the I Love New York t-shirt. I got mine in aquamarine-ish. I know it is very touristy, but sometimes its just more fun to be a tourist.
From there we headed back uptown on the 6 to Union Square. We just got off the train and had no idea which way the avenues were going up or down or which way the streets were counting. We just walked. As we walked we discovered we were headed in the right direction, and then there it was. I stopped dead in my tracks. It was like seeing a breathtaking monument and I knew I just had to go in: Trader Joe’s. It was so beautiful. And big. I have a love of grocery stores. I think there is something beautiful about them. I don’t know what it is. I especially love these stores that have managed to add some homegrown, small town flair to large chain stores. I think it gives them a tailored, elegant look. But at the same time, this store was insane with movement. The usual hustle and bustle of the city does not stop once you go indoors. People raced about the store from this spot to that. It was overwhelming.
But back on the street with us and further downtown we went. We headed down the street in search of food. We passed numerous places deeming them unworthy of our visit. A couple blocks down between like 11th and 12th we found the Yummy House. Soooooooo, yummy. Wonderful chinese food.
Show 2 of this post, which becomes more disjointed as it goes along I notice, was The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. This was something I was looking forward to. I have never seen Chekhov staged. I have had the experience of many students who read his plays and I always thought he was just an angry, angry Russian man, but he is so much more. The story was so alive for me. I was right with these people. I wanted to see Constantin overcome his struggle to find his voice. I wanted him and his mother to share tender moments on stage and reconcile. It is interesting. I have polar opposite feelings about this particular production today than I did last night in our discussion. I love the show today. Yesterday, I hated it. As it sits with me I think it is more and more interesting, and I make more and more discoveries. I did have a problem. The show ran 3 hours and 10 minutes. This caused me many problems with making an appointment scheduled for 5pm.
As soon as I could I bolted from the Classic Stage Company onto the N train uptown to Times Square and then I bolted out into the streets running. It was 5:25 and I was late. I hate being late. It was no one’s fault of course, but I had an actor waiting for me and with each moment that ticked by I knew he was losing moments in his life. I ran to the stage door of the Palace Theatre and inside it. He was gone. I was crushed. I left a note of apology and went back to the hotel to email him more apologies. I felt awful. I just had to tell myself, this is only a minor set back. Keep moving. I just saw this missed interview and opportunity as bad karma for my stay here in New York.
I grabbed dinner with Steve in Times Square and we went to see Next to Normal at Second Stage. I heard murmurs in the lobby about how sad the story was, but I just shrugged them off. I just don’t usually find shows to be as sad as others. I rarely cry in the theatre. This story hit me hard, without warning. The story of a family dealing with the haunting of a memory that just won’t die because of lack of closure. The show was manned by a cast of mostly young-ish actors. One of the cast members was 16 years old. You would have never known it. She just seemed like she belonged there. It was so funny, the dialogue. The subject matter was so serious that it seemed the only way to deal with it was through humor. I thought that the show had great potential, and I would like to see it again. I hope it will get staged around the country. Recently, musicals have been trying to move away from fluffy fun to serious plot and drama. I have noticed that this turns some people off, but it just makes me love the form more. I love the way a hard issue can be dealt with in a musical, no kid gloves here.
To end my night we went out to meet up with Jess, Jenna and Tori. These three girls took the course with Jon two years ago and it was so cool to talk with them over drinks and find out what was happening in their lives. I miss them so much. They each seem to be finding their own way, which is really beautiful. They have carved out their own path that suits them, and are unashamed whether it suits others or not. Also, on th way home from the Gaf on 48th and 9th, we stopped at Papaya Dog. So good. Just the thing I needed to satisfy the stomach. Cheesey dog, cheesey fries. YUMMM!!!
Just incredible…
Published February 25th, 2008 davidryan in Acting, THEA435, UMW and theatre. 1 Comment…how fast this past week went. It was just insane, and the coming week promises to be even crazier. Last week I ended being a cast member in our production of Far Away, for which I was the assistant director. It was a very cool experience. The biggest unknown for me during the process was the life of the prisoner in the parade of hats. I just didn’t really know what things were like for them. It is a truly powerful experience if you allow yourself to be vulnerable to the moment that these 30 people created just by walking across the stage in hats. It is so haunting, and sometimes it was difficult to stay focused on the shift change that followed right after the parade because I was still pondering the moment onstage. It was very cool, and I am glad I got to do it. I miss being on stage and working on a character so much! I don’t know if I have ever missed acting as much as I do right now.
The contact search has been going pretty well. I made it my goal to try and spend, on average, at least an hour a day seeking out contacts. I have made a couple, and I am super excited to meet them. I will continue to hopefully make some more as this week progresses. I have been primarily focused on the like individual interview sort of contacts. I think the next step for me is to find the career development kinds of things, such as: voice lessons, acting classes, dance classes, etc.
I think one of the most exciting parts of this process of finding contacts is to watch other people make theirs as well. I get super excited, of course, when I make mine, but to watch my friends and classmates get an email back and do a little victory dance is definitely the best thing ever. You just want to celebrate with everyone.
Well, off to try and plan the week in some way that allows me to get all of the millions of things done I need to do.
Under These Electric Stars…
Published February 18th, 2008 davidryan in Shows I'm Seeing, THEA435 and theatre. 1 Comment
Tonight the class got to see Glory Days at Signature Theatre. I loved the show, which I knew would be the case. I was interested to see what the reactions of my classmates would be. There seemed to be mixed feelings about the show. Some said it was too predictable. Some liked it, but weren’t wow-ed. The question of being too predictable was interesting to me in particular. I had not ever thought of the show as being predictable, but I got to thinking when it was brought up. I think that some of its predictability comes from the fact that the characters are of our generation. We know these characters. They are a part of each of us. Someone becomes predictable because we are familiar with them. It also seemed as though the men that saw the show in the classes liked the show more than the women. I think that might have something to do with the fact that the show is about men. Sure, there is the sort of universal thing of young people dealing with change in their own lives and coming to be comfortable with the new self that develops as we age, but I think there is some specificity to these characters being men. We know from psychology that men deal with matters of the heart and the inner life differently from women. This is for many reasons that I can’t even begin tackle in this post, but it’s still there. I think it speaks to young men deeply. Anyways, that was just some thinking I had about this show this evening. I def look forward to what this writing team comes up with in the future.
So we were asked to make two contacts by this coming Wednesday, and Gregg placed a challenge out there based on a discussion we had in class about an article on Playbill.com concerning a production of The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane at the About Face Theatre in Chicago, IL. This production has been receiving a lot of press because of a directorial choice made that the playwright was unhappy with. The director issued a statement about the situation, but the class wanted to know more. Gregg challenged someone to try and contact him and ask him about his choice. I accepted the challenge and set about writing him. Here is his response.
Dear David,As a performance studies practitioner (I received my Ph.D. in the field from Northwestern and have taught many courses like the one you are taking) I understand the interest in the questions this case has brought up.But unfortunately, the reality of “the cut” is not what it has been reported to be, and so the questions the case presents — what is directorial intent? what is authorship? whose point of view wins in the construction of the performed text? — are not as apt as you might think.In fact, I had proposed a slight change in staging from the stage directions to the writer during rehearsals — largely for an interpretive reason that I felt would make the scene funnier and more dramaturgically apt. The writer wrote back to me in what I thought signaled creative dialog and consent. I staged the scene the way I did. The writer came to see the production and did not like the staging, and threatened to shut down the production. Because members of the actor’s union had not signed a “nudity” waiver, we were unable to restore the scene to what the writer had in mind, because the actors didn’t want to do the scene that way. So we were stuck in a terrible situation in which the options were: 1) shut down the production; 2) fire the actors in question and hire new actors willing to do the naked scene; or 3) issue a public apology, as per the writer’s request, and endure the media circus that has ensued. To me, the third choice was the only decent choice.Just to set the question in context, the amount of stage time in question is about 1.5 seconds out of a two hour play, and I feel strongly that the interpretive choices I made were consistent with the larger dramaturgical needs of the play, and my desire to sustain the storytelling at a critical moment. To be blunt. I chose to stage the scene the way I did because, in the theatre, we generally hide what we cannot represent. If someone is shown to be stabbed, we hide the knife from plain view and the actors “act stabbed”, if you will. If two men are kissing and representing arousal inspired by each other, I thought I’d rather not expose the “lie” of the scene — which is the presence of the male sex organ in the flaccid state. That was the reason for my decision, which at the time I believed fell well within my interpretive rights as a director of a licensed play, and which I thought had been approved by the writer.Had the changed stage direction in question been any of the ones that were also modified in the production — “he smokes,” “he kisses her”, “he puts his hand over his mouth to keep him from talking” (none of which are realized in this production exactly as suggested in the stage directions, and all of which, I’d argue, are legitimate stage directions in the same interpretive category as “when they are naked”) — this whole media blast about the production would never have occurred. What I find fascinating is that the question of nudity — and especially nudity in the context of gay erotic relationships — is able to be sensationalized beyond its actual significatory merits because of its own threatening status. Suddenly a case of, at best, miscommunication between a director and writer becomes an issue of censorship, conservatism, or prudishness.If you look at my body of work, which includes the creation of more than 35 world premieres by some of the country’s most well known writers, you’ll get a sense that I’m not a fan of censorship, conservatism, or prudishness. It’s also worth noting that I founded and run one of the American theatre’s most celebrated LGBT focused companies, which has never shied away from controversy in any form, and exists to advance dialog on gender and sexual identity.So that’s it. Pressures on the company have kept me from telling my version of this story publicly, and to tell the truth, the whole event has been blown way out of proportion. But it is an interesting case for classroom conversation, as the questions about representation — and the inherent way theatrical representation is dangerous, as Plato argues.My best, and thanks for writing.Eric Rosen
This gives me lots of hope for beginning to contact people in New York for the trip!!!
The Next Step
Published February 6th, 2008 davidryan in Acting, Life in DC, Musical Theatre Studio and theatre. 1 CommentLast night I attended my first class at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. I went in with lots of nerves about what I would encounter in the room in terms of the quality of the singers and their acting skills. It was all sort of intimidating all the way until we began the introductions. I soon discovered that Jon and myself had the most musical theatre experience in the room. There was one actor with a thriving career, but he was not there for the skills of musical theatre. Most of the other people in the room were looking for confidence. They wanted to feel comfortable singing. As they each introduced themselves, my nerves began to fade. Then we performed our prepared selections for the evening and as each person sang my nerves almost faded completely. Most people in the room were not singers I would say.
There were some nice things going on, but no one with my training. Theodore (the thriving actor) gave the most interesting performance singing “Ol’ Man River.” There was such simplicity and life in his performance. His voice was nothing amazing, but his energy just wrapped me up in what he was singing about. In the course of the night I had begun to wonder if I was going to get everything I wanted out of this course, but I quickly realized that I could glean something from the work.
The instructor, George Fulginiti-Shakar, is a well-known and Helen Hayes award winning music director in the DC area. I knew that I would just have to focus my energy on what he could offer me and work my hardest for my performances whether or not I felt that the others performances would have lessons for me to learn. I also am excited to watch Theodore work throughout the course. I think that I could learn something about how he embodies so much energy in his performance. I am also excited about the possibility of getting to know him and learn more about what his life is like as an actor in DC.
This is where I have planned to end up for now. I want to try and begin my career in the Washington DC area. When I spoke to Gregg about my project and my hesitation to do a topic like, “How do I become a professional actor?” he told me that he thought my concern was valid and that maybe my research should be more focused on questions like, “what does it mean to do this work?” or “what is the life like? can I have one?” or “how do I survive pursuing my passion while also having to support myself?” I think that speaking would be an excellent resource for my research. I am hoping I will get to know him well enough that I will feel comfortable asking him to maybe go to coffee and share his life and experiences with me.
My Story in Miniature
Published February 5th, 2008 davidryan in Acting, Design, Life As I Know It, THEA435, UMW and theatre. 0 Comments
Bright Lights, Big City
Published January 30th, 2008 davidryan in Acting, New York City, Shows I'm Seeing, THEA435 and theatre. 0 CommentsSo I embarked on a miniature trip to New York City this weekend. I left Friday morning at 8:30 from McPherson Square in Washington and arrived around 1 o’clock in the afternoon at Penn Station in New York City. I took the bus, which may not seem glamorous, but it had Wifi which made the trip so easy. I could work on the bus. When we got to New York we rode the subway lost, so lost for about an hour and a half. My purpose for going to the city was to get my headshots done at the Drama Book Shop’s headshot marathon. This was perhaps one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was so nervous. Headshots are expensive and I wanted to walk away with some use-able shots. I was also terrified of making myself look like a hick from out of town in front of this New York photographer. It took me a while to loosen up in my session with him. We found a method that worked for me. He would sing a phrase and would make me repeat it back to him. It sounds corny and slightly crazy, but it made me feel so much more comfortable. He was very abrasive at first, but I could tell he was just searching for the tactic that would work on me. We finally got quite a few really, good shots. A smile, a thought, a model-ish thing. I should be getting my contact sheets this week from him, which will be awesome.
After finishing up at the bookshop, we headed to the Jacobs Theatre with our TKTS-acquired tickets to see Rock ‘n Roll by Tom Stoppard. I am not going to lie, I did not really understand this play. I thought that it was a beautiful performance, but some of the subject matter went right over my head. The best thing I can come up with is that it illustrates how we seem to just be letting our freedom get away from us. We allow people to daily take it away little by little and most of us never do anything about it. The play shifts between a newly Soviet-occupied Prague where a group of citizens are fighting for human rights and Cambridge where a Marxist is trying to keep up the faith in the face of a world full of no’s. I hope that with time I will begin to understand the play more fully. I am glad I took the chance and went to see it. It challenged me. It made me think, which I think is something that marks a good performance.
On Saturday, we had a leisurely breakfast at a diner around the corner from my friend Jenna’s apartment, and then we strolled down to the Seaport to check out BODIES…The Exhibition. This exhibit was a little overwhelming. It features real dissected bodies and parts of bodies preserved for display. It gives you a perfect visual of all the systems of the body. Once you get over the initial nerves of seeing these things you really just lock into learning as much as you possibly can. It was fascinating. Jenna was a little less fond of the experience, but she made it through and I think we all felt that we had spent our time in a worthy manner.
