Big Night
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Matt Giroveanu
November 14, 2012
What is your job on this show?
Actor.
Do you like to read plays, or just perform them?
I love to read plays. Not just because of the stories, but because of the language and circumstance. Whenever a play was written, there is always an undertone of what was happening to the playwright in reality. You can tell immediately how the characters they create are directly influenced by their dealings with other people, making it a social commentary that you can't find in textbooks.
Why do you do theater (as opposed to film, or TV, or something not in the entertainment field)?
You can't beat it - it's such a rush! Every night is different. The audience's energy is always different and in turn the performances change every night. Every time you go to the theatre, that show will be the only one of its kind and no other show will be an exact copy. I also love it because it's linear. You start, and time moves on from that point. Sometimes when you're on set working on a film, you'll jump from one scene to another because production only has that location for a certain amount of time. So in one day you'll film a scene in a restaurant that takes place towards the end of the film, where you're having a complete emotional breakdown. Then you'll change your clothes, and work on the cute/funny/awkward first-date scene from the beginning of the movie.
How did you meet your fellow artists/collaborators on this show?
Talk about a chain of events. I met Kelsey Moore, who is playing Vera in Big Night, two summers ago when we were both in Haberdasher Theatre Co's production of "Adam of the Apes" at the Drilling Company Theatre. From there, her and her partner Paul Testagrossa co-wrote an awesome play called "True Love" which starred Daniel Hainsworth, who's playing Jones in Big Night. After working with Kelsey and Dan in another production of True Love, Kelsey gave me a call about a show she was in called 1931-, through the ReGroup Theatre Company and I immediately jumped on-board. That's when I met Allie Mulholland, the Artistic Director of ReGroup (playing Ed Bonney in Big Night) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Which “S” word best describes your show: SMOOTH, SEXY, SMART, SURPRISING?
Could it be all of the above? Dawn Powell's Big Night is a Satire (another S) with very funny and Smart writing about Smooth Ad Men and their Sexy Wives trying to outsmart each other with Surprising results.
Can theater bring about societal change? Why or why not?
Of course theatre can bring about societal change. After every performance, whether you are acting or watching, something sticks with you. You side so much with a character who fights for what they want, because we all are fighting for something. There are themes on the stage that parallel the real world and that, can spark an idea in someone to become aware of a part of themselves that they never thought about before. And I believe that is why people go back to the theatre time and time again.
