Hometown: Staten Island, N.Y.
Education: Carnegie Mellon University B.F.A.
Select Credits: Equus (Alan Strang: Forestburgh Playhouse); Behind the Badge (Actor M/Playwright: The Living Theatre)
Why theater?: My older sister and I used to play pretend all the time when we were little kids. She always made up the story and would be the protagonist and I would play all the other parts. (And if she was ever mad at me all of the other characters seemed to die a lot!) All that aside, it is no surprise that my sister is now a writer and I am an actor. Also, I come from a large family. I am the second of five children. The art of getting everyone’s attention and knowing how to tell a good story was an essential skill in my house so theatre has always felt like a very natural fit.
Tell us about Crossing Swords: The show is set in 1969 in two Catholic gender separated schools. I went to Catholic school for 14 years before college. From pre K through High school. The world of this play is very familiar!!! I feel like I am back in high school in many ways. The show’s set consists mainly of two black boards and a ladder. While being silly I wrote on one of the Blackboards ”Sir (my teacher in the show) is smelly.” The next scene he dragged me in by my ear and now that’s a part of the show!!
What is it like being a part of Crossing Swords?: I am so lucky to get to work with such a smart and talented team. Joe Slabe (our Composer and Writer) has taken all the deep rich
conflicts of Rostand’s original Cyrano De Bergerac and given them to us in full to play under different circumstances with bright, sincere, and truly lush music. In prep for this project cast mate Ali Gordon and I went over to the Lincoln Center Library to watch a Cyrano at ACT in 1973. Seeing the full stage production really enlightened the way I am approaching the role. Igor Goldin is an incredibly kind and skillful leader. He has truly keyed into the themes that make this show such an important one to see right now. The cast is a pleasure to work with. And our lovely MD Micah Young is helping us navigate this, at times, tricky music.
What kind of theater speaks to you? Who or what inspires you as an artists?: The plays that really excite me are the ones that are being creative and innovative with the way stories are told. I am from a generation that grew up on t.v. and socially blossomed into the age of the internet when we were just teenagers. The way we experience life is very different and consequently the way we talk and tell stories about it is different. I like theatre that isn’t afraid to rapidly change time and place with in a scene. Last season’s The Other Place was a show that I thought did this in a brilliant way. Cinematic Theatre. Selflessness. Passion and hard work of any kind. If someone loves what they do,
it is clear in the way they do it. Its how an ordinary act becomes extraordinary. The poetry of Mary Oliver. The Catskills. The Redwoods. An Unforgettable performance. An Unbelievable story.
Any roles you’re dying to play?: Well working on this has made me really want to play Cyrano when I am old enough…I always like to say my dream role has yet to be written but these are some I would give a kidney for. Prince Hal in Henry IV. Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy. Ken in Red. Elder Price in BOM. Guy in Once.
What’s your favorite showtune?: “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Mark Rylance
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I would like to play me. But if I could not I would like Joseph Gordon Levitt to play me. “Recollections of an Absent-Minded Professor”.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Once
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Guitars. I spend way too much time at Sam Ash on 34th with all of those beautiful guitars.
What’s up next?: My theatre company Hamlet Isn’t dead’s maiden production of Two Gentleman of Verona opens toward the end of July. Then at the beginning of August I will be shooting a lead in the Indie Film Uncovering Eden.
For more, visit http://hamletisntdead.com/
