Hometown: I grew up just outside of Chicago, but NYC is home for 20 years now.
Education: A few failed attempts at undergrad. For actor training, Juilliard. (This attempt was successful.)
Select Credits: NYC: King Lear (with Christopher Plummer), Julius Caesar (with Denzel Washington), Coram Boy (with Jan Maxwell), Tom Stoppard’s Rock n Roll, Happy Now? (Primary Stages), The Castle (with Jan Maxwell PTP/ NYC) among others . Regional: Hedda Gabler (with Martha Plimpton at Longwharf), The Motherfucker With The Hat (Studio Theater DC), Oblivion (City Theatre Pittsburgh) among others
Why theater?: It’s immediate. It can be cathartic. It’s ephemeral... each performance is entirely unique to that very moment. It’s communal... audience and actors are all breathing the same air, sharing molecules and energy. Also, it ties me to the very roots of Western Civilization. Beyond all of that? It’s where the best writing lives... and the only medium that seems interested in having me participate with any regularity!
Who do you play in SCHOOLED?: I play Andrew Owens. A screenwriter who was once successful, but is now struggling with a slide toward irrelevance, both professionally and personally. He’s jaded and pragmatic about the film business. Currently, he’s teaching screenwriting at an NYU type institution in NYC.
Tell us about SCHOOLED: To me, the play is an examination of art vs. commerce, pragmatism vs. idealism, as well as the effects of privilege and power on relationships both personal and professional. Andrew has a line in the play where he tells a student “...you can have anything you want, as long as your willing to live with the consequences.” Each character in the play is confronting, on some level, what price they’re willing to pay to get what they want.
What is it like being a part of SCHOOLED?: Being a part of this production has been fantastic! I mean, none of us are doing this for the money, so the value is found in the work and I feel like we’re all willing to mine that work for everything we can get from it. We’re all doing it for the love of doing it and by “it” I mean the play, the people, the art form...
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Challenging, provocative theatre that shows us all sides of our humanity is what speaks to me. As for inspiration? Life and the living of it.
Any roles you’re dying to play?: This one! I’m excited to let Andrew live in front of an audience and so curious to see what they make of him and his choices. Other than him, none really come to mind. No doubt there will be, but they’ve yet to be written or to have, at least, come into my field of awareness.
What’s your favorite showtune?: I don’t have one. Musicals aren’t really my bag.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: The list is way too long to share in it’s entirety, but a few people would be Daniel Talbott, Annie Baker & Sam Gold, Adam Rapp, Beth Marvel, Reed Birney, Peter Friedman, Alfredo Narcisso, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jelena Stupljanin, Sam Soule, Bhavesh Patel... just to name a very few. There’s a list of Iconic folks too, but these that I mention (and many, many that I haven’t) are NYC people that all do work that excites and inspires me, that makes me want to get up on the stage, to attempt to play at their level.
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: What a tedious movie that would be! I have no idea...
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I missed Blasted with Marin and Reed that was at SoHo rep years back. I wish I’d seen that. I’m sure there are several others that I’ve read about over the years, legendary productions/performances from bygone eras but nothing is really coming to mind.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: SCHOOLED of course.
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: I indulge in many pleasures and I don’t feel guilty about any of them.
What’s up next?: Absolutely nothing. I’m free at the end of August if anyone has any work for me!
