Hometown: Mineola, NY
Education: Wesleyan University
Select Credits: The Shakespeare Forum's The Merchant of Venice (Lorenzo); dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's The Fairy Queen (Demetrius/Snout); Adirondack Shakespeare Company (Touchstone, Dr. Caius/Bardolph, Tybalt); Spicy Witch Productions' Fall Season (Stark, Sparkish); Underling Productions' The Misanthrope (Oronte); Bottoms Dream's Cleopatra (Lepidus and others)
Why theater?: Because I love to tell and hear all kinds of stories, and it requires me to bring my full self to my work.
Who do you play in Double Falsehood?: Julio
Tell us about Double Falsehood: It is a play about honor culture, rape culture, what men do to men, what men do to women, family, love, and originally written by our greatest playwright. Double Falsehood is a story that needs to be told right now. Theobald's prologue and epilogue illuminate how far we have yet to travel in solving these systemic cultural disorders,
What is it like being a part of Double Falsehood?: It is a joy to come to work every day with this group of artists. It is a high IQ group of people who love to play and complement each other very well.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I love theater that challenges me, and the style I move toward is ensemble based storytelling with a strong physical life. A few productions I consider pillars of creative, engaging, and moving performance are: Split Knuckle Theatre Company's Endurance, Elevator Repair Service's Gatz, NYTW's Peter and the Starcatcher, Lin Manuel-Miranda's Hamilton, Bill Irwin's The Regard of Flight, and Brandon Jacobs' Jenkins' An Octoroon.
Any roles you’re dying to play?: I may be more of a Didi, but when I get older I want to play Estragon in Waiting for Godot. Fifty years from now, Lear. It is a dream of mine to be in a tv series or film where basketball figures prominently into my character's life. GET BUCKETS! COOKIES!
What’s your favorite show tune?: "My Shot"- Hamilton. "This Nearly Was Mine"- South Pacific. "Sarah Brown Eyes"- Ragtime.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Bill Irwin!
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: My buddy Sean Lounsbury would play me in "Love and Basketball 2: Taking Charge", a coming of age story about a young man who maximizes his efforts on the basketball court by drawing offensive fouls against the other team's best player (played by Julian Silver) and I would be the stunt man for the basketball scenes. Orlando Magic Assistant Coach of Player Development Jay Hernandez consults.
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Ira Aldridge's Othello. Some attainable, less culturally significant missed opportunities from my lifetime include going to my high school girlfriend's graduation party instead of The Norman Conquests in 2009 and getting rained out of the NYSF Romeo and Juliet starring Oscar Isaac and Lauren Ambrose.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Hamilton, obviously. And also the theater on film and tape archive at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. When I was adapting Hamlet into an immersive installation in conversation with Alice in Wonderland I saw three Hamlets there!
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Dark chocolate.
What’s up next?: At the end of April I am playing Lucius and Chiron in The Humanist Project's Titus Andronicus, and you can hear me as Colonel Warren Kepler on the sci-fi radio drama Wolf 359!
