Limited Perspective

I've been acting since 1990. (I took a long break from 1991 to 2011.) I've played many, many characters. Here are three of those roles I would jump at, if offered again. Caden in The Thanksgiving Play (Woodinville Rep., 2024) I understudied and had two performances on the final weekend. I could see so much more that I could do. This happens with almost every show. You do something new in the final performance then smack yourself in the forehead and think, you should have been doing that all along. In TTP, with just the two shows, and less than normal rehearsal and stage time to grow the character, I really felt that. Plus, so many of the lines and bits were just so fun to do. Regis in Ghost Party (Dacha, 2018 and 2019) In this immersive, interactive show, Regis (and all of the other characters) were doomed to relive the same ten minutes of a fateful party over and over again, on a loop. But it never got old and it was never really the same because the guests could intervene a...

The Stupidest Scariest Time calls itself, “a new work of interactive theater parodying the joyless productivity of modern life.” It is that. And it’s more than that. I found a heart in it. The show is both beyond immersive and somehow also prior to it. If you have ever been to an office retreat, a Landmark Forum session, an Amway meeting, or seen a Tony Robbins talk – or done all of those things, as I have, you will know exactly what is going on from the very start, when you are directed to your seat. I found myself at a table with a neat, professional-looking folder in front of me. A branded pen was next to it. A bowl of branded stress balls was in the center of the table. I looked at the table-mate across from me and said, “I feel like I’m at a staff retreat.” “I just came from a conference this morning,” they said. We smiled. I won’t say too much about the content but there are timed exercises where you write your life goals and prioritize them. There is “you can do it!” -style che...

Key plot elements, if you don’t know the show: Antonio, a Venetian merchant, borrows money from Shylock, who is Jewish. The money is to help Antonio’s friend, Bassanio, to woo Portia, a sort of wealthy heiress. Meanwhile, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, yearns to escape her father and her Jewish identity by marrying Lorenzo, a Christian. When Antonio is unable to pay back the money, Shylock believes he finally has the chance to have the power of the law on his side. It’s an illusion. Shylock loses everything.  My first thought, halfway through Act One was, I want to go out to the lobby at intermission and buy the soundtrack. The music grabbed me from the very first number and never let me go.  This is not Phantom or Rent, though, where you can just do that. It’s a brand new show, and I saw its first public performance. But it had that quality. I wanted to be able to shove the CD into my car’s player and listen on the way home. It's a staged reading. At the same time there are pro...