days before opening night for their performance of The Full Monty
at Barksdale Theatre. The Full Monty is sure to deliver a great
time.
How did you get started with acting, what got you into it?
I will try to keep it brief (laughs). I have
always been a singer and wanted to pursue
singing. I thought I should pursue
something money worthy first, so I got my
degree in Psychology and minored in
teaching. I taught in Richmond city for five
years. One of y brothers lived with me for
a year or two and said look you gotta
pursue this singing thing. So I went to my
wife and said I am taking a year off. We had
a baby and I became a stay at home dad and I
I started when I was thirteen, the first local show I did was in
Virginia in 1968.
What would you say the biggest influence has been in your life to
make you go into acting? Is there a certain person in your life or
someone that you looked up to that inspired you?
I would say for myself, the notion of pursuing your passion came
from my mom. If you are not happy doing the 9-5 job that you are
doing then your in it for the wrong reasons type of thing.
I don't know if it was a person for me that
influenced my acting, I went to Hermitage
High School here in Richmond, it was very
sports oriented and had nothing to do with
the arts, and i found out that I was good at
this and went outside the school and thought,
this is my chance to shine, this is something i
do well. They barely did any theatre at my
high school. So thats how I got into it.
How far of a stretch is it for you to play the character that you
have, do you see any similarities between yourself and the
character you play?
I think the biggest stretch for me right now is making the
character Jerry more chauvinistic and cocky then i am myself. I
work regularly with this friend David Bridgewater, and work on
those characteristics, because I am not chauvinistic and cocky at
all. Jerry is really close to his son Nathan in this show, and I have
a four year old daughter and thats where I feel Jerry and I are
similar. You can never love your child too much. Thats where I am
at with Jerry, he is comes up with crazy ideas and is spontaneous,
like i am, not very good at planning (laughs) my wife is the planner
and i am the spontaneity person.
The character of Harold that I play is a tight ass, and he has this
little trophy wife that he loves, he feels she only cares about him
because of the things he buys her. During the course of the show
he finds out that it's not the things he buys her it is him. By the end
of the play, he is the character that is most ready to take his
clothes off. Harold strips to make money, and he finds out that he
is not pressured to do this because his wife will love him anyway,
she encourages him to do this. For me this whole thing is
something that I really wanted to do, I'm almost 52 and I'm the
oldest guy in the show, it is a pretty freeing experience to do what
we do in the show. I'm not like Harold in that I am not a tight ass, I
am pretty loose. Harold does a 180 from where he at the beginning
of the show then where he is at the end of the show, and that is
one of the things that attracted me to the show.
Buzz )
Is it more
difficult to
play a
character who
is similar to
your own
personality or
would you say
it is a little
more difficult
to play a
character who
is an exact
opposite from
you?
Playing someone who is the exact opposite of me would be easier.
In my own life I work hard to be a nice person, tend to my wife and
child's needs and others needs. So when you have an opportunity
to play someone who is on th opposite end you, you say OK for this
moment I don't have to be conscientious of being a good person and
just let it fly out the window because it is acting. You can do all
things that you know basically can be negative in the world and
get away with it (laughs) and not get in trouble.
I concur, I think it is easier to play somebody who is opposite. I try
to be decent and a nice person, but people are much more
interested in the evil villains. It is also easier to do a cartoony
kind of role than it is to do somebody who is a normal guy.
Audience favorites are people who are over the top, which is allot
more fun to play.
Did you have any special preparations you had to do for training
this role, with the singing and dancing. Does that come natural to
you or did you need some specialized training?
I never had any dancing or acting classes. Dancing, I'm kind of
fortunate that it comes easy. The singing, this is a very high show
for me, all the singing is very high so thats been a challenge. I
have had to just come in and do extra work with the singing during
the day with the musical director Deborah D. Lynch. Acting wise, i
have met with mike and gone through the script. I have met with
Steve the director, David Bridgewater on several occasions. For
me the extra pieces are the singing and definitely the acting.
Dancing, its hard to move. The youngest guy is 26, I am 26 years
older than him. I haven't done a show in a few years, it is a
challenge to move. The guys have been great, everyone has been
coaching me, I was just out there working with the choreographer
K. Strong, working on the two big dance numbers are at the end of
act 1 and act 2.
What has been you best experience as an actor, how has that
changed or motivated your career?
My best experience has been meeting all
of the different people. In theatre you
meet allot of eclectic people of all
walks of life. If anything if you thought
you were open before, it really opens you
up. You become a good listener, people
have lots of stories. You learn to be
more accepting, you realize we can all
make the world a better place.
I went to V.C.U. and when I graduated I moved to New York City for
17 years. When I got there I got into the unions right away. I had
allot of successes and it did not play well with me because I got in
with a bad crowd, but all things lead you to where you are now.
This is the second show I have done in five years, i used to live my
life acting, thats all I did.
Since there are no retakes during a live show, do you feed off that
energy of having to be in the moment, and are there any bloopers
you care to share that you have witnessed or been part of during a
live performance?
In the rehearsal for The Full Monty, there is very quick full
frontal nudity. We were struggling at one point, it has been
challenging to work that moment. The g-string comes off and we
turn around and the move has to be very specific so the move is very
clean. So we are working with that, we are standing there naked.
When we take the g-string off
a hat comes over, a police hat
is supposed to cover. Well
some of us have turned to face
the audience with the g-string
up and our hat up and saying,
oh no that was wrong (laughs).
When you do it for the first
time, you just do it until it
works.
For me, in the Spitfire Grill, this was a show 2 and half years ago I
did at Swift creek. I became an audience member, while on stage. I
was just totalling watching and listening to the ladies and I had
to deliver a line and i brain farted and forgot the line, all three of
them turned and looked at me and just opened their eyes big. Then I
went Oh, oh and finally delivered my line. It was quite obvious that
I was out of the moment and not where I was supposed to be
(laughs).
What would you like to say to theatre lovers about this
production of The Full Monty, what can they expect?
One hell of a story line, its an awesome story.
Its a great time, the show is about people and relationships, the
poster and the preconceived notions, the word the full Monty,
everyone thinks I am going to see a bunch of naked people. Thats
really secondary, third or fourth it way down at the bottom.
Its superficial.
The full nudity is the climax of the show, but is really insignificant
about these guys journey and their relationships. They each have
little story line, there is allot of stories in the show. Its about
them all coming together.
Do you have any advice for someone considering becoming an actor?
if it's your passion, you gotta pursue it no matter what. Theres
always going to be obstacles, there are going to be obstacles in
everyday living. If you can't pay your bills at the end of the month,
you got to make the money etc., so you step up and do that. Its the
same in acting, you may not get the first gig you audition for but
you have to stick with it. This business can be cut throat, it's
competitive. In that sense you need a competitive sense to your
head you just say hey, if i didn't get his one I will get the next one.
And don't take yourself too seriously right Mike?
I say follow your dream, when i am not acting part of me is dead.
Follow your dream, do everything you possibly can do, start small
go anywhere you can do it. Start your own theatre company.
Any last thoughts?
The music is awesome.
Its an audience pleaser.
These are blue collar guys, Harold is not, he is the exception to
the six guys who do strip at the end. That being said I think
everyone in the audience can identify with many of the
characteristics of each actor in the show. When we have fun on
stage we want everyone out in the audience to have fun, because
we feed off them.
I really do feel people will love the show, but if they are coming
for the nudity, there not gonna be disappointed ( laughs ), because
they are going to see it.
This is really different for Richmond
It may shake people up here, because Richmond is a conservative
town and it may be a little more than they are used to seeing
(smiles big).
Go to www.barksdalerichmond.org
Cast courtesy of Jay Paul and The
Barksdale Theatre
Scott E Vision Studios 2006©
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