Hometown: Ashland, KY
Education: B.A Dramatic Arts from Centre College. Rose Bruford College in UK
Select Credits: Stanley in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Richard in The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket. Recent film and television credits include “Sleepy Hollow,” “Nashville,” and “Pacific Edge” with Ed Asner which won the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.
Why theater?: Theatre is the temple of humanity. The offering the audience gives the temple is their complacency, their familiarity with the status quo of their current worldview. The theatre practicioner, in turn, gives them back a resonating catharsis, a catalyst which enables the audience to see the world with fresh eyes and feel with purged hearts.
Who do you play in Consider the Lilies?: I play the character David, the art agent of the aging, alcoholic painter Paul.
Tell us about Consider the Lilies: Set in Paris and New York, Consider the Lilies is a play about an aging, alcoholic painter who feels that he has lost his way, and his relationship with his art agent and best friend, David Phillips. David and Paul have a love affair with the soul of the other. David is torn throughout the play between bonds of friendship, family and his romantic relationship with his girlfriend, Angela. David and Paul both feed from each other and take from each other in a very meaningful, yet tenuous friendship - maybe something even greater. Their need for artistic and personal inspiration draws the two together and apart throughout the play.
What is it like being a part of Consider the Lilies?: Being a part of this production, with the amazing Austin Pendleton, has been a stage career highlight for me thus far. The explorative rehearsals are truly a joy and rarely have I felt such a freedom to try new and different takes on scenes, justifications and character motivations.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I am able to find just about any type of theatre that speaks to me. There is almost always something that can be mined from a production that enables the practitioner or audience member to understand more about the human condition: its frailties, strengths, passion and indifference. I would be hard-pressed to pinpoint a particular person that inspires me as an artist, but I can pinpoint a particular archetype - the under dog, passionate person who hails from obscure environs. That same person who at times possesses only her own belief in herself and her talents. She both suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and she takes up arms against a sea of troubles. In essence - a David who must face his Goliath.
Any roles you’re dying to play?: I would love one day to play King Lear and Stanley Kowalski.
What’s your favorite show tune?: Just about anything from Sweeney Todd
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: At the top of my current list is Laura Linney and Michael Shannon
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Despite the fears and pitfalls of screwing with the timeline I believe I would have to go back to see Our American Cousin and save President Lincoln in 1865.
What’s up next?: Next in February I am in an original work, entitled The Book of James, at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre near Times Square - playing the titular role.
For more on Consider the Lilies, visit http://www.houseredtheatre.com/