"Don’t give them a Punch and Judy show villain."

I recently read an interview conducted with Sir Ben Kingsley, whom I consider one of today’s greatest actors. He is currently promoting his new film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster film based on the popular video game. In the midst of actors like Shia Labeouf creating controversy by bashing their own films – here is Sir Ben Kingsley showing the next generation of actors how to handle all their roles with grace.

“I do the same job. The background alters, and where the camera is placed, and the effects around me. But I am doing the same job. I serve Nizam as if Nizam was written by Shakespeare and he was called Richard III."

“Why waste my time trivializing a character or a film?” he continued… “If I trivialize it, it’s going to spoil three, four, five months of my life. Instead, I consciously think to myself, ‘Aim high, aim very high with Nizam. If the kids are going to come and watch it, let them see Richard III from Shakespeare. That will make them go, ‘Wow.’ Don’t give them a Punch and Judy show villain.”

To this I say, thank you Sir Ben Kingsley, for being a true knight of the stage and film, and serving art with honor. You are an inspiration to us all.

Stoll & Savor - May 19th!

May 19th and 20th - To start summer off right, Belmont Shore businesses are hosting their annual "Stroll & Savor" - Over 30 restaurants sampling menu items along 2nd Street. Ticket books are $10, sold in front of Chase Bank (5200 E 2nd St Long Beach, CA 90803) and other pre-sale locations. Exchange your tickets for food items and even wine! George's: BEST DEAL ON THE STREET! One plate of hummus, pita, Greek salad, one spanikopita and some gyro meat with tatziki sauce, all for only three tickets!!! 2nd Street has a good variety of very familiar foods, such as pizza, ribs, and cupcakes to slightly more foreign selection such as Thai, Greek, Indian and Pakistani cuisines. Arrive early for shorter lines, and parking. 5:30-9:00 PM.

World Premiere of Edward II

Opening night of Darcy Hogan’s innovative adaptation of Marlowe’s Edward II proved a satisfying experience. I truly congratulate my fellow cast members, dedicated director and crew, for opening with positive reviews. Our small, but eager, audience followed us on our journey through England’s intimate landscapes of passion, malice and vulnerability. Tonight marked the first time I felt the inner truth of my character. When Gaveston spoke to me and touched me, I felt deeply moved. There was a sense of magic tonight that came from just listening to each other – a simple task that is often forgotten and underestimated. My parents, my most adamant supporters and critics, seemed to enjoy the performance. Although, my father did comment on my apparent display of forehead tension (I think I have created a monster!). I suppose I am going to have to focus the emotional angst of my character within the technique of relaxed readiness. With 10 performances left, I intend to continue to make new discoveries and make choices to center Margaret in the world of the play. This week of reflection is sure to further stimulate my creative juices and refresh my focus as I work to fine tune my character with each passing performance.

May 14th – June 5th, Friday & Saturdays @ 8PM, select Thursdays @ 8PM & select Sundays @ 2PM. Theatre Out's home is The Empire Theatre in the Artists' Village in downtown Santa Ana, located at 202 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA. Tickets are available online at http://www.theatreout.com/ or by calling the Theatre Out Box Office at (714) 826-8700.

None ever found a thing to praise

I came home to my empty, dark apartment emotionally drained and exhausted from rehearsal. I wish I could say I felt the fatigue from a satisfying emotional journey left on the stage; instead, my weariness came from behind the scenes drama and self-doubt. I felt myself beginning to wreck. Even though it was well past midnight, and I longed for the five hours of sleep I could clock before my 5:45 AM wakeup call, I turned to my dearest friends: my books. I ran my index finger across their spines, and although I expected to pull Shakespeare off the shelf, my finger stopped on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I pulled out Bayard Taylor’s translation of Faust, collapsed in my leather armchair and flipped open the tattered cover to a random page, which read:

In young, wild years it suits your ways,
This round and round the world in freedom sweeping;
But then come on the evil days,
And so, as bachelor, into his grave a-creeping,
None ever found a thing to praise.

How appropriate! - I concluded. On any other day, I would comment on Martha’s ironic flirtation with Mephistopheles, as the foil to Faust’s advances on Margaret. Yet, last night, this passage spoke to me on another plain. In the context of my mood, I wondered how I had let myself get into this slump. Have I been wandering too far away from auditioning for quality theatre? Have I lost my ability to adore my work? Or perhaps the stress of dealing with Faustian actors, in all their arrogant and ambitious glory, is taking its toll on my sensibilities as an artist. I have said it before, and I will probably have to say it again: there is nothing more ruinous than a selfish actor. I need to ward off this destructive energy and focus on the positive as I move through the chaos of today’s activities - After all, a bad dress rehearsal means a great opening night!

The 39 Steps - A Parody

Claire Brownwell, Ted Deasy, Eric Hissom and Scott Parkinson portray over 150 characters in the Ahmanson’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. Based on the 1935 film, The 39 Steps is a fun filled parody of Hitchcock’s suspenseful telling of an unlikely bachelor’s adventure into espionage. Richard Hannay begins in his simple apartment, fed up with “elections and wars and rumors of wars.” He longs for “something mindless and trivial. Something utterly pointless.” Deasy delivers a handsome and suave Hannay, as he discovers the solution to his boredom; “I know!” he says. “I’ll go to the theater!” At the theatre, he meets a mysterious woman (Brownwell) claiming to by a spy. When she ends up murdered in his apartment, Hannay is sent on a mission to clear his own name and save England from a plot to destroy the county. The action is non-stop, filled with clever allusions to Hitchcock’s many films and heightened physical comedy. Eric Hissom and Scott Parkinson seamlessly slip between characters at lightning speed. The simple set becomes complex destinations as ladders are transformed into bridges, chairs into vehicles and trunks into train cars. Maria Aitken cleverly mounts this ridiculous comedy under the concept of a small repertory theatre to bring Patrick Barlow’s version to the stage. The program details her vision in her own words: “I envisioned some small rep company in the 1950s in England where this leading man wants to play the Richard Hannay character... This leading man can only muster a leading lady if he gives her three parts to play. And there are two old annoying vaudevillians that are left over from some other production at the theatre. He tells them they have to play all the rest of the roles, all 150 of them, and play them straight. But they don’t always behave like they are suppose to.” This combination creates one of the best slap-stick comedies to grace the Los Angeles stage in some time. A comedy for young and old, The 39 Steps vibrates with energy and laughter on the Ahmanson stage. Keep an eye of for a special appearance of Hitchcock himself!

The 39 Steps at the Ahmanson Theatre: 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Tuesday-Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 & 8 pm; Sunday at 1 & 6:30 p. Plays through May 16th, 2010. Tickets start at $20-$80.

2010 Tony Awards Nominations

The Tony Award nominations have been announced! The New York Times has published very informative and interactive articles at Arts Beat. The full list of nominations, with explanations, reviews, and production photos can be found HERE! I am most interested this year to see if Jude Law will pull in a win for best performance by a leading actor in a play. His Hamlet graced the London and Broadway stage, with rave reviews. I was moments away from stepping on a plane this year to partake in the hype surrounding his performance. Probably the best Hamlet I have ever seen is Ben Whishaw, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Old Vic in London’s West End (2004). He was a young Hamlet at only 23 years old, but his portrayal was haunting and raw. His frail frame and pale complexion shook me to the bone. Next in line is Hamish Linklater, as the title character in South Coast Repertory’s production (2007). I mean, he learned from the best being the son of Kristin Linklater. Mr. Linklater connected to the role internally through his voice and body. There is nothing like sitting in the front row of a production of Hamlet, listening to the perfect articulation of every syllable and watching the spit fly. Yet, here is Jude Law, best known for his film career, vying to legitimize his portrayal of Hamlet on the New York stage. While his performance has been hailed by the New York Times as “a gold medal Hamlet,” the rest of the cast was not fortunate enough to receive approval from critics. Law seemingly carried the show, among a cast who could not reach to his level. Alfred Molina (Red), Liev Schreiber (A View From the Bridge), Christopher Walken (A Behanding in Spokane) and Denzel Washington (Fences), round out the category. It should be an exciting race.

Remembering Lynn Redgrave

Yesterday, May 2nd 2010, Lynn Redgrave passed away from cancer in her home in Connecticut, surrounded by her three children. Redgrave made her professional debut as Helena in a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1962 at the Royal Court Theatre, and soon thereafter became a founding member of the Royal Nation Theatre. In addition to being a talented actress, Redgrave also wrote 4 plays, including Shakespeare for My Father, which explored her relationship with her father Sir Michal Redgrave and earned her a Tony Award nomination for best actress. I met Lynn Redgrave at a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest presented at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, in the spring of 2006. Redgrave shined as Lady Bracknell, commanding the stage with her imperious behavior and resonating vocal quality. After the show I waited patiently in the downstairs hallway of the backstage area. Redgrave was all smiles and elegance as she gently took my hand and introduced herself as “Lynn”. She was graceful, tall, humble, beautiful and demure in the dimly lit hallway – her makeup perfect and her hair slightly disheveled from being buried under a wig for two hours. I could barely speak, letting others congratulate and compliment her performance. I just wanted to watch her, and listen to her – taking everything in. I will never forget her, or the lasting legacy she made for herself on the stage.

Mumford & Sons

My lovely roommate, Courtney, possesses an ear and fantastical knowledge for music, which she continued to strengthen in my mind by introducing me to the band Mumford & Sons. Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane complete this West London band developed in the winter of 2007. Mixing the musical qualities of country, bluegrass and folk, their strong rhythms pounded at my heart.

I listened to the title track from their debut album, “Sigh No More”, inspired by Shakespeare's language in Much Ado About Nothing: "Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you / It will set you free / Be more like the man you were made to be."

Much of the album seems conceptualized from several of Shakespeare's plays: "White Blank Page"-Othello, "I Gave You All"-King Lear, "Little Lion Man"-Coriolanus. I cannot wait to purchase the entire album and bathe in their acoustic melodies.

When the child was a child....

The greatest mistake and actor can make on the stage, is forgetting the audience. Such was the case in last night’s opening performance of California Repertory’s Out of Thin Air. The audience sat through 90 minutes of actor exercises, personal experiences and un-cohesive material. As an actor I connected to parts of the piece: the need for theatre in one’s life, the confusion of having an inartistic parent, the behind the scenes antics, and the deciding moments in an artist’s career. This show marks the final curtain of Cal Rep’s graduating class of 2010. The Cal Rep Ensemble was given a remarkable experience working the Steppenwolf’s founding member Jeff Perry and veteran actor and master teacher Alexandra Billings to bring a world premiere to the stage. But when the show was conceived they forgot to ask themselves one important question: Who is our audience? If their audience is actors, theatre professionals and CSULB staff and students, than perhaps this show was a success. The second question they should have asked themselves is, What are we trying to communicate? If they were trying to communicate the notion that actors are judgmental, selfish, eccentric, horny and arrogant pricks, than they succeeded in that as well. The only authentic moments came when the actors were talking about being children: “When the child was a child…” There was a beautiful moment when a little girl was told her grandfather had passed away. She sat on her father’s lap, and he took her hand and traced little circles on the kitchen table with her fingers. She said, “That was the most grown-up moment I have ever had,” in the most startlingly beautiful and sincere way. Moments like these made the show watchable. Yet, other moments made me feel like the whole show was some big inside joke I didn’t understand, or a poorly done high school production. Strange “music video” parodies, random nudity and choppy transitions made the show seem amateur. The only truly interesting or inspiring segments took place when the actors were offstage and a thought-worthy quote, photograph or taped confession projected onto the white curtains of the stage. I rather enjoyed the video of the actors speaking candidly about their craft. Even though the performers sounded contrived, in the sense that they probably rehearsed their message over and over in their head, at least it was truthful. I ask myself: Is this show relevant? Is this show important? Or is it just “out of thin air,” like the title so appropriately suggests. I think this show will either be forgotten, or remembered for the all wrong reasons - which is a shame. After three years of study, 10 talented actors will complete their MFA program this summer. Where will they go from here?