KEVIN: The first chance I get, I rip it out of the wall. MALISSA: And he has disdain for every other technology – the telephone is on the opposite side of the stage. The record player is also within arm’s reach so you can tell he doesn’t have to get up very often. You can tell how often he listens to them. KEVIN: I think he’s in love with records, which shows in our set decoration, which has Playbills on the walls and his huge record collection within arm’s reach of his chair. So, in your portrayal, is Man in Chair in love with records or is it just a tool he uses to share his love for this show? I’m a record collector myself and I find myself proselytizing all the time, not in a flamboyant manner, but sharing my excitement over my hobby with people. Other performances I’ve seen, Man in Chair is sharing. You really were trying to connect with the audience and share your passion not just for the show but for your record collection.
VCOS: When I watched your performance, two words came to mind: eager and affable. And then, flamboyant as well because I picture this guy as a man who hates the real world and likes to prance around his apartment, singing and dancing with his records, imagining the characters around him. I think it makes it easier to justify how obsessed he is with Robert, the main character. I say at one point to the audience, “Are you surprised I was married?” And then I talk about my wife and how the relationship ended poorly. I think I wanted to make it very evident that Man in Chair comes off as gay in my reading of it, although I felt there were few instances where that becomes funny for the audience. VCOS: Now, we have to be careful with the word “flamboyant” these days. He was very, very good, but I felt that since we have a smaller theater space, I needed to smile more and show that this is my favorite musical and really have fun with it. I think I made the character a little bit more flamboyant.
KEVIN: He played the character a little more straightforward than I do, and he also spoke very quickly and that was one thing I felt I had to improve on. VCOS: What was that ACTF Man in Chair like and how do you make it your own? I saw The Drowsy Chaperone at ACTF in Utah last year and I kind of fell in love with the part. Man in Chair! That’s for me.” I was actually studying abroad last semester and I taped my audition when I was in Paris and I sent it to Ken Gardner and he cast me from that. I wouldn’t say it’s one of my strong suits, so when I found out that Cal Lu was doing The Drowsy Chaperone, I said to myself, “Ooh. KEVIN: I’ve got to say, I was very excited to get that part because I don’t sing very much. VCOS: Man in Chair has got to be the only leading man in musical history who doesn’t sing. We talked with all three this week about this very funny show, which is packing in audiences at the CLU Black Box Theater. Leah Dalrymple, also from Thousand Oaks High, is making her musical debut at CLU, but has received a Vee-Cee award for her performance as Fran Kubelik in Promises, Promises at Moorpark College. Malissa Marlow, also a junior, is a Thousand Oaks High School graduate who has already appeared in productions of Spring Awakening (as Martha), Night of the Living Dead (as Corpse on the Stairs – really!), and Songs for a New World (Woman 1). Kevin Repich is a third year Communications and Theater Arts major who is also in the college’s Improv Troupe. We talked with three of the show’s stars, who are all theater arts students at California Lutheran University. This causes a triple-layered dilemma for anyone who plays in the show because they have to fold two characters into their own personalities.
But Man in Chair is also talking about the actors who play the characters in the faux musical. A cloistered record collector, the character known only as Man in Chair, shares his favorite musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, with the audience, and as he talks about it, the characters come alive in front of them. Playing a character is hard enough for many actors and actresses who are starting out in musical theater, but The Drowsy Chaperone throws its performers a curve because of the complicated nature of the show.
0 kommentar(er)
