“There aren’t enough cocktails to help me understand why I continue to be an actor! This shit is for the birds!”

Thus begins the Facebook entry by Joey, a dancer-actor-singer who played many roles along the U.S. east coast, but recently did not get hired for a new musical. He added, “People think our job is so glamorous, but truthfully, the glamour lasts for about 3 hours while the lights are up and the seats are filled!”

In solidarity, way over 100 friends “Liked” his public lament, and many readers wrote encouraging comments: 

“Couldn’t agree with you more. Been there, done that. I totally get it.” Some theatre artists even commiserated, “I’m sorry. It just doesn’t seem fair. I’ve been going thru this a lot lately, too. You are not at all alone!”

Unexpected advice from the world’s largest stage

The world’s largest stage, larger than all theatres in the world combined, the Facebook globe, brought out practical, funny, even heartwarming advice for Joey. One of the most moving and affirming responses came from one of the many patrons for whom theatre means the world:

“Every time I have seen you perform, you have always been great and always helped me escape from my real life (mortgage, taxes, school tuition, etc.). Keep doing what you do!”

Joey thanked his friends and announced that he would attend the upcoming musical at the Walnut Street Theatre: “Going to see if I can learn How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying! Happy Opening!”

Fear and sleepless nights: A successful actor’s reality

What audiences may not always see and what theatre critics rarely feature are the frequent psychological pressures and tough economic times in the life of an actor when the last curtain comes down. Joey is only one of many actors around the U.S. who has to deal with such issues.

In a recent interview, the successful Jeffrey Coon, who played the part of a corporate boss in How To Succeed—the show which Joey attended—talked openly about the similarities between the corporate culture in the musical and the culture of the theatre:

“Both cultures seem constantly consumed with ‘getting ahead’ . . . There is a certain amount of fear involved. Both require a certain amount of ‘schmoozing’ as part of getting along.” 

Coon concludes: “One of the things that I love starts and comes to an end relatively quickly. Impermanence keeps you unnerved, keeps me awake at night. You are constantly on the lookout for your next job, and that can become tiring.” 

Not to live and die on every success and failure: A director’s reality

Casey Hushion, artistic director of the North Carolina Theatre in Raleigh, who directed many musicals all over the U.S., and even directed a show with the Boston Pops, left such a strong impact on several large theatres in Philadelphia that she was asked to direct How to Succeed. 

Hushion, like many parents in the theatre world, finds fulfillment “in between productions, when I raise my three beautiful kids. My family always reminds me that I have more worth than just my last show or a decision I made in rehearsal.” 

However, Hushion also addressed the dilemma of her many professional engagements.

“This business has many extreme highs and lows. I’m still working on psychological pressures every day and every show. The anxiety can get to me sometimes, but I am doing my best to learn how to manage it. It’s hard to not live and die on every success and failure. I’m trying to treat each show and any challenges as a way to learn and grow and to continue to become a better leader. There is always much to be learned from everyone around me and from seeing other shows. I hope that doesn’t sound like a self-help magazine, but it’s true!” 

Keeping up the momentum: A successful choreographer’s reality

Given the reality of the corporate and the theatre world, I asked Michele Lynch, the highly successful choreographer with a wide-ranging background in film, television, and theatre, how she structures her time in between productions: 

“I usually spend time researching or going after the next show. It’s about keeping up the momentum. Having a support group of friends is very important to me. 

“The creative satisfaction and the outlet that the theater and the workplace provide, all make up for the huge economic and psychological pressures in a theater career. Finding one’s voice drives a lot of decisions. The often very challenging downtimes make me question if I am doing the best thing for my life. And when the answer repeatedly comes up ‘yes’—I carry on. Ultimately, I have to live with a lot of trust and belief that the struggle is worth it.”

Jobless not too long ago, a rising American star today

Asked about the issues that practically all theatre artists deal with on a permanent basis, Jeremy Morse, the successful star of How to Succeed, shared these realities of the life of a young actor with me:

“I joined the Actors Equity Association, but then had an incredibly difficult time booking work. Unemployed as a professional actor, I lived on savings and help from my parents, and ended up working as a realtor, until I started booking work consistently as a member of AEA. 

“In May of 2010, I played Lo Cocodrilo, a crazy, fun, Mexican, kazoo-playing comedic villain in Bloodsong of Love at a little off-Broadway house in Manhattan, a role for which I received a Drama Desk nomination as ‘Best Featured Actor in a Musical.’ This nomination not only got me auditions, but up-and-coming composers and lyricists started asking me to do their readings and concerts. This situation allowed me to let go of my real estate survival job.

“So here I am today, doing How To Succeed at the Walnut Street Theatre. And yet, I still wonder what my next job will be, but I try not to let that dominate my life. Time between projects is a great opportunity to expand my network and skill sets. Whenever I have a couple of weeks between shows, I do a concert, participate in a staged reading, assist a director on a new musical, take a class, or do my own writing. If I need some money, I still could jump back into catering. I could also use Unemployment to cover those weeks when I can’t find that in-between work.

“Making my time as productive as possible, I find that I don’t have time to worry as much about the psychological pressures of job insecurity. I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to have a family that supports me fully as well as a great network of friends and artists in New York City and beyond.” 

The reality of those who didn’t get a call back for a show

Today, I asked Joey, who didn’t get called back after a recent audition, what he thought about the outpouring of support from fellow actors and theatergoers.

“I didn’t realize how a moment of disappointment would be viewed until the Facebook comments started to pour in. Even after being in this business for almost 20 years, it’s still a shock when you think you have done your very best to get the job, and it just doesn’t happen. It never gets easier. What I have learned is how to pick myself up and move on!” 

“Are you still thinking about leaving the theatre world, the theatre business?” I asked him. “That’s not happening anytime soon,” he said. “I know that if and when I stop performing, I’ll continue an artistic life. It’s all I know. And frankly, it’s all I want to do.”

And then, with renewed vigor and joy, he announced, “The good thing is Jeff [Coon] and I have started to create our own work as producers and directors. It’s something we’re very excited about, and we’re ready for the challenge. Our show, An Evening at the Cape May Summer Club, has the ability to be very successful both in Cape May, NJ, and, hopefully, in other cities across America.”

How to succeed in the theatre world without really trying?

So, Joey, no longer upset, channels his energies into a new project, a new phase in his life. Soon, together with Jeff, he will run auditions, schedule call-backs, direct actors and singers, and choreograph new dance routines. 

How to succeed in the theatre world without really trying? “Bloody unlikely,” as Eliza Doolittle would have said. Rather, Joey, the experienced dancer, will continue climbing up and down the ladder of success in the theatre world. Similarly, Jeremy Morse, the new star at the Walnut, together with Jeffrey Coon, Casey Hushion, Michele Lynch, and the entire cast—whose work will be seen by tens of thousands of theatre goers until July 13—must rise again from the bottom rung.

Break a leg, everyone.

HENRIK EGER

Originally published by Phindie, Philadelphia, June 30, 2014.

I sat in a front row seat at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on a journey into the greedy heart of the unconstitutional United States, written and performed by Colin Quinn of Saturday Night Live(SNL) fame, and quite a few national TV shows of his own, like Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (directed by Jerry Seinfeld) and the popular Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.

Unconstitutional exposed the audience to Quinn’s hard-hitting bullets and made us laugh nonstop and think for split seconds — each time one of his many entertaining verbal grenades exploded:

“The Constitution? It's the document that the drunker you get, the more you understand it," Quinn quipped, and then continued with a straight face: "It's impressive that we talk about it, because nobody's read the whole thing."

Quinn, who can steamroll the founding fathers — most of them slave-owners — without batting an eyelid, also goes on the barricades in our own times when he castigates racial discrimination in the US with great power and clarity, so much so that an African-American friend of mine and I both felt like standing up and saluting the comedian turned statesman.

Quinn did not mince words, and with his Irish-American Brooklyn swagger, showed another side of the true strength of a country that wants to right old wrongs.

Sometimes, however, I wasn’t quite sure which way the unconstitutional wind was blowing. Trying to learn more about the creator of this show, I asked him a number of questions.

Could you tell us when and where your curiosity in history began?

My father used to read to me those classic comics that they had back as a kid, with all the knights and the Roman legions. And I loved it.

You seem to have a love-hate relationship with both America and Americans. How did you manage to create a show which hits us over the head, and at the same time, makes us think and feel good?

I think it's because that's how I feel every day. Mood swings and mixed feelings about life and America — and everything else. The way most of us live. Gray area stuff.

Writing a play with a straight-forward chronology is one thing, but you are holding up a mirror to America in form of a kaleidoscope with constantly moving historical events, colored by the vagaries of the past and its impact on our present time. How did you go about writing this complex piece?

I wrote this show by starting with the [U.S.] Constitution and then trying to figure out what was funny about the founding fathers as human beings. And, if in fact, their document had an effect on our national psychology, which I think it did.

You are famous for, among other things, doing great work on Saturday Night Live. How much did your experiences in that environment shape the writing of Unconstitutional?

Saturday Night Live was just a constant state of trying to write for that week’s news. To this day, that's how it is. You all compete to write the best take of that week’s news story.  SNL shapes a lot of things about me and everyone who's been there. As a habit, it makes you pay attention to the news and translate what's funny about it.

Is Unconstitutional a combination of a stand-up comedy show with most parts written and learned by heart, but other parts added at the spur of the moment, varying each night?

Yes, my show is written, but there's always room for some improv, or more importantly, an addition that's permanent. For example, describing Bush tonight, I improvised, "Whether it was by design or accident, his fault or just fate, everything he touched, broke" — which seems like an accurate summation of his time in office.

Your show was directed by Rebecca A. Trent, described as a “one-person comedy industry.” Could you tell us about that process of working together and compare it to your work when Jerry Seinfeld directed you in Colin Quinn: Long Story Short?

Rebecca's knowledge of comedy and love of comics had a big influence when we worked together. And she's also a Virginia girl who has her own feelings on the Constitution and America. She's funny and brings humor to the process.

Jerry is a master, of course. He's got the eye for the joke like few people do. He's also a great editor. He would jump up on stage and show me how he thought it would look. It was pretty charming to see the legend up there acting out a piece. He’s an amazing friend, too.

You were very clear on issues like ignorance and racism in the U.S. However, there were moments where I wasn’t quite sure whether you were supporting something or not. For example, were you advocating abolishing guns, or were you presenting a Quinn-ean alternative as mysterious as the answers that came from the Oracle of Delphi?

Well, I don't support or not support guns. I support us sitting down in a Constitutional convention environment and discussing things every couple of years, that's all.

Well, you’ve come to the right city for such a Constitutional convention. In Colin Quinn: Long Story Short, you channeled the demise of various world empires. In Unconstitutional, you skewered the contradictions in the history and the life of America. What’s next in your creative life? 

I'm working on the great forbidden: ethnicity and ethnic humor.

At the end of his amazing show, against the backdrop of the overpowering American flag and an almost gratuitous, elegant table and chair, symbolic of the founding of the United States in Philadelphia, Quinn bowed to the audience and ended the show with just one word, which brought tears to many eyes: “Philadelphia!”


Originally published by the Broad Street Review, Philadelphia, June 25, 2014.

I was hit hard by the The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington — Martha Washington as America has not seen her and her time. A dramatic mirror held right up to the face of America — warts, erasures, distortions, layers of truth, and all.

Others apparently felt the same way, so much so that BSR contributor Jim Rutter wrote in the Inquirer, “James Ijames has crafted a superbly written, emotionally compelling, and morally challenging play. How challenging? About halfway through his 80-minute one-act, I no longer wanted to review it.”

Neither did I. An interview with the playwright seemed the best way to come to terms with this extraordinary drama that will most likely still get performed a hundred years from now.

How did you come up with the subject matter of the dying Martha Washington, surrounded by her slaves, and being both nurtured and brutally confronted, all at the same time?

I was working on a research project called FRoNTiN and watched a documentary called Africans in America, with an entire segment about Martha and George and slavery. I was intrigued by the fact that she freed the slaves before her death, even though George put in his will that they should be freed upon Martha’s death.

Martha Washington seemed a nice lady, albeit the wife of America’s most prominent slave owner at the time. What made you focus specifically on her and put her through nightmarish experiences?

After more research, I found some correspondence between Abigail Adams and a woman named Mary Cranch in which they discussed Martha’s fear that the slaves were going to kill her in order to be freed. I thought this scenario was comedy waiting to happen, and it turns out I was right.

I chose Martha Washington because of her decision to free the slaves and because she thought they might kill her. That seemed like a great entry point to explore slavery.

Also, Martha is a major figurehead in American history, and I’m interested in deconstructing the American mythos in my plays, so she seemed a perfect person to explore.

What did you, as the playwright, experience intellectually and emotionally within yourself when you created these remarkable characters, who are riding on an emotional and verbal seesaw, vacillating between humorous banter and sadistic outrage, even physical threats directed against the dying Martha Washington?

I’m pushing the theatricality and the “violence,” both in the language and what the play asked the actors to do, in order to keep the audience and also the performance off balance.

This play is not “well made” in the way A Raisin in the Sun is. However, I think both plays drop into hot-button issues through character action and language. I’m trying to generate an emotional experience for the audience that will affect change in them — and not simply pity or guilt.

The verbal violence in the play reminds me of Amiri Baraka, aka LeRoi Jones. How much were you influenced by his work?        

I’m attracted to the hyper-theatrical and theater that is political in a violent way, as well as in a humorous way.

I have certainly read Baraka, and he is totally a part of my artistic heritage. However, I don’t think there is a direct line between his work and mine. I am much more influenced by James Baldwin’s writing and rhetoric. I’m also very influenced by Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Rachel Bonds in terms of playwriting.

You worked with playwright and Yale professor Paula Vogel. What was it about her approach that impacted your writing the most?

I was one of several writers in Philadelphia who took a boot camp taught by Paula and offered by the Philadelphia Young Playwrights. This boot camp was really the beginning of me finding my voice and pushing my self as a writer.    

Could you describe the writing and rewriting process of your play, both as an individual writer, but also as a member of a collaborative team?

Initially, I just wrote the play I wanted to see. I let the play be messy, unclear, and poorly structured — just to get all of the heart and blood on the page.

Then, I did “in-house” readings with friends, just so that I could hear the play. I would listen and then go and rewrite from there. I think that’s the most fruitful way to rewrite.

Theater should be heard, not just read. I learned from the actors about what feels good in their mouths to speak. If an actor constantly had a hard time with a particular line or phrase, I often changed that line. The language should work with and for the actors, not against them.

Your play was first presented as a reading by a large cast which had people abuzz in Philadelphia for many months. Could you tell us more about that reading and its impact on the final version of the play, if, indeed, it is the final version?

I learned how to craft a play in a very specific and complete way. The major work that was done on the play duringPlayPenn was finding a “structure” that had the largest impact.

I made superficial cuts to the play after the reading to make things more clean and streamlined. I tried to focus the play to be less “entertaining” and to be more poignant and thoughtful.

You are quoted as saying that "Guilt is an empty emotion," and that you want change, "making the audience feel they're on the right side of history — until they're not.” Could you tell us more about that?

Guilt doesn’t make change. It allows you to fester and stew. I want the audience to be troubled by the play and then talk to people, maybe see where they are implicated in the state of race relations. We all think the work has been done, but there is more to be done.

Is there anything that you always wanted to do, but never gave yourself permission to create?

If I had the chance, and was young enough, I would love to study ballet and I would love to have learned to play the piano. In terms of what I would love to give myself permission to create, I create the thing I wish existed. That’s how I make things! I make the things I wish existed.

Originally published by the Broad Street Review, Philadelphia, June 25, 2014.

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman it was not. The opening night audience for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — a wildly satirical musical and popular chestnut, performed at the Walnut Street Theatre — rooted for a little window washer. This male Cinderella wins the crown not with the help of a good fairy or a prince, but because of his wit, his charm, and his cunning way of manipulating people. We witnessed someone who won in the lottery of life, thanks to his innovative ways of deceiving others.

Even I, who considers the much-touted “American dream” an illusion, cheered on J. Pierrepont Finch, the lovable scoundrel, who managed to get a job in the mailroom of a large company and who moved all the way to the corporate top. I saw in him an American Everyman who firmly believes that every person who works hard can become a millionaire — except that the little Finch, from the very beginning, used one trick after another to win over backstabbing colleagues, conniving superiors, and insecure higher-ups in the hierarchy of the corporation.

On the way home, I asked myself why I would fall for this kind of a manipulative fairy tale. And then I remembered John Steinbeck’s sobering explanation for why socialism never really caught on in the United States: “The poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” And therein lies part of the secret of books and musicals like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, especially during harsh economic times.

Auditions and director’s cut

The Walnut presented an entertaining show that also made one think. Casey Hushion’s direction hit hard with its many gentle, hilarious touches, and Michele Lynch’s choreography hit the floor and the audience with an energy that matched the story of the little window washer climbing the ladder of success.

I asked Hushion to share some of the secrets of successful casting: “In the audition process, we talked a lot about people who had the right chemistry and joy on stage, and a genuine love of musical comedy," she said. "You can’t fake that. That’s the intangible element that can make a production really lift off. We wanted people who could take a number like ‘Brotherhood’ and just make it explode with personality. We looked for eccentricity, too — actors with their own distinct looks and comic sensibilities so we could create our own quirky World Wide Wicket universe.”

Asked about how she coordinated these wildly talented cannonballs, Hushion revealed, “I had crazy looking notebooks full of little drawings that look like football plays about who could move what piece when. Luckily, Michele Lynch, the choreographer, and I are great friends. We have an awesome collaboration together, and we both adored this cast. They had incredible spirit, charm, humor, and positivity throughout the process. That made any challenge we faced surmountable."

Corporate servility, a choreographer’s cut

Michele Lynch’s finely tuned choreography brought out the sexism of the book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert (based on the original best seller of the same name by Shepherd Mead), with lyrics and music by Frank Loesser.

Castigating the servility of employees who were expected to follow every command from above, Lynch literally had the dancers bend over, performing satirical-erotic rear-end movements. This wickedly creative absurdity made many of us laugh and become aware of how denigrating life in the corporate world can be, especially for women.

“On the surface, it's a man's world. However, the women in this show embody a subversive power: Rosemary, Hedy La Rue, Finch's mom, and Biggley's wife drive most of the decision making,” choreographer Lynch said, adding, “The glorious fashion of the time gave us great silhouettes for women.”

How to succeed with costumes, lights, scenic design, and music

Lisa Zinni’s zany costumes replicated the 1960s with her seductive outfits and over-the-top coiffures. The set design by Robert Andrew Kovach matched the intention of the musical perfectly, from the glass façade of a skyscraper and a hydraulic lift for the window washer all the way to the fancy, hilarious men’s room at a large corporation.

Paul Black’s lighting designs brought out intimate scenes with great effect, and Craig Beyrooti’s clear sound design made it unnecessary for anyone to borrow hearing aids. As in previous productions, the live orchestra, under award-winning music director Douglass G. Lutz, delivered a rich, top-rung quality sound.

Walnut cake productions: Great actors, great ensemble

Whoever discovered Jeremy Morse, the star of the show, hit a musical goldmine. Morse’s voice, his gestures, his charm, his agility, his split-second timing, and his impish good looks made him the finely carved figurehead on this corporate ship, bouncing up and down with the social waves.

The young hero who knows how to catch everyone’s attention and hook each higher-up into his net gets caught like an enthusiastic little goldfish by a lovelorn secretary (Becky Gulsvig), but he quickly learns to turn even these intimate circumstances into more dividends, yields, and rewards than he had ever imagined.

His enemy, the tall and snakelike Bud Frump, played by Brian Shepard with great conviction, looked like the descendant of the serpent in paradise. As a result of Frump’s double-tongued trickery, we liked the little Finch even more.

J. B. Biggley, the all-powerful company boss, looked and acted more presidential in parts than most corporate leaders. And his love interest, Hedy La Rue, a long-legged Barbie doll, played by Amy Bodnar, filled her role with erotic vigor, blending reality and fantasy that brought back the early days at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion in Chicago.

Two of Philadelphia’s singers with a heart and vocals that don’t need a microphone, Joilet Harris and Jeff Coon, added to the richness of the program, though I wanted to hear more of their stunning voices. As so often in Walnut cake productions, there are always cherries that have to wait for another musical torte.

What happens on Sunday, July 13, when the last curtain comes down for the little Finch, all the actors and dancers, even the director and choreographer, is another story. It’s almost always back to square one for everyone in the struggle toward success.

Originally published by the Broad Street Review, Philadelphia, June 20, 2014. 

WELCOME. Join us pictorially for the wedding of Mitch and Jen Maltenfort in Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday, April 12th, 2014. Officiated by Rev. Steven Schulte and attended by family and friends from all over the US and Canada at the famous Marshall House in the historic district of one of America's most beautiful cities. You might enjoy the captions of these photos. :)

With thanks to the newlyweds and everyone who made this a spectacular, yet relaxed, event—including the amazing photographer, Geoff L Johnson, for the wedding images.