Orlando in Love

STAGE/SCREEN 76
-summer 2006
I responded to an audition notice for a play produced by Teatromania, a company dedicated to producing authentic italian theater in New York. The director was Vittorio Capatorto, who’d had a distinguished career in Italy. His accent was thick, his personality in-your-face and supremely enthusiastic. He often had an interpreter with him. He was a little cagey about pay - at that point, i’d determined to not do any unpaid work…but his promises and probablys turned to nothing. He described the play as a cross between PRINCESS BRIDE and LORD OF THE RINGS - a Renaissance piece with knights and wizards and maidens and monsters. He wanted me to be the evil King Truffaldino. It was to be produced in Central Park. Not wanting to invest a huge chunk of my life in a possibly-payless venture, i expressed concern over the size of the part. He assumed i was worried it was too small, but i assured him the opposite. Despite uncertainty, there were many qualities that resonated, so i said yes. For perhaps the first time ever, i became one of the oldest members of a large cast. We rehearsed in classrooms at Columbia University. I got along well with everyone, and the chemistry was as good as you can expect out of thirty-some actors. The second female lead had a Parker Posey quality, and became my closest cast friend. We lost touch after the show because one of us was attracted and the other wasn’t (the attracted one may have been me). My other buddy was Bryce, one of the dancers, all of whom had been recruited from the performing arts school at Lincoln Center (where we also held our tech week rehearsals). Bryce was in her teens, smart and not stuck-up. I hoped that we would still be friends when she was grown up, because i knew how attracted i would be. Our performances were going to be at the Naumberg Bandshell, and something about the name stuck in my mind. Research revealed that it was where John Lennon’s vigil had been held in the days following his death. I felt a sense of connectedness when i learned that. Indeed, some of my nicest show memories came after the performances, when i would walk across the park (to Port Authority and home to Jersey City, or the subway to go out with the cast), passing through Strawberry Fields. One night, stopping there, i found myself singing Lennon songs with the homeless. One of the sweeter moments of my life. While we sang in the dark, a beetle actually landed on my hand. Vittorio’s style was more than a little frustrating for american actors, who are schooled to be responsible for the interpretation of their character. American directors NEVER do what Vittorio (and apparently, most italian directors) did almost every day – give line readings, performing your part for you with the precise intonations he wanted. We mentioned our discomfort, but to little avail. At a certain point, i became the only thirtysomething in the cast, when our “wizard” quit because of the pay that wasn’t materializing. I sympathized, but backing out wasn’t something i even considered. My time commitment actually increased - there were a number of sword fights, and as the weeks went by, we kept waiting for our promised fight choreographer to arrive. But he or she never did. Finally, i told Vittorio that i’d had stage combat training with B.H. Barry, and that i would teach the actors, and choreograph the fights. We never had proper swords, designed for stage use; one or two literally fell apart on us (including mine, which had been quite a beauty). But it was great fun, teaching others what i’d learned, and making them look good (with nary an injury). Come showtime, watching what i’d created was at least as much fun as the acting…which itself was fun enough, playing an overblown tyrant. Great death scene? Of course. Performances and audience response were uneven. One night the energy was abysmal, and the crowd comatose. Another night, the show hummed and the audience lapped it up. It was over the top, it was fun, and i added a beautiful memory to my life. After we closed, i became a bit of a cast pariah, when a gay friend of mine asked whether i had an actor friend who would like to be paid to pretend to be his date for some ceremony. Knowing how tight actor’s wallets are (and not expecting homophobia in NY), i sent an e-mail to the males in the show, and some responses were acidic. In talking to the actor who’d played Orlando, i pointed out the hypocrisy – would any of them have been insulted to be offered money to pretend to be a woman’s date? He agreed, and apologized.