Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Interview: Richard Gallagher of "Fabulation"


It’s been nearly a week since the cast of Fabulation, or The Re-education of Undine departed from CENTERSTAGE’s Head Theater. Still, even after two days of previews for 'Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Lynn Nottage’s beloved characters from Fabulation continue to linger in the hearts of our patrons and staff. Perhaps it is due to the pretentiously hysterical situations that the title character, Undine Barnes Calles, constantly found herself in; or maybe it’s because there is always something heartwarming about watching an individual reunite with his or her estranged family. Whatever the reason, it is certain that a much deeper, more meaningful message was meant to be heard through Undine’s sarcastic narration of her own satirical fall from social grace.

As the show approached its final performance, I had the opportunity to sit with Richard Gallagher, a member of Fabulation’s ensemble cast. He greeted me with a smile as he sat at one of the round coffee tables where his green baseball cap and coffee mug were already settled and waiting. Before long we were chatting like old acquaintances.

“So, did you study theater in college?” I asked, expecting to know the answer. How surprised was I to discover that Richard Gallagher, who plays Undine’s slightly nervous yet demanding accountant among his roles, received his undergrad in English and History?

“I wanted to be a professor,” he confessed. And how did he find his way into acting? “I took an Acting I class my senior year of college for fun,” he explained. “I got such a good response from my professors that I decided to take Acting II my final semester and had a blast.”

After graduation, Richard signed up for Acting III classes as a continuing education student before being offered a full-ride into the M.F.A program of his alma-mater.

“It was a disaster,” he claimed. “Due to a number of reasons. I only stayed for a year.”

Following his short-lived first experience as a graduate student, Richard moved to San Francisco in attempts to pursue an acting career. It was there that Richard had his first run in with Lynn Nottage’s work. He auditioned for Nottage’s play Las Meninas and was called back three times before eventually losing the role to a Yale graduate. He took it as a sign to return to graduate school and after thorough research and only one audition, was accepted to Yale School of Drama’s graduate program, where he studied for three years.

When it came time for our production, director Jackson Gay inquired specifically about him through his agency when casting first began. He had several friends who had worked for CENTERSTAGE in past productions, and had heard nothing but praises of their experiences with the Theater. Although he had never read Fabulation, clearly Mr. Gallagher was familiar with Lynn Nottage’s work.

“I loved Intimate Apparel!” he oozed. Despite his fondness of Nottage’s previous plays, Richard confessed later that he was still relieved to find that Fabulation was one he knew he would enjoy doing. “I thought it was honest [and] found the story inspiring.”

Carefully, I mentioned a review of the production in which the critic claimed Nottage to be unsympathetic to the title character.

“I guess [Nottage] probably isn’t sympathetic,” he pondered. “But does it matter? It’s about a crisis... The sky is falling!” He gets excited. “If you don’t know who you are then what’s left?”

There is something endearing about Undine’s misfortunes, I must admit, and the fact that such a seemingly indestructible character could be broken in so many ways. Watching Fabulation for the very first time, I remember wondering how many of us in the audience could sympathize with Undine. How many of us have lost our jobs in these troubled times? Who of us has not said and done something to hurt our loved ones? And how many of us refuse to see past our own personal tragedies?

“There’s a very interesting button at the end of this play,” Richard adds. “‘I breathe’…If you are breathing, you can listen. You can change. So much goes by Undine. Even her accountant says ‘You don’t listen to anyone.’”

I asked what sort of impact he hoped Fabulation might have had on its audiences.

“I hope it’s a chance for them to re-evaluate where they are in life… there is a sense [throughout the play] of ‘That’s not gonna happen to me.’ But it does. When that happens, what do you do? You can choose to stay angry at the world or move on. There’s not a lot of sympathy about the fall. It’s about how you re-evaluate yourself after.”

For Undine, that new sense of self was found in the forgiving arms of her abandoned family. Perhaps that is what made this show so memorable. Despite all of Undine’s desperate attempts to hang on to what little she had left of her “fierce” lifestyle, in the end, she finally found that moment to breathe and realize for the first time the true meaning of unconditional love. And hopefully, our audiences were also able to find that moment to breathe in their own lives.
~Cori
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Photos: Richard Gallagher in Fabulation, photo by Richard Anderson; Richard Gallagher.

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