Actor Q&A with 'Tis Pity's Reese Madigan

At the heart of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, beyond the love of siblings, families, suitors, there is another love. Love of duty. Or at least that’s the way Reese Madigan sees it. Returning to CENTERSTAGE as Vasques, the loyal—and manipulative—Spaniard who serves Soranzo, Reese has a warm and gracious attitude toward the theater and his cast mates, and a keen eye as to what sets Vasques apart from the rest of the characters.

“In a play in which almost everyone talks about their hearts, swears by their hearts, other people’s hearts, Vasques is lead by his sense of duty,” says Reese. “I imagine he swore to Sorenzo’s father he’d take care of his son, who is hot-headed and impetuous. He’s trying to keep him in line as he’s getting involved with a very dangerous woman, angering her, and angering her husband.”

In this Reese has found a lot of depth and that the role “is yielding more fruit than I expected,” he says. This profound sense of loyalty carries throughout, and while many times it is played manipulative plots or wry comments, other times it is a very deeply drawn dedication.

“Irene really wanted me to relish my last line [where Vasques boasts that a Spaniard has outwit an Italian in revenge]. It was a real push, because his life is over, in a way….If his whole reason is to do the best at his job, keeping Soranzo safe, he’s failed,” when his master dies.

This failure is not from any lack of machination—or physical skill. Vasques is one of the top swordsmen in the play, making his first entrance verbally and physically slashing at Grimaldi (played by Jacob Knoll). Reese, who has been doing martial arts since he was a child, is well trained in stage combat. “I’ve been lucky to be [fight choreographer J. Allen Suddeth]’s fight captain three times now—a huge honor as he is one of the top two or three in the country.”

A graduate of SUNY Purchase Conservatory, one of Reese’s first parts out of school was as a “spear carrier” in the Shakespearean in the Park production of Richard III with Denzel Washington. “I had three or four fights, it was fantastic!”

Back then Reese was one of the “kids” in the cast. For many years, Reese always felt like the youngest guy, but has been realizing he has transitioned to being one of the “older-young people,” he laughs. “I’m not that old yet!

“I'm at the top of my game, acting wise, but the roles are changing on me with age. The biggest challenge is staying in the game—and the game changes.”

After the close of ’Tis Pity, Reese heads back to New York, without another project lined up. Creative changes impacted a role he had been offered at a theater for the summer, and after much consideration he decided not to accept the change of roles.

“There are the choices you make,” he says. “You’re never just offered a dream role, you always have two choices, and either way you feel like you are burning bridges or making a sacrifice…feast or famine.”

He recently played Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a dream role. “I’d love to do more Tennessee Williams, he's my idol. And more Shakespeare.” It was his role as the Danish Prince in last season’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead that gave him a taste for Hamlet, his next dream role, “by hook or by crook!”

But nothing is planned at the moment. “It’s daunting to leave this, go back to pounding the pavement and working in catering while looking for the next gig.” However, you never know where you’ll meet people. As an event captain for a New York catering company between shows, Reese was working an Upper East Side event just before coming to Baltimore.

“I was growing out my goatee for this role, and felt foolish, so I explained to the wife hosting the party that it was for a part.” The wife asked him if he was an actor and what part. It turned out she was Kate Roche, daughter of the late Nancy Roche, a Trustee and former Board President for CENTERSTAGE (and for whom the Chapel Bar on the Theater’s fourth floor is named).

“Suddenly I was legitimized in her eyes because Irene chose me, I worked at CENTERSTAGE,” Reese says. This strong respect for the Theater seems carried over to the actor as well, who answers questions about returning to Baltimore with obvious warmth for the people here.

”I think this theater is a real jewel,” he says. “The people I’ve worked with here are really some of the best—Irene, David and the costume shop, Larry, of course…one of the best stage management teams I’ve ever worked with.

“It’s a great place to work because Irene [Lewis, Artistic Director] is responsible for all who work with her. She’s a very good director, one of the best. And she hires people who are the best; the actors are treated with a lot of respect, and that seems, from what I can see, to flow over into everyone on the staff.”

And the city, too, has its charms. “Baltimore is a wonderful city with great history—and great theatrical history.” He recalls going out to Green Mount Cemetery, where the Booth family is buried. The Booths were one of the great American theatrical families of the 19th-century (prior to the act that made son John Wilkes notorious). “All that history is all right here.”

Whatever the next show, for now Reese is enjoying the final days of ’Tis Pity and the people he spends his time on stage with. “It’s a really great cast on this one, a lot of laughs. Everybody is a really good actor and it is a pleasure to be on stage with them. There is this combination of really talented younger actors with really seasoned older actors.”

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Interview by Heather. Production Photos: Richard Anderson. Bottom photo: Reese with Felecity Jones.

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.

Interview: Maria-Christina Oliveras of "Fabulation"

The curtain may be down on Fabulation, but we couldn't resist getting a few final words from some of the talented actors who visited our theater and city for this fantastic show!

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Working in the Box Office, I received phone calls over the last month requesting tickets not for Fabulation, but for "Fabulocity," "Fabulosis," “Fabulon,” "Fabucation," among various other inventive titles. These creative titles echo the meaning of fabulation itself; the act of inventing or relating false or fantastic tales. Our patrons have not gone to the extremes in inventing false tales about Fabulation, but many have inquired exactly what it is about. After viewing the show myself, I have been tempted to ramble off Flow's final verse of his compelling epic, yet unfinished poem about Brer Rabbit:

"It be 'bout who we be today/ And in our fabulating way/ 'Bout saying that we be/ Without a-pology/ It is a circle that been run /That aint no one ever won/ It that silly rabbit grin,/ 'Bout running from your skin..."

But instead, I explain that Fabulation is about a career driven woman who has worked her way to the top of a PR firm and suddenly finds herself broke, on the verge of a divorce, and pregnant, forced to face her roots and go home to her family in the projects. "It's a comedy," I explain, but then rethink; how is that description I just explained comical?

It is the satirical punchy moments that have brought laughter to our audiences, while leaving them contemplating issues of race, social class, identity, and even the definition of success.

As Undine Barnes Calles bosses about her Post-it wearing secretary and listens to her accountant inform her that her Argentine husband has left her with nothing, the audience watches a social climbing woman's true identity unravel. She is forced to go back to Brooklyn where she has not seen her family for 14 years. When Undine reluctantly returns to her mother, father, brother, heroin-addicted grandmother, and even the jump-rope champion girlfriends of her youth, she begins to shed layers to what might be a social fall, but might also be a moral rise.

As I had the opportunity to sit down with Maria-Christina Oliveras, who played the post-it-clad assistant Stephie, among her multiple roles in the show, we discussed the major themes in Fabulation such as the notion if image, the meaning of success, the ideas of perception of race and class, as well as the pressures to blend and assimilate within society.

"The script is wonderful in that it touches upon interracial class issues that have been explored, but not yet produced." Oliveras admits it is indeed a challenge, but a challenge that forces her to evaluate not only herself, but humanity as a whole in illuminating different types of people through her multiple character roles. "It’s about finding a tone, honoring the character, and finding moments larger than life, but staying grounded in truth and reality."

Oliveras concurs with me in that "[Fabulation] is funny, yet tragic." She hopes the audience is able to watch these different characters and go beyond their comic caricatures. "I hope they are able to see another dimension, and see them as human beings struggling." Moreover, she hopes audience members can evaluate what is truly important to them and what makes their identity. What if, like Undine, everything you have is taken away from you? What would you really do? Where would you go? Overall, Oliveras would like the audience to expand their sense of empathy. "Everyone struggles; the person sitting next to you in the theatre might be the person who just lost their job, or the person taking the extra shift so that their child can have that new winter coat."

The Education and Community Department at CENERSTAGE has given Oliveras the opportunity to speak about these important issues highlighted in Fabulation in local high schools and universities. Within her discussions, she encourages students to think about stereotypes and how people are perceived. "I think this show really pushes you to think about perception and how you are perceived, something that many youth deal with on their path to self discovery." Along with that, she has asked these students to think about success; what does success really mean, and who defines success?

Perhaps success for a character like Undine's brother Flow it means concluding that epic poem on Br'er rabbit. We can only imagine how Flow ended his epic poem, but possibly it might be something like this: "...It is a circle that been run /That aint no one ever won/ It that silly rabbit grin,/ 'Bout running from your skin/And underneath, you find that identity clinging from within."

~Emily

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Photos: Crystal Anne Dickinson and Maria-Christina Oliveras in Fabulation, photo by Richard Anderson; Maria-Christina Oliveras.

Audience Influence

Those brandy filled glasses no longer clink in the Head Theater here at CENTERSTAGE, as the curtain closed on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? November 30. However, one important part of this provoking show remains, and that is the audience.

The audience that hesitated walking into the theater knowing there would be over three hours of uproar, sarcasm, rage, and pain transitioned to the audience that walked out of the theater deeply engaged, moved and touched in watching the two couples loose themselves in games, gossip and agonizing secrets.

And they will soon return. CENTERSTAGE's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? received many positive reviews, as The Baltimore Sun claims "The talented director Ethan McSweeny elicits first-rate performances from his top-notch cast." I recently found out it is our audience here at CENTERSTAGE that has made that cast rise a few more notches than usual, as I had the opportunity to speak with Leah Curney (Honey) about her experience.

As we sat in the downstairs lobby, Leah and I talked about Baltimore, and I asked her how the Charm City differs from other cities she has performed in. While she was not able to explore as much as she would have liked, she could sense this is an area that is being revitalized, an area full of history and on the verge of creating more. Leah particularly enjoyed the Farmers Market on Guilford Avenue, and the variety of restaurants up on Charles Street, since she tends to crave Indian and Nepalese food. However, one thing that stood out in Leah's mind about this area is the Baltimore audience here at CENTERSTAGE.

“CENTERSTAGE really reaches out to a diverse crowd, bringing in young and old people, from all sides of the spectrum" she explained. “There are no bells and whistles in this show. It is a talkative play, and most people are not used to that. To go on that journey we actors go through on stage is demanding of the audience, and here, they have chosen to journey with us.”

Leah admitted there are days she came into work tired after performing this exhausting three hour and ten minute play night after night, with the occasional matinee. Yet, once she steps onto stage, and after not only listening, but feeling the response of the audience, she is recharged and forgets how tired she once was.

“We play off of the audience's energy. We feel the response; although it is an intangible thing, it is so important, and at CENTERSTAGE it has been different than other places I have performed in. These audiences night after night have been so attentive and responsive, and I am really going to miss that."

~Emily

(Photos: Leah Curney onstage (above) and onstage with Andrew Weems (top) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Photo by Richard Anderson)