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.

Fights and Gore-- backstage videos for 'Tis Pity She's a Whore

"'Tis Pity is at its best at its bloodiest...." -City Paper

And that is part of the fun—and the challenge—of a Jacobean Revenge Tragedy. Our fight choreographer J. Allen Suddeth and the cast worked hard to bring a realistic edge to the violence and mayhem on stage, and the crew backstage puts extra hours in every night to deliver—and remove—the gallons of blood required.

Check out J. Allen Suddeth’s video that compares the fights in rehearsal to the finished action on stage. And then take a backstage tour with members of our Stage Management and Costume crews as they give a sneak peek into the array of tools and tricks to giving a Revenge Tragedy a bloody good ending (created by Rapheal Davison and Sarah Anne Austin)

First Rehearsal Report: Caroline, or Change

Change: it’s the political buzzword of the year, and a mandate felt deeply from coast to coast. It’s also a key word in our next production: Tony Kushner and Jeanne Tesori’s Caroline, or Change, a story of people who demand change, resist change, pocket loose change, and refuse to be changed themselves.

On Tuesday, November 11th, exactly one week after the history-transforming November 4th election, the Caroline cast, director, designers, and the theater’s staff gathered in our 5th floor rehearsal room. The room is huge and airy, lined with windows, and will soon be transformed by the stage management team into a basic model of the Pearlstone Theater, with tape on the floor marking the shape of the stage and a single line of chairs representing the audience. But on Tuesday, it felt like a party. This is a large cast: 19 people all told, and the addition of 50+ members of the production and administrative staff created an exuberant, hectic hustle and bustle as everyone shook the hands of new friends, embraced old ones, and loaded their plates with cheese cubes, Asian pears (from our local Farmer’s market), and chocolate chip cookies.

First rehearsals are always exciting; there’s always a hum of energy and anticipation. But the atmosphere of Tuesday was particularly thrilling. In his marvelous introductory speech, director David Schweizer articulated just why.

He began, “I was resolved to work on Caroline, or Change as a necessary thing under a McCain-Palin administration.” Laughter. But, he explained, because he was “relieved of that combat duty…this project can become a kind of celebration…not a happy-go-lucky celebration…an intense, harrowing…passionate celebration.”

The rehearsal hall primed and ready for the next show's hard work.

Caroline, or Change scrutinizes the lives and families of Caroline Thibodeaux, an African American maid, and Noah Gellman, the eight-year-old son of her Jewish American employers. It’s 1963, and the turbulent waves of resistance and struggle and change flooding the country have begun to ripple and disturb the sleepy bayou town of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

With the complex grandeur of opera, and the microscopic attention of memoir, Caroline scores, as Mr. Schweizer put it, “the crucial unsung (though in this case, very much sung) lives that inch by inch crept along and got Barack Obama elected. It happened because these kinds of people chipped away at it.” He paused, and swallowed, and promised, “I’m not going to weep at rehearsal.”

As Caroline herself sings, she is “mean” and she is “tough”: she would live to see this election. Her kids, and their kids, would see it. Mr. Schweizer affirmed, and, if the palpable exhilaration in the rehearsal room is any indication, everyone at CENTERSTAGE agreed: the opportunity to produce this show, right here and right now, is a gift.

After his speech, Mr. Schweizer presented the set model, designed by Allen Moyer, which begins as a “gleaming nothingness” until Caroline creates a world populated by singing appliances. The initial costume sketches, designed by David Burdick, covered one table in the corner, along with sample swatches of material and the photographs that inspired each design. Then Mr. Schweizer turned to the lighting design by James F. Ingalls, and to perhaps the funniest exchange of the day:

David Schweizer: “What would you call these instruments?”
James Ingalls: “Lightbulbs.”

Usually first rehearsals conclude with a read-through of the play. The cast begins to familiarize themselves with their roles, and the crew and staff hear the script out loud for the first time. But Caroline is set to music, so the cast wasn’t ready to sing it through for an audience—a friendly one, but an audience nevertheless. They promised the staff a concert in a few days’ time.

After most of the people in the room left for their own offices and shops and work, Production dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg and I passed out the dramaturgical research packets we’d prepared, which include a glossary, historical background, and wonderful essays by and about Tony Kushner. Wayne Barker, the music director, sat at the piano and led the cast through a stumbling sing-through. The range of familiarity with the material was vast (E. Faye Butler, after all, joins us having just closed a production as Caroline at Chicago’s Court Theatre), but despite that, the humor and power of the piece shone through. By the end, we needed the tissues that stage management had so kindly placed around the table.

The cast is like a huge extended multi-generational family – from grade-school children to their fictional grandparents – all gathered to tell a story together. Everyone is excited and committed, including the youngest members of this new CENTERSTAGE family. Aaron Bell, a freshman at the Baltimore School for the Arts, will play Caroline’s son Jackie Thibodeaux. “I’ve seen meetings like this on TV, and now I’m here!” he told me, beaming.

I think Baltimore is in for a treat. David Schweizer, a Baltimore native himself, agrees: “I know the audience here is waiting eagerly for this piece and will enter into it as fully as it deserves.”

We’re eager for you to join us in a few weeks for Caroline, or Change.

~Katie

No Fear for the Woolf: Director Ethan McSweeny

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? director Ethan McSweeny talks about the challenges of taking on this classic text, and the advantages of working from a fresh slate

What was your familiarity with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? before this show?
I had read it, of course, but I had actually never seen a production of it. I had also never seen the film, so I made a conscious decision not to, once I knew I was directing it, as to not be unduly influenced by choices they had made—so I had the rare opportunity to come to it as if it was a new play.

Photo: Ethan McSweeny welcoming guests to the final dress rehearsal of Virginia Woolf. Photo by Richard Anderson.

It is a great classic of the 20th-century, maybe the quintessential post-World War II American play. And those usually come with a lot of baggage. When you get the opportunity to interact with a script without the baggage, as an artist, you’re very lucky.

Why were you interested in directing Virginia Woolf?
There were several factors, but, first, on the practical side, I’m a freelance director, so when I get a job, a chance to direct a major classic play at a major theater, I say yes. And I was supposed to direct a production of this play five or six years ago, but the rights were pulled because of the impending Broadway production. I almost felt I had a date with this play I had not kept.

This is also my first opportunity to work at CENTERSTAGE, a theater I have always admired and respected....CENTERSTAGE puts a pretty high emphasis on technicality, on design. That is an important aspect in Virginia Woolf, particularly, and great to get to do it in a fully supported regional theater.

I'm also a Washington, DC, native, and have a lot of family, friends, and other theaters I've worked with around here, so it is always great to come back to the Mid-Atlantic area.

What was one of the most challenging parts about bringing Virginia Woolf to life?
The most important thing was getting a good cast. Getting a George, Martha, Nick, Honey that are right, was very important. But they also have to be able to make it as a company, a group that works together to make a fantastic show.

Also, dealing with the length and breadth of the play, and dealing with it in our time in rehearsal. We had to be very aware of timing, scheduling. We don’t, aside from Shakespeare and Shaw, find ourselves doing many three hour plays. That creates challenges in relearning the rehearsal muscle.

How much time do you spend with a script before hand?
I spend a substantial amount of time reading the play, and reading it again in the design process. A big part of Virginia Woolf is that the action is carried by people talking, so we had to come up with interesting visuals and stage business to help the audience engage with the actors on stage. I spent a lot of time in the design process talking with Lee [Savage, scenic designer]. Once we had a design, I would re-read the play with that design in mind, thinking about how it would work.

I also make a scene breakdown, dividing the script into French scenes [every time a character enters or leaves]. Each act was divided into eight or ten smaller chunks, then I give a title to each of these scenes. It isn’t until I do a scene breakdown that I feel I’ve made an internal decision about what I feel the scene is about.

Finally, you have to be open as you work through the play together with the actors. Voices help reveal the structure in the text…. The punctuation is important, especially in Albee. Its almost a song, its a piece of music for four human voices.

What are you working on next?
I will be back at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, doing a classic with a twist with Ion by Euripides. It is a relatively modern translation by David Lam, and it is a fascinating play that I’ve really warmed up to—a Greek play with a happy ending; not a comedy, not a tragedy, but a story.

After that, I go out to the Old Globe in San Diego for a new play, Cornelia, about the second wife of Alabama Senator George Wallace.

I have been very fortunate in my career to do classics, contemporary masterpieces like Virginia Woolf, and world premiers of new works. The ability to work in these different genres increases your skills as a director.

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? runs in the Head Theater through November 30th. Visit www.centerstage.org or call 410.332.0033 for information.

Making the stage- Dressing the set in Virginia Woolf

Jennifer Stearns, Props Master at CENTERSTAGE, and intern Ellen Nielson took us on a tour of the very detailed set of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

How we defined the props here is “everything in the house.” Whatever is not bolted to the walls, not part of the actual physical structure, is props—from the shrubs and ivy on the porch outside to the rugs, art, curtains, even the ceiling fixtures and wall-mounted sconces are part of the props department.

In a show as detailed as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, that’s a heck of a lot.

Occasionally we have overhire if someone is going to be away for part of the build time, or it is a really complicated show. We will also occasionally contract specialists to build specifics props.

(Ellen shows off the break-away bottle)

The two things that had to be exactly as they were listed in the play—had to be exact down to what is written. The breakable bottle had to be a whiskey bottle, not a glass, true to the script. And the stunt gun had to be exactly what the script called for.

Everything is a blend of bought, built, and stock, with a few specialty rentals sometimes. All the newspapers on the floor were printed in house to have dates in 1961 and 1962. The covers of the products, such as cigarettes and candy bars, were researched and then recreated here in house. The piles of magazines are a mix of a few old ones and many recreated—down a made up mailing address in New Carthage. More often than not there will be many pieces that are bought and altered, or are recreated from a mix of new and vintage pieces.

I had not worked with Lee Savage (the scenic designer) and director Ethan McSweeny before, and they gave a lot more attention to the props and set dressing than many directors do. Our usual process is that I go in, pull everything, and put it on a cart, which Lee than goes through and picks and chooses from. Once it is all on the set, Ethan goes through and makes notes, special requests. He really wanted there to be a Parcheesi set, and a chess set, things like that.


(Above: George's desk)

Some directors aren’t so worried about the set details, especially if I’ve worked with them before. There is a trust, a relationship that’s built when you work with someone a few times.

(Right: Jen and the custom Life magazines)

There are a lot of details that a lot of audience members won’t ever see. I’ve worked here for a number of years and there are things I’ve had and collected, things that I’ve wanted a chance to use. On George’s desk there is a double recliner that holds pipes that I was excited to use.

For the records, we went shopping and bought lots of old albums, there are some great, cheesy covers the audience never sees, such as a 1950s one with a woman in a great outfit lounging on the cover, called “Music to Read by”—really kind of camp and funny. The cover for the album that Martha plays was recreated by us [“Out of the Cool,” The Gil Evans Orchestra].

One of my favorite pieces is the glass table-top lighter, which were really popular through the late 1950s, but are really hard to find. We found this one, had it fixed up by Fader’s to actually work—and it is used by the actors now in the show.

Fantastic card table downstage was a find at a going out of business sale last year and knew we’d be able to use it one day—too much of a steal to pass up and a great period piece.

We also went to the Book Thing and got about 100 books, all copyright 1945-1962, all period, all things that George and or Martha would read. My favorite is one that was just a hilarious, really perfect for the time find, What We Must Know about Communism.

(Above: Tabletop lighter; Right: George's books)


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Photos by Raphael Davison, Graphics Intern

All of this is achieved by a props department of four for most shows. Jennifer, Assistant Props Master Nathan Scheifele (the department carpenter), Jeanne Marie Burdette is the soft-goods artisan, and Properties Intern Ellen Nielsen.


The design team on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? includes:
Scenic Design: Lee Savage; Costume Design: Murell Horton; Sound Design: Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen; Lighting Design: Robert Wierzel