Interview with "Lend Me a Tenor"'s Frank Creasy - Part 1

Frank Creasy is among Central Virginia's most reliable character actors, and he's now playing the leading role of Saunders, the opera manager, in Lend Me a Tenor. The Buzz caught up with Frank to discuss his background, his three decades in Richmond theatre, and his backstage experiences during the run of this riotous farce. This is Part 1 of that interview.

Q - Thanks for talking with us today, Frank. You're doing a terrific job in Lend Me a Tenor. (That's Frank in Tenor to the left, with Nick Ciavarella.) It's so much fun to watch you work.

A - Thanks. All of us are having a great time because the audience is having a great time. I'm going to be really sorry when this one closes on October 16.

Q - Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you go to college? What was your major? What brought you to Richmond?

A - I grew up in Winchester, VA, and went to Longwood, majoring in sociology. I first moved to Richmond in the summer of 1979, between years at Longwood. I've always had relatives in the Richmond area. My father's mother grew up on Church Hill and attended St. John's Church all her life. Several aunts and uncles also live in Richmond. When I was growing up, my family always came to Richmond every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, a lot of the friends I made in college were from here. It just seemed like a natural place to settle down, I guess. Although I'm not sure exactly when the "settling down" part happened.

Q - What was your first job after graduation?

A - Believe it or not, my first job out of college was at Theatre IV in the 1982 production of Mister Roberts. (That's Frank in the picture to the right, just a couple years before Mister Roberts.) Theatre IV rented the Little Theatre a few years before buying the entire Empire complex in 1986. Ford Flannagan was part of that cast, along with some other terrific actors.

Q - Where do you work now? Are your co-workers aware of your theatrical activities? Do they come see you in shows?

A - Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is my employer. I work as a help desk manager supporting the Anthem website. At least three co-workers have come to see Lend Me a Tenor, and others at Anthem outside my department have seen it and very graciously stopped by my desk to tell me how much they loved the show.

Q - After Mister Roberts, what were your next theatre jobs in Richmond? How did it feel to audition in a new city where you were not that well known?

A - I was cast in Mister Roberts almost right away, in the spring of 1982. Auditioning back then was a little scary for me, right out of college. I auditioned once for Muriel McAuley, one of Barksdale's co-founders, when she was casting Elephant Man at the Tavern. She called to tell me that I read wonderfully but I was just too young for the role. It was a lovely rejection--the first of many to come. Muriel's kindness sticks with me to this day.

Q - Like many actors, you started out in smaller roles, and over time worked your way up to leads. What was that experience like?

A - You know, I played my fair share of leads in college (Paul in Barefoot in the Park, Mortimer in Arsenic and Old Lace, among others). And I've had good experiences playing leading roles at other theatre companies in town. But as a character actor, supporting roles are often where I land, and I'm glad to do them. (That's Frank to the left, as Charlie Martin in On Golden Pond at Barksdale Hanover Tavern.)

I would like to think that my talents have improved, because I've worked purposefully to get better show by show. I've tried to take direction and carefully watch what successful local actors do onstage: David Bridgewater, Scott Wichmann, Joe Inscoe, to name a few who I've watched and worked with, studying how they approached their performances.

I've always believed that if you want to be one of the best, there's no better training than watching what the best in the field do and then modeling your behavior accordingly. It works in all walks of life; acting is no different. Of course, those guys I mentioned have talents some of the rest of us may only aspire to but never fully achieve. My hope is that one day I'll be close enough, in that regard, that someone would think of actors of that caliber as my "peers." To me, that would be the highest compliment.

(to be continued)

Steven's New Play Lights Up Hanover Tavern

Posted by Bruce Miller
Becky's New Car is the 39th play from 53-year-old American playwright Steven Dietz. When I posted this in the middle of last night, I said that I "thought" this was the first of his works to be produced professionally in Central Virginia. Never trust the memory of a 61-year old, particularly in the wee hours. I've now learned from two commenters (thank you both) that Triangle Players produced Lonely Planet by Dietz, Firehouse produced Private Eyes, and Henrico Theatre Company produced More Fun Than Bowling--all several years ago. Also, as I originally wrote, when VCU produced Dracula a few seasons back, they may well have performed Dietz's popular adaptation.

What I should have said is ... this is Barksdale's first Dietz, and all we can add is "it's about time." In 2010, Dietz was once again named one of the most produced playwrights in the nation. Excluding Shakespeare, Dietz tied with Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee as the eighth most produced playwright in America.

Dietz is married to TYA (theatre for young audiences) playwright Allison Gregory, and the couple split their time between Texas, where Dietz teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas at Austin, and Seattle (the setting for Becky's New Car).

Dietz has never had significant success in New York; he has never been produced on Broadway. But his most popular plays (More Fun Than Bowling [1986], God's Country [1988], Lonely Planet [1993], Private Eyes [1996], Dracula [1996], Rocket Man [1998], Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure [2006], and now Becky's New Car [2008]) have become staples in regional, university, and community theatres.

If I were a bettin' man (I've never even bought a lottery ticket), I'd wager that Becky's New Car will shortly become Dietz's most popular play ever, if it hasn't already.

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Dietz began his career as a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. While simultaneously serving as artistic director of his own small company, Quicksilver Stage, he began writing his own work. In the late '80s, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle (now known as ACT Theatre) commissioned Dietz to write God's Country. Dietz moved to Seattle while working on that production, and lived there permanently from 1991 to 2006.

His work has been recognized with the PEN U.S.A. Award in Drama for Lonely Planet, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life with Iris), and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Two of his plays (Last of the Boys and Becky's New Car) received Best of the Year recognition from the American Theatre Critics Association.

Dietz is a frequent contributor to American Theatre Magazine. Currently he is working on 360 (round dance) - an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 play, La Ronde.

Being tied with Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee for the eighth most produced playwright in America in 2010 is an amazing feat. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, I hope you'll join us for Becky's New Car, starring Melissa Johnston Price, David Bridgewater and Gordon Bass, directed by Billy Christopher Maupin, now playing at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern.

--Bruce Miller

"Becky" and Billy C Cruise Into Spectacular Opening

Posted by Bruce Miller
One of the responsibilities of a regional theatre is to provide work opportunities to the best and brightest talents within its community. In today's highly competitive arena, up-and-coming theatre artists must choose whether to earn their stripes after moving to major theatre markets like NYC, Chicago or Philly, or build the resumes they need to launch their hoped-for theatrical careers in a city like Richmond.

It's a tough decision. I would argue in favor of the latter, but only if Richmond's regional theatres continue to provide significant opportunities that allow young artists to work at the top of their game with other equally talented pros.

Case in point - Billy Christopher Maupin. He's been passionate about theatre since Hector was a pup. He left his small hometown in Kentucky to venture to Cincinnati to audition for a touring actor position with Theatre IV. (TIV had an office and tour operation in the Queen City from 1996 to 2006.) After touring for a year with our Ohio-based team, BC asked to transfer to our larger operation in Richmond. Ford Flannagan, who handles all our tour casting, said "yes" and brought him right here to River City.

After working in our national tour for a couple years, Billy Christopher transitioned into the Theatre IV / Barksdale marketing position he continues to hold today. His salary sucks--not quite as much as it did initially--but it allowed him to keep body and soul together as he set out to build a resume and career. Like a lot of talented theatre artists, BC chose to complete his training in the school of work experience rather than a university theatre program.

There was that year early on when BC left Theatre IV and moved to New York. Because he's a talented guy, and, I suspect, in part because of the touring experience he had with us, he was cast in a national tour with TheatreWorks USA (Theatre IV's biggest national competitor). Like hundreds of other young hopefuls, he earned his union card through this gig, but soon thereafter encountered the stigma that comes with earning your card, perhaps, too soon. (go to Google, type "stigma theatreworks")

Billy Christopher, like many other talented theatre artists before and after, left New York and moved back home to Richmond. He took a leave of absence from Equity (it's really hard to get union gigs in Richmond if you're young), and set about auditioning and campaigning for directing assignments as if his life depended on 'em.

Carol Piersol, artistic director at the Firehouse, and I are of a similar mind when it comes to the responsibilities our two nonprofit theatres have to eager, talented young artists. Directing jobs are THE HARDEST positions to get in Richmond, probably in any theatre city. The stakes are so high. Nonetheless, through perseverance, patience, passion and talent, Billy Christopher earned the chance to direct a reading at Firehouse, then a cabaret at Barksdale, then more readings, and finally several mainstage directing assignments.

Along the way, Kaye Weinstein Gary at K Dance became a BC "believer." Grant Mudge at Richmond Shakes also gave him a shot. And later this season, Chamberlayne Actors Theatre is giving BC the chance to direct his first Lillian Hellman. It took several years. You can ask him whether or not it was worth it.

Which brings us to last night. Carol Piersol and I were both in the house for the Opening Night of Becky's New Car, the sparkling new comedy by Steven Dietz that Billy Christopher directed at Barksdale / Hanover Tavern. I can't speak for Carol, but I'll bet that, like me, she watched the proceedings with a significant sense of pride.

It's taken several long years, and what seems like a gazillion projects, for Billy Christopher to earn the shot he had last night. And the great news is ... he came through with flying colors.

Becky's New Car is top notch--a perfect marriage of script, actors and director. Billy Christopher had the chance to work with a major new play, a cast as professional and accomplished as any you'll find anywhere (see the show pics of Melissa Johnston Price, David Bridgewater, and Gordon Bass), first-rate designers, a reasonable budget, and a fairly large and discerning audience.

What he has delivered is worthy of the confidence others have placed in him. Becky's is an exceptionally enjoyable show that is sure to be one of the highlights of Richmond's 2011-12 season.

It would be foolish for me to oversell it. It ain't King Lear or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. But, in my humble opinion, it's a significant step forward for a major young talent who, hopefully, will be revving up the engine of Richmond theatre for years to come.

With 20/early 30-something directors like Chase Kniffen and Billy Christopher Maupin--and Justin Amellio (assistant to Patti D'Beck for White Christmas, RTCCA-nominated director for [title of show]) starting to come on strong--it seems like Richmond theatre is in capable hands.

--Bruce Miller

New Faces and Old Favorites Rev up for Becky's New Car

Posted by Bruce Miller
When Steven Dietz's brand new comedy, Becky's New Car, starts its engines in 11 days at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern, the audience will be charmed by a high octane cast of seven, three of whom will be performing at Barksdale for the first time.

Becky is played by none other than Richmond acting queenpin, Melissa Johnston Price (pictured to the right). Believe it or not (I scarcely believe it myself), this will be Melissa's first, full-fledged Barksdale production.

It's true. At least I think it is. Melissa's credits have been the stuff of legend in Richmond for the last three decades, but her reputation for excellence has all been earned elsewhere.

To be precise, Melissa did appear last fall in the Bootleg Shakespeare production of Titus Andronicus, co-pro'ed by Henley Street Theatre and Barksdale. But the wonderfully wacky Bootleg performances, by design, are barely fledged at all. The entire cast rehearses all morning and afternoon on the day of performance, and that's it.

Also, Melissa starred in The Full Plate Collection, co-pro'ed by Erin Thomas Foley, Jenny Jones Hundley, Irene Ziegler Aston and Barksdale during 2010's Minds Wide Open--Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. Our role in that partnership was to provide a performance space and a little advice every now and then, and otherwise stay out of the way. So I don't think we can count Full Plate as Melissa's Barksdale debut.

Melissa also has appeared with Theatre IV, but it was quite a while ago, in our co-productions of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (with The Production Company) and Boom Town (with Essential Theatre). Even then, Theatre IV's involvement in the actual artistic product was next to nothing.

So, here she is, identified only a few months ago as one of Central Virginia's two favorite actresses by the readers of STYLE Weekly, FINALLY joining the pit crew at Richmond's nonprofit, resident professional theatre. We're counting our lucky stars.

The other two newcomers in Becky's cast are Christine Fonsale (pictured above and to the left), a Virginia actress who is well known to audiences in Williamsburg and the DC area, and Evan Nasteff (pictured below and to the right), best known by those Richmonders who savor him as the suave and sultry bartender at Off The Hookah in Shockoe Slip.

Christine is an audio book narrator for the Library of Congress. She received theatrical training at the Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts' Honors Conservatory Program in Washington, DC, and participated in Master Classes at DC's nationally renowned Shakespeare Theatre Company. Her credits include Tales of Love and Sausages for Faction of Fools, DC Microfictions for the Alliance Française of Washington, and I Ought to Be in Pictures for the Little Theatre of Norfolk.

In her hometown of Williamsburg, Christine appeared in Polly Honeycombe, Cry Witch!, A Salute to Our Nation, His Excellency's Pleasure Garden, and Lady Dunmore's Ball, all for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Evening Programs.

Evan holds a BA in Theatre from Hampden-Sydney College. Previous stage credits include MacBeth, Richard III, Rashomon, Art (by Yasmina Reza, author of God of Carnage), Waiting for Godot, and Noises Off!

Rounding out the terrific cast under Billy Christopher Maupin's direction are Barksdale favorites:
* Gordon Bass (green shirt - To Kill a Mockingbird, Melissa Arctic, Das Barbecu),
* David Bridgewater (yellow shirt - Is He Dead?, Moonlight and Magnolias, The Drawer Boy, The Lark, The Crucible, Cyrano de Bergerac, Annie Get Your Gun, Over the River and Through the Woods, The Odd Couple),
*Daniel Moore (red tie - Circle Mirror Transformation, The Little Foxes), and
*Maggie Roop (green bracelet - First Baptist of Ivy Gap, Doubt, Guys and Dolls).

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre, in whatever colored clothing and/or accessories you choose to wear. In 11 short days the garage door opens and Becky's New Car finally hits the road.

--Bruce Miller

"The BFG" Works His Magic on Three Generations

Posted by Bob Wall
When it comes to critics, our brilliant, hard-working marketing staff always touts this simple truth: At Theatre IV, the critics who matter the most are the children, mothers and grandmothers who come to see the play.

Word of mouth is our best sales tool, second to none. We’re delighted that Theatre IV’s current production of The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) seems to be earning raves from all the members of the Richmond Theatre Critics Association, but we’re even more thrilled with the assessments that are rolling in from children and their multi-generational moms.

Like the following note we recently received from a very young grandmother named Cathy Down Pemberton. Cathy was born into a theatrical family; her aunt Mary Dowd was a stalwart Richmond theatre supporter and practitioner in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Today Cathy works as Director of Social Services for Powhatan County. Cathy and her granddaughter are pictured below.

“My daughter Cate and I took her daughter, Catie Beth, to see BFG last Friday. We had taken her to see Velveteen Rabbit and she just loved it, so we wanted to take her to the theater again. She is a true theater fan now, at age 5, and when her mama asked her which play was her favorite, she said "I just don't know, they were both great."

I was not sure how she would enjoy live theater--kids seem to see so many amazing things--3D movies, wide screen tv's, Barnum and Bailey, that you have to guess if the wonder of a live play will have an impact. Does it ever! At Velveteen Rabbit, after the narrator spoke at the beginning of the play, Catie Beth was so excited she turned, speechless, and just squeezed her mom. She recognized the boy's bedroom as soon as we sat down, and was awestruck. Her big blue eyes were round as saucers when the fairy dust fell on the rabbit and made him real. It was a magic night for her. So naturally, we couldn't wait to take her to the theater again.

She just loved BFG. She loved the dreams the best, and when we walked out of the theater into the lobby and there they all were, Sophie and the Giant and the Queen--what a treat. Catie Beth, who hardly speaks to my mother because she is a shy child, went right up to the Giant and got his autograph. He said to her "Did you have fun? I did."

I saw Nunsense a few weeks ago. My best friends and I all laughed until we cried . Having been raised Catholic, it was particularly funny to the three of us. It was priceless, and I have my holy card pinned up on my bulletin board at the office. Try explaining holy cards to someone who isn't Catholic....

Thank you so much for some wonderful memories, Cate and Catie Beth are looking forward to Honk! and The Little Red Hen."
.........

Thanks, Cathy. We do it all for you and yours, so your positive words made our day!