Safely Back in NYC; Missing My New Family in RVA

Posted by Nick Ciavarella (pictured below at the RTCC Awards and in Lend Me a Tenor, with Chris Stewart)
It was a very strange feeling getting off the train from Richmond back into New York City and making my way to Brooklyn, where I reside. There was a faint recollection of arriving in New York 3 years ago, suitcase in hand, for the first time. It seemed unfamiliar and exciting. I’ve been away for 2 months for other gigs before and getting back to New York always felt like getting back to the grind, but this time was different. It occurred to me that despite the fact that I had spent a mere 9 weeks in Richmond, I still felt as though I had just uprooted myself to begin anew. How, after so short a time spent in one place, could I possibly have become so attached?

I wonder if you in the Richmond theatre community realize what you have. I felt like I had stumbled into the back door of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and noticed the Oompa Loompas going about their business and I kept wanting to ask them, “Do you realize this is the greatest place in the world to work??” (I hastily add that in no way am I implying that my Richmond friends remind me of Oompa Loompas. No twisting my words, anonymous talk-backers!)

Here is a place where actors can make a living as actors while being a part of a tight-knit community of other talented artists. Every time a friend from New York asked me how Richmond was, the word that I kept using was “anomaly.” If another theatre community exists like this anywhere else I certainly haven’t stumbled across it yet.

On Day 1, walking into my first rehearsal for Lend Me a Tenor, I was literally shaking with nerves. Everyone knew each other and had worked together numerous times and here I was feeling like I was walking into someone else’s family dinner with my plate in hand saying, “yeah, I’ll have the biggest piece."

No sooner did rehearsal start than I felt embraced by everybody in the room as if I were one of them. From that point forward I felt at home.

I was so fortunate to meet so many people (and still not enough) during my time in Richmond. People were consistently warm and welcoming. I never felt like an out of town actor, but instead like someone who had just moved to a friendly neighborhood.

Not that it was all peaches and cream. Let it be known that I survived a hurricane which knocked out my power for 8 days, an east coast earthquake, and I broke down not one but two company cars. The first one broke down when my parents were in town (and in the back seat), and the second one broke down somewhere outside of Staunton on the side of the road at night where I was sure Leatherface would pop out at any moment. (The conversation with vehicle fleet manager Gordon Bass went a little bit like this: “Hey Gordon, the van is making a funny noise so I took it to a mechanic who said that if I drive it any further the back wheel might actually pop off. What should I do?” “Oh those old vans are always making funny noises. Why don’t you see how far you can make it?")

The van was pronounced dead 5 miles later, and I spent the night in Waynesboro’s ironic Quality Inn. It’s funny now and it was honestly funny then because during both breakdowns I knew people were scrambling to save me, which they did. Leatherface never caught up with me.

Now I’m back in New York and I miss everything and everyone in Richmond already. The cast and creative team behind Lend Me a Tenor were all so beyond talented and a pleasure to work with and get to know. Everyone would get their own paragraph if I started thanking people directly so I will spare the readers. But I hope they all know how much they meant to me during my time and how much fun it was to have created such a successful and zany show with them.

I do, however, want to single out Bruce Miller who saw me in a Shakespearian tragedy and thought I might do well in a modern farce. Bruce gave me a chance and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I look forward to returning to what honestly now feels like my second home sometime soon. Until then, thanks to all who made my experience so rich and meaningful!

--Nick Ciavarella

Learn More About "Lend Me" Over Coffee and Danish

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our first regularly scheduled Coffee & Conversations event is tomorrow, Tuesday, October 11, in the Barksdale Willow Lawn lobby. I hope you'll join us for this fun and informative program. Doors will open at 9 a.m., and the continental breakfast buffet will be set up by 9:10. The program will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last one hour.

Tomorrow's program will be Behind the Scenes of Lend Me a Tenor. Jill Bari Steinberg will moderate a panel comprised of three members from the Lend Me a Tenor cast: Nick Ciavarella, Frank Creasy, and Susan Sanford.

Nick (pictured to right) plays Max, the young, eager beaver assistant to the general manager of the Cleveland Opera. Nick himself is a dashing, NYC-based newcomer to Richmond theatre. He earned his Equity card with this production. Acting and other theatrical pursuits are his only job. His perspective will be a little different from the local professionals we all know well and love.

Frank (pictured below and to left) plays Saunders, the general manager, father of the beautiful young woman whom Nick's character would like to wed. Frank himself has been working in Richmond theatre for the last 30 years, and is one of our most respected and reliable character actors. He is not a member of Actors Equity. Frank is married, owns a home here, and is employed full-time by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Susan (pictured below and to right) plays Maria, the passionate Italian wife of the world renowned operatic tenor of the title. Susan herself is, in terms of her life's commitments, somewhere between Nick and Frank. She's one of the finest comic actresses you'll find anywhere. She is married to another theatre artist, Foster Solomon, and they are the proud parents of two sons. She earned her Actors Equity card a few years ago, I think, in either a Barksdale or Theatre IV production. She is Richmond-based. She tries, and mostly succeeds, to earn her living exclusively with work in the theatre. As she'll tell you, it ain't easy.

One of the defining features of professional theatre in Central Virginia is that we're sort of betwixt and between. Ever since the collapse of TheatreVirginia, we haven't had a LORT theatre that uses full-time professional theatre artists almost exclusively. In my opinion, and I think I can be trusted on this one, Richmond doesn't have a LORT theatre today because Richmond cannot support a LORT theatre under current realities. When you add up the resources available in terms of contributions and ticket sales, and divide those resources among ten professionally-striving theatres, there simply is not enough money to elevate any one theatre to LORT status. If you want a #1 reason why TheatreVirginia went belly up, in my opinion, that's it.

So at Barksdale and Theatre IV you'll see a mix of AEA artists and non-union theatre professionals who earn their living working 9 to 5 somewhere else. Out of town professionals who come here to work are frequently stunned that we rehearse only in the evenings. Personally, I LOVE the mix, and think it's a strong part of what makes our theatre community so rich. The majority of theatre artists you'll meet in a Richmond theatre are REALLY invested in our community.

One of the reasons we have programs like Coffee & Conversations is so that we can talk about the unique aspects of Richmond theatre, and the impact these realities will have on the future of our artists, audiences and institutions. Everyone I know who comes to Coffee & Conversations has a REALLY good time. I hope you'll join us for this and subsequent programs, so that you can see what really goes on behind the scenes. We hope to see you there, sometime before 9:30 a.m. I know you'll be glad you came.

--Bruce Miller

Creasy Talks More about "Tenor" and Richmond Theatre

We're pleased that Frank Creasy, one of the leading actors in Lend Me a Tenor, agreed to talk with us about his experiences on and off stage. Both show shots are from Lend Me a Tenor (the first picture also features Aly Wepplo, the second also features Chris Stewart). This is Part 2 in a three-part interview with Mr. Creasy.

Q - Thanks again, Frank, for responding to all these questions. You've been in a lot of shows, and participated I'm sure in a lot of auditions when you weren't cast. What advice would you give to actors who feel like they audition and audition, and seldom get offered the roles they want?

A - The same advice I give to myself. Be ready to give your strongest audition initially so that you're invited to call backs. Listen carefully to the directions given during call backs. Come prepared to read the character you want to play in a variety of ways, based on what the director asks for. If you get to read several times, try it slightly differently each time. Perhaps most important, be ready to throw out everything you’ve prepared and do something completely different on the fly if requested.

You can’t control whether you’re too tall or short or skinny or fat or young or old for a role. Just be flexible, commit to your choices, and have fun. And by all means, be pleasant, friendly and courteous to everyone in the theatre. No one wants to work with someone who’s a pill or a pain in the neck.

Q - What's most fun about performing in Lend Me a Tenor?

A - I don’t think you'll have enough space to include all the things that are fun. Some highlights: the role (Saunders) is a gem; the script is extremely well written, every single character and scene; the actors I work with are absolutely first rate, top to bottom, and I love and respect what each one of them brings to the production. Our director, Scott Wichmann, put together an amazingly tight, funny, wonderful production, and behind the scenes, our stage manager Rick Brandt and our dresser Caron Sinnenberg keep things running seamlessly.

Q - Other than that Opening Night wine bottle, has anything else funny or unusual happened thus far in the run?

A - Usually things go smoothly, but with that much running around something is bound to happen. One night, as I ran into the bedroom with Max (Nick Ciavarella) in Act II, I pushed the door open and accidentally caught my jacket on the door handle, suddenly getting yanked backwards. In “Saunders fashion” I blamed Max and barked at him as if it was all his fault.

Q - What don't people in the rest of the world realize about Richmond theatre?

A - The vast amount of talent we have here. Truth be told, there are some folks at auditions or in some local productions and, honestly, I don’t believe they're all that wonderful. But then-- and this happens all the time--I'll see someone I've never seen before, and they just impress me greatly with their talent. All in all, it confirms for me how lucky I am to work so often with such talented, interesting, fun people.

Q - Do you prefer comedies or dramas, classical works or contemporary pieces, musicals or non-musicals? Why?

A - TOUGH question, and I know so many actors would say “Oh I love them all” and such...but if I had to choose one, I’d probably say contemporary comedies. I love Neil Simon and I love well written comedic roles and I love to hear audiences laugh, because then I KNOW they’re enjoying it. Hard to tell if they’re enjoying an intense drama until the curtain call and the applause lets you know where you stand.
Doing comedy well is really hard, because timing, delivery, expression and body language all have to come together in just the right way to tickle the vast majority of people. And some of those skills, sorry to say, are innate: you have to feel it. I don't think it can be taught.

Comedies don’t usually win lots of acting awards, but they’re tremendously challenging. They entertain and make people happy. What could be better than that?

(to be continued)

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)

New Actor Brings Positive Energy to "Lend Me a Tenor"

Posted by Bruce Miller
According to this morning's scale, I gained 1.8 pounds at yesterday's Opening Night cast party of Lend Me a Tenor. It was worth it. As always, Jennings Whiteway prepared a tasty table of treats for everyone to enjoy post-performance. But it was the good company and overall sense of celebration that prompted my indulgence. The show was TERRIFIC. All parties involved had one heck of a good time.

Allow me introduce you to one of the actors (a star of Lend Me a Tenor) who is actuating all this good cheer--Barksdale newcomer, Nick Ciavarella (pronounced Shiv-a-rel'-la).

Nick plays Max, the eager beaver young assistant to the Executive Director of the Cleveland Opera in 1934. Max is fervently in love with the director's daughter, and a definite divo wannabe.

Nick lives in NYC, where he is artistic director of Sound and Space Theatre, a new company that specializes in site-specific productions. He holds an MA in Classical Acting from the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London. While in England, he appeared in The Factory's production of Hamlet, touring throughout the UK.

We discovered Nick this summer when he ably starred with the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in Comedy of Errors (Antipholus of Syracuse) and Hamlet (Horatio). The Virginia Shakespeare Festival is presented each summer in Williamsburg under the direction of Christopher Owens, husband of Barksdale actress Tamara Johnson.

Casting often requires very specific qualities. For example, the role of Otello in the opera-within-the-play is described as huge, manly and intimidating. In several lines, the Lend Me a Tenor characters wax lyrical about Otello's great size and prowess. We knew that the actor who would play Tito Merelli (who would be cast as Otello in the opera-within-the-play) had to be tall and robust. Tito is played in our production by Joe Pabst.
Therefore the character of Max had to be of equal height, since Max and Tito must be mistaken for each, at extremely close quarters, several times during all the farcical goings on. (The picture above and to the left show Nick and Joe in their Otello costumes and makeup.)

At the same time, much is made of the fact that Max isn't large enough to play Otello, so we knew we needed an actor who was very tall but also very thin--someone who matched Tito's profile only after he donned considerable padding. Nick, God bless him, is tall and trim--exactly what we needed.

He also has all the other qualities we were looking for--leading man good looks, the ability to appear kind of nebbishy before his glasses and insecurities come off, great comic timing, and an overall ability to command the stage. Nick also appears to be right on the cusp between youthfulness and manliness--exactly where Max needs to be.

When our brilliant director, Scotty Wichmann, saw Nick's video audition and became aware of his abundant talents, he knew he'd found the right man for the job. We're very fortunate that Nick is joining us for this comic romp. We hope and trust this first gig in Richmond won't be his last.

During the run of Lend Me a Tenor, Nick is living in Bon Air in one of Theatre IV's five actor/intern houses. Actually, he's in the same house and room occupied by Jeff McCarthy during our summer run of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. When Nick arrived via train about a month ago, he graciously commented on how this was the best actor housing he'd ever been provided.

Little did any of us know that a week or so into rehearsals Nick and his new Bon Air home would be visited by that vixen Irene. Neither did we foresee that Nick's adopted neighborhood would be one of the last to be blessed with a restoration of power.

New to town, with no friends except the few he had just met, Nick lived ten days in the dark with no refrigeration or hot water. He learned his lines by candlelight, but also had the good sense to turn lemons into lemonade. "It was a blessing in disguise," he says. "It forced me to leave the house every morning and explore all of Richmond's many neighborhoods and attractions. I had a great time. Richmond now feels like home."

If you'd like to meet Nick (pictured to the left in a previous production of The Philadelphia Story) and experience firsthand his joie de vivre, call the Barksdale box office today at 282-2620 to purchase your tickets to our new comedy smash, Lend Me a Tenor. I know you'll be glad you did.

--Bruce Miller