“...The best privilege for me as an actor is to get to speak those words, the best words ever written. To get to speak them and hopefully move a modern audience with something that was written hundreds of years ago.”
AG: Andrew Goldwasser
AH: Adam Higgins
AH
Andrew, how did you get into theater?
AG
When I was younger I always enjoyed it, but I never really seriously considered it as a career until I went to college. I went to Tulane studying law, but I wasn’t enjoying it, and I decided to have an extracurricular activity, something I knew I would enjoy. I auditioned for a play-- I did it and thought ‘Y'know, this is all I'm really enjoying about college, so why not study the thing you love?' So I transferred to the University of Arizona (where they have a good theater department) and I haven’t looked back since.
AH
What professional experiences have brought you to where you are now?
AG
I would say the internship at Milwaukee Rep was my first big professional job. I mean it was only an internship, but coming right out of college I did that and working there at one of the biggest and best regional theaters in the country, on the job training is better than anything you could ask for, and getting to see how they work. That was still probably the most formative experience I've had in theater. I met Sandy Robbins of the PTTP, where I study now, and he directed one show I was in (The Voysey Inheritance) at Milwaukee Rep, and I liked him and his way of working. After the Rep I worked in California at PCPA (Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts) and it was a wonderful mix of musical, contemporary and classical theater.
AH
What drew you to classical theater program like the PTTP?
AG
Arizona’s one of the best places (I think) to go for musical theater, but I felt like I could work more on my classical experience. When I left I saw people speaking Shakespeare's words, and I was thinking 'Gosh, I don't really have the artistry to do that', and so I wanted to go to a training program that was really known for that kind of work, because the best privilege for me as an actor is to get to speak those words, the best words ever written. To get to speak them and hopefully move a modern audience with something that was written hundreds of years ago. I think that's the power of t
heater, so I'd like to just spend the rest of my life doing that, and I'd be pretty happy.
AH
What are the roles that you’ll be playing this year at TSF?
AG
I'm playing Chrysale in The Learned Ladies, then I'm playing Thurio in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Duke Frederick in As You Like It.
AH
What excites you about these parts you're going to be playing this year?
AG
"I just finished a production of Two Gents where I played Valentine... so approaching the same play from a completely different perspective should be a blast. Duke Frederick is not a big role, but it is always fun to play someone with a little bit of 'evil' in them and I look forward to that and I played Touchstone in As You... at the University of Delaware in 2008. And Chrysale is the longest of my roles this summer and it is my first time really having a lot to do in a Moliere play. It is terribly exciting just to read the play and see what a comic genius Moliere was and how funny the rhymed translation we are doing is... I am looking forward to this summer!"
Andrew, how did you get into theater?
AG
When I was younger I always enjoyed it, but I never really seriously considered it as a career until I went to college. I went to Tulane studying law, but I wasn’t enjoying it, and I decided to have an extracurricular activity, something I knew I would enjoy. I auditioned for a play-- I did it and thought ‘Y'know, this is all I'm really enjoying about college, so why not study the thing you love?' So I transferred to the University of Arizona (where they have a good theater department) and I haven’t looked back since.
AH
What professional experiences have brought you to where you are now?
AG
I would say the internship at Milwaukee Rep was my first big professional job. I mean it was only an internship, but coming right out of college I did that and working there at one of the biggest and best regional theaters in the country, on the job training is better than anything you could ask for, and getting to see how they work. That was still probably the most formative experience I've had in theater. I met Sandy Robbins of the PTTP, where I study now, and he directed one show I was in (The Voysey Inheritance) at Milwaukee Rep, and I liked him and his way of working. After the Rep I worked in California at PCPA (Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts) and it was a wonderful mix of musical, contemporary and classical theater.
AH
What drew you to classical theater program like the PTTP?
AG
Arizona’s one of the best places (I think) to go for musical theater, but I felt like I could work more on my classical experience. When I left I saw people speaking Shakespeare's words, and I was thinking 'Gosh, I don't really have the artistry to do that', and so I wanted to go to a training program that was really known for that kind of work, because the best privilege for me as an actor is to get to speak those words, the best words ever written. To get to speak them and hopefully move a modern audience with something that was written hundreds of years ago. I think that's the power of t
heater, so I'd like to just spend the rest of my life doing that, and I'd be pretty happy.AH
What are the roles that you’ll be playing this year at TSF?
AG
I'm playing Chrysale in The Learned Ladies, then I'm playing Thurio in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Duke Frederick in As You Like It.
AH
What excites you about these parts you're going to be playing this year?
AG
"I just finished a production of Two Gents where I played Valentine... so approaching the same play from a completely different perspective should be a blast. Duke Frederick is not a big role, but it is always fun to play someone with a little bit of 'evil' in them and I look forward to that and I played Touchstone in As You... at the University of Delaware in 2008. And Chrysale is the longest of my roles this summer and it is my first time really having a lot to do in a Moliere play. It is terribly exciting just to read the play and see what a comic genius Moliere was and how funny the rhymed translation we are doing is... I am looking forward to this summer!"
(images; headshot by Brian Dally, PTTP As You Like It photo Mark Corkins with Andrew Goldwasser by Bill Browning, Two Gentlemen of Verona photo by Bill Browning)
No comments:
Post a Comment