Category: Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike

Aly Perry as 'Nina'

10/20/2014

What excites you about working on this play?

It just won the Tony Award for Best Play!

The pacing is sharp, the characters are vibrant. It is modern, old-fashioned, and topsy-turvy. Great comedy. Durang walks the fine line between seriousness and comedy with this play in particular. It is at once over-the-top, and also extremely real. A true delight.

What is your favorite line in the show?

"Beware Hootie Pie." - Cassandra

Is there anything about playing this role that intimidates you? Why?

Nina is a young, idealistic, bright eyed young woman who dreams of being an actress. She is absolutely sincere in her eagerness and her interest. The challenge is to bring that level of impressionability and awe to the stage without creating a caricature for comedy. In my past, I've been pegged as an ingénue (as is true for many performers, and young enthusiasts in general), and I aim to bring a depth to Nina's sweet wonder.

What would you like the audience to be thinking about after the show?

Hmm...Hopefully they have laughed and guffawed and grinned and felt yearning and acceptance and love... I suppose a question that could arise is: "What barriers have I built that prevent me from taking risks toward further joy?" That seems really heavy right now. Here's where I'm coming from: Several characters in the play are suspended from action within their own lives, and suddenly there is a ball of chaos that barrels through the living room and disrupts that suspension...Yes, so, it'd be lovely to hear that the play sparked a conversation around how we protect ourselves from our own bliss or contentment.

What made you want to work with Vermont Stage?

It is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Vermont Stage's actors, directors and designers. They are a company taking risks and bringing new kinds of material to the Burlington and Vermont area! It's a thrill.

Ellen McQueeney on playing 'Masha'

10/13/2014

Why should someone come to see this show?

Anyone who wants to laugh and have a good time should come to see this show! Christopher Durang is a master playwright who has crafted a wonderfully funny, moving play about complex characters who are now middle aged and questioning the choices they made in life.

What excites you about working on this show?

I am excited about working on this show because the play is so well written! Playing comedy is always a welcome challenge, too, and my castmates are very talented and a lot of fun to work with! I look forward to many performances with this fine group of actors...to find all the nuances of the characters and the play!

What character are you playing and how would you describe them to someone?

I am playing the role of Masha....sister of Vanya and Sonia...and the only sibling who "got out" of the family home and had a career and a life. Masha is a successful actress, and she is most famous for her "Sexy Killer" movies, but she deeply regrets not having had a career as a classical stage actress. She is very insecure, which she masks with her apparently large ego and her self-involvement. She loves nothing more than to talk about herself and her acting experiences....and she just cannot understand why she hasn't been able to hold onto any of her five husbands. In the play, she shows up with her very young "boy toy" boyfriend, Spike. Clearly, she is trying to recapture her youth and trying to make herself feel better about her life.

Is there anything about your character that you can relate to?

The only thing about my character that I can relate to is that, I too, am an actress....but the similarity stops there. While I have had a successful career as an actor, working regionally and off broadway, I have never known life as a celebrity, as Masha has. For this, I am actually grateful, as a life in the public eye can lead to great insecurity, disillusionment and despair. In Masha's case, she has never been able to stay in a steady relationship because of her success and her life choices, and this distresses her greatly.

Is there anything about playing this role that intimidates you?

The only thing that intimidates me about playing Masha is a bit of concern that the audience will see her as mean or evil, rather than just self involved. So, hopefully, as the story unfolds, she will be revealed as greatly flawed and insecure, and if I do my job correctly, perhaps the audience will feel some sympathy for her as they see how she is changed throughout the course of the play.

What is your favorite line in the show?

My favorite line in the play is Nina's line...."Oh, life is like a long, long pathway in the forest, filled with wonderful surprises ahead. Artistic fulfillment, fame, fortune....love. Do you agree?"

Ito Aghayere on playing 'Cassadra' in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

10/7/2014

What character are you playing and how would you describe her to someone?

I'm playing Cassandra, and I would describe her as...the benevolent know-it-all, the reluctant psychic, the under appreciated prophetess.

Is there anything about playing Cassandra that intimidates you?

Yes! I'm playing a woman that hears things. That alone is daunting! To be able to bring life and authenticity to the role of Cassandra is a challenge I look forward to. This character is a woman plagued by visions of the future in addition to the incessant need to rescue her employers from it. She's not crazy, she's cursed. She is determined to make the best of it. Her strong desire to change the future and her uncanny and unpredictable prescient abilities are both ironic and hilarious components of her personality that are grounded in an undeniable (albeit somewhat crazy) reality!

Is there anything about your character that you can relate to?

I'm a middle child in a very big family with loads of experience giving advice that's never taken!

Why should someone come to see this show?

Because you'll be laughing for 99% of the time.

What is your favorite line in the show?

"And Hootie Pie should be called Spawn of the Devil."

Andy Butterfield on playing 'Spike' in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

9/30/2014

What gets you excited about returning to work at Vermont Stage again after THE QUARRY?

Vermont Stage offers a completely professional and collaborative theater experience for all modes of theater artists. The production teams are first-rate and their efforts create a rehearsal environment anchored in trust and support, which allows for actor vulnerability and experimentation with bold choices. Once a VSC show opens, the smart and appreciative audiences, including the loyal season subscribers and dedicated board members, fill the seats and offer their participation in the collaboration, completing the circular flow of energy between actor and audience.

What character are you playing and how would you describe him to someone?

I'm playing Spike, an attention craving, aspiring actor. He's very loving, but not all there. There's a Seinfeld episode where Elaine dates a guy that Jerry calls a "Mimbo"...a male bimbo. That's Spike. Women, fitness, and food motivate most of his day-to-day decisions and he brings chaos into a room whenever he enters.

How have you been preparing to take on this role?

One of the requirements of the actor who gets the opportunity to play Spike is to have a believably fit body. So, in addition to my usual script analysis and character exploration, I've been training hard at Crossfit TT in South Burlington, and eating a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. As Spike says, "If you got it, flaunt it", so I've made a great effort towards that demand. My approach to character work generally starts from a physical place. Once I get the sense of a character in my body, their motivations and active choices are more intellectually accessible to me. With Spike, in particular, I've discovered that I personally connect with his athleticism and I can use that as a way into understanding the decisions he makes. It also gives me the opportunity to highlight the strong physical aspects of him in the performance.

What is your favorite line in the show?

There are so many great lines in this show. They're funny out of context, and even funnier in context. You should definitely see this show for the full effect, but in this specific moment, I guess my favorite line is, "No, I can just strip to my underwear...see you later babe, I'm gonna go cool off in the pond." Haha...soooo Spike.

What would you like the audience to be thinking about after the show?

I would like the audience to be thinking that their jaw and abs hurt because they couldn't stop smiling and laughing for the previous two hours.

Kraig Swartz on playing Vanya in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

9/17/2014

What character are you playing and how would you describe them to someone? I'm playing Vanya and I would describe him as a person who keeps the peace. He is surrounded by difficult/eccentric/insane/combative people, and his first priority is to prevent explosions. I think conflict upsets and exhausts him, and he therefore ignores his own emotions in order to deal with the emotions of his family....until he doesn't....

Is there anything about playing Vanya that you can relate to?

Of course. I'm the youngest child in my family, and is the case with many youngest children, my role in my family was always the mascot. My job was to keep the dinner conversation light, funny and free of conflict. If ever I sensed trouble brewing in the family, it was time for me to start the comedy, thus averting the tragedy. While Vanya is not the youngest sibling, he spends the whole play putting out interpersonal fires that keep flaring up all around him. Also, Vanya is dealing with getting older. I am too.....that's all I want to say about that...

What do you think this play is about?

Two things. Family and change. And how those things relate to and influence each other. We take on these roles in families. Often these roles are for the good of the family and initially beneficial. But if we're not careful, we get trapped in these roles and the years go by and suddenly we realize that we haven't really moved on with our lives. Emotionally or otherwise. And while breaking out of those old roles can be frightening, staying in them is not an option. Most of the characters in V&S&M&S are reaching that critical point in their lives, where the time for stasis is over and change (wanted and unwanted) is careening towards them. And then everyone goes nuts.

What is your favorite line in the show?

Of my own, it's: "Having professors for parents had it's drawbacks. Father was so angry when you didn't know something. But what 7 year old knows who wrote The Imaginary Invalid? Father became so enraged when I said Neil Simon. I, mean, I was 7!!!" But my favorite line in the entire play is Spike's, for it's sheer character-defining narcissistic weirdness: "But the unhappy orphanage lady thinks I'm a stud, that's nice." Genius.

Why should someone come to see this show?

Because it's freakin' hysterical and they will have a blast.

Aly Perry as 'Nina'

Ellen McQueeney on playing 'Masha'

Ito Aghayere on playing 'Cassadra' in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Andy Butterfield on playing 'Spike' in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Kraig Swartz on playing Vanya in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

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