Dawn Westbrook...Questionnaire...'Nuff Said

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Dawn Westbrook, our hysterical director of Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, has filled out the new questionnaire! This woman is a riot! So I'm just gonna let it speak for herself. And if you wanna see her hysterics onstage, come check out RD at Theatre IV, opening THIS FRIDAY!

Hometown: Sandston, Virginia

Audition song: "Don’t Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl

Special skills:Right now??? Doctoring up gold coins to make them shiny.

Favorite word: Cozy

First show ever saw: Professional would have been at Theatre VA and I think it was Tintypes

If you could go back in time and catch one show (Broadway or otherwise) what would it be?: The original cast, opening night of A Chorus Line .

Favorite show tune: I love “The Story Goes on” (if sung well)… from Baby.

Least favorite word: No

Favorite play: I loved watching Take Me Out sometimes I can’t tell if I enjoy great direction and magical moments, or the writing better. It is GREAT when they are both present. This one had both!

Favorite musical: I absolutely ADORE Avenue Q!!!!!

Most played song on your iPod (or CD player): "Love is Gone" at the gym or running.

Last book you read: Eat, Love, Pray but I am currently reading Obama’s newest book The Audacity of Hope.

Sound or noise you love: Mommie!!! Being screamed by my daughter when I come home.

Must-see TV show: My husband and I love American Idol, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it this season due to rehearsal conflicts. My favorite show is Entourage.

Last good movie you saw: Juno, which was recommended by my friend Jacquie O’Connor. My husband and I were able to finagle a date during rehearsals and one of my Friday nights off we caught dinner and this movie. Made for a great date night. And again…I’m back to “cozy” and “good direction and writing” all in one evening. Nothing better, my friend, nothing better.

Sound or noise you hate: The word NO. I hate saying it and I HATE hearing it.

Worst job you ever had: Working for a man I didn’t respect at Northwestern Mutual Service with 9-5 hours.

First stage kiss: South Pacific in High School with former Richmonder R.L. Rowsey

Worst costume ever: There are worst designs and then there are one’s that just didn’t flatter. I think I’ll leave this one alone.

What turns you on (creatively, spiritually, emotionally)? Creatively would have to be “Yes, I think we can do that!” Spiritually would have to be when justice and harmony are present and make their energies known to the universe. Emotionally …is a little more difficult to describe, but I think it’s when I FEEL the presence of justice, harmony and/or love in a moment, because I think that gives us a glimmer into what GOD is all about.

Billy-Christopher Has Surrendered to the Questionnaire

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

My turn! (Makes me think of Bronson Pinchot in the Broadway revival of Putting It Together when he came out to sing "Buddy's Blues" from Follies. Anybody? ...Nobody?)

I thought I wouldn't do the questionnaire, since it might seem a bit odd to do it and post it myself. And my boss (the fabulous Sara Marsden, Director of Marketing) also thought it was odd), but I figured what the heck. I'm in a show daggone it; and the mood struck me, so here it is: (Just ignore the rather dated headshot there at the top.)

Hometown: Campbellsville, KY

Audition song: "Not a Day Goes By" from Merrily We Roll Along (for EVERYTHING!!!) I auditioned for a pop show in NY with this song and the casting director asked me to learn a pop song and he would like to see me again. Very nice guy.

Got my Equity card singing this song in the style of Huck Finn!!!

Special skills: hehehe...a bad Katherine Hepburn imitation. And I can eat popcorn out of my nose without using my hands.

Favorite word: lascivious

First show ever saw: Cats (ech...ech...sorry, hairball)

If you could go back in time and catch one show (Broadway or otherwise) what would it be?: First replacements in Sweeney Todd: Dorothy Loudon (Tony winner as the original Miss Hannigan) and George Hearn

Favorite show tune: "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables; such an incredibly well-crafted piece.

Least favorite word: How about phrase? "You're too young." I've heard that several times lately. Favorite play: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (who turns 80 on March 12!!!)

Favorite musical: Oh...so hard to choose... Godspell, Les Mis, Jekyll and Hyde (concept version, not that mess that ended up onstage), Sweeney Todd, ...

Most played song on your iPod (or CD player): currently anything on Patti Lupone's The Lady with the Torch album

Last book you read: Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. Disturbing. Wish that I hadn't started, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.

Sound or noise you love: a creek

Must-see TV show: Golden Girls (hehehe)

Last good movie you saw: Across the Universe (I bow to Julie Taymor)

Sound or noise you hate: Macy Gray singing.

Worst job you ever had: McDonald's (four times; three different McDonald's), which was rivaled only by a theatre I did summerstock with, but we'll let that lie.

First stage kiss: I was 21, she was 15 (and in her first professional production). I had just moved from Kentucky to take my first fulltime professional acting job in The Diary of Anne Frank. She remains to be one of the most professional actors I have ever worked with.

Worst costume ever: The Secret Garden. Dickon. Knickers. Vest. Neither of which are very flattering to guys that are not small. I was quite not small then.

What turns you on (creatively, spiritually, emotionally)?: A great connection. Onstage or off. Indefinable. But you can feel it when it happens. Especially when you're sitting in an audience watching it happen...or sitting across a table from that person and it's happening.

Lady Camilla Bats Her Lashes

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Corey Davis (most recently seen in Theatre IV's Stuart Little as well as Home for the Holidays at Barksdale Theatre and the fabulous cabarets at the Empire Theatre...and as Lauren in the world premiere of Bill C. Davis' Austin's Bridge at the Firehouse Theatre Project) portrays (among others) Lady Camilla, one of the Ladies in Waiting that flirt with the Duke in Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter.

Hometown: Richmond, VA baby!

Audition song: open to suggestions

Special skills: backwards alphabet the say can I

Favorite word: facetious (the only word in the English language with all 5 vowels in their correct order)

First show ever saw: ever, Secret Garden - in NY, Footloose

If you could go back in time and catch one show (Broadway or otherwise) what would it be?: As a child, my family had Peter Pan on tape, starring Mary Martin. I would love to go back to my childhood and get to see that in real life

Favorite show tune: "Could I Leave You?" from Follies or "When I Look at You" from Scarlet Pimpernel

Least favorite word: moist....eww

Favorite play: Curious Savage

Favorite musical: RENT, I know that's stereotypical, but it's amazing

Most played song on your iPod (or CD player): at the moment, anything from Alison Krauss or Antigone Rising

Last book you read: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister [BC NOTE: by Gregory Maguire, who also wrote Wicked]

Sound or noise you love: my husbands voice....hehe

Must-see TV show: Lost and Project Runway, though my favorite of all time is Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman! (I know, I know)

Sound or noise you hate: pink pencil erasers...it makes my teeth hurt

Worst job you ever had: Selling cookies at the mall

First stage kiss: Senior year of high school as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Worst costume ever: In my eighth grade chorus, we had these hideous outfits - big glittery gold tops with sequins and poofy sleeves with pants straight from an M.C. Hammer video

What turns you on (creatively, spiritually, emotionally)?: kindness

Rumpelstiltskin Weaves Some Magic

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

The new, improved(?) questionnaire has arrived! I have combined questions from James Lipton's adaptation of Pivot's questionnaire (featured on Inside the Actor's Studio), added several questions from Playbill.com's Cue & A, and decided to see how things play without pictures.

Our first interviewee is David Janeski who plays Rumpelstiltskin in the American premiere of Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter at Theatre IV (opening next Friday).

So here it goes!

Hometown: Haymarket, VA. It used to be nowhere. Now it’s where Disney got kicked out, now holds the title of first outpost of DC Traffic. Thank you over development without infrastructure. Grr.

Audition song: I should have one shouldn’t I? I don’t parade myself as a “musical theatre actor;” I think not having a song repertoire is my subconscious way of keeping that. I once sang 8 bars at a 16 bar audition. I offered to sing it twice. They declined.

Special skills: EVERYONE involved in a production has special skills. Skills like imagination, promptness, teamwork

Favorite word: Whatever my line is :)

First show ever saw: It was a Langston Hughes something at the Kennedy Center

If you could go back in time and catch one show (Broadway or otherwise) what would it be?: Somewhat hesitantly I would go back and see a performance that happened in Richmond December 26th 1811 entitled “Raymond and Agnes...”, during which the scenery overhead caught fire and burned the place to the ground in

Favorite show tune: Aw really? You know not all of us are in love with musicals. I’ll go with “Till There Was You,” the Beatles version.

Least favorite word: Words mispronounced. ie: Exspecially.

Favorite play: I think this answer for most of us is influenced by the latest plays we’ve read. In that regard I’ll say An Enemy Of The People Ibsen w/ Miller

Favorite musical: Ragtime

Most played song on your iPod (or CD player): Eisley, "Many Funerals." It’s the 1st song on their latest album entitled Combinations.

Last book you read: 1491 by Charles C. Mann. It explores the pre-Colombian societies in the Americas and how they rivaled and even surpassed those of Eurasia.

Sound or noise you love: The tearing of a perforated edge.

Must-see TV show: Frankly, none of them. Aside from a football or baseball game I don’t watch television.

Last good movie you saw: Stardust

Sound or noise you hate: Screeching brakes; I hope nothing serious happened.

Worst job you ever had: I worked as a surveyor for a couple of summers. I carried a compound bucket full of wooden stakes, a small sledge hammer, radio, 5’ metal pole for shooting topography, and drug it all through briars, bogs, and wherever else was still undeveloped in northern Virginia in the late 1990’s. A wasp stung my eyelid; an hour later it looked like I was hiding a golf ball under there. Woo fun!

First stage kiss: I played Romeo in college in a production directed by Richmonder Jack Parrish. That stands as my only stage kiss.

Worst costume ever: Worst as in didn’t fit the show, poorly constructed, I would never wear it but on stage? As Puck in college I wore fur overalls cut for a flood

What turns you on (creatively, spiritually, emotionally)? Wit coupled with intelligence.

Eric Evans Gets Unstuck from the Flagpole Just Long Enough to Lick "The Questionnaire"

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Eric Evans, who will be seen in Theatre IV's production of A Christmas Story opening this Friday as Schwartz...you know...the kid that gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole?...answers "The Questionnaire." You may have seen Eric recently in The Member of the Wedding in Barksdale Theatre's Signature Season or in 365 Days/365 Plays at Barksdale Theatre. An incredibly astute and intelligent actor and fantastic to work with, be sure to catch Eric in A Christmas Story at the historic Empire Theatre November 30 - December 23.

On to the questions! (and the answers...)

1. What is your favorite word?

Serendipity

2. What is your least favorite word?

Hate

3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?

Creatively. Doing a play, or what not with acting.

4. What turns you off?
Out of the three? Spiritually, nothing wrong with it, just out of the three.

5. What sound or noise do you love?
The sound of a typewriter

6. What sound or noise do you hate?
An alarm clock

7. What is your favorite curse word?
S*** or B*** (honesty people)

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Novelist

9. What profession would you not like to do?
Electrician

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Finally, he's arrived!" something like that

Oh, yes. Those are Bernard Pivot's questions that James Lipton asks each guest on Inside the Actor's Studio! Doesn't every theatre person dream ofbeing asked these?!!!
Abso-frekin-lutly...Was that a rhetorical question?

A Christmas Story, Adapted by Philip Grecian runs November 30 - December 23 at the historic Empire Theatre. Get your tickets today! 344-8040

Ralphie's Dad Drives Away with the Pivot/Lipton Questionnaire

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin


Theatre IV's stage production of the motion picture classic, A Christmas Story, opens on November 30. Featured in this incredibly exciting production is "Old Man," Ralphie's dad, portrayed by Gordon Bass, recently seen as the Wizard in Theatre IV's The Wizard of Oz. "Ralphie's Dad" has shared with me his answers to the James Lipton questionnaire that he asks all of his guests on Inside the Actor's Studio.

So here goes:

1. What is your favorite word?
Simoniz
It's a brand of car wax. I just love polishing the hood of my car.

2. What is your least favorite word?
Clinker, like the clinkers that get hung in the furnace in the basement and I have to go down and extricate them.

3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
A new furnace.

4. What turns you off?
Bumpuse Hounds...the neighbor's dogs. They attack me everytime I come to the house. And they only attack me. They don't bother anyone else.

5. What sound or noise do you love?
The smooth purr of an Oldsmobile engine.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?
The Bumpuse Hounds.

7. What is your favorite curse word?
Cushlamochree

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Race car driver, I think.

9. What profession would you not like to do?
Dogcatcher

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

"Cushlamochree!"

Come check out Ralphie's Dad and all your favorite characters in Theatre IV's live stage production of A Christmas Story playing November 30 - December 23 at the historic Empire Theatre!

Snowbell...errr...I mean Catherine Dudley answers "The Questionnaire"

Catherine Dudley, who is playing Snowbell (the cat), along with Doctor, Miss Swenson, Repairman, and others, in Theatre IV's upcoming production of Stuart Little, paws her way around the questionnaire that James Lipton asks his guests on Inside the Actor's Studio. Lipton's questionnaire is taken from Bernard Pivot's questionnaire that he used to ask his guests on Bouillon de Culture.

So here goes:

1. What is your favorite word?

Quintessential- it is so much fun to say, I can’t stand it. You can punch both words individually and it’s even more fun to say. “QUint- ESSSSSential!”

2. What is your least favorite word?

M-O-I-S-T- I even have to spell it it cringes me out so much! there is nothing more foul to me than that word! It literally makes my skin crawl!


3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?

Spiritually- a person who isn’t afraid to walk out what they believe

Emotionally- someone who truly listens- not a passifying listening, but truly listening!


4. What turns you off?

There are an unbelievable amount of things that turn me off!

Gratuitous cussing, coffee breath (even though I love coffee- all I ask is- just brush your teeth or gargle Listerine! Something, please!), arrogance, ignorance, lying, and mayonnaise!

5. What sound or noise do you love?

Unimpressive, I know, but the sound of a car driving over a metal bridge! I love that noise! I always turn my radio down when I get to one! Makes me smile!

But, really and truly- the sound of my nephews laughing and talking! There is nothing better in the world! Those sweet little, squeaky voices- precious!

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

Styrofoam! Not like the little packing peanuts- big sheets of Styrofoam! Breaking, crunching, tearing- doesn’t matter! That sound is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard!

7. What is your favorite curse word? (have it at it. I obviously won't post it for real, but in some approved somewhat censored fashion)

As mentioned before, I am not a cusser! (now, that’s not to say that the time I dropped boiling water on my foot that something didn’t come flying out! I am woman enough to admit that it did!) but as a general rule my cussing is fairly PG! I LOVE “dang judy!” and “shut your face!”

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

I am actually finishing school now to become one- an American Sign Language interpreter! It stole my heart! It would be cool to be a glass blower though! They make some beautiful stuff!

9. What profession would you not like to do?

A mortician or a septic tank cleaner! (although I would go into ANY septic tank with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs!)


10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

First and foremost, I believe heaven does exist and I hope and pray that I walk my faith well enough that God will say to me, “Well done good and faithful servant!” it’s a daily battle though!

--Catherine Dudley