Rumors- meet cast member Peter Halverson!
What have you learned about yourself in playing the role of “Ernie”? I’m really enjoying leaning into an acting role at a level I’ve not had to before. I'm finding something new in every performance, whether delivering a line, moving on stage, or reacting to another actor, and watching “Ernie” evolve and deepen, become more “real”, has been tremendously gratifying.
What do you want the audience to experience/take away from this show? Rumors is pure farce – fast-paced, filled with misunderstandings, mistaken identities, and brilliant one-liners. There’s depth, of course – Neil Simon’s works have always dealt with genuine emotions, relationships, and crises, even if humorously presented – but mostly we’re here to make people laugh, forget the troubles of the world for a few hours as they enjoy the silliness happening on stage. I also anticipate some will want to come back and watch it a second time, to revel in the asides and subtleties that they may have missed the first time around.
How does this show differ from other shows you have worked on? This is the first time I’ve been on stage without doing at least a bit of singing – my performance background is opera and musical theatre. It’s been an interesting experience to focus purely on acting, rather than vocal performance. I’m really enjoying it, and hope to continue to expand my non-musical repertoire. I’d also like to try my hand at dramas. Even though I really enjoy comedy, it would be interesting to play darker roles now and then.
Rumors is also the first production in many years when I’ve been fortunate to be on stage with my wife Janice. More often we trade off cast vs crew roles, she doing sound design when I’m on stage, myself helping with lighting in productions where she’s performing. But we’re both really singers and actors at our core, so being able to play roles together – and partners, no less – has been tremendously satisfying.
What is it like being back in the theater after the long Covid-19 hiatus? Did you do any theater during the Covid-19 shutdown? It’s been very gratifying to get back on stage in front of a live audience (even if we can’t see their full faces!), and thanks to LTA’s mandate that the cast and crew be fully vaccinated, we are largely free of the constraints (masking, distancing, etc.) that some of the previous productions have had to work under. During the worst of the COVID pandemic, when LTA was dark, I had the opportunity to act in a number of dramatic podcasts. Voice acting is very different from stage acting in a lot of ways – no lines to memorize, and if you fluff a line you can back up and try again, but you’re also forced to rely purely on your voice to convey emotion and action, no physicality – but I found it very fulfilling. Further, thanks to the generosity of the LTA board, we were able to record many of our performances live on LTA’s stage, so in a sense we were still doing theatre at LTA when no one else could. It was a memorable experience walking onto the stage that first recording session, being able to perform face-to-face (albeit six feet apart) was wonderful. You don’t always realize how much direct eye contact matters to an actor until you’ve had to perform in a virtual space, where everyone is always looking just a bit off-sightline.
How long have you been acting and what made you get involved in theatre? How did you get involved with LTA? I’ve been performing on-stage since my early teens, but much of that experience was in vocal performance – ensemble singing, opera, solo recitals, etc. I made the transition to community theatre about ten years ago. At first I only performed in musicals, but over the course of time I’ve shifted to more dramatic productions as I honed my acting skills. I've worked with a number of theatrical companies in Northern Virginia, but after my first show at LTA (as Sir Galahad in Spamalot!), it’s hard to imagine working anywhere else. I feel like LTA is my second home.
What advice would you give others who are interested in working in theatre? Just do it! Community theatres are always looking for new volunteers, whether performers, technical crew, or front-of-house roles. The actors are the most visible part of a production, but every single person plays a vital part, whether wielding a hammer, a paintbrush, a sewing needle, a prop, or a flashlight. And LTA has one of the most open, welcoming environments for everyone involved that I’ve experienced.
Comments
Post a Comment