7 day forecast
Stage preview: Actor Daniel Gerroll has been on the go since 'Chariots of Fire' in '81
-
Rebecca Harris and Daniel Gerroll during rehearsals this week for "Seminar. To see video accompanying this story, visit post-gazette.com.
Share with others:
Just hearing about "Seminar," Daniel Gerroll knew the lead would come his way. He had enjoyed success with other plays by writer Theresa Rebeck, and this seemed like a good fit.
"It's a tremendous piece. I knew as soon as it was announced on Broadway and my acquaintance, Alan Rickman, was doing it, I knew it would be a matter of time before I'd be doing it somewhere, so I didn't see it for that reason. I didn't want to be influenced," Mr. Gerroll says.
The call did come, from Tracy Brigden, artistic director of City Theatre and director of "Seminar" on the South Side theater's Main Stage.
Now Mr. Gerroll is in Pittsburgh for the first time to star as Leonard, a celebrated author who unleashes his sardonic wit while conducting a private workshop for four aspiring writers of various degrees of talent. Leonard is "a man of my age" (the actor is 61), an accomplished writer who has been through cycles of success and failure.
Deep into preparing for the opening Jan. 25 (previews begin Saturday), Mr. Gerroll was considering adopting some of Leonard's brutal tactics after having tried kinder, gentler methods in his own acting workshops.
"As the play unfolds, you realize that you can't coddle artists too much, you have to hold their feet to the fire. That's what the play is about ... the nature of how you bring the best out of somebody, given the fact that you cannot teach art, but you can encourage and tease something out."
And as Leonard, Mr. Gerroll gets to have fun with language.
Now that his children are grown (the youngest is 16), he has ventured far and wide from his Connecticut home for acting fulfillment. When the London-born actor relates his acting choices, the decisions often boil down to what is on the page.
Speaking of his time as a series regular on the USA Network show "The Starter Wife" in 2008, he says, "It was superbly written, and the character was fantastic. That was one of the first times I had as much fun acting [for screen] as I have had on a stage."
He's a fan of the sense of humor and wit of playwright Ms. Rebeck, the creator of TV's "Smash," and is fond of her knack for finding the humanity in flawed characters. The actor, whose honors include an Outer Critics Circle Award for Brian Friel's "Translations" and the Village Voice's Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance, won a rave in 1993 for Ms. Rebeck's "Loose Knit" at off-Broadway's Second Stage. "The triumph of Miles, whom Mr. Gerroll embodies with a magisterial poise perfect for the role, is that he is as charming as he is monstrous," Steven Holden wrote in The New York Times.
"What is particularly great about [Ms. Rebeck's] writing is she puts terrific, great gobs of words into an actor's mouth, particularly in this role, because he is a writer. She writes with great originality, and it's actually terrific to be able to say some very long set-piece speeches. ... Actors traditionally love doing Shakespeare for a very similar reason."
Mr. Gerroll's name may not come readily to mind, but if you've watched TV or movies, you probably know his face, perhaps going as far back as "Chariots of Fire," the Academy Award winner in which he played middle-distance runner Henry Stallard. Most bios of Mr. Gerroll identify him first with that 1981 movie.
"I'm glad. There was at a time when on IMDB the first thing that came up was a soap opera I did for two minutes. [The movie] was a great deal of fun and I was in the best shape of my life," he recalls. "Then it won the Oscar, which we found just amazing."
In the three decades since, his career has taken him on and off Broadway and London's West End and screens large and small. He has had guest-starring roles on UK and American television series such as "Ugly Betty," "Blue Bloods" and the mid-1990s drama "Sisters," which starred his wife, Patricia Kalember.
Where: Main Stage, City Theatre, South Side.
When: Saturday through Feb. 10. Previews: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 8 p.m. Thursday. From Jan. 25: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Also, 1 p.m. Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 (no evening performance Feb. 6).
Tickets: $35-$55; 412-431-CITY (2489) or citytheatrecompany.org.
Along the way, he has learned a thing or two about the differences between acting for stage and screen, which he likens to the differences between a carpenter and a metal worker.
"I remember reading the great English actor Alec Guinness saying, 'I do nothing.' Well, you try doing that, and the director says, 'Would you do something.' So you learn a technique."
While honing his technique and lines for "Seminar," he was lured to star in the world premiere of "Misery," a stage adaptation of the Stephen King thriller by two-time Oscar winner William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men"). That show at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa., wrapped in early December, and he has been concentrating on "Seminar," with a break to be home for the holidays and his wife's birthday.
"I've known Tracy Brigden from New York and she directed my wife in a play, so I knew I wanted to work with her," he said of coming to Pittsburgh. "So when she asked me to do this quite a while ago, I committed well in advance because I do a lot of work in Minneapolis [home to the Guthrie Theater] as well as Los Angeles; Minneapolis is another sort of artistic home. I'd heard so much about Pittsburgh and about this particular theater company, that it has a certain edge to it, so it was something I wanted to do."
"Seminar" ran for 191 performances through May 6 of last year on Broadway, with Mr. Rickman replaced by Jeff Goldblum near the end of the run. It has been finding its way into regional theaters, with City giving its first production in Pittsburgh.
Asked if he prefers originating a role, Mr. Gerroll answers, "My training was very traditional in the classics in London, and that's fully what I expected to be doing. I just stumbled into one particular brand-new play in London that ran for five years, and suddenly, I'm a new-play actor, and when I came here, they'd say, there's a new play from Britain, would you like to do it? I did my first Shakespeare last year at the Guthrie and it was like, wow, I remember this."
In "Seminar," his cohorts on stage are Andy Bean, Nadia Gan, Rebecca Harris and Charles Socarides, all new to him but with theater friends in common.
"We've got a grip on the play already," he said as rehearsals were winding toward previews. "We're a very fast bunch of kids."
'Seminar'
Where: Main Stage, City Theatre, South Side.
When: Saturday through Feb. 10. Previews: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 8 p.m. Thursday. From Jan. 25: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Also, 1 p.m. Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 (no evening performance Feb. 6).
Tickets: $35-$55; 412-431-CITY (2489) or citytheatrecompany.org.
'Seminar'
Where: Main Stage, City Theatre, South Side.
When: Saturday through Feb. 10. Previews: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 8 p.m. Thursday. From Jan. 25: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Also, 1 p.m. Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 (no evening performance Feb. 6).
Tickets: $35-$55; 412-431-CITY (2489) or citytheatrecompany.org.
First Published January 18, 2013 12:00 am
