1998-2003
"Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Will us to wear ourselves and never rest..."
— Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine
After graduating first in my class, I entered Princeton University in the fall of 1998, sure I’d become an academic.
I loved theater, but writing and acting for the stage seemed like a crazy thing to do with your life. (It still does.)
By the time I graduated, I’d directed two shows and appeared in over thirty more. This wasn’t as improbable as it sounds: Theatre Intime, Princeton University Players, Princeton Shakespeare Company, and the theater department all put up multiple shows each year.
Most Princeton theater was not only student-performed, but student-directed, student-designed, and student-produced. That meant I had access to a dizzying variety of projects, but limited exposure to experienced practitioners.
By spring 2003, a sort of experienced practitioner myself, I finally knew who I was, and who I wanted to be.
I moved to New York that fall.
director/choreographer Amanda Whitehead
FIRST LADY SUITE
College Production (Musical)
October, 1998
music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa, dir. Amanda Whitehead
with Catherine Keyser, Cliff Sofield, and Giselle Woo
Role: Ike Eisenhower
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
My college acting career began and ended with musicals by Michael John LaChiusa, a composer-lyricist in the groundbreaking, character-driven tradition of Stephen Sondheim.
The show was controversial at Princeton University Players, at war with itself over whether to stick with the "classic" musicals everyone knows or to explore "experimental" new shows like this one.
In a way, that same ambivalence between tradition and innovation, the high-profile and the under-the-radar, would characterize my entire career.
Before First Lady Suite, I'd never heard of LaChiusa, but by my senior year, I knew not only his work, but the man himself.
Theatre Intime
TARTUFFE
College Production
October 15-24, 1998
by Moliere, trans. Richard Wilbur, dir. Marlo Hunter
with Samara Abrams-Primack, Mary Bonner Baker, Todd Barry (Orgon), Dan Cryer (Tartuffe), Tommy Dewey (Damis), Adam Friedman, Suzanne Houston, and Karron Graves
Role: Valère
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
My first-rate Tartuffe castmate Tommy Dewey was savaged in a student-written review for "cross[ing] the line between farcical and irritating."
Tommy had the last laugh. He's had a successful TV and film career, most recently as a series regular on Hulu's Casual.
Reviews: Town Topics (or text-only here)
THE MOUSETRAP
College Production
February 18-March 6, 1999
by Agatha Christie, dir. Jennie Klein
with Tommy Dewey and Lee Spangler
Role: Major Metcalf
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
My first English accent.
I’d need the practice before launching into Stoppard’s Arcadia next.
from back left: Mike Boyle, Kurt Uy, Adam Feldman, Dale Ho, Nick Merritt, Ben, T.P. Roche, Katie Jamieson, Pepper Binkley, Karron Graves; in front: Lee Spangler, Marlo Hunter, Kate Callahan
ARCADIA
College Production
April 15-24, 1999
by Tom Stoppard, dir. Marlo Hunter
with Mike Boyle (Brice), Pepper Binkley (Chloe), Kate Callahan (Hannah), Adam Friedman (Noakes), Karron Graves (Thomasina), Dale Ho (Bernard), Katie Jamieson (Croom), Nick Merritt (Septimus), T.P. Roche (Jellaby), Lee Spangler (Gus), and Kurt Uy (Chater)
Role: Valentine Coverly
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
When I first saw Arcadia at Playmakers Rep in 1996, it made a deep impression on me. Bursting with wit, intelligence and heart, Arcadia somehow unites subjects as disparate as chaos theory, Romantic literature, and landscape gardening. It celebrates the art in science and the science in art. Its ambition and scope are breathtaking.
When Princeton mounted the show three years later, I couldn't wait to be a part of it. It ended up being — with Sweeney Todd — one of the best things I did in college. One review said there hadn’t been a show to equal it at Theatre Intime “since a celebrated production of Equus half a generation ago”.
Marlo is now a professional director; Nick, Karron, Pepper, and Kurt all went on to top-tier grad acting programs; and Dale is a major voting rights advocate for the ACLU.
actor/director Nick Merritt
HENRY IV, PART 1
College Production
March 1999
by William Shakespeare, dir. Nick Merritt
Roles: Lancaster, Mortimer, Francis
Princeton Shakespeare Company (Princeton University)
My first Shakespearean play.
Henry IV also marked the first time I had to differentiate multiple roles in a single production, something I'd return to in The Bible: Abridged, Tiny Dynamite, Goldor $ Mythyka, and Peter and the Starcatcher.
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN
ARE DEAD
College Production
September 23-October 2, 1999
by Tom Stoppard, dir. Ted Dorsey
with Todd Barry (The Player), Kate Callahan (Gertrude), Tommy Dewey (Rosencrantz), and Jake Ruddiman (Guildenstern)
Role: Hamlet
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
At one point in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the title characters come across Hamlet silently contemplating some dark and unknown matter. Reasoning that he was likely weighing whether "To be or not to be", our director asked me to silently speak the words of the world's most famous soliloquy with my back to the audience.
I still maintain it's my best work ever.
YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN
College Production (Musical)
October 21-23, 1999
by Clark Gesner (music, lyrics and book), dir. Cliff Sofield and Ryan Sawchuk
with Cristy Lytal (Lucy)
Role: Linus
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
B.D. Wong had lisped his way through Linus in the recent Broadway revival, something I lifted for our production. When the show's author Clark Gesner came to see us, he had warm words for every other actor in the cast.
To me he said, "I hope that doesn't become the way it's done now."
ASSASSINS
College Production (Musical)
February 24-March 4, 2000
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman
dir. Ben Beckley and Cliff Sofield
with Charles Alden (Proprietor), Micah Baskir (Oswald), Stephen Feyer, Kristin Long (Ensemble), Vanessa Rodriguez (Ensemble), Devin Sidell (Fromme), Sujan Trivedi (Ensemble), Ari Silver and Natasha Badillo (Ensemble)
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
My directorial debut.
In high school, I'd created a self-directed independent study focused entirely on Stephen Sondheim. When I got married in 2015, I walked down the aisle to “Sunday” and based my vows on “Finishing The Hat”.
There's no writer who matters more to me.
THE DUCK VARIATIONS
College Production
May 25-28, 2000
by David Mamet, dir. Sarah Rodriguez
Theatre Intime (Princeton)
Better known for his use of another four-letter word ending in “uck,” David Mamet also wrote Duck Variations,
an introspective little one act that follows two aging friends sitting on a park bench, contemplating the lives of mallards.
STONEWALL COUNTRY
Regional Production (Musical)
July 6-August 5, 2000
by Robin and Linda Williams (music, lyrics and book), dir. Brian Desmond
Role: Henry Douglas
Theater at Lime Kiln
A biographical musical about Lexington, Virginia's hometown hero, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson, Stonewall Country played for twenty consecutive summers at Lime Kiln.
Though the score is terrific and the book engaging, I felt uneasy. This was my third musical about the Civil War (after Shenandoah and Red Badge), and all three had ignored or downplayed the horror of slavery.
In 2005, artistic director John Healey, weary of remounting Stonewall Country summer after summer, dared to program a season without it. The decision was a financial disaster, and Lime Kiln closed its doors that fall.
"Stonewall Country," as sung by Robin and Linda Williams
MACBETH
Regional Production
August 10-August 26, 2000
by William Shakespeare, dir. Brian Desmond
with Tom Anderson (Hecate), Cary Beckelheimer, Lynn Blackburn, T.J. Edwards (Macduff), Brian Hemmingsen (Macbeth), Brandon Hope, J.J. Johnson, Kathryn Kelley, Tom King, Dori Legg, Gregory Lush, Ginger McNeese, Francis McWilliams, Hugh Nees (Banquo), Michael Oakley (Malcolm), Drew Ross, Cintia Sutton, Chris Van Cleave, Corey Volovar and Blair Williams
Roles: Donalbain, Menteith
Theater at Lime Kiln
A beautiful outdoor venue, Theater at Lime Kiln is open to the elements.
During our final dress for Macbeth, dark clouds began to mass above us. No sooner had Macbeth (Brian Hemmingsen) bemoaned that life was "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury" than we heard a deafening thunderclap, as if in reply.
"Signifying nothing," Brian added. And the rain came down.
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
College Production
November 2000
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, dir. Al Gordon
with Francis McWilliams and Blair Williams
Role: Joseph Surface
Washington and Lee University
While taking a year off from Princeton, I took a couple of classes at my hometown university Washington and Lee, and I auditioned for their fall play.
Our brilliant costume designer Barbara Bell created period-perfect Restoration-era wigs, which particularly benefited my character, an immaculately bewigged hypocrite intent to seduce and destroy.
(Barbara and I would reunite decades later, for Jordan at Northern Stage.)
Al Gordon, the famously intense head of the Washington and Lee theater program, was an uncompromising perfectionist. He handed me a script in which he had underlined every single word he wanted me to emphasize.
In one performance, frustrated Joseph’s nefarious plans had been foiled, I snatched off my now-crooked wig and hurled it to the ground. The audience roared — a reaction I actually found a little depressing: I'd never managed to get that kind of response from my lines!
PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE
College Production
February 27-March 10, 2001
by Steve Martin, dir. Micah Baskir
with Jeff Kitrosser (Einstein), John McMath, Michael Ritter (Elvis), and John Vennema
Role: Pablo Picasso
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
Struggling with a serious depressive episode, I took a year off in the middle of college.
In January 2001, I returned to Princeton's campus, crashed on a friend's couch, and focused entirely on student theater. I’m sure the university administrators would have put a stop to it if they'd ever found out.
Since Antonio Banderas was from Picasso's hometown, I watched every Banderas movie I could get my hands on to get Picasso’s accent just right.
Reviews: The Daily Princetonian
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
College Production (Musical)
March 29-April 7, 2001
music, lyrics and book by Rupert Holmes, dir. Sujan Trivedi
with Natasha Badillo, Jeff Kitrosser and Josh Robinson (Chairman)
Role: John Jasper
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
John Jasper is a brooding choir master whose winning smile masks a murderous, opium-fueled psychosis.
Playing Joseph Surface a few months before was great practice for Jasper, and both roles gave me plenty to draw on when I took on Sweeney Todd a year later.
Spencer Adams, Eleanor Thomas, and Ben
SIDE SHOW
College Production (Musical)
music by Henry Krieger, lyrics and book by Bill Russell
dir. Josh Robinson
with Spencer Adams
Role: Buddy
Westminster Choir College
A musical about Daisy and Violet Hilton, the famous Siamese twins.
After singing and dancing with Josh Robinson in The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Princeton, he invited me to perform at his university, Westminster Choir College.
Administrators at both schools were skeptical of using outside students, but Josh and I didn’t care: we always wanted the best possible cast. I’d use several Westminster students when I cast my production of Falsettos a year later.
Despite Side Show’s limited budget, Josh designed and created a manually rotated turntable for the production.
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
Summer Stock
June 21-July 8, 2001
by Neil Simon, dir. Sarah Rodriguez
with Erin Gilley, Josh Robinson and Cliff Sofield
Role: Telephone Repairman
Princeton Summer Theater
Run by students, with no university support or supervision, Princeton Summer Theater wasn't quite the professional theater it aspired to be. In 2001, no one on staff had ever run a theater before, and we got our checks only weeks after they were promised.
Unable to afford to stay, I reluctantly dropped out of the summer’s third production, Much Ado About Nothing.
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
Summer Stock (Musical)
June 28-July 22, 2001
music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice, dir. Cliff Sofield
Roles: Pharaoh, Naphtali
Princeton Summer Theater
I watched hours of Elvis videos in preparation for Pharaoh.
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
College Production (Musical)
October 11-20, 2001
music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, dir. Natasha Badillo
with Rakesh Satayal and Devin Sidell
Role: Valentin
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
Valentin, a communist revolutionary, was a major inspiration for HOME/SICK almost a decade later.
Spider Woman was the first time I appeared onstage completely naked.
My ex-girlfriend was directing. My then-girlfriend was less than thrilled.
FALSETTOS
College Production (Musical)
November 29-December 8, 2001
music and lyrics by William Finn, book by William Finn and James Lapine
dir. Ben Beckley
Princeton University Players (Princeton University)
Reviews: The Daily Princetonian
William Finn’s work is raucous and funny, with a full-throated honesty perfect for Falsettos’ big-hearted, thin-skinned characters.
PARADE
College Production (Musical)
January 24-February 2, 2002
music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, book by Alfred Uhry
dir. Josh Robinson
Role: Leo Frank
Westminster Choir College
Parade chronicles the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman lynched in turn-of-the-century Georgia for a crime he didn't commit.
Westminster Choir College was on an entirely different schedule, and Parade coincided with my final exams at Princeton. Lousy timing, but how could I turn down such an incredible role?
With limited time to prep, I stole shamelessly from Brent Carver's Broadway performance, even mimicking the reedy tenor of his speaking voice.
Ben and Samara in Sweeney Todd
SWEENEY TODD
College Production (Musical)
April 11-April 20, 2002
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler
musical dir. Matthew Lembo, dir. Cliff Sofield
with Samara Abrams-Primack (Lovett), Joe Cermatori (Anthony), David Kellett (Pirelli), Jeff Kitrosser (Fogg), and Giselle Woo (Beggar Woman)
Role: Sweeney Todd
Princeton Program in Theater and Dance
As far as I know, I'm still the only person to play Leo Frank and Sweeney Todd in back-to-back productions.
It was in the middle of Sweeney performances — probably while brandishing a knife at unsuspecting audience members — that I decided to pursue acting as a career.
I’ve never regretted that decision, though I’ve sometimes wished that I was hard-wired to make another one.
A Sondheim obsessive, I loved this show as much as anything I’ve ever done. If I could spend the rest of my life doing nothing but Sondheim, I would.
BETTY'S SUMMER VACATION
College Production
September 19-28, 2002
by Christopher Durang, dir. John Vennema
with Micah Baskir, Liz Berg, Salman Butt, Jeff Kitrosser, Emily Mitchell, Vanessa Rodriguez and Austin Saypol
Role: Voice #2
Theatre Intime (Princeton University)
At the time, Christopher Durang seemed just as distant and unknowable as Christopher Marlowe, the 16th-century author of Tamburlaine, which I did later that semester.
Four years later, I'd premiere a play with him. (Durang, not Marlowe.)
SERIOUS POKER
Production
Oct. 23 and 25, 2002
by Frank Hertle, dir. by Cliff Sofield
with Joe Cermatori and Jeff Kitrosser
Role: J.L.
Theatre-Studio Inc.
My first New York production. We rehearsed on Princeton’s campus and took NJ Transit into Manhattan for each performance.
OIT WIRELESS ZONES - "WHERE ARE THE WIRES?"
Commercial (College)
November 2002
written and directed by Macauley Peterson
with John Vennema
Frist Campus Center (Princeton)
An advertisement for the then-new technology of wireless.
"Where are the wires?" I ask a fellow student, blissfully typing away on his computer. He looks up at me and smiles. End of scene.
TAMBURLAINE
College Production
December 5-8, 2002
by Christopher Marlowe, dir. Jerry Passanante
with Joe Cermatori and Jeff Kitrosser (Bajazeth)
Role: Tamburlaine
Princeton Shakespeare Company (Princeton University)
"Your production of Tamburlaine was very successful, I thought," a renowned English professor told me. "Very successful at obliterating Marlowe's text!"
If not necessarily my most "successful" production, though, Tamburlaine was easily one of the most formative.
Our director was a devotee of New York’s experimental theater scene. The Wooster Group — which I ended up interning for three years later — famously smashed together unlikely sources in Route 1 & 9 (based on Pigmeat Markham's blackface routines and Thornton Wilder's Our Town) and House/Lights (based on Gertrude Stein’s Dr. Faustus Lights The Lights and a soft-core bondage flick called Olga’s House of Shame). Following their lead, Jerry juxtaposed Marlowe's Tamburlaine with Oklahoma! and the mass shooting at Columbine.
By the way, not knowing what Olga’s House of Shame was about, I once took someone to see it on a first date. That was a mistake.
Reviews: The Daily Princetonian
TRAVESTIES
College Production
March 6-14, 2003
by Tom Stoppard, dir. Sujan Trivedi
with Jeff Kitrosser
Role: James Joyce
Princeton Program in Theater and Dance
My senior thesis. I also wrote an 80-page paper ("The Importance of Being Joyce") on the influence of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde on Stoppard's play.
The cast of The Wild Party.
THE WILD PARTY
College Production (Musical)
April 17-27, 2003
music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa, dir. Natasha Badillo
with Joe Cermatori, Nathan Freeman, and Danielle Ivory
Role: Goldberg
Princeton Program in Theater and Dance
Michael John LaChiusa came to our production, the first he'd seen since the show's criminally underrated Broadway premiere.
Reviews: The Daily Princetonian
FRENCH ATELIER -
TARTUFFE
College Production (Excerpt, French)
by Moliere, dir. Florent Masse
Role: Tartuffe
Princeton Program in Theater and Dance
A series of scenes from classic French drama, a performed in the original French.
I still remember my first line, though I no longer have any idea what it means.
THE CANDIDATE
Student Film (Short)
improvised by Ben Beckley, dir. Micah Baskir
Role: Benjamin Beckley
Princeton University
A mock Republican campaign ad for a New Jersey congressional candidate.
At the time, this was satire.
In retrospect, this character seems like a pretty reasonable guy.
THE MEDIUM
Student Film (Short)
written and directed by Philip Isles
with Cornel West
Role: The Man
Princeton University
Cornel West was a guest lecturer in my Christian theology class.
He’s a fascinating thinker and a forceful personality, and it was exciting sharing a screen with him in The Medium.
Cornel West
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Regional Production
July 30-August 23, 2003
by William Shakespeare, dir. John Healey
Role: Flute/Thisbe
Theater at Lime Kiln
Flute, the young bellows mender, plays Thisbe in the play-within-the-play.
After experimenting with several options for Thisbe's breasts (pillows? blankets?), I finally landed on balloons. When I hurled myself onto the dead Pyramus' chest, my left tit would explode.