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What Is A PARALLELOGRAM All About? The Company Explains!
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Nov 4, 2022
Second Stage Theater will present the New York premiere production of Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and Olivier Award winner Bruce Norris' play, A Parallelogram, directed by current Tony nominee Michael Greif. The cast includes Juan Castano, Tony nominee Anita Gillette (Chapter Two), Celia Keenan-Bolger (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and Stephen Kunken (Enron).
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. Up next at Second Stage is A Parallelogram, the new play by Bruce Norris under the direction of Michael Greif
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It will begin July 11th and we drop by the rehearsal room to meet the cast
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How excited are you? First of all, welcome back to the New York stage. Thank you. And this is my fourth production at Second Stage
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So that in itself, it's like this rehearsal room, I'm like, this is where I rehearsed the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Bachelorette and the Michael John Lacusa musical
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and now I get to be here in the presence of Michael Greif and Bruce Norris. It's really exciting
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I love this room because there's a safe in this room. That's right. Not every rehearsal room in New York City has that
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Let's talk about this play. I mean, Bruce Norris, brilliant playwright. Like the first few times you read it, what went through your mind
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You know, I've been a huge fan of Bruce's for a long time, and the first time I read this, I was like
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oh my God, this play is hard. This is a dark, classic Bruce Norris play
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and quite honestly that was a huge part of what drew me to it. I think he the way that he views
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the world and the way that I view the world are are different and I thought that that would be
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a very challenging and interesting way to approach some work. Great to do something out of your
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comfort zone Completely and I think you know the the nice thing about this play is that it also really funny and so getting in the mindset of someone who has a different worldview can be challenging but when there is humor to sort of lift it up it makes it a much more enjoyable experience
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And then there's the cast. What's it like working with... It's a perfect ensemble
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Yeah, you know, what's really funny is that I've seen Celia on stage so many times
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and just being completely blown away. And then now I'm here, like, in rehearsal and, like, we're doing a scene and I'm just like..
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I used to just watch you like you're amazing. And now we're just..
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So that's been surreal in a lot of ways. And I feel really grateful
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And then there's Steven and Anita. Yeah, yeah. Steven's really, really funny
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And Anita is crazy good. She's crazy good in this. And she's perfect for this role
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And yeah, it's just been a pleasure just watching them rehearse. And a lot of times I forget my cue because I just get lost
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in just like watching them do a scene. So, yeah. What are you looking forward to the most about that first performance on stage
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Getting through my lines properly. It always comes down to that, doesn't it
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Yes. You know, the last play I did, A Confederacy of Dunces in Boston, we had five weeks of
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rehearsal and we barely had three before we're thrown in front of an audience
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It's like, ah! And this play has more words than I've ever, you know, but they're Bruce Norris's words
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So you really you know you have to respect that A Pulitzer Prize winner a fantastic script What can you tell us about the man that you play I don want to give too much about the play but so much of the play is about
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okay, here's the choice I made. How does that affect me? How does it affect somebody else
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And can I go back and can I change those things? And if I do, does it affect anything or does it just affect me
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Do we just live insularly or not? And, you know, it's a struggle for Jay all the way through, and for all of him
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trying to figure it out. What a great cast. I know, this cast is amazing. I feel like when you're in a
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cast with only four people, you gotta really hope that everybody is bringing it, and this group of
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people is just a really wonderful group of actors to make this play with, because I think we all
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really care about the play, and we also have a lot of different perspectives, and so that, you know
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Anita is 80 years old, and all I can think is, like, if I am 80 and I can keep that many lines in my head
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and have a sense of humor and be as present and inquisitive as she is
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I'm going to be feeling pretty good about my life. Yeah. You know, I've seen Steven on stage many times, and I'm a huge admirer of his
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I never seen Juan and I think he done like one other off play and he just a total pro and a great person to collaborate with He in awe of you He just like watch her I remember seeing her in all these incredible shows
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I miss my cues in rehearsal because I'm like watching her work. That makes me feel good
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That is your incredible director, Michael Greif. What's it like being in the room with him? I think that I've never worked with someone that understood actors so well
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And he understands exactly how the process works from an actor's point of view
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And what he has been really helpful with is making every single part of the play logical
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And that's really important because the play can fall into this, is this real, is this not real
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It can get blurry. And so Michael has been very good at making that clear, at least for me
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And I'm really grateful for that. What are you looking forward to the first performance on stage of this show
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Totally getting through it. It's complicated stuff. It really is. And much of it without giving it away is about just ever small changes
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about going back and forth. and I think we all want to live up to the specificity that Bruce so eloquently put in there
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So what I'm really interested in is seeing how people respond to the humor of it and to the path of it
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