Carl Andress

One of the first interviews I ever did as an “official” theatre reviewer was with Carl Andress who was not only charming and lovely but also heaps of fun to chat with.  Back then he was directing Charles Busch and Kathleen Turner in The Third Story which was a show that highlighted the talent of everyone involved.  I have nothing but enormous respect for Carl as a director.

Well, I’m happy that I have another reason to interview this wonderful gentleman because Carl Andress is at it again, teaming up with Charles Busch to do The Divine Sister.  We recently sat down to talk about the fun of doing an homage to some of Hollywood’s best nuns, and the great actresses who played them.

Along the way, Carl also explains what it’s like to do theatre for the pure joy of it, he give some advice to the Fringe crowd on the smartest way to get a show produced these days, and he enlightens me about a simple little device that has changed his life . . .

Carl, Once again, you’ve collaborated with Charles Busch, this time for his new comedy, The Divine Sister, which will be coming to The Soho Playhouse in September.  Tell me a little bit about what The Divine Sister is all about.

The Divine Sister is a comic celebration of almost every Hollywood movie ever made having to do with nuns. Sort of an homage to what we call Tinseltown’s Religiosity. Turns out that Charles was fascinated by so many of these movies as a kid.  He grew up Jewish, but he saw all the Biblical Hollywood movies of the 1940’s and 50’s on TV and he loved The Song of Bernadette and Come to the Stable, Going my Way; The Bells of St. Mary’s and Ben Hur.  And then of course in the 1960’s movies like The Trouble with Angels starring Rosalind Russell or The Singing Nun. And this became a genre that he had a lot of affection for, because of their uplifting stories but also because they had their campy elements. He and I laugh, for instance, that in The Singing Nun, even though it has its serious story elements, Debbie Reynolds is wearing more eye makeup than Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.  So writing a play based on this genre was an idea that he had a long time ago.  ”Me and Julie Halston in nun’s habits . . . wouldn’t that be funny!” But it took him a while to get around to it.

After we did his play The Third Story with Kathleen Turner, he was working on some television script projects and he got lots of notes from the developers and producers. A lot of back and forth – for almost a year! And as he tells it, the networks finally cut him loose, saying ” There’s a problem with the tone  - it’s too ‘Charles Busch’ “ and he thought “And that’s bad??” So there was some frustration there as you can imagine! So as therapy for himself, he started writing a real old-fashioned ‘Charles Busch’ play –one that would hearken back to his days in the East Village and he decided “Now’s the time to bring out the nun play.” So he started reacquainting himself with all the old movies, and got me to do the same, so that we could speak in a sort of shorthand about them, as we do for all of our projects together.

He came up with a story that takes place in Pittsburgh, 1966, a moment in history of great social change and upheaval in this country.  In it he plays an embattled Mother Superior at St. Veronica’s Convent and School who has to deal with sexual hysteria among her nuns, a young postulant who has “visions,” a mysterious nun visiting from the Mother House in Berlin, as well as a former love who’s intent on luring her away from her vows.  It’s a wacky story in which Mother Superior is also desperately trying to get a new school built while being thwarted by a dangerous fringe sect. And the result is what I think of as the best of Charles Busch.  There’s five or six good belly laughs on each page. A jam-packed 90 minutes of fun and laughter.

Wow, that really sounds fantastic!  How did it all come together?

Charles had written the script and we did a reading in his apartment with five actors who we thought would be a lot of fun to spend the afternoon with. These were people who he also kept in mind as he was writing. Friends who we have worked with previously like Alison Fraser, Jonathan Walker, Jennifer Van Dyck, Amy Rutberg and his muse, Julie Halston. After that reading, we thought, “We should do this! Great! But how?”

So we put an Equity showcase production together with the help of some trusted and cherished colleagues.  We thought we’d do it on a very small level; not get too ambitious at first. Just do this for the sheer joy of putting on a play. So we talked to Crystal Field at Theater for the New City on First Avenue, where we do our annual Christmas show, Times Square Angel – and she was happy to have us.  We did 24 performances. We got our friends to design and work on it and be in it.  We sold the whole thing out in two days on Facebook and we had ourselves a ball! Then our dear friend Daryl Roth, the wonderful producer who produced Die Mommie Die! with us off-Broadway as well as our movie A Very Serious Person, came to see the show, had a great time and asked “What do you want to do with this?”

We told her that “We loved what we were doing at Theater for the New City and that we wanted to find a way to continue sharing that fun with a broader audience off-Broadway.” Well, Daryl is a huge proponent of off-Broadway theater and she liked that we wanted to maintain the old-fashioned off-Broadway, downtown, spirit of what we had created. So she decided to work with us to transfer our “Divine Family” to a new run, and shortly thereafter, Bob Boyett who co-produced  Die, Mommie, Die! with Daryl in 2007 came on board as well. We’ll be at the Soho Playhouse on Vandam Street in Greenwich Village.  It’s an intimate, adorable and historic off-Broadway theater and there’s a bar in the basement so it’s also a party!  I can’t wait.  We go into rehearsal August 30th.

In my opinion the Nun Comedy is a very underutilized genre.  All the funny nuns that I can recall (like Whoopi for instance) are really nuns in disguise.   Why do you think that is?   Is it because it’s particularly challenging to make a nun comedy come alive?

Oh not at all! Nuns are multi-faceted, fascinating creatures! In Sister Act Whoopi Goldberg is a lounge singer hiding out in a convent where zany hijinks then occur. But the inspiration for The Divine Sister comes from all those movies in the 40s, 50s, 60s about real nuns themselves and not necessarily the interlopers. Most of these stories were meant to be taken very seriously, like Audrey Hepburn in The Nun’s Story or Deborah Kerr in Black Narcissus. And there is humor to be found in the seriousness of it all. Contrarily, one can’t really spoof a satire, so that is one reason why we don’t necessarily evoke any nun comedies like Sister Act. Charles said he always enjoyed these movies because so many of them made being a nun seem like great fun – like the convent was a wacky sorority where all the gals were having a great time. I love that image!

Our story is also inspired by other “religious” Hollywood movies like Agnes of God and The DaVinci Code. Our Sisters of St. Versonica’s may be amusing but underneath, the story is extremely serious and holds great spiritual importance. (He says with a wink!)

Did you draw upon any personal nun stories from your own life that added to the texture of The Divine Sister and helped you create this world?

Well I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic School during the 1970’s from first through twelfth grade, when there were a lot more lay teachers – and more modern nuns who wore simple dresses with modern veils and their hair showing.  I also went to an all-boys Catholic College Prep High School run by an order of monks called the Brothers of the Sacred Heart who wore a traditional brown monk’s robe. I had one female teacher there who I loved. She was a former nun. She left the convent just like Audrey Hepburn in The Nun’s Story and talked to me about how accurate the ending of that movie was. I think she decided she could no longer remain a nun when she was told she could not allow her students to read “The Last Temptation of Christ,” by Nikos Kazantzakis, for one of her classes. There was probably a lot more to it than that, but yes, I do have many memories of growing up around nuns. Come to think of it, one of my father’s second cousins also left a convent. Hmm…seems I knew my share of ex-nuns!

In comedy, though, you really must balance the truth of a situation or a lifestyle very honestly with the mirth you are attempting to present. Otherwise it probably won’t be very funny. Thus balancing Hollywood’s often pompous idea of a religious order with the truth as well as one’s own knowledge, research and experience is key. A favorite moment of mine from the play was inspired by several actresses who have played a Mother Superior, such as Greer Garson or Rosalind Russell or Loretta Young, who can be seen winking up at the Lord in her own key light, as if she’s having there own private conversation with Jesus. Those moments just slay me.

How do you direct Charles differently when he’s playing a Nun — a woman who basically eschews her femininity?  Was it more challenging to ask him to tone down and reign in some gestures and movements that perhaps in other roles he’s had to exaggerate?  Or was it all just thrown out the window and whatever happened happened?

Well, my nuns wear false eyelashes and lipstick! This is Hollywood’s idea of nuns that we’re talking about! When we talked about how “real” we should go, Charles said, “Well, I’m not going to wear the full showgirl lashes this time around. I’ll do a more sedate lash, and more of a coral lipstick as opposed to my usual Joan Crawford red.”

That’s my kinda nun!

And what Charles is doing with this character is he is an actor playing the role of a woman with a full past life who happens to be a nun, as a great screen actress would play her.  He’s giving us an extremely accurate evocation of screen star-acting coupled with his own touch of madness and genius. This is his true and particular gift — that he is able to accomplish this so convincingly on the stage. He is able to draw a theatre audience in – so much so that one feels like you are seeing him in close-up no matter what row you are sitting in at the theatre.

When you did your showcase for The Divine Sister earlier this year you went back to Theater For the New City which is where you and Charles first presented Shanghai Moon - more than 10 years ago.  How did it feel to go back?  Any Ghosts waiting for you there?

Many ghosts! Crystal Field has been a big supporter of both Charles and mine – both together and separately – through the years. I know that she presented the first play that Charles ever wrote back in 1980, in which he played incestuous twin brothers. And a few years ago Crystal produced a 2-actor play that I wrote and acted in called  It’s Not My Fault, It Was On Fire When I Got There. About 10 years ago Charles was feeling burned out, and wanted to do a project that had didn’t have so much pressure to succeed.   So we raised some money and just put on a show for the joy of it. That was Shanghai Moon ten years ago, which we later moved to two other productions with the Drama Dept. and then out at Bay Street Theater is Sag Harbor. It’s very empowering to do something with a pure motive – like just for the joy of putting on a play and seeing where the journey takes you. There’s then a pleasure that comes out of that that audiences can feel and become a part of.

Theater For The New City is pretty a wild place – everyone who goes there has a unique experience – five theatres and the art gallery and all kinds of people roaming around at any given moment. What I like particularly like about Theater For The New City is that it’s one of the last places in New York City where young people can get their show on affordably. Young writers and new talent can get in there and get on the radar.  You can do it yourself.  It’s good when you just take the reigns in your own hands and see what happens. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

So we felt that it was time to do something like that again, this time with The Divine Sister and Crystal was our first call. She was excited for us to return to her theatre and work with her team. And everyone who got involved felt like we were one big family. When the run was ending everyone was sad that the party was seemingly over. But then Daryl became involved and said “let’s do this in the Fall.” The entire cast and design team is coming back. We’re having a wonderful time.

In this current climate where you can’t sell a book, a TV show or a movie with out a vampire in it, is there any chance of an updated Vampire Lesbians of Sodom somewhere in the works with you directing?

A few years back we did a benefit for the Actors Fund on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre and for the second half we did Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Because of this “vampire bandwagon” you mention, of course its crossed Charles’ mind to take a bite out of it  - so to speak.  I think he’s got notions of turning it into a screenplay. That would be a lot of fun if that were to happen.

We’re knee-deep in Fringe – do you have any words of advice for the young directors who are working on shows hoping to get to off-Broadway and beyond?

My assistant director on The Divine Sister, a very talented young man named James Valletti, co-wrote and co-directed Tales from the Tunnel which was very successful in last year’s Fringe Festival and went on to be a part of Fringe Encores. He and his writing partner then raised their money, kept their cast together, and are now doing performances at 45 Bleeker to rave reviews. They decided to keep their show going for the joy of it. I remember when he was in the thick of getting the 45 Bleeker version together, he asked me “Is it always all this hard?” and I said “ALWAYS”.

That’s because every show is like a start-up business, whether you’re doing a showcase, a Festival Show or a commercial production . . . you’re starting a new business from the ground up.  In a not-for-profit theatre . . . there’s already an office, a staff, an infrastructure in place and as an actor, writer, designer or director, you join that company for each project.  But if you’re producing your own project, you’re dealing with getting rehearsal and performance space, insurance, hiring the actors and design team, and dealing with unions.  You have to set up a bank account and you really have to have your ducks in a row because it’s like you’re suddenly a mini-corporation.  It’s daunting and you’ve got to pay attention to detail. But if you do it – there are many rewards to reap.

A dear friend of mine, Carmen Pelaez – whose solo play, “Rum & Coke” I directed at the Fringe Festival and later at the Abingdon Theater Co., is part of a group of playwrights who strive to help each other get their writing heard, seen, and produced.   They asked me to come and speak with them one afternoon to share some insights. Because everyone gets frustrated while getting their work out there, submitting your work to festivals, to theatres around the country and around town can be very daunting and more often than not you get the thank you letter saying that they’re booked up – which makes sense because they have relationships with their own stable of new and established writers/actors/directors, etc. and they only have so many slots for each season. It’s really a challenging route.  And so it occurred to me that sometimes it really is best to try to produce your work yourself. And my “aha” moment was realizing that the people you need to connect with are all these folks who are graduating from the producing and theater management programs at Columbia or NYU, etc.; people who are training to be General Mangers, Company Managers - they want to produce, that’s the side of the business they want to be in and they can be a goldmine of information, talent and opportunity.  These are the people you want to meet and befriend because they have the working knowledge of what it takes to put a show together.  And they’ll know other people.  They’re also probably savvy about social marketing.  This is a group of people who are extremely valuable to developing as well as established artists.

Okay last question – bonus question . . .  the point where you can tell me anything you want.  Leave us with a joke, a recipe, tell a favorite story from the past, hype your favorite cause or charity.  Last time I gave you a hint and asked you who would have written the soundtrack of your life.  This time – no hints!  The mic is yours  . . .

Well, Karen, since you asked, I was thinking about what I can’t live without these days and I decided it wasn’t my iPhone and it wasn’t Bravo TV, it is my new SodaStream Seltzer maker!

OH FANTASTIC! THIS IS A GOOD ONE!

Soda Stream

It’s this fantastic device, which actually belongs to my partner, Christopher. It was his birthday present. He’s a tri-athlete and he’s always training, training, training, needing to hydrate. He got tired of regular water and so developed the seltzer habit.  He loves it but he was going through bottle after bottle and not only does it get pricey after a while, but you’ve got all that plastic and he got tired of taking out the recycling.

So a friend of mine at a dinner party said “we have this counter-top seltzer maker” and we were like“Whaaat???” It was totally off our radar.

So I went to Macy’s and got the SodaStream, and they have syrups with no high fructose corn syrup . . . so it’s basically like old soda used to be . . . or they have little bottles of essence, so you can have seltzer with a little bit of lemon or orange flavor.  Or you can just make plain seltzer water. It comes with reusable plastic bottles that you refill with tap water and keep cold in the fridge. And a carbonator.  After your initial investment you’re saving money and not using so much plastic. You’re supposed to get something like 66 gallons from one cartridge and we thought, “this will last forever.” But we went through one cartridge in 2 weeks because it’s changed our lives. We LOVE it! So that’s the new thing. And it looks so nice on the counter. I suggest everyone go out and get a seltzer maker.

It’s also very Green . . .

It’s very Green!  We feel like we’re doing our bit for the environment.  Now if they could only make one that could make . . .

(Simultaneously) – BEER!!

Well thank you so much Carl, as always it’s just such a real pleasure to chat with you and let our THM readers listen in.  Can’t wait to see The Divine Sister!

_______

For all of you who want to go see this terrific new show directed by Carl Andress and starring Charles Busch check out:

www.divinesisteronstage.com or find them on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/divinesisteronstage

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When it comes to the theatre, Carl Andress was practically weaned First Row, Center; he’s been writing, acting, and directing for as long as he can remember, and it’s always been his passion.  He got his start years ago when … well, I’ll let him tell you all about that.  His latest directorial offering The Third Story stars Kathleen Turner and Charles Busch and is currently running through March 15th at the The Lucille Lortel Theatre.  Carl took some time to chat with me about the play, what it’s been like collaborating with Charles Busch over the years, and how his career in theatre began.

KT: Hi Carl, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me.   I’m really excited to be able to chat with you about The Third Story … it sounds like a wild ride – “Gangster flicks, fairy tales, and B-movie sci-fi collide in this epic comic fable from the imagination of Charles Busch“.  PLUS it also stars the amazing Kathleen Turner.  How did it all happen?

CA: I guess it was around 2007 when Charles Busch was commissioned to write a play for the La Jolla Playhouse (LJP).  He gave it to me to read first and I fell in love with it immediately. The La Jolla Playhouse is a very successfully non-profit theatre out in San Diego … a lot of great theatre has come out of there; it’s been in existence since the 50s. More recently, shows like Big River and the revival of How to Succeed in Business …, Tommy, and Jersey Boys started there.  They do a lot of new work, new plays and big musicals. And they sometimes commission works, just like they commissioned Charles.

A short while later Christopher Ashley read it and said to Charles that he’d like to do a reading of it, and suggested I direct the play.  Chris Ashley … he’s had a very successful directing career and is now artistic director there.  What I love about LJP is they attract really good people and have a top-drawer staff. So I was thrilled to get the opportunity to do The Third Story at the LJP last fall; we opened in September.  I spent around 6 weeks out there putting the show together, and while it was still running out there MCC Theater invited us to bring it to their season this year.  The reason it got to Off Broadway so quickly was because as it happens, MCC Theater co-artistic directors Robert LuPone and Bernie Telsey had originally planned to do a new Neil LaBute play in their winter slot.  But then at the same time reasons to be pretty (which is another Labute play) was moving to Broadway and they didn’t want to cannibalize their audience.  So they moved what they were working on and sought to replace it with a really fun event which was very fortuitous for us.

KT: The Third Story stars Charles Busch and Kathleen Turner.  Tell me the truth.  Who’s the bigger drag queen?

CA: (laughs) I am! No, really, I am. I have this habit as a director when … to get the point across to the actors  … I’ll get into their character and sort of saunter across the stage to demonstrate an entrance or a cross and the actor usually will say “Am I really supposed to do it like that?“. Seriously, though, neither of my leading ladies are drag queens at all … they’re terrific actors. And there’s no ego or vanity involved, they’re both very serious about the work.  And they’re both just a lot of fun!  Kathleen – you think you’d be intimidated by someone of her stature but honestly, she’s really just a great gal; she puts you right at ease and she’s a total pro.  She decided to do the play because she thought it was a great part for a woman and that the project would be a breath of fresh air for her.  When we first started thinking of casting her role, Bernie Telsey said “What about Kathleen Turner?” I said “Yeah, right … isn’t that kind of ‘pie in sky’ thinking?“  But lo and behold she said yes so it just goes to show that nothing’s impossible.

KT: Charles Busch not only stars in The Third Story but he wrote it as well.  What are your challenges as the director to work with someone else’s vision without changing his intentions?

CA:  Charles is always wearing 2 hats, Actor and Writer, in most of his projects and he’s got different priorities that go with each.  When he’s working in the scene as an actor then he’s focused on what he’s portraying – he’s got the Actor Hat on.   And sometimes there may be a point when he’ll stop and ask his writer-self, “What am I supposed to be doing here?”  That’s when we talk it through, break it down, think about what the specific scene means and ask, “What are we trying to accomplish here?” Maybe we need to cut or add or rewrite.  Then he’d switch and put on the Writer Hat and deal with that end of it.

As the director I usually try to illuminate what Charles the actor brings to the table and communicate that back to Charles the writer.  So in this regard I’m keeping my eye on the whole thing to illuminate it for Charles as he finds his place in the play. It’s a lot of give and take.

Charles also has a good internal clock; he likes to trim and get to the essence of a scene.  But sometimes he’s a little scissors-happy and so I’ll kind of protect him from his instinct to cut too much, or to be too critical.  Ultimately it’s my job to take his whole play and imagine it in 3 dimensions … How do we clothe the character? What world do we put them in physically? I pick up where he leaves off.  We very much have a shorthand with each other and we’re very honest with each other.

KT: A partnership like that is very rare. You both are lucky.

CA: We are lucky; we’ve been close friends for years. We’re like family.

KT: It’s almost like you’re the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp of the independent theatre world. You’ve collaborated on so many things, what did you enjoy the most?

A Very Fun Process during A Very Serious Person

CA: Each play has had its own rewards … each one had different elements that I’ve enjoyed.  But the one project that was probably the most rewarding was the movie we did - A Very Serious Person. Basically Charles wanted to direct a film and he said, “Help me write a story.” That was the first time we ever collaborated as writers.  We had a few false starts; first we thought it would be a caper film … but we could see the budget just growing and growing with all sorts of locations piling up. It was supposed to cost under a million dollars and suddenly in our imaginations it would be closer to $25 million! So we knew we needed to simplify!

We sat around and tossed around different story lines and we acted out potential scenes together which was a lot of fun and a great experience. There are echoes of that process in The Third Story with the mother and son screen writers; the elements of writing and discussing, going “Okay, now we’re in a living room,” and you picture and imagine the characters taking shape as you’re taking notes and writing it all down.

That whole experience of making A Very Serious Person was like going to film school because it was such a full experience; from writing, to shooting, to putting teams together, even the editing and scoring process … we were involved right up to the finished product. It was so unique and different from what happens with a play; with that process Charles writes it and he’s done till he hands it over to me … then we cast, we rehearse. But once the play opens the director’s job is done, then it belongs to the actors and the stage manager.

KT:  How long was the actual process from first germ of an idea to last note of scoring?

CA: It was actually very quick.  We were fortunate … Daryl Roth, who was one of the producers on The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, was our guardian angel.  Charles had made a short subject for Showtime and showed it to Daryl and she said, “If you ever want to do a low budget feature I’ll do it.” We started putting ideas together in the fall of 2004. By the time Daryl saw the first draft it was January.  She gave some notes and we started filming in July of 2005! Not since Warner Brothers in 1933 has a movie been put together so quickly! We put together a wonderful cast: me, Charles, Julie Halston, Polly Bergen and Dana Ivey and just had a lot of fun shooting in and around New York for 25 days.  Then in August we did the editing and started scoring. We knew we wanted to submit it to The Tribeca Film Festival so we did and it was accepted!  We premiered it there in May 2006 got an award for it and now you can go and Netflix it!

KT: Let’s hear about your early years … what drew you to the theatre?

CA: I was fascinated by the theatre because I had parents who were fascinated by it.  My mom’s parents loved opera and Broadway shows so my mom developed this love of music and singing. She grew up in New York but in the mid-60’s her father moved ten of the fourteen kids …

KT: FOURTEEN!

CA: … that’s right, she was one of fourteen kids. So ten of them moved up to Nashua, New Hampshire.  Mom was a singer … she was actually Miss New Hampshire 1969 and won the pageant singing songs from the musical Kismet. My father was the local reporter back then and came to do a story about the pageant; he asked her out on a date and they eventually married.  At that time Dad was mainly a sports writer but also loved Broadway and musicals so my parents would go to see a lot of shows that would try out in Boston first … shows like Follies and Company. I treasured those Playbills!

My mom sort of became the queen of musical theatre groups in the area and would bring me to rehearsals when I was a child.  I remember being a toddler; I’d sit on the floor next to the director and watch them stage a play — that fascinated me.  My parents eventually also became local theatre critics, so we’d see everything done in the Greater Boston Area and we’d also come to New York to see Broadway shows. I had all these magical experiences associated with the theatre, it makes sense that I gravitated toward show biz as a career.  As a kid, I figured the only way to get into that world was to audition.  So I started by being in shows … being an actor in college and directly after. I was doing small shows here and there in New York … then I got a chance to replace the wardrobe woman for this off-Broadway musical, Swingtime Canteen.

KT: How did you get to replace the wardrobe woman?

CA: I was told about the job by a friend and when I went for the interview, I kept talking about how I was such a fan of the entire production team and cast. I guess they bought it because they offered me the job and after a few months Charles Busch took over the leading lady role. We immediately became friends and wound up working a lot together over next few years.  And one day he said to me, “Kid, you’re a director,” and gave me that opportunity to direct a new play.

He was right, of course. It just goes back to me being that kid who had a mom who did theatre … me watching while someone was staging a show, and having the good fortune to observe how all that happened.  As a child I had all these books about theatre history; while other kids would be playing sports and video games I was losing myself in these books thinking, “How did Theoni V. Aldredge come up with that costume or how did Jo Mielziner dream up the concept for that set?” or “How did Gower Champion or Harold Prince, my idol, come up with that notion … I’d like to come up with such a notion.“  I’d even staple bed sheets to the ceiling in my basement or on the back porch to set up a stage and tell the neighborhood kids, “Alright, today we’re doing Man of LaMancha and I am going to be Aldonza the Whore and you, Jennifer, you’re going to play Sancho Panza!” And we’d lip sync to the original cast recording. I used to get into a lot of trouble for scratching my mom’s records.

KT: You probably struggled for a bit; everyone who works in the theatre in New York does.  But when was that moment when you started thinking, “Hey, this thing just might work out!”  In other words, what was that big-break moment that turned the tide for you?

CA: Well the first time someone in the professional theatre believed in me was when Charles Busch said, “I

Good Fortune with Shanghai Moon

think you’re a director.”  But I’d say the first real turn of the tide actually came a couple of years later in 2003 when I directed Shanghai Moon with B.D. Wong. That’s when I felt like things started coming together in a positive way. People loved the play, and that led to other opportunities.  People took notice a little more.  I got a manager, an agent.  I got reviews … I got my first regional gigs from that show.  That one got me a little bit further along in the business. It’s not about awards or recognition so much, it’s about how you deal with a play, how you take it to a different level. You can interview anyone in any industry and you’ll find there’s no such thing as an “overnight sensation”.  A lot of actors, designers, any type of artist, they work hard and get no recognition, they do a lot of work for little money thinking, “I’m getting older… when does this pay off?”   But it could be the next project that could turn into your dream project … that’s the gift in this business.  I come across people who get very discouraged.  I understand that, but you shouldn’t give up because you never know.  Isn’t it more fun to stick around?  Even if you have to do other things to pay the bills? I say don’t ever close the door.  Nothing is sadder than seeing really creative people get discouraged and quit.

KT: I did my research, and I happen to know you played Harold Hill in a regional production of The Music Man.

CA: That’s a funny story … I ended up getting hired by an all girl’s summer camp called Brown Ledge … they have a really good theatre program and a really good equestrian program.  Richard Currie who runs the theatre program, was in the Ridiculous Theatre Company with Charles Ludlam. He called me and gave me a really fast sell … I had no idea what to expect … but it ended up being the most magical summer of my life. It was all these girls ages 9 to 17 and we did a play a week; the first week the counselors put on a show, the next week was three one acts, next week was three more one acts again, then a 3 act play and so on, ending with a musical … it was crazy.  They wanted to do The Music Man and said, “You should be Harold Hill!” and I said, “Really? All the townspeople of River City will be women!”  They didn’t care. It ended up being really cool and fun especially since I knew all the songs already. It was a crazy time but very rewarding to work with the kids and encourage their enthusiasm and try to instill some good habits in them.

That’s a reward in itself.  In showbiz you think about yourself a lot.  So it’s good to be an example and in a situation where it’s not all about you.

KT: You’ve worked in several different media – film, theatre … and you’ve worn the director hat as well as the actor hat.  Out of all of it, what do you like the best?

CA: Director hat is my favorite.  You get to have so many elements of collaboration.  If it’s a new play you collaborate with the writer and get at what his intention is. If it’s not a new play, you form this bond with the existing script. Then you bring in scenic designers, lighting and costume designers, composers … that’s even before you work with actors … then you work with great casting people … wonderful craftsman.  The brilliance of these people is amazing, everyone brings their “A” game. It’s humbling when you turn around for a minute and see these people are all putting themselves on the line just because I had this kooky idea in my head. I find that really gratifying.

KT: The Third Story runs till March 15th; what projects do you have lined up after that?

CA: For an actor or a director, “What are you going to do next?” is always one of the most terrifying question, but it’s also the most exciting because if you don’t have an answer on Monday you just may by Friday.  For an actor, every day’s another day to audition.  For a director, every day’s another day to have someone say, “Wanna work on this crazy project?”

KT: Bonus Question Time:  The microphone is all yours, Mr. Carl Andress.  Here’s your chance to say whatever you want about any topic you wish.  Serious, whimsical or irreverent.  No topic is off-limits.  Go for it.

CA: Wow, NOW you tell me I could be irreverent?

KT: You want to go back and amend a few comments …?

CA: (Laughs) No, no … that’s fine. But I most certainly censored myself a couple of times! Anyway, let me think …

KT: Okay, if I can prompt you … here’s something I’d like to know. If there was one composer who would score the Broadway musical of your life … who would it be?

CA: HA! Well, sometimes I think it’s Stephen Sondheim, sometimes it’s Stephen Schwartz, and sometimes it’s Jerry Herman. Some days I’m very “It’s Today!” other times I’m rather “Every Day a Little Death” and other days I’m totally “The Wizard and I“.  Sometimes I’m on the subway listening to my iPod and I know that person next to me is listening to some very cutting edge rock group on their iPod while I’m there listening to Linda Lavin sing “Ooh, Do You Love You” from “It’s a Bird It’s A Plane It’s Superman” from 1966. When that happens, it’s a very Charles Strouse day!

Recently during tech for Third Story, I was sitting in the balcony absently humming to myself and my assistant looked at me and said, “Are you humming ‘Someone In a Tree’? from “Pacific Overtures?” I certainly was. That’s how I was feeling that day. It’s the fragment, not the day. It’s the pebble, not the stream. It’s the ripple, not the sea that is happening. Not the building but the beam, Not the garden but the stone, … bit by bit … Putting it together.

KT: Carl, thanks for putting it all together for me.  And thanks for sharing your stories – all of them.

For more information about The Third Story click here or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200.

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