Interviews with the actors from Theatre Seven's Jeff-Recommended Play Cooperstown

Interview by Jonathan Baude

Cecil Burroughs

How have you liked working on Cooperstown?

It's great. The excitement and thrill of bringing a new piece of theater to life. That's what it's all about.

What's the hardest part of the process?

Coming into the performance space 3 or 4 days before our first audience.

How are you and Junior similar?

Junior and I are extremely sensitive. We wear thy heart on thy sleeve. We both use blunt honesty to find others truth rather than revealing our own.

Emjoy Gavino

Talk to us about the process of working on Cooperstown.

Doing a new work is always as exciting as it is frightening. There weren't actors before me to test these words and this character and these relationships in front of a live audience. My experience here was no exception, and I felt like I wasn't able to exhale until curtain call of opening night.

The difference between other new works I've been in and Cooperstown is that the characters and the world of the play seemed so lived in...so fully fleshed out and comfortable and real, even after the original read through. Between readings of different drafts of the script, we took time to establish the physicality of it all -- who felt like an outsider? Who felt at ease with whom? So much that by the time we finally set foot on that beautifully made diner, it was like coming home.

What do you like about the show?

I love its intimacy. I love that these complex people come together in this everyday place and there's no way you could guess where they'll end up. I love that these characters end up surprising themselves. It's not flashy. It's not big. But it's a love story in every sense of the word "love."

Tracey Kaplan

What's been your favorite part of the experience of working on Cooperstown?

I would have to say: how much I adore this cast. I think the bond between the 5 of us was almost instantaneous - hanging out at coffee shops before rehearsal, helping a fellow cast mate move out of his apartment in the middle of the night - the kind of closeness that I usually find after the show has opened. We found it early on and it has only grown since then. Not only does it make the process fun, but you can sense how much we all like each other when watching the show. We're enjoying ourselves and each other and I think it shows.

Ashleigh LaThrop

What has the process of working on Cooperstown been like?

The process has been great. It's my first time working directly with a playwright on his work before, and it was very collaborative. I feel like a lot of the things the actor normally has to figure out - like why does she say this here rather than something else, etc. was listened to and explained. And it was really neat seeing the playwright's vision of the character and how it was similar and different from my original vision of her. Plus, I got to work with a really talented cast and an amazing director. I had a blast!

What do you think you and Sharree have in common?

I think Sharree and I are very similar in the way we are very passionate people. She lives in a world where nearly every exchange she has is high stakes. And it's been really fun inhabiting that. I don't think in my everyday life my stakes are nearly as high as hers, but I will say that the things I believe in, I go after with just as much gusto as she does.

Chance Bone

What's your favorite moment in the play?

Well, my favorite moment in the script is when Cecil's character asks Huck if he wants syrup as I'm is still ogling over Dylan. It took me a few rehearsals to really hone in on not cracking up. But, there is something about curtain call. With this particular story and style that the show is in, there isn't any direct interaction between the actor and the audience, say, like a Brecht something or other. And there are definitely times when you're sharing things with the audience and you have to keep going, even though you want to sit and think with them. So, the curtain call is the first and only time in the show we get to somewhat share a moment with them. IS this making sense? Its just the sad realization that I will never get to see this show from the audience's point of view. And if I ever did, the stage manager would have my head on a platter if he caught me sitting in the front row instead of making an entrance.

This is your first show with Theatre Seven. What's that like?

Not only is this the first theatre 7 show I've been apart of, but my first show after graduating from DePaul's Theatre program. It's a very nice community of people. They all went to school together for the most part, or have known and worked with each other for quite awhile. It's easy to sense though sorts of things, and it makes it that much easier to jump on board and be apart of a safe working environment atmosphere that It's been a unique experience for me, if anything, that Cooperstown is a new play, written by a member of the company. It's like that movie 3 men and baby, except the baby is a play, and instead of Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenburg, and Ted Dansen, there are actors trying to take care of the play. (It would have been a better analogy if only three people were involved, or Becker was in the company).

But, the play has been shaped a lot by those around it, just as the play has shaped us. It's a very exciting experience to know there are drafts of Cooperstown that the general public will never know. Scenes that have been changed, or plot lines redrawn to fit the better of the story. It really has been a great experience when you're just out of the gate. And I mean, they throw great galas. What can I say?