A blog on theater (and other stuff) from the fine folks at Apple Core Theater Company
Interview: Gustavo Heredia
Next in our line of By the Dawn’s Early Light interviews is Gustavo Heredia, who plays Miguel in “Los Embrujados.” It was the voice of Gustavo, in fact, that Mel had in his head when he was writing the play for us. When you see the show, you will immediately see the similarities between Gustavo’s journey and the character he so dynamically portrays.
Why did you decide to pursue acting?
I come from a very small village in Ecuador of about 100 people. My thought back then was either go to the army and pursue a career in the Armed Forces — I was attracted to it — or finish high school and go America. But I ended up doing neither one (if I he had gone to the Army, I would not have stayed anyway, for I realized just a few years ago that I have flat feet).
So it was written in my destiny that at the tender age of 16, I should migrate to the United States of America, or New York… however you wish to call it. However, the story of this unforgettable odyssey of what one goes thru to make it to America… is suited for another time and place. To answer the question of how I became an actor I will fast forward a few years.
As you might know, the most usual place where an immigrant can find a job is in a restaurant. I used to work in a restaurant on the Upper West Side as a busboy, a waiter, etc. During those years many clients would ask me if I was an actor. I’d say a WHAT!!??? I would say “No,” and their reply would be, “You should.”
I could care less what they were talking about. I didn’t know what it was about, but most of these people asking if I was an actor were actors themselves. Some of them were in American soaps such as One Life To Live, Passions or movies… one of them was in the movie True Lies with Arnold…
Anyway, I really didn’t pay much attention to those comments or suggestions for that matter. All I wanted to do was work to make enough dinero and go back.
So after many years had gone by and I had decided to stay (for by now, I had made America my Home), I started thinking that I should do something with my life. My motivation for this decision (or was it destiny once again?) was when I had realized how little I enjoyed working as a waiter… but what I can pursue? What can I be? Or what should I be?
Then something hit me. I said to myself, hmmmm… maybe ACTING!! But how do I begin? Or where do I begin? Do I need a college degree to be an actor? Who should I talk to? I would go to the movies and just focus on what the actors were doing, and I would say to myself, “I can do that.” I remember vividly seeing a movie called Pitch Black, one of the very first movies Vin Diesel did. Here is this muscular actor with a deep voice, and I am thinking… I want to that! I can do that what he is doing!! And that fueled even more my desire to become an actor.
I had asked many people how or where I could pursue acting, I got little or no help at all from their answers. I had even asked a Latino woman who I had seen in a couple of commercials but she was of no help at all…
I used to wear a ring that my ex-girlfriend had given me as a birthday present. This ring resembled a high school graduation ring. One day I was serving this lady that I had taken care of for a few years. She had seen my ring and said, “That’s a nice ring… where did you go to school?” I said, “No, this is just a present, but I would like to go to school.” “What would you like to study?” was her reply. “I have been thinking about acting, but I really don’t know where…” I said. Then she says, “Why don’t you talk to my husband? He is an acting teacher.”
And that was the beginning of this beautiful journey that began eight years ago. But only now I realize that I had this actor in me since I was a kid… but that will be yet another story!
Interview: Mel Nieves
You may know that Mel Nieves wrote By the Dawn’s Early Light… but did you know he’s also an actor, and member of the award-winning and supremely fantastic Labyrinth Theater Company?
… Oh, you did? Well, do you know what performance inspired him to get into acting in the first place?
Gotcha. Go buy tickets to his amazing play, and then read on for more info on the great and powerful Mel.
How did you end up in New York City?
By birth. I was born in Lenox Hill hospital on Park Avenue and was raised in Harlem on 115th street and Lenox Avenue
What’s your neighborhood? My current neighborhood is Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
What’s your favorite part about Bay Ridge? The quiet and peacefulness of the neighborhood. Very Italian. Plus we have the best Pizza on the East Coast hands down.
Least favorite? The N train or as I like to call it “The Never Coming Train”
Why did you decide to pursue acting? My first exposure to acting was while I was a Police Science major at John Jay College, but I did not seriously pursue the study of theatre until I enrolled in The William Esper Studios in New York.
What profession other than acting would you pursue? (No need to be realistic in terms of your knowledge or skill-set.) Well my original plan in life was to be a cartoonist, but not just any old cartoonist. My dream from a very young was to be a first assistant cartoonist to the great Charles M. Schultz. I wanted to help him continue to create his iconic Peanuts characters. My other dream was to be a police officer. One of my childhood heroes was Frank Serpico.
What’s the greatest challenge of being an NYC-based actor? Economics. It’s always a hustle to find a gig that pays well enough to cover your over-head, but does not interfere with your pursuit of a career in the arts. I’m very fortunate in that I teach as well and that the arts organizations that I work with have been very supportive of my artistic pursuits.
Was there a performance, play, or actor that made you want to go into this business? Yes, but I didn’t know it at the time. When I was thirteen I saw the film Serpico and I wanted to be THAT guy. I often thought it was the character that he was playing that I wanted to be, and for a while it was, but deep down it was the fact that the actor playing him, Al Pacino, seemed to be a guy I could relate to, a guy from the street like myself.
Funny thing when I took my first acting class at John Jay College the man teaching the course, an actor named John “Gus” Fleming played the role Dr. Metz, in the film. Gus also became a father figure/mentor to me and I owe him so much. He passed away more than ten years ago, but I still hear his lessons in my head whenever I’m involved in a project. He was a true New York actor. He was a beautiful actor and a great man.
Favorite playwright? Arthur Miller. Favorite play? All My Sons.
If you could play any theater role, disregarding your age/gender/skillset (etc.), what role would that be? Oh that’s an easy one. I actually have two. One is Danny Saunders in Chaim Potok’s great masterwork The Chosen. The other is J. Pierpont Finch in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. I used be quite boyish looking when I was younger and people often told me that I should audition for that role, but the one hitch was that I couldn’t sing a lick or dance a step.
Interview: Jorge Humberto Hoyos
In an effort to make blogging for the cast and crew of By the Dawn’s Early Light as painless as possible (it’s a little scary, we know), we’ve decided to conduct INTERVIEWS. We asked everyone to answer a question or two (we gave them 20 to choose from), and between attending rehearsals, memorizing lines, and selling tickets to the production, they’ll (hopefully) have a little time to tell you a little bit about themselves and their process.
First up: Jorge Humberto Hoyos, who plays Father Claudio in “Midnight Mass.”
What kind of a person is your character? Are they like you? Unlike you? How does that inform your performance and process?
I have the privilege of playing Fr. Francis Claudio and I find him to be quite similar to me.
As older members of the human race, both Father Claudio and I have experienced faith-challenging moments in our lives. Painful experiences in our lives have made us mature in the faith that we have been raised in. We came to see life from a different perspective and the world in a different way. We are no longer limited by the erroneous belief that we can control what ultimately happens (situations or circumstances), or that we can control what other people do (since the gift of free will gives people the freedom to choose their actions and reactions).
Rather, Father Claudio and I firmly hold to our own obligation to remain serene in calamity and stressful situations (to the best of our human abilities) and to stay contributory to others lives. We both understand that compassion, empathy and the willingness to simply listen to others are the greatest aid we can provide.
In my own journey to adulthood, one of my “schools of life” was a Roman Catholic monastery in Los Angeles of which I was a member for four years. Those years were a major blessing for me in my growth as a Christian. And this development of my faith (a life-long quest!) has given me the calm and resilience to deal with the rejection involved in an actor’s daily life.
And my time at the monastery subsequently provided me with a deep well of experience from which to draw when playing a “man of the cloth.” It provided me first hand experience of that way of life when I portrayed St. Thomas Becket in Jean Anouilh’s play Becket. Likewise, in building the character of Fr. Claudio, the rich well of that experience of a life of work and prayer helped me enormously.
It is my hope that audiences seeing this brilliant production of Mel Nieves’ work, will come to see that a priest, in this case Father Claudio, is simply a man who daily tries to live a Christian life fully aware of his humanity and faults, and his thirst to be of service to God’s world. Clearly an example for all of us and a wonderful way to live one’s life!
We had our stumble-through (in theater terms, the first run-through of a show, in which actors are most definitely stumbling around) of By the Dawn’s Early Light last night.
Here are some photos of the evening, courtesy of our delightful Associate Producer Barbara Harrison. Luckily, they don’t look like deer in headlights… at least TOO much. Click through the photos to see!
Our playwright, Mel, was kind enough to write a little bit about his revision process. And while we did commission “Los Embrujados,” please note that we did not pay him to write this post.
It is exactly 12:48 in the morning as I write this blog. Trains were not kind tonight coming in from the South Bronx where I was performing in City Parks Foundation Summer Stages production of Sangre, a contemporary adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s classic Blood Wedding by Mando Alvarado and presented by Time Warner. As the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” plays in the background of my Bay Ridge, Brooklyn apartment, I’m thinking, “Is there such a thing as good pressure?”
In my experience I would have to say yes. I’m a deadline-type-of-guy. I set certain goals for myself, set a date and hope that the writer’s journey that I’ve decided to partake in comes to a fruitful and promising start, as well as conclusion. Which leads me to the roads I began to travel following the next-to-final table reads of both “Los Embrujados” and “Midnight Mass”.
The first table-reads of the plays were as not as painful as I expected them to be. Hearing your stuff read out loud for the first time is never ever an easy thing to hear. Though I’ve grown more objective of my work and can step back see and hear what the problems in the text may be, it is still a tough thing to go through. As I sat there at the second reading, eyes closed, ears wide open, listening to my words, hoping that all the notes hit just so, I listened to all the actors carefully taking in the natural music of their voices and cadences. I was looking, as I often do, for that spark of inspiration from the actor who adds his or her spin on a line that may lead me to contemplate the possibilities of that line, and what that line can do, and how I can best take advantage of that actor’s particular gifts.
After the reading Walter (my director) and Allison (my producer/dramaturgy-savior) noticed that my spirits were not as high as theirs regarding what was just read. I didn’t think it was all bad, mind you, but I felt in my heart of hearts that I could do better and that the actors deserved much more from me as a writer. That Friday evening Allison, Walter and myself had meeting at Edgar’s Cafe on the Upper West Side. Much was discussed and debated… well not really, but I need some tension to make this blog a little interesting. We were actually on the same page as to what my duty was.
I must take a moment to discuss the collaboration that I am having with Walter and Allison — especially Allison, who truly has been a supportive and most encouraging voice during this entire process. There’s been an almost uncanny instant trust between us, which is most rare. But I think, in fact, we all three are aware of the responsibilities we each have regarding this project. Not just on a artistic level, but on a larger human story level — what the themes of the two plays mean to us and the people of this beautiful city, that we each love ever so dearly. After our Friday meeting was completed, hugs and exchanges good night were passed and we went our separate ways. The most significant moment of our meeting came as we stood to leave and I said: I know how to fix this. They both smiled as I did and I went on my way.
The next 24 hours can be best described as a creative tunnel vision, as I went over page by page each section of each play, retracing the steps and the journeys of each character… and then it happened. I believe it was at the 90 minute mark when I heard them speak — yes, this does actually happen. Writing or any creative form is not so much an intellectual exercise, though much thought does go into the creative process. But the goal is to achieve a creative-unconscious in which one feels as if they are “channeling” people. On Saturday evening, well before the clock was to strike twelve, I handed in the final drafts of each play and within less than two hours both Allison and Walter responded with excited emails.
I had cracked the code, so to speak. My brain was finally at peace and I was able to close my eyes that night knowing that I had giving the best of myself to this most special of projects.
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Apple Core Theater Company produces emotional, entertaining plays by American writers. Valuing the immediacy and intimacy of theater, we strive to present plays that cut down to the core and go straight to the heart. Believing that theater should be accessible to all people, we are committed to providing affordable theater to New York City.
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