ONSTAGE
Georgia Shakespeare
“One Man, Two Guvnors”
Opens Friday, through July 27. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (plus 7 p.m. July 13, 8 p.m. July 15 and 22, 2 p.m. July 19). $16-$40. Conant Performing Arts Center, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-504-1473, www.gashakespeare.org.
True Colors Theatre Company
"Same Time Next Year"
Opens Tuesday, through Aug. 3. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays (also at 11 a.m. July 23 and 7 p.m. July 27). $15-$60. Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road, Atlanta. 1-877-725-8849, www.ticketalternative.com, www.truecolorstheatre.org.
Stage Door Players
“The Odd Couple”
Opens Friday, through Aug. 3. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays (also 8 p.m. July 31). $27, $25 seniors, $22 students, $12 under 12. 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. 770-396-1726, www.stagedoorplayers.net.
Artistic directors usually hang backstage or in the back of the theater on opening night, checking how the thousand details that have to come together to make a play work are dovetailing.
This week, however, three of Atlanta's theater leaders will be moving under the spotlight as actors. We talked to Georgia Shakespeare's Richard Garner, True Colors Theatre Company's Kenny Leon (fresh off his Tony win for best director) and Stage Door Players' Robert Egizio about kicking it out onstage and leaving the directing to someone else.
Richard Garner
The role: Alfie, the octogenarian waiter, in "One Man, Two Guvnors," a British farcical take on "The Servant of Two Masters," opening Friday at Oglethorpe University's Conant Performing Arts Center.
“Aside from the fact that he’s hard-of-hearing, has the tremors, has balance problems and has a tendency to fall down stairs a lot, he’s perfectly suited to be a waiter,” Garner joked about his character.
Why he decided to act: Trained as an actor at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Garner has not appeared on the Georgia Shakespeare stage since 2000 (though he's had memorable turns since in the Alliance Theatre's "August: Osage County" and in two plays at Actor's Express).
Wearing his producing artistic director hat, Garner wanted Georgia Shakespeare to stage “One Man, Two Guvnors” from the moment he heard about it playing in London in 2011.
“I grew up on Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin and, yes, Jerry Lewis and have always been a fan of physical humor,” Garner said. “The Brits really get these wacky farces just right, and since our audience had already seen the original source material, ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ (in 2007), I thought it’d be great for our company of actors.”
He offered the directing reins to Drew Fracher, who said he’d take them only if Garner played Alfie.
On the challenge of physical comedy: "When I first saw the show in London, I thought, 'How on earth did they get an old actor to play such a physical role?' I found the answer when I learned the actor was only in his 30s. Now that I'm in rehearsal getting knocked about daily and falling down flights of stairs, I find myself looking around for that 30-year old actor to step in."
On the silly reason you won't find his name in the cast list: "I do a fake bio in the program. My actor name is Armitage Shanks, which is the name of a urinal manufacturer in England. Chris Kayser also used that stage name when he played both of the Antipholus twins in 'Comedy of Errors' here. It's sort of a go-to name if you want to appear under an assumed name onstage. In my bio, I reference being the only actor left to have appeared in all five of Arthur Wallace's 'Lucy Cycle.' My middle name is Arthur and my mother's maiden name is Wallace and Lucy is my wife's nickname."
Kenny Leon
The role: Accountant George Peters, who meets once a year for a romantic tryst with housewife Doris (Phylicia Rashad) in Bernard Slade's romantic comedy "Same Time Next Year," a True Colors production opening Tuesday at Southwest Arts Center.
Why he decided to act: The idea was Rashad's. "She and I have done nine projects together, and I have a great deal of respect for her. She said, 'We should act together. We should take that off our bucket list.' So I said, 'OK!'"
Rashad’s camp suggested Slade’s 1975 chestnut. Leon read the two-character play, thought it was funny but that it had something to say about relationships, too. They agreed on Portland Center Stage artistic director Chris Coleman, a former Atlantan, as director.
On the liberation of performing: "It's a great gift to be able to act, because when you're directing, you're a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a therapist, a director, and it never stops. … So actually it's a relief when you can act, because I don't have to think about design, about music, about the 24 actors (in 'Holler If Ya Hear Me,' the current show he's directing on Broadway). … All I've got to do is listen to Ms. Rashad and respond to her and make that real."
On appearing opposite Rashad: "That's nerve-racking in and of itself. She's one of the greatest actresses ever."
On how acting every two or three years feeds his directing: "It helps my process because then actors can really trust you on your next job — 'He knows what I'm feeling now.'"
Robert Egizio
The role: Uptight neat-nick Felix Unger, one half of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," a Stage Door Players production opening Friday in Dunwoody. The troupe's producing artistic director plays opposite Atlanta Lyric Theatre Associate Artistic Director Alan Kilpatrick, who portrays slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison.
Why he decided to act: "For many years now, my friend and colleague Alan and I have been searching for a project to appear in together. … It is a role I have always wanted to play, and also a favorite I have always wanted to produce. Alan also liked it, and had not done much of Neil Simon's work before."
On his first Stage Door appearance, a trial by fire: "It was purely by accident and necessity. A performer dropped out of a show I was directing, 'Hot n' Cole: A Cole Porter Celebration,' on the Sunday of our final week of rehearsals (in 2009). I had three rehearsals and went on for the preview that Thursday. Rather than try to replace and teach a new actor, I ended up staying in the run."
On his most recent turn: "I appeared as the Mute King in our production of 'Once Upon a Mattress' (in 2013). Only because I thought it would be a hoot for my audience to see me not speak for two hours on stage."
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