10 Questions
Take Ten: Will Gartshore
Will Gartshore, a two-time Helen Hayes Award recipient, returns to Signature Theatre as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music through October 8. This week's Take Ten offers the inside scoop on Gartshore's Dorian Gray-infected psyche, his break-a-leg commitment to the craft, and his love of a nice Sunday in the park.
1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?
I can’t recall the name of the first theatre production that I remember going to, but I know it was a class outing when I was probably 12 or 13 to go and see a mask and mime troupe. The story, which was a pretty simple one, doesn’t stick with me, but what does is the pure theatre of it. I remember it being haunting and beautiful and kind of magical, and all achieved through simple and deliberate theatrical artifice. There was nothing “realistic” about it, but it touched something real in my pre-teen psyche.
2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?
My first production was in my junior year of high school. It was The Picture of Dorian Gray. A very suitable choice for a Catholic high school in rural Northern Ontario. I played Dorian Gray. As the first role I ever played, it’s quite possible the story may have infected my psyche, much as Lord Henry’s yellow book does to Dorian. I fear I’ve spent the past couple of decades of my life perfecting my performance of the part.
3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?
Any show I’m in, usually. I’m not fond of the “favorite” question, but some plays I’ve seen that affected me deeply include the original production of Albee’s Three Tall Women, David Hare’s performance of his play Via Dolorosa, and Dear Evan Hansen, which absolutely destroyed me when I saw it Off-Broadway. But ultimately, Sondheim has been the writer who I’ve probably admired and been inspired by the most. Picking any one of his shows is always a challenge, but I have to come back to Sunday in the Park with George, which may seem cliché and navel gazing, but I do think it captures something so deep about the experience of being an artist. And having just performed "Finishing the Hat" (a song I’m no stranger to) again in my summer cabaret, the material dropped in for me in a new and even deeper way. With Sondheim, there’s always something more there to discover and appreciate.
4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?
My first. Tele-marketing for magazine subscription renewals. I took it right after I finished school in Manhattan. I lasted a month, at which point I serendipitously booked my first professional gig, as Patrick Wilson’s understudy (and third chorus boy from the left) in a Jimmy McHugh compilation musical – Lucky in the Rain – at Goodspeed Opera House. Until I decided to pursue other career directions here in DC, I was lucky enough to never have to go the day job route again.
5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?
Probably falling offstage, it’s happened twice, both times at Signature. The second time was the most dramatic. It was in Assassins. I was playing Booth, and after shooting Lincoln, I would do a mad dash around the theatre on a ramp running along the sides of the theatre and through the audience. I would get up some serious speed and cut the corners really sharply. One night, after passing through the audience, I jumped into my last corner a little too hard. My feet slipped and I slid into a side scrim (which was about three feet from the brick wall of Signature’s old garage). It gave way just enough for me slip between it and the ramp I was running on. And I literally ended up UNDER the stage, just feet from the audience. Luckily, my reflexes were firing quickly enough that I somehow figured out what had happened, wriggled back onto the ramp in just a few seconds and finished my run, which was immediately followed by "The Ballad of Booth." Serendipitously, the staging required me to apply a leg splint mid-song (given Booth’s injury from his famous leap from the Ford’s balcony on to the stage). Since I was bleeding from my right leg, it became a rather meta moment, providing a little extra actor fuel to the number that night. Afterwards, several cast members (who were onstage watching the whole time) noted that it had all happened so fast that they hadn’t quite realized what had happened: “You were there one minute. Then you were gone. Then you were there again.”
6) What are you enjoying most about working on A Little Night Music at Signature Theatre?
The material – it’s just so strong and so good, whether you’re singing or speaking – and the cast. It really is a company of friends, more than a couple of whom I’ve known for over a decade now. And I think that camaraderie and appreciation and love for each other really comes out in the play, in both senses of that word. The audience can tell we’re having a ton of fun with each other up there, and that translates into their enjoyment of the piece. Plus it really is a cast of pros, so you know that they are going to show up and deliver. Given the ensemble quality of the piece, I’ve likened it to a relay race: it doesn’t matter who you hand the baton off to when you leave stage, you know they are going to run a winning leg. Oh, and wearing the clothes. It’s one of my favorite historical period, and Bob Perdziola just makes us all look so damn good.
7) Other than your significant other, who’s your dream date (living or dead) and why?
Well, I just watched the Game of Thrones finale last night, so this morning I’d have to say John Snow. Preferably in the hold of a ship flying dragon flags.
8) What is your dream role/job?
Sweeney Todd. Richard III. Why do I keep naming villains? I guess I have the charismatic asshole thing down by now…
9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?
Since it’s on the brain, Tyrone Guthrie’s Oedipus. The original production of Gypsy. The original production of Equus. Sunday in the Park with George at Playwrights Horizons during previews. The one where Sondheim had just finished writing "Finishing the Hat" and they gave it to Mandy to sing that night for the first time.
10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?
To the 8 year old – theatre is magic. It will let you be the super hero you dream of being. That dream doesn’t have to die. You just need to refocus it, and it can come true.
To the MFA student – All that knowledge is great. Now get out of your head and go do summer stock for two years. Stay grounded, but learn how to put a play together in two weeks. Learn how to apply what you’ve learned. Play around with schtick without getting schticky. Try things, fail, and learn from it. And learn from the old dogs. One of the best things about being in the theatre is the cross-generational aspect of the work. Everyone comes into the room on equal footing, but not everyone has the same level of knowledge or experience. Take advantage of that disparity. Listen to the stories. Learn the tricks. I learned a ton in acting school. It’s my foundation. But I’ve learned just as much from watching my fellow actors work, whether from sitting inside a rehearsal room or sitting out in the audience.
WILL GARTSHORE: Signature Theatre: The Fix, Show Boat, Merrily We Roll Along, My Fair Lady, Assassins, Sex Habits of American Women, Urinetown, Pacific Overtures, Elegies, Allegro, Twentieth Century, Follies, Grand Hotel, Side Show, Floyd Collins, Anyone Can Whistle in Concert. Broadway: Parade. Off-Broadway: The Last Session, Encores!: Ziegfield Follies of 1936. DC Area: Round House: Caroline, or Change; Ordinary Days; This; Becky Shaw; Orson’s Shadow; A Year with Frog and Toad; The World Goes ‘Round; Kennedy Center: The Great Gatsby, Passion; Theater J: The Religion Thing; Woolly Mammoth: The Velvet Sky; Olney: Monster; Studio: Privates on Parade, A New Brain. Library of Congress: West Side Story 50th Anniversary, Stephen Sondheim’s 70th Birthday. Regional: Philadelphia Theatre Co: Elegies; Prince: Myths + Hymns, 3hree; Ahmanson: 3hree; Goodspeed: Fanny Hill, Lucky in the Rain. Awards: Two Helen Hayes Awards, eight nominations.
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