A theater critic at The Examiner listed the acting ensemble from Unrelenting Relaxation as one of the best in Orange County Theater in 2012. Our director, Mike Martin, is also on the short-list.
I am incredibly proud that I got to be a part of this show – it was an overpowering emotional experience, and often a hard thing to get an audience to – but I am so glad I chose to do it. Honestly, I believe this praise most directly reflects on the astounding women who played on-stage, the demands on them both technically and emotionally were so intense, and they never shrunk from putting themselves through the wringer. I always said that I had the best seat in the house, getting to experience the fullest version of all these performances every night as, in my role as Interviewer, I received all their stories and prompted them with my questions. The vast majority of my work as an actor was, while crucial, completely invisible to the audience by the very design of the show. Not everyone would be drawn to that but to me it made it an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
Unrelenting was the second show I did at STAGES last year following Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and I loved becoming part of that family which has been producing quality work for 20 years. The cast was full of loving, dedicated people that I still count as friends, Mike was both supportive and creative in guiding our search for the show; and his assistant director, Brian Fichtner, deserves mention for his constant encouragement and attention to detail.
It’s impossible to sum up what it does for us to know that we’ve really reached someone. And when someone who loves going to the theater that much tells you that you did something especially well… for me, it’s like re-living the best moments of that show.