Review Fix chats with the cast and team of the upcoming production of No Exit.
Alice Camarota & Thoeger Hansen present the 80th Anniversary Production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential classic
NO EXIT
The NuBox John DeSotelle Studio
754 Ninth Avenue, NYC
Reservations and further info:
Special Preview: Thursday May 30 @ 7:00 pm
Opening: Friday May 31 @ 7:00 pm
Saturday, June 1 @ 7:00 pm & Sunday, June 2, 3:00 pm
Friday June 7 & Saturday, June 8 @ 7:00 pm
Sunday June 9, 3:00 pm
Review Fix: What was your inspiration behind this project?
Thoeger Hansen (Producer, Valet): My inspiration was simply making art for art’s sake, not a focus on a specific play or playwright or subject matter. I dipped my toe into the waters of producing theatre last year, with the revival of my friend Josh Crone’s original play The Journey at his new theater in Philadelphia, the Yellow Bicycle. I was credited as co-producer, but it really was more of an executive producer capacity in that I made a financial and sweat-equity commitment to the project, whereas Josh guided it – including again directing, as he had in New York in its original 2020 run. That experience got me motivated to try my hand at producing theatre here in New York, damn the torpedoes. Alice Camarota was the first person I thought of for a director, having worked with her in three projects in 2019 and then again in a short play festival last year. I reached out to begin a dialogue about it, and she expressed interest in co-producing in addition to directing. Just like that, we were on the road to a production. No Exit was one of Alice’s answers to the question of which popular plays were at the top of her wish list to direct.
Connor Wilson (Garcin): Many years ago, I read in a marketing book that I had talking about internet marketing and getting people to engage and commit to different things online and something that stuck out to me was “we all tell stories to ourselves about ourselves” which is an interesting way of looking at it, I think. And specifically how that story can change, and frequently does change, based on the feedback we receive from others. And that concept, heavily inspired my way of thinking of this piece. The character comes in with these notions of who he is, and when the story that people are telling about him in death no longer matches his actions, he starts to change the story about himself. Not because he wants to but because people don’t like their actions and their stories not to match up. An interesting bit of psychology to grab on to and makes the journey that you take with him more interesting because that’s an internal conflict that he goes though that is clearly visible externally.
RF: What’s your creative process like?
TH: My creative process as an actor is kind of technical and boring. I focus first and foremost on learning and knowing my lines as written, and, of course, learning my blocking, once rehearsals ensue. As rehearsals progress, it’s only natural for specific ideas and speech patterns to develop, but I make an effort to not get very locked into or attached to any of them. The idea that playing something well-rehearsed on stage, as though I were experiencing it for the first time, somehow is more within reach when I can be untethered from any specific concepts, other than the words and physical actions in their barest forms. Whether or not it comes through in my performance, that process, for me at least, preserves a sense of spontaneity and of the unknown. I try to not experience real life with a sense that I know very many answers or what is going to happen next, so it makes sense to me to simulate that, as best I can, in my acting. With all of that said, an author’s point of view matters. To the extent I can detect and analyze any particular statements the playwright is making, I try to internalize it, so that it might be able to work on a subconscious level to help inform my choices.
Amie Margoles (Inez): My process consists of delving into the story and then my character. I thought about which essences I shared with Inez. I’m usually a shy, very polite and bubbly person, which Inez is not. However, I related to her blunt honesty and clarity of her viewpoints about the situation of being in hell: no need for fear when there isn’t anything that can be done about it anyway. I also related to her scrappy persistence of not letting go of what she wants. Once I felt like I could step into Inez, I worked on her point of view of the other characters. She’s a joy to play because her viewpoints are particularly strong. After preparing her pov and emotions, the words of the play can just ride on top, hopefully taking the audience for the ride which is “hell is other people.”
CW: Usually for me it always starts with a couple of read throughs and then after I get a firm grasp on the story I get familiar with the words. Having a general idea of how the story goes and I don’t really allow myself to play too much until I have the words. To me, you HAVE to know the words. My body knows when I don’t have the words in my brain. They have to be my words. “Would I say this?” And if not, in my mind I have to get crystal clear on what the character is saying it and translate that to something I would say, so that when I do say the words on the page, it sounds exactly like something Connor would say and for me that helps free up my mind and body to play.
RF: What did you learn/are learning about yourself through this process/production?
Mandi Sagez (Estelle): I’ve learned I am not destined to work in HMU! Learning how to pin curl a 1940’s hairstyle myself has been…a journey, and not necessarily a successful one. It’s made me even more grateful for the incredible HMU crews I’ve had the opportunity to work with on set. Silver lining: It’s helped connect me to my character’s obsession with her appearance and needing a mirror!
CW: The idea that, much as the character I play, Garcin, needs others to validate his own self image, so do I in every day life feel like I seek out those things in any and everything and learning to let that go a bit, but also understanding that there is no measurable benchmark of who you are or how good you’re doing at anything except through the lens of others. And I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Self motivation is great but how do we know if anything we are doing is reasonably good? Well, we outsource it to the masses and see what comes back. Now, the feedback may not be positive, but it can definitely help to motivate us to improve. The reverse can be harmful too. If that painting we did is loved and everyone is telling you how beautiful it is but you think it’s shit work, perhaps you’re being too hard on yourself. The only way to know anything is take what you know, compare it to what others know, and see if it jives.
RF: What are your ultimate goals for this for the future?
TH: My ultimate goals for this production are to create a memorable experience for everyone who shows up to see it, and for it to replicate some parts of itself into the next projects up for everyone involved in this one…the idea that life is a continuous accumulation of experiences, and we take some part of the last one with us into the next one.
CW: Same as always, to act as truthfully as possible for as long as I’m allowed to play. The character is in hell, so I’m in hell for 90 minutes and I’ve found if you get to wrapped up in controlling audience perception of a story, or you focus too heavily on appearing a certain way, then you aren’t living truthfully. Garcin doesn’t exist in a comedy or a drama or a tragedy, (though there are indeed those elements in the story) so he shouldn’t ever feel the need to act according to a certain tone or try to elicit a certain reaction from the audience. That isn’t real and I’m much more interested in seeing something real than fake.
RF: What’s next?
MS: I’m always looking to collaborate with writers and directors to tell meaningful stories.
CW: I’ll be jumping into a play that I wrote directly after called The King is Dead, Long Live the King. Which is a play that takes place during a sold out production of King Lear, the lead and his understudy turn up dead and the cast scramble to replace him one hour before they go on stage. This will be my second swing at writing and putting on a play with a large ensemble cast. Will it pan out? Who knows but it’s always a good time!
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