In recent years, the bright lights of Broadway and off-Broadway have drawn an increasing number of television and film actors seeking the immediacy and intimacy of live performance. Just a few A-listers featured in current or upcoming shows include Keanu Reeves (“John Wick,” “The Matrix”), Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”), Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”), Carrie Coon (“The Gilded Age,” “The White Lotus”), Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda,” “Avengers: Endgame”), and Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”).
For many actors, returning to the stage offers an artistic reset: a chance to sharpen their craft, embrace risk and reconnect with audiences in real time. A few Durango PlayFest alumni recently shared what theater means for them.
Actor Wendie Malick (“Shrinking,” “Just Shoot Me”) says she was a fixture in the theater departments of her high school and college, and landed her first off-Broadway play in 1973 (for which she was paid $75 a week).
“The thrill of performing live is impossible to replicate,” says Malick, who co-founded PlayFest in 2018. “It’s what drives so many of us back to our roots.”
Actor Ray Abruzzo (“The Sopranos,” “The Practice”) has appeared onstage at renown theaters including ACT Seattle, Lincoln Center, Pasadena Playhouse, New York’s Acorn Theater, New Jersey Rep and Geffen Playhouse. Most recently, he was nominated for the LA Drama Critics Circle award for lead performance for his portrayal of Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” at the Ruskin Theatre Group.
“Any actor I know who found their love of acting in the theater always feels the need to get back on stage,” says Abruzzo, who has participated at two PlayFest festivals. “The adrenaline, the language of a play, the rehearsal process that allows for discovery, all of it is what draws us back.”
Actor Tom Wright (“Daisy Jones and the Six,” “Seinfeld”) has 195 stage and television credits to his name but began his acting career as an original member of The People’s Light and Theater Company. He’s appeared in more than 40 Broadway and off-Broadway productions.
Wright says, “One of the biggest benefits to working on stage is that once the curtain raises there are no retakes. This means that you get to tell the story from start to finish and that experience of doing so is in the actor’s control.”
PlayFest co-founder Dan Lauria (“The Wonder Years,” “Just Another Day”) agrees. He says he appreciates that “a theater performance isn’t edited – and has better dialogue.”
While there are some critics of celebrity casting on Broadway and elsewhere, these stars often boost box office numbers and generate buzz.
This has been true for PlayFest as well. Well-known actors can draw audiences who might not otherwise set foot in a theater. Malick, Lauria and others have helped put play development on people’s radar. They share their positive experiences of PlayFest and Durango with others in the industry, who then want to participate.
These professionals also benefit immensely by being part of a community that includes local actors, student stage managers, interns and others. There is a genuine feeling of collaboration when all are treated as important to the process. It’s what makes play development – and Durango – different.
Mandy Mikulencak is managing director of Durango PlayFest and an author of historical fiction. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector for 35 years.
