You've got to hand it to child actors who work in the theatre. While youngsters who work on film or TV sets are no strangers to long hours, multiple takes, and professional responsibilities well beyond their years, to sustain a performance over the full length of a live play in front of a paying audience several times a week is a task many grown-up actors find daunting. Young actors may have the energy for it and then some, but those who can summon the discipline, focus, and maturity required in a collaborative storytelling medium like theatre are a rare breed.
To recognize these acting rarities, Back Stage West has teamed with its sister publication The Hollywood Reporter-which gives out annual Young Star Awards to under-18 performers in film, television, and music-to award two young actors for their exceptional work on West Coast stages. The ceremony took place this past weekend (see Newswire, page 3), and among the Young Stars at the show were Megan Drew, a 15-year-old from Wichita, Kansas, who wowed audiences in the Broadway-bound musical Jane Eyre when it played at the La Jolla Playhouse in July (in the crucial role of Jane's doomed childhood friend Helen), and Will Rothhaar, a wiry 12-year-old who blew away audiences with his take on the challenging lead in David Mamet's The Cryptogram at the Geffen Playhouse early this year.
Megan came to Los Angeles recently for the awards and to meet with industry people, and visited Will on the set of An American Daughter, a Lifetime movie of Wendy Wasserstein's play starring Christine Lahti.
Back Stage West: How did you get into acting initially? Were you interested at a very young age?
Will Rothhaar: I was born in New York, and lived partly in New York and partly in this little resort town in Pennsylvania called Boiling Springs. My dad directed a bunch of plays at this little playhouse there, so I did my first play there. And then when we moved out here, I got an agent my parents had already been with.
BSW: Well, both your parents are actors (Michael Rothhaar and Nancy Linehan Charles). But yours aren't, Megan-so how did you get interested in acting?
Megan Drew: I took a little class at school when I was about four, and have just gone on from there. It's like my life now.
BSW: Have your parents been encouraging of a career in acting, with all its ups and downs?
Will: Yeah. They just say, "If you don't want to do it anymore, just say so," and I'm always, "No, I wanna do it-I like it."
Megan: Same with me.
BSW: When you're working in a very grown-up environment, do you find it challenging or scary?
Megan: It's fun to watch and learn from the older actors; you can learn a lot.
Will: Yeah, sometimes you get to be pretty good friends with them, and they can give pretty good advice.
BSW: Do they actually sit you down and talk about acting, or do you learn more from watching?
Megan: It's more from watching.
Will: It's kind of both. They don't really sit you down, but we'll be talking in the dressing room about a certain subject.
BSW: How would you compare working onstage with working in film and television?
Megan: It's a lot different. Onstage, you have the audience to play off of. On film, you can do it a million times over, and even if you don't get it right, you can do it again-which is not like stage at all. You have to get it right the first time.
BSW: Is it more tiring to work in the theatre?
Will: I spent so many long days in the rehearsal room with the director on The Cryptogram, and when I got home at night after a show, I would just conk out, like, "Whoa." But it was pretty easy-it wasn't that exhausting.
BSW: Do you have strong and active lives outside of performing?
Megan: Well, school, for me. Lots of school and homework. They're like two different lives-my acting and school-and I try to keep them separate.
Will: I have a lot of hobbies. I go and see movies with my friends; I go bike riding. And when I'm on a set, there's a teacher, and my teachers from school will send the homework. So whenever I'm in school, I do my work there and keep my grades up.
BSW: Many actors talk about how life experience and age allows them to play a lot of situations and emotions. At such young ages, what do you two draw on to play your characters? Do you just connect with them naturally?
Megan: Well, in Jane Eyre, I had to die, and it's not like I died before. It kind of just had to come naturally.
Will: In The Cryptogram, I go upstairs with a knife and it looks like I'm about to kill myself. And David Mamet said in one of his writings that if he hadn't found a pen, he would have used the knife. So it kind of came naturally; I had to learn what this kid was feeling like. And it was weird, 'cause I'm completely not like that kid; I'm anything but the kid.
Megan: I think I am like my character in Jane Eyre-spiritual. But you kind of have to use your imagination, and think about how they're feeling and how they're dealing with the situations.
BSW: What was the toughest thing about your roles?
Megan: I don't know; the part was so like me. It was just a lot of fun.
Will: In The Cryptogram, I had to play the intentions of the kid just right. I had to be scared, and sometimes I am, but that's not something I always am-this kid was always, like, terrified of everything. That was really challenging.
BSW: Neither of you seem like "show kids"-the sort we've all known who are loud and greedy for attention. But onstage in front of an audience, you have no choice but be the center of attention. Do you like that, or does that freak you out?
Will: I kinda knew what to do in The Cryptogram, because I'd been working on it for about a month. When I first got out there and saw all those faces, I was like... (jaw drops) And then I was just, Oh, OK-who cares? It's fine, I'll be fine.
Megan: What I do is I put myself in the story like I'm the actual character, and I don't even notice the audience. That helps.
BSW: What kind of characters do you like to play, or would you like to play?
Will: Playing a tough guy would be pretty cool. I think a lot of actors dream to play a crazy person, because you can just go... crazy.
Megan: I'd like to play roles with a lot of character, that would mean a lot of acting experience.
BSW: So you want to be character actors who play different kinds of parts, complicated roles?
Megan: Not just like the villain the whole time.
Will: Yeah, I want to be able to just change characters.
BSW: Who are some actors you look up to?
Megan: Marla Schaffel, who played Jane in Jane Eyre. She's amazing.
Will: Harvey Keitel. He can play tough but he's funny at heart. That's how I am. I can play mean, but I'm not mean.
BSW: So, Megan, do you want to work more in Los Angeles, or do you prefer Kansas?
Megan: I'm ready for L.A.
BSW: Any advice you can give her, Will?
Will: Do you have an agent?
Megan: I do.
Will: Good. That's one of the main things you need. Has she sent your picture out to casting directors?
Megan: Yeah, and I've had some auditions.
Will: Well, since you have an agent, go home, kick back, and wait for the jobs to come to you. And just do your best at auditions.
BSW: But you also do plays, right, Will?
Will: Oh yeah, and keep acting. BSW