PHOENIX — My name is Mark Turvin, and I am about to journey into what a few of my colleagues have dubbed "critic's hell."
I should add that I have never been a critic in the academic sense. I am a playwright with more than 80 productions of over 20 scripts. I have performed in several community theatre projects over the past 20 years and have worked, professionally and otherwise, as a dramaturge, script reader, literary manager, theatre professor, and director. I have had more of a problem getting critics in Arizona to accept me as one of their own than I've had being accepted in the theatre community. And yes, I write for Back Stage. Where most dailies don't get it, Back Stage does: the critic as artist. And I am about to put this into practice.
I have been cast in the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company's production of Natives, a new work by Janet Neipris, co-head of the graduate program in dramatic writing at New York University. Admittedly, it won't be a stretch for me, as I am playing the role of Gary, a pretentious, generally disliked food critic. This is my first Equity production in Arizona. It was 16 years ago, while attending Emerson College in Boston, that I last appeared as an actor in a professional show, a new work titled The Woman Who Shot Lenin at the Charlestown Working Theater. I played Lenin.
I am about to work with actors I have been critiquing for more than 11 seasons. I've given awards to some, dreadful notices to others. Through my wife, Alicia, an actress, stage manager, and scenic designer, I have found myself at parties having my negative reviews recited back to me verbatim by actors filled with liquid courage who would otherwise treat me with respect. How will my fellow cast members feel? What about working with the director, Mark DeMichele? I once reported that his greatest moment as an actor — a role in the Arizona Theatre Company production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten — was "ably handled... though his accent [was] a bit too forced." I remember this quote because DeMichele reminded me of it at the Phoenix actors' hangout Durant's a few years ago.
The story of my casting begins two seasons ago. Phoenix Theatre had created a new summer play-reading festival, which DeMichele coordinates, and I received a phone call. "Hey Mark, I wanted to know if you were still interested in acting," he said. "I was reading this script and thought you'd be perfect for this role." I replied that I'd love to, but when I first read the script, I couldn't help but notice my character's introduction:
Viola
...Gary just plain loves food. None of us like Gary. He's kind of a prick.
DeMichele insisted the line had nothing to do with my casting. What a relief!
After a week of rehearsal in which we worked with Neipris, we presented a staged reading of the play. Arizona Jewish Theatre's producing director, Janet Arnold, attended and decided to give Natives a full production at the end of the company's 2005-06 season. DeMichele, who did not direct the reading, was tapped to helm the production. I considered auditioning for the role of Gary, but chickened out. Two months before rehearsals were scheduled to start, I got a phone call from a familiar voice: "Hey Mark, I wanted to know if you were still interested in acting." Apparently, I hadn't needed to audition; the playwright insisted on my playing the part. "He's perfect," she said. What a relief.
And so began my trek from sitting in comfy opening-night seats to treading the boards. The cast is great, filled with intimidatingly talented actors, including Arnold in the lead. I received the call shortly before I was to review the theatre's production of The Odd Couple. Mixed review. Pardon me while I bite the hand...
Part II: From the first reading through blocking, disproving the saying "Those who can't do, critique."