"How often do you get to be in a play about people your own age and perform with actors your own age?" asks Peter Scanavino. Adds Daniel Eric Gold, "Plus, this is a terrific ensemble piece."
The two actors are talking about appearing in the new, updated version of Eric Bogosian's subUrbia, slated to open Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre on Sept. 28. Several cast members were familiar with the play from acting classes, having performed scenes or monologues from it. But the drama has resonance for the youthful nine-member cast on many levels. To varying degrees, they contend, they know the world of this play.
Set in front of a 7-Eleven, subUrbia depicts one night in the lives of bored and rootless young adults, who spend their free time—and they have plenty of it—hanging out, slacking off, drinking beer. The characters include the dull-minded, Rollerblading Buff (Kieran Culkin), the violent vet Tim (Peter Scanavino), the anxiety-filled Jeff (Daniel Eric Gold), the talent-free performance artist Sooze (Gaby Hoffmann), and Sooze's clinically depressed sidekick, Bee-Bee (Halley Feiffer).
Intruding into their lives are Pony (Michael Esper), an old friend who is now a rock star, and his sexy publicist, Erica (Jessica Capshaw). In the background are the beleaguered 7-Eleven owners, Nazeer "Norman" Chaudry (Manu Narayan) and his sister Pakeesa (Diksha Basu), South Asian immigrants who are targets of the kids' racist sentiments.
"This play was written on the heels of the first Iraq war," Gold points out. "Now we're in the second Iraq war and things are even worse. Thanks to technology, we can see the bloodshed happening almost as it happens. Kids have become even more isolated. My character is paralyzed by the enormity of what's happening. Like many kids, he feels he is nothing more than a blip on the radar."
Notes Esper, "Kids have access today, but no agency. They feel disenfranchised. There is the sense that the world is going to hell and any effort to correct things is for nothing. There is a lot of cynicism and nihilism."
Capshaw talks about the lack of connection between the images on the news and kids' actual experiences: "Outside of what they see on television, they have no realization that there's a war going on. At the same time, they're trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do. They're unsettled and without direction. I knew kids like this in high school."
Basu feels the play is timeless: "I think it relates to our parents when they were in their 20s as much as it does to us. At one time or another, everyone worships Che [Guevara]."
"There is a difference," responds Scanavino. "My parents were empowered by the civil rights movement and Vietnam protests. The kids today have a greater sense of apathy. There are fewer political protests, less passion. Kids are more content to sit on their ass."
So how do actors tackle characters like these? Many of them are violent and distasteful, while others could easily become ethnic stereotypes or two-dimensional victims. And for these young actors, what considerations go into selecting a project? Do they grapple with issues of career trajectory?
Most of the cast say they were drawn to the play because they admire Bogosian and director Jo Bonney. Some talk about the symbiotic relationship between the two, who happen to be married, and the unified vision that emerges ("It's magic," says Capshaw). The opportunity to appear in an ensemble of their peers is also important, as Gold and Scanavino note. But the play's chief allure is the range of colorful characters. "It's an ensemble piece, but each actor has his shining moment," Narayan says.
"For me, it's always about the character," notes Gold. "If he's interesting, the size of the role doesn't matter. My character, Jeff, travels a complete arc: He starts in one place and makes a discovery, and along the way there are a lot of fun things to play. I relate to Jeff. Like Jeff, I'm interested in the world around me and feel we're headed towards apocalypse. My challenge here is not to get ahead of myself. Just be in the moment. That sounds like such a cliché."
"My challenge is to find the good qualities in a bad character," Scanavino says. "Whenever you play a bad character, you've got to find the good qualities. Tim is loyal and smart and he cares for his friends. Whatever he's doing comes from a place of pain. I knew people like this. It's not that much of a jump for me."
"If you grow up in the suburbs," says Esper, "you feel so trapped, especially since the suburbs don't admit to being a prison. On the surface they seem so nice. Yet there's emptiness and desperation, and many people just don't know how to get out." He admits he's regrettably unfamiliar with Pony's level of success, but the most daunting task, Esper says, was "writing Pony's music," which the actor plays and sings onstage.
"My character, Bee-Bee, is shy and doesn't talk a lot," says Feiffer, "and the two times she really does talk she's in two very different emotional states. That's difficult. So is playing a character who is so angry yet doesn't say very much. But it's interesting to play someone who's almost invisible and at the same time such a presence." She adds that her "miserable" experiences in high school helped her flesh out the role. Playwriting is one of Feiffer's ambitions, so it's not surprising that she's most attracted to plays that are "well-written, with realistic dialogue that touches me."
"I never take a role as a career move," says Hoffmann. "I'd have a very different-looking [career] if I did, and I hope I never have to. At some point, the bills have to get paid. But I am much more interested in taking roles because the role itself holds an appeal. And Eric writes characters that an actor wants to get into and play with, and as an actress that is all I am really looking for."
Narayan admits, "I will often take an acting job if I feel it will pay my medical insurance that year. With this play, however, there was Eric Bogosian. I've always been a fan of his and of the play subUrbia. I also love working in this theatre. I love the space."
But he acknowledges having some reservations about playing a 7-Eleven owner: "I was concerned about being seen as ethnically stereotypical. I don't want producers to look at me up there and think I'm a South Asian actor, so that's what I play…. I was not born in the subcontinent of India. I was born here and think of myself as an American."
Basu, who was born and raised in New Delhi, is also worried about ethnic stereotyping. "I instinctively relate to this character," says the actor, and that's precisely the problem. "In New York, race is a nonissue, but travel to Middle America and you become keenly aware of race. So I've had the experience of bigotry. My character could easily become a stereotype, and that's what I don't want. In many ways it would be easier for me to play a character I don't identify with at all."
But Basu is not complaining. She graduated last year from Cornell University, where she majored in French and economics. She is the only cast member without an agent and the only one making her first major New York appearance. "Besides the exposure in New York theatre, I'd love to get an agent from this," she says.
By contrast, Narayan, who has extensive theatre credits—including a starring role in the Broadway musical Bombay Dreams—is hopeful that appearing in subUrbia will lead to more good parts, particularly ones that don't typecast him. He wondered if taking such a small role was potentially career damaging, but ultimately he concluded, "The most important consideration for any actor is having the chance to do good work."
For Capshaw, who has worked mostly on television and film, subUrbia represents just her second professional stage appearance. Her first was as a replacement in the New York production of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig, also directed by Bonney. "Jo drew me into subUrbia and I trust her completely," Capshaw says. "I see this play as a chance to grow and challenge myself as an actor. And, hopefully, I'll be able to say to New York, 'I can do this.' I'd love to be in a Broadway show in five years."
Gold, who has worked extensively Off-Broadway and regionally, says his primary ambition is to "grow as an actor and have more financial freedom, so I could do more plays like this. That would probably mean film and television. But I'm happy to have a job and fight for my character. And I hope this leads to another good job."
Scanavino, who recently appeared on Broadway in Shining City, echoes that sentiment: "I just want to do good work and hope everything else takes care of itself. I would like not to have to deal with the business aspects at all and just be able to move from one amazing play to the next." He adds, "I'd like to have a career like BrÃan O'Byrne, follow his path."
Esper also wants to just "keep on working." With an array of Off-Broadway and regional credits, he says, "I do think about the question 'Will a role help me?' In five years I'd be happy to have another year just like this one."
"In five years I hope to be hunting wildebeests in Africa," quips Narayan.
Maybe he's kidding, maybe he's not. But it's a remark worthy of the kids in subUrbia.