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Exclusive Interview: Cassandra Svacha and Joseph Pacitto of Detroit Mercy Theatre Company's 'I'm Going To Marry You, Tobey Maguire' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Detroit Mercy Theater Company is closing their season with I'm Going to Marry You, Tobey Maguire.
• 0:04
  And today we're talking with Cassandra Savacha and cast member Joseph Pacitto Thank you two for being here.
• 0:09
  Thank you for having us.
• 0:11
  This is so exciting.
• 0:12
  This is such a cool show to kind of end the season on.
• 0:15
  Cassandra, what kind of drew you to wanting to direct the show?
• 0:19
  um You know what, at first I didn't know that this was part of their season, I believe, because they were looking for guest directors.
• 0:28
  So I submitted my stuff.
• 0:31
  And um then they talked to me about the shows and I knew that of the two shows that they were looking for that this would be a very good fit for me because I love comedy and um
• 0:48
  it's one of my specialties.
• 0:49
  So such a perfect show.
• 0:53
  Yeah, yeah, definitely a very good fit for me.
• 0:58
  Joseph, how about for you?
• 0:59
  What drew you to wanting to be a part of this production?
• 1:01
  I first auditioned the opening show that really got the Black Box Theater started a few last semester.
• 1:14
  And I just, love the people.
• 1:16
  I love the program.
• 1:17
  I was really drawn to like ever.
• 1:19
  was like, I want to be in every production you guys have.
• 1:21
  Like, this is amazing.
• 1:22
  And when it came to Tobey Maguire, I was like, I know that guy.
• 1:26
  So I just, I like Spider-Man.
• 1:30
  I like...
• 1:31
  I like misery and I was like, this is an interesting combination of both.
• 1:35
  I just found it very fantastic and interesting and um it had things that I've never even heard of in a show before.
• 1:43
  So I was like, I've got to try this.
• 1:45
  I've got to see what it's all about.
• 1:46
  And man, I'm really grateful for the casting and it's just been a blast so far.
• 1:51
  loved it.
• 1:52
  I have to say that this is one of those shows that when they first announced it, I was like, I had no idea.
• 1:56
  You know, I had no idea what this was about.
• 1:58
  And in fact, you know, it was having to do some research as I was building out these questions.
• 2:02
  Sarah was giving me information stuff.
• 2:04
  It is quite a interesting story.
• 2:08
  But Cassandra, for those who maybe are unfamiliar like I was before, before talking with the two of you, what is going on in the story of I'm going to marry you, Tobey Maguire?
• 2:15
  So it's 2004.
• 2:17
  So we're dialing it back to historical era for many of the students that were not alive.
• 2:24
  uh Which is wild to think.
• 2:31
  And this is right at the precursor to um social media as we know it.
• 2:39
  Facebook started in 2004, but this is just before that rise and parasocial obsession.
• 2:48
  And it is very much a love letter to pop culture of the time.
• 2:54
  It is chocked full of music from that time, pop divas, and that obsession and how it was done at that time.
• 3:08
  It's obviously a farce.
• 3:09
  It's incredibly absurd.
• 3:12
  um And yeah, anybody that had, you know, posters up in their wall, no matter what the time period is, can appreciate this story.
• 3:24
  You know, like that we all, especially Michiganders, we all have grown up in someone's basement.
• 3:30
  And...
• 3:31
  um
• 3:32
  It's just a fun, magical place in a way, this basement, because we're in the basement of Shelby's house and this is where we find Tobey Maguire.
• 3:43
  So I don't know, it's such a fun, absurd piece and to look at it through these very young eyes that weren't alive and don't have memories of 2004, that they have to look at it
• 3:56
  through a different lens that they have to research.
• 3:59
  this time period is so funny to me.
• 4:02
  It adds extra humor for sure.
• 4:05
  I was going say though, Cassandra, you weren't alive then either, so you have to do lots of research too, right?
• 4:09
  No, I'm just kidding.
• 4:13
  that time period.
• 4:14
  Thank you, I'm very flattered.
• 4:15
  But yeah, no, definitely alive.
• 4:18
  And sometimes I tell them things and I would say that they look at me with some blank eyes.
• 4:24
  They're like, I don't know what you're talking about.
• 4:27
  Which is very fun.
• 4:29
  was about 12 then, so I understand.
• 4:31
  It was a different time.
• 4:32
  When you talk to these younger kids, no, I'm you younger kids, Joseph.
• 4:36
  These younger individuals, they're like, whoa, time was so different back then.
• 4:40
  I was like, no, don't say that.
• 4:41
  Don't act like we were so different back then.
• 4:43
  oh So Joseph, who are you playing in the show?
• 4:48
  I'm Tobey McGuire.
• 4:50
  Perfect.
• 4:51
  So what's kind of Tobey's narrative in this story?
• 4:55
  This is not the Tobey you would see on TV.
• 4:58
  This is the, um I'd like to think of it as um the author of the play's rendition of what he, who he really is deep inside.
• 5:08
  It's just, you don't really get to see that, like what a person's like at their wits end until they're at their wits end.
• 5:17
  And you know, being able to play Tobey Maguire where it's not him that you see on TV.
• 5:23
  It's like a
• 5:25
  He's desperate.
• 5:27
  He's like a different person.
• 5:28
  It's its own thing.
• 5:30
  And it's just, it's very interesting in that way.
• 5:32
  And I love playing him for that.
• 5:36
  Where um he's like just your average guy.
• 5:39
  You know what I mean?
• 5:40
  I mean, at the end of the day, he started his acting career really young.
• 5:44
  So he grew up with Hollywood being his life story.
• 5:49
  And it really, you know, I...
• 5:51
  I think from the author's perspective, really got into his head.
• 5:54
  And now being in a life where that's all gone, and he has no idea if he'll ever see it again.
• 6:01
  um the only person he has contact to is this small little 14-year-old girl who just absolutely adores him.
• 6:09
  It's just very interesting to me how much he...
• 6:13
  It brings out the reality of, you know...
• 6:19
  of humanity and you know doesn't matter who you are even if you're famous and all over the place or even spider-man you know anything can bring you to that bring you to your knees
• 6:29
  in that way
• 6:31
  So where do you begin developing a character such as Tobey Maguire?
• 6:35
  Wow, that's an interesting question.
• 6:37
  um It was really, it was definitely very difficult um because this is the first time I had played a role so...
• 6:47
  Deliberate and dynamic and not to mention he's a person in real life So that that was also the first thing.
• 6:55
  I remember watching so many documentaries and like documentaries I mean nobody documents tomy maguire anymore, but like I watched what I could of course and I learned a lot about
• 7:05
  his past and his connections with other people the competition between him and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal and like where the tensions rise and fall and why he is the
• 7:17
  man that
• 7:17
  he is, why he feels so inclined to be like amazing and feel amazing and be wonderful.
• 7:25
  And like I just I needed to know where that came from.
• 7:29
  I watched the first Spider-Man movie probably like 10 years ago.
• 7:34
  And um it's just that's really all I had of his character.
• 7:39
  I didn't watch other movies where he was in.
• 7:41
  And if he was in there, he was like very small part.
• 7:44
  And um
• 7:46
  He was just a very interesting human being and he had a lot going on at the time and I just had to embody as much as I could within the small time frame of like a couple months
• 7:58
  for the show.
• 7:59
  And uh he's a very mellow guy so I have to uh balance that out with the absurdity of the script and like, you know, again bringing out, okay, so now I know who Tobey Maguire is
• 8:13
  but also who, what is he like?
• 8:16
  What is the part that we don't see?
• 8:18
  And like I had to kind of uncover that based on my impression of Tobey Maguire and I've just it's slowly been evolving throughout the show along with Kaz's wonderful direction of
• 8:28
  like, you know Maybe he'd do something like this.
• 8:32
  This is what was popular at the time He totally knows what this is about and like, you know adding some things that man were hilarious that um
• 8:42
  I never even thought of or understood until I started doing the show so yeah, it's been complex and different But you know I've loved every minute of it for sure
• 8:52
  So Cass, with your vision of this, I guess when you start with the work, because it sounds like this is such an incredible piece on the script pages as well, like what felt
• 9:01
  important to highlight, but then also how did you bring that to the stage?
• 9:05
  Um, so with this particular play, the playwright, oh Sam Hurley wrote impossible stage directions, if that makes sense, very absurd and funny stage directions that match her
• 9:21
  writing.
• 9:22
  So creatively, um, I looked to
• 9:29
  And what I explained to the design team was that I wanted everything to derive from the basement um to match the absurdity that anything that comes into play with this particular
• 9:41
  piece has to have lived in the basement at one time.
• 9:45
  to match that absurdity.
• 9:47
  And um I think we do a pretty good job.
• 9:49
  And the creative team has been really like on board with that when we make choices as actors on stage two, that if it involves anything, it's a pretty prop heavy show as well.
• 10:00
  um That it has lived, it was probably found in the basement.
• 10:06
  And it's real specific because this show is so, can be anything.
• 10:14
  it really the way that she has written it in terms of those stage directions, you're like, that is not physically possible.
• 10:21
  But we have to come up with some.
• 10:24
  Yeah, we have to come up with something that is so ridiculous to match that.
• 10:30
  And um I think the actors and the creative team have come together very well.
• 10:35
  um And I.
• 10:39
  You know, it's very much.
• 10:40
  um
• 10:41
  You know, I see a little bit of myself in Shelby as like a nerdy girl and, um you know, like it's it's easy to like relate to her in so many ways.
• 10:53
  So to tell her story um is is kind of fun because I have definitely if if Riley, who's playing Shelby, doesn't have a little bit of me in her, then I didn't do my job because I
• 11:05
  find it very much a very relatable.
• 11:09
  obsession, but you obsess over something when you're young and um I have definitely applied some of myself on her even though we're very different people.
• 11:18
  um Yeah, I don't know, does that make sense?
• 11:22
  Like it's such a wild world.
• 11:25
  So going into it, I knew that, yeah, it had to...
• 11:30
  be about the basement.
• 11:31
  And I think I'm coming to a point now towards the end as we're going into dress rehearsals, even though it's Shelby's story, I was saying last night that um I wonder if
• 11:43
  it's actually Tobey's story, like Tobey's dream, like in a way.
• 11:48
  So.
• 11:49
  because he has more control than what is let on in many ways and get some privileges that Shelby doesn't get.
• 11:57
  um And people who will see the show will see what I mean.
• 12:00
  um And I'm like, maybe it is his, it's through his lens.
• 12:09
  I don't know.
• 12:09
  So it's interesting discoveries that even come so late in the game.
• 12:14
  If that, yeah.
• 12:15
  to still kind of peel away some of those layers and kind of see that there's maybe a different perspective to this.
• 12:20
  Yeah, think we, every day, we were just talking about it this past week too, is that we still are having little discoveries, even though we're kind of, we are getting to that
• 12:29
  solidification point.
• 12:30
  um But I don't, I think it's a living, breathing basement.
• 12:37
  And um they will always find something new every time they do it um that will be exciting and fun, especially, uh
• 12:47
  they deserve an audience, you know, at this point to get those laughs and that excitement and that adrenaline.
• 12:55
  Because like I was telling Joe multiple times this week, this is an athletic experience for them as actors.
• 13:01
  Doing comedy at this level um and this absurd is rivals.
• 13:07
  you know, college, they're college athletes, you know, doing something that is so physical and so demanding on themselves, their voice, their body.
• 13:16
  It's a workout.
• 13:20
  Joseph, has that been one of the biggest challenges to this production for you?
• 13:24
  It's definitely one of them, that's for sure.
• 13:29
  It's just, yeah, in every way I feel- every part of my body is being used in like a different way for this production whether I'm like-
• 13:40
  crawling on the floor or yelling really loud.
• 13:44
  It's like all different types of things and yeah, it can definitely be exhausting.
• 13:49
  And I remember the note that Kaz gave me that really stuck with me is, know, each day you should come um fully charged and...
• 13:58
  by the end of the show you should be fully depleted and it's like you know that's when you know you've done your job and I took that to heart and I'm like okay then that's my job
• 14:06
  that's what I have to shoot for every to every show and trying to do that is you know not that it's not too hard to be exhausted by the end of the show but to perform the actions
• 14:18
  themselves is very challenging and but you know um
• 14:22
  couldn't be able to do it with that level of direction and I'm glad I'm able to think of it that way because yeah I wouldn't be able to get through the workout.
• 14:30
  You
• 14:31
  For sure.
• 14:33
  Being Tobey Maguire, being Spider-Man and all those things, but also this show with all those set directions that you're trying to not emulate but try not to meet, that has to
• 14:43
  push you, everybody, past their ...
• 14:47
  You have to really think hard about how to stage that and stuff.
• 14:50
  yeah.
• 14:50
  When we first would do the show, like I would try to implement as much of the script as I could early on, even though like, you the text's not there yet.
• 14:57
  It's just us, the words, and how they're being said.
• 15:00
  And I'll read one and it's like, wait, I don't understand, how am I supposed to do this?
• 15:05
  So like, you know, me and my stage partner, which is often Riley, will like, you know, we'll try to like just kind of...
• 15:11
  do it the best that we can according to the stage direction and then we'll hear from the creative team like, actually we're gonna do it this way and it's like, wait I love that
• 15:19
  and it's like, how are we gonna do that?
• 15:20
  And it's like, we'll figure it out and then we do of course, but I mean when it's that early in the show, you see stage directions like that and it's like, okay, we'll come back
• 15:28
  to that.
• 15:30
  ah So with this show there seems to be a really strong theme kind of like between escapism and reality.
• 15:35
  Can ask what do feel like the show is saying about the duality of that?
• 15:41
  Yeah.
• 15:42
  um
• 15:43
  I mean, that's an interesting question because I think that leads into what I said about what I was feeling last night, that maybe it's Tobey's story and not Riley's story, maybe
• 15:55
  because he does have this duality that she doesn't get in the show.
• 16:02
  And I just don't want to give it away what that is.
• 16:07
  And we've even allowed him more of that.
• 16:11
  escapism, you will, or control and power.
• 16:14
  um Yeah, I, and then, you know, I get asked a lot too with, you know, what do people walk away with from the show?
• 16:26
  You know, we go to the theater for, you know, to be moved, to be changed.
• 16:32
  And I will stop people right then and there.
• 16:34
  You're not going to be a changed person when you leave the show.
• 16:38
  What you are going to feel is nostalgia.
• 16:41
  You'll you'll you'll have your own workout from at your abs will hurt from laughing.
• 16:46
  But which is very, you know, two different paths.
• 16:51
  I I don't know.
• 16:53
  That's a really it's something that we're still exploring like escapism.
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:59
  I'm yeah.
• 17:00
  out Nicole Kidman here for us.
• 17:01
  was...
• 17:04
  No, but that makes sense.
• 17:05
  And again, we don't want to give away too much.
• 17:07
  We want the people to come and experience the show.
• 17:08
  Joseph, how do you feel like this show reflects the pressures young people face in modern society?
• 17:14
  Wow, okay, yeah.
• 17:17
  Definitely, I've definitely been 14 before, and what I mean by that is like, I've been in Shelby's scenario where it's like, you're just insecure, you know, sometimes you feel
• 17:29
  alone.
• 17:30
  I mean, not everybody has that, the same experience, but.
• 17:35
  You know, often people of that age will face a time where it's just like, uh it's just me, myself and I.
• 17:43
  And the only thing that I have are my obsessions, are my, like what's up here?
• 17:48
  And like this is my universe, this is my world.
• 17:51
  And it's both sad.
• 17:53
  and comforting just depending on the way that it's viewed.
• 17:57
  But it's it's an experience that often happens at that age, you know, so many changes with life, your body, it just everything and it makes you feel a certain way, those
• 18:09
  insecurities that pile up on you.
• 18:11
  And a lot of that, you know, a lot of that reflects on what people feel at that age.
• 18:16
  And it's just um to answer your question, like it's it.
• 18:22
  directly reflects how you felt at that time.
• 18:27
  So even if you didn't live in 2004, a kid like me can feel like, my goodness, yeah, a friend has said that to me before.
• 18:35
  Or like, I felt this way where it's like, oh man, can't, oh mom, you're making me so mad.
• 18:41
  Like I just, I need to be away kind of thing.
• 18:44
  And it's like, I get it.
• 18:45
  And, and.
• 18:47
  I love my mom, of course, I'm just saying.
• 18:49
  Look, I get it from a kid's perspective, like, you know, what it means to be that age and have all those feelings.
• 18:55
  It's terrifying, but, you know, it's life.
• 18:59
  Absolutely, and that's a great way to kind of end this so thank you both for being here It's been such a pleasure talking with you, and we are so excited for the show to arrive
• 19:07
  Yay!
• 19:08
  We hope we get to see it.
• 19:09
  us.
• 19:09
  Yeah, come see it.
• 19:11
  So I'm going to marry you, Tobey McGuire arrives at the Detroit Mercy Theater Company on April 10th and runs through the 19th.
• 19:16
  So get your tickets now and we'll see you there.