Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Care Nagle and Russ Schwartz of Rosedale Community Players' 'Eyes to the Stars'

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Exclusive Interview: Care Nagle and Russ Schwartz of Rosedale Community Players' 'Eyes to the Stars' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 0:01
  How are you two doing?
• 0:02
  Doing good, how about you?
• 0:03
  Doing all right.
• 0:04
  How about you, Russ?
• 0:05
  How you doing?
• 0:06
  I'm alright, thanks so much.
• 0:07
  I appreciate you both taking the time from your busy rehearsal schedules to be here.
• 0:10
  um How has the rehearsal process so far for Eyes to the Stars been so far?
• 0:16
  It's been awesome.
• 0:17
  uh I think the very first day there was a bit of a...
• 0:22
  ah It was its own type of special thing, uh its own type of special fun, and just like a wake up because we've, you know, the show developed at a virtual theater and so actually
• 0:36
  getting to like walk through scenes uh for, you know, character that I've known for a few years now was...
• 0:44
  uh
• 0:45
  It just felt incredible.
• 0:46
  Care to help out for you?
• 0:47
  How's that process been so far?
• 0:49
  Yeah, no, it's been really cool.
• 0:51
  um I've had a bit of a unique experience with the original version of the show because I played the ship's AI system, so I wasn't on screen except for the intermissions.
• 1:00
  So my rehearsals tended to entail my video camera being off and just like turning on my microphone to say lines every so often.
• 1:08
  I didn't really get to play off of the cast as much or really, you know, see how they were playing off of each other as much.
• 1:13
  It's been really cool to be in the space and like actually see everybody playing off each other.
• 1:18
  I get to appear on stage this time, so I do get to do some playing off of the other characters.
• 1:22
  And it's just fun.
• 1:23
  mean, the cast had great chemistry even when we were just virtual.
• 1:26
  And just being in the space and us having known each other for three years has just...
• 1:31
  I don't know, shown how well that's been going even after all this time.
• 1:34
  So for those who may be unfamiliar, and Russ we'll start with you, what's kind of the story of Eyes to the Stars?
• 1:39
  So the story is uh that you have three astronauts who need to make it to Titan.
• 1:47
  uh to bring back uh resources that are going to rejuvenate Earth.
• 1:53
  uh It kind of assumes that we're still on our destruction path ah and is sort of a speculative, well, what's someone going to do about it when the time comes?
• 2:05
  And uh so that's sort of the path, but along the way, then there's all the jillion things that can go wrong when you're on a multi-year space mission.
• 2:14
  uh And uh so the real meat of the story is sort of about the characters, uh the way they rely on each other and fight with each other and uh find ways to keep moving.
• 2:28
  It kind of sounds like this story while it is like balances the sci-fi and something like that, but it's pretty much a very character driven story.
• 2:35
  Is that true?
• 2:36
  Yeah, yeah, no, this is the story of an AI system that's constantly getting broken by the people who are supposed to be running it correctly.
• 2:42
  And no matter what she tries, she just can't get fixed.
• 2:45
  No, but no, no, it is very much a character driven story.
• 2:50
  I mean, the adventure is definitely an appeal.
• 2:52
  There isn't a ton of sci fi theater that you see being done a lot lately.
• 2:56
  So it's very cool that we have a lot of those sci fi elements in there.
• 3:00
  We have a lot of the technology incorporated, but
• 3:03
  The reason to keep watching the story is the relationships of the characters.
• 3:07
  It's wanting them to get home and get back to their families and survive.
• 3:12
  It's a heavy story.
• 3:13
  I mean, it seems like a heavy story from the outside.
• 3:16
  And you said you're playing the AI system, correct?
• 3:19
  What is that character to you?
• 3:22
  Or like, who is that character?
• 3:24
  So, MAI uh stands for Mission Artificial Intelligence, and originally it was a really small role, it was just meant to, they almost did voiceover for it, just like a recording
• 3:36
  of it, and it kind of turned into getting to give a little bit of character to what is technically a non-sentient system or whatever.
• 3:45
  um The role got expanded a bit for the stage version of the show, and we get to meet another AI system actually too.
• 3:52
  um
• 3:53
  when we get a little further in the story and I play that one as well.
• 3:57
  So it's fun developing the difference in those two characters as well because technically they're the same program but they get to have a little bit of different like personality
• 4:05
  and such to them.
• 4:06
  even in the virtual version, then the amount of character that MAI had really came through and was sort of the breakout.
• 4:17
  I feel like to people who saw the show, they just loved the hell out of MAI.
• 4:22
  The entire concept of the character and also a lot of the stuff that Care added and some of the fun kind of games that this...
• 4:33
  that this company plays with the idea of having an AI character, uh interactive intermission stuff, then I feel like that made MAI a lot more than a prop, which I think
• 4:49
  can be a uh potential trap of having a robotic or non-human character in your script.
• 4:57
  I think when it comes to sci-fi too, it's very interesting when you have characters like that.
• 5:01
  I always think back to like 2001 a Space Odyssey or even like Interstellar where these characters sometimes are the villains, sometimes they're like the, they're, they have such
• 5:10
  like a comedy to them that you can really have like a blank slate when it comes to having like an AI character such as that.
• 5:15
  Russ, where are you playing?
• 5:17
  So my character is mission specialist Nathan Baskin.
• 5:20
  um He is a...
• 5:23
  uh So he has all kinds of technical proficiencies that are there for the mission, but he's also a film buff and...
• 5:32
  uh
• 5:34
  he is the kind of guy who just uh randomly there's always this track of old movies playing in his head and these references pop out.
• 5:45
  And uh that was really unfortunate for me to read as an actor because I'm like, it's so hard to play people who are like me in that way.
• 5:54
  uh And so I think that a big balance that we've been trying to do is to say, where is uh that aspect of his character that's
• 6:04
  relatable, that's not a gimmick that doesn't just sort of reduce him to a schtick because he's, I think he is also kind of uh the, sometimes the class clown of the group, but
• 6:19
  they're in constant life or death situations.
• 6:22
  And so the other balance, one thing I love about Baskin is that there's always the sort of teether totter of tension and the need to uh release
• 6:35
  and to express themselves.
• 6:38
  So with a character like that, and Care I'm going to ask you the same question as well, but I want to start with Russ.
• 6:42
  So when you're kind of developing a character such as that, and you kind of mentioned that he could easily become a shtick, how do you develop that character?
• 6:50
  How do you see that on a page and then determine how you're going to present that on stage?
• 6:56
  So the first thing for me is always playing the stakes.
• 6:59
  Okay.
• 7:00
  uh the situation that that person find themselves in, you know, a human being confronted with, man, we're running out of oxygen.
• 7:08
  Like, you know, your priorities have to be in order.
• 7:13
  But uh I think in Aaron's script, the playwright is Aaron Osgood, there's a whole lot of meat in the relationship between the characters and how they, uh evidence that you get
• 7:24
  about them and how that comes out.
• 7:26
  For example, like from beginning to end, the Baskin,
• 7:30
  at Riley, is uh another astronaut who's played by Ashley Croft.
• 7:35
  They're sniping at each other and uh fighting the entire time.
• 7:39
  uh And you learn a lot about who they are by the way that they fight.
• 7:43
  uh And they both react differently to uh the boss, Commander Fields, who is Jenny Kelly Pittman.
• 7:54
  uh
• 7:56
  they both take orders differently.
• 7:58
  They both have different relationships.
• 7:59
  You know, they push back in different ways.
• 8:02
  And from there, then you, know, from, me, that's what I start building on to say, you know, what are the most important things about Baskin?
• 8:09
  What do you need to know about him in this moment?
• 8:11
  And, you know, what is going to develop as the stress increases and as the mission goes on for months, years, uh and the stakes keep on getting higher.
• 8:23
  What I love about that answer is that it's not only just about who the character is, but it's all about the relationships as well that he's developed with all these different
• 8:30
  people.
• 8:31
  All of which is super important, obviously, but that's, again, some of that work that maybe you don't even see, you're not verbally saying, but you're seeing on stage.
• 8:39
  Yeah, and that's the information that the script gives you.
• 8:43
  I think particularly when you get this lovely bonus of working with a writer who, I mean, she wrote the original script and we had some back and forth with her on it.
• 8:56
  And then when she was updating the script for this format, then she kind of had us in mind, uh which is a cool feeling.
• 9:05
  And there's just...
• 9:07
  uh
• 9:09
  Having someone who is uh having the opportunity to build it around those relationships and to build with, uh have like a collaborative role in the voice of the character is uh such
• 9:22
  a privilege.
• 9:23
  It would feel wrong not to wring every last drop out of it.
• 9:28
  And it seems like that would make for more authentic performance if you're able to really have a collaborative approach to developing this character.
• 9:37
  Yeah, except again, then there's some things about Baskin that I find too relatable.
• 9:41
  And I'm like, okay, I need to create some distance just because having Russ in space is probably not the, it's not the show that I want to do.
• 9:52
  uh It might not be the most fun choice that we can make.
• 9:56
  I want to add to that, that it is funny the kind of roundabout way that the casting was perfect from the get-go, because the characters were written like Riley is a sarcastic,
• 10:08
  you know, kind of hero complex type character, and Baskin is a movie buff who, you know, the thing's about to die and he's gonna quote Spock, right?
• 10:17
  So it's funny how that's the way they were written, and then Russ and Ashley, and then of course,
• 10:23
  Crimson is played by uh Jenna Pittman and also does a fantastic job taking on the leadership role.
• 10:29
  But so the characters were written the way they were and the actors were cast into roles that the communication style of the characters fit them so well that then when Aaron was
• 10:38
  writing with the actors in mind, it didn't change them all that much.
• 10:43
  Like it was still very much in line to the point where like, know Russ, you were
• 10:46
  suggesting your own movie references for some of the scenes.
• 10:50
  You're like, actually, I think this would be a great place.
• 10:53
  to include this quote and it's almost written that way anyway so like