Bright Lights, New City: Out-of-town actors share experiences of getting to know Pittsburgh
Thursday, December 15, 2011
By Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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| Luke Macfarlane |
Luke Macfarlane made it to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob and The Andy Warhol Museum within the first weeks of coming to City Theatre on the South Side, where he is performing the marathon one-man show "Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir." The native of Canada has a home in Los Angeles, where he filmed the ABC drama "Brothers & Sisters," and recently stayed in New York while on Broadway in "The Normal Heart."
The Public's two-man team in "Red," Jeff Still as Mark Rothko and Jack Cuthmore-Scott as his assistant, come at Pittsburgh from two very different starting points.
Mr. Still, a New Jersey native, celebrated his 52nd birthday by working out at the Downtown Y before a performance of the show, which ended its run Dec. 11. The stage veteran who understudied the title role in "Lombardi" on Broadway spent a week here last year with the touring company of "August: Osage County" and took his son, Luke, to PNC Park for a ballgame.
Mr. Cutmore-Scott, 23, grew up in the Chelsea section of London and attended Harvard before making his way to Broadway as an understudy in the revival of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" from March through June. This is the first regional theater job for Mr. Cutmore-Scott, who settled in New York four months ago.
Mr. Macfarlane, 31, and his partner in exploration, "Sam Bendrix" playwright Keith Bunin, came here having worked on and workshopped the show for almost two years. Exploring has been a respite from the intensity of performance days.
He has been out and about so much, Mr. Macfarlane wondered, "Where shall I start?" when discussing his Pittsburgh experiences.
"I am very interested in buildings and houses, and here in the city I've just discovered an architect of yours, Frederick Scheibler. So I've been doing sort of drive-abouts looking at his buildings from the outside. He did this building in Shadyside called Highland Towers. It's incredible, this 1913 building. I live in this 1915 house that was considered modern for its time but then I look at Highland Towers and I have this whole other sense of what 'modern for its time' means. So I've really enjoyed looking at buildings in the city whenever possible. Some of them are really, really well kept up, and some of them aren't at all, and it creates this amazing potential energy of possibilities everywhere."
On performance night, though, Mr. Macfarlane doesn't stray far from the South Side theater at 13th and Bingham streets. He eats dinner every night at Dish Osteria and Bar on 17th Street.
The stars of "Red" are staying Downtown, within blocks of the Public's O'Reilly Theater, and so far have not wondered too far since they arrived to rehearse for a Nov. 10 opening.
"I've walked around certainly and as a result I've gotten to know Downtown and the walk to Mount Washington is something I do quite often, and I walk up to the Strip District," Mr. Still said. "But it is a pretty monastic life, which may be something particular to this play. I go to the Y and I go here, that's mainly what I do."
When the weather and time have allowed, Mr. Still makes the climb up McArdle Roadway to see the sights from the Mount Washington overlook.
"Then Becky [Rickard, the Public's group sales manager] recommended another way to go which is a much steeper climb, and I did that on Thanksgiving. I haven't been up there yet at night to see the lights, which I have to do."
Mr. Still had that week here last year to know he wanted to come back and give Pittsburgh a closer look. In the role of Ken, Mr. Cutmore-Scott came here for his first road experience in theater and for the first time onstage suppresses his natural English accent in favor of an American one. He won the role and came to Pittsburgh sight unseen.
"I didn't know much about what to expect," he said. "I'd looked the Public up and delved as much as I could online. I wish I'd known that one of the actors [in Broadway's "Arcadia"] had worked here; I didn't know until she sent me a message that said congratulations on getting the part and 'Oh, say hi to Ted [Pappas, head of the Public]. It was Bianca Amato, who played Titania [in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last year]. She was highly complimentary ... I knew Pittsburgh was pretty sizable, I knew the Public had a beautiful space and had a good reputation. And I knew the play pretty well by the time I got cast."
Getting to know the area was a little harder. He had been to the top of Mount Washington, gone skating Downtown and joined friends for drinks in Squirrel Hill, but he had a long list of places to see that had very few checked off. He'd had been told he had to have a meal at Pamela's, and The Andy Warhol Museum was high on the list for both "Red" actors.
Mr. Macfarlane, meanwhile, checked museums off his list with every passing day.
"There's so much I want to say about your city. The museums here, I haven't even talked about them," he said. "I met with the three people who are doing the [Carnegie] International show, and that is amazing. I am coming back for that. The history of that is incredible. And the Mattress Factory? It's one of the most unique museums I've ever been to."
After the Bon Soir closes shop on Sunday, he will spend holidays with his family and meet his new niece. "I'll be in Canada for New Year's, and then I'll be in L.A. for this crazy thing they call pilot season."
Although he is well-traveled, this is Mr. Macfarlane's first time at a regional theater. He has points of comparison from going back and forth twice from New York, where he was on Broadway in "The Normal Heart" last year, and his L.A. home.
"I love taking in all the different cities," he said. "Something that really struck me ... is that Pittsburgh has its own identity, but it's really like a secret to everyone else. If you showed a lot of Americans a picture of the skyline they wouldn't have any idea what city you are talking about. It hasn't locked into minds as an identifiable city."
It was suggested that anyone who watches "Monday Night Football" would know the Pittsburgh skyline, and he laughed. "Or when we'll see Gotham Tower, which could be the Cathedral of Learning, or Inspector Gadget ..." He laughed again.
All three actors were aware of the high-profile films being shot in Pittsburgh this year, and all brought up the city's intersection of culture and sports.
Mr. Still looks for opportunities to see day games when he is on tour, and that's how he came to visit PNC Park last year. "It's obvious from what I know about Pittsburgh is that fans here love their football and hockey ... but the Pirates have a history of winning and it is a great ballpark," he said, adding that he enjoyed the view of PNC from the Downtown building that was his home for more than a month.
Mr. Still's co-star heard from friends who lived here that "I could expect a pretty healthy arts scene, which I've found to be true. Other than that I didn't know a lot about the city, except that sports is really big, which I've also found to be true."
He may not have gotten out as much he'd like, but he seems to figured us out.
"Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir" ends Sunday at City Theatre (412-431-CITY; citytheatrecompany.org).
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com
First published on December 15, 2011 at 12:00 am
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