#Feeling very fucking lovelorn apparently. It's so unlike me even if it's not of a romantic nature

[maudlin-scribbler]

Update: still feeling lovedick or whatever, which I am not used to. But I dunno if it makes sense, but I am not necessarily lovesick for romance, just love in general. I am love-struck but not necessarily romantically, I have a strange relationship with love and stuff due to being on the aromantic spectrum, I think.

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan Groff decides we should take advantage of what might be New York’s last suitable night for al fresco dining in 2019. He sits down at one of a dozen empty tables outside the otherwise packed Hell’s Kitchen bistro and announces, in a tone suggesting more mischief than regret, that he must first make a call.

"Hello," he says, iPhone now at his ear. "Joel Grey?"

Groff is starring in a limited revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and it is a very hot ticket. The Broadway legend on the other end of the line has apparently thrown a Hail Mary in hopes of scoring seats to the night’s sold-out performance. Hamming up this exchange for my amusement, Groff is game to play broker for the Tony and Oscar winner who originated the role of Cabaret’s tuxedoed emcee — and, maybe, anybody else who has his number.

"This is basically my part-time job," says Groff of fielding requests, jotting down credit card information and negotiating pickup times and locations for friends both famous and civilian. "It was the same thing when I was doing Hamilton," he adds of his year playing King George III in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop history lesson. "But I was really only onstage for nine minutes during that show, so the tickets were probably full-time."

The 34-year-old actor seems eager to please, not unlike current alter ego Seymour. Little Shop’s nebbish, sweet and ultimately doomed florist nurtures a manipulative plant even as the pet’s homicidal tendencies grow more and more apparent. Those familiar with the campy musical comedy know that it suffers no shortage of blood, but it’s a nursery rhyme compared with Groff’s recent work on truecrime thriller Mindhunter. Playing a curious FBI agent in David Fincher’s Netflix series has perhaps done more for his ascendant profile than anything yet. But two seasons on the drama have meant two nine-month stints in Pittsburgh, filming interrogation scenes with character actors who bear uncanny resemblances to famous serial killers.

So even on a two-show day like this late- October Saturday, the rigors of theater are easy work for Groff. Over a couple of hot toddies, in between humoring three smitten waiters at the restaurant at which he’s been a regular since Little Shop went into previews down the block, the actor appears to be in his element. "Theater is such a communal, familial medium and interactive experience," notes Groff, who says he recognizes faces in the crowd during most performances. "Mindhunter, for me at least, is a very private experience."

Groff plays against type on Mindhunter. Wide-eyed with an almost perpetual grin, his is a mug you wouldn’t be surprised to find in an illustrated Merriam-Webster — cozied up to the entry for "baby face." Much of his previous acting career leaned into this, starting with his breakout. The Pennsylvania native came to New York at 19 and landed the lead in the musical Spring Awakening by the time he was 21. "I was just auditioning for the ensemble of Broadway shows," says Groff. "I hadn’t really developed the taste to appreciate something like Spring Awakening until I was in it."

New York’s "It" Broadway show of the aughts, the rock opera about sexual discovery among 19th century German teenagers earned Groff his first Tony nomination. He spent two years in the production before leaving in 2008, at the same time as friend and co-star Lea Michele, to pursue film and television. The work that immediately followed — Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a recurring spin on Michele’s Fox hit Glee, a supporting role in the second season of Kelsey Grammer’s cult drama Boss, voicework in Disney $1.3 billion smash Frozen (he’ll reprise his role as Kristoff in Frozen 2, out Nov. 22) — got him on the radar for vehicles of his own. When HBO began casting Looking, its 2014 dramedy about a group of gay friends navigating an evolving San Francisco, Groff was soon tapped to front the series.

"He will search for the best version of every scene and will work until everyone drops," says Looking executive producer Andrew Haigh, who cast him as Patrick — boy-nextdoor- ish, like the actor, but privileged and problematically fickle. "He is also wholly unafraid to be vulnerable onscreen."

Looking lasted for only two seasons and a wrap-up movie, and its premature demise allowed Groff to do Hamilton, which he joined while the show was off-Broadway in early 2015, and then made the jump to Broadway. His supporting part as the aforementioned royal — with interstitial lamentations for the seceding Colonies, sung like a lovelorn (and supremely pissed) Davy Jones — earned Groff his second Tony nomination. But Groff wasn’t long for Hamilton, either. He was circling his next TV project, a moody prestige procedural about the early days of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, based on the 1995 memoir Mindhunter by criminal profiler John E. Douglas.

"I’m not naturally a true-crime person. So reading the book, I was like … 'oh, fuck,' "says Groff of John E. Douglas’ memoir 'Mindhunter.'

Mindhunter, the book and the series, delves into the morbid minutiae of notorious murder cases with an emphasis on interviews between law enforcement and criminals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Groff was in contention for the role of FBI agent Holden Ford, based loosely on Douglas. First, he had to prove to director and executive producer Fincher — a filmmaker long admired by Groff, who says he has "a boner for his brain" — that a jovial Broadway star most widely known for singing with a reindeer in a Disney cartoon could have the upper hand with serial killers.

It was not Groff’s first audition for Fincher. Seven years earlier, he was in the running to play Napster co-founder Sean Parker in The Social Network. "My agents said, 'You have an audition in L.A. with David and Aaron Sorkin,' " Groff recalls. "If you get it, you start rehearsal the next day, so pack your suitcase for two months. They really like your tape, but they’re also considering Justin Timberlake." The part went to Timberlake.

"I did not feel then — and still don’t — that he had the inherent venality for that role," Fincher says of Groff. "He is as decent and sensitive as anyone I’ve ever met."

If venality is off the table for Groff, darkness is not. And though casting the song-anddance man was a source of curiosity for some in Hollywood before Mindhunter’s 2017 debut, the finished product didn’t elicit any skepticism from critics. Over the first season, Groff’s character goes from eager, milkdrinking company boy to a shell of the man introduced in the first episode. He alarms colleagues with the way he mirrors serial killers, until he has a panic attack after getting a bear hug from a necrophile. The second run, equally well reviewed after its August debut, saw a somewhat recovered Holden sit down with Charles Manson and, for the dramatic fulcrum of the season, investigate the Atlanta child murders of 1979-81.

"It is so impossibly bleak that I don’t think about it while I’m doing it," says Groff, who confesses he finds watching the show more affecting than making it. "All due respect to people who feel like the character is inside of them or whatever, but I don’t have that. I would leave set, listen to Beyoncé, and that was it."

After an hour and a half in his company, Groff reveals himself as a Lucille Ball historian, an avid bike rider, a devout New Yorker and someone who doesn’t seem easily bummed out — except when the conversation turns to success. His excitement over landing Mindhunter, he says, was immediately diluted by a pang of sadness. "Whenever something really great happens, it makes me feel a little bit depressed," he says. "It’s like, this is never going to get better than this moment right now. I’m sitting in David Fincher’s office and he’s giving me this role."

Talk of a third season of Mindhunter is on hold while Fincher focuses on his next feature. But the director did take a recent break from Mank, a biopic on Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, to attend Groff’s first Little Shop matinee with wife and fellow Mindhunter executive producer Céan Chaffin. It was a surprise appearance, but only because Groff hadn’t been checking his text messages. "I’m not good at my phone," he admits.

Groff has not looked at his phone since that one call — which, while polite, now has him in danger of running late for curtain. He breaks the bad news of his immediate departure to one particularly adoring waiter, and we walk to the stand where his bike is locked. There, he pulls from his bag a cobalt helmet that could double as Tron cosplay. Bars of blinding LED lights on both its front and back, his headgear tells cabs to get the hell out of the way and signals to everybody else that this is a man who values safety over subtlety.

"Yeah, I do really love riding my bike in the city … I’m just not that hard-core," Groff says of the helmet before encasing his tousle of sandy chestnut hair for the one-block ride to the theater and an expectant Joel Grey. "My mom bought this for me."

[projectshakespearia]

Two Gentlemen of Verona: Up and Running

Proteus (Kyle Stockdall) and Speed (Andrew Schiek) watch as Valentine departs to Milan.

The past couple of weeks have been an exhausting whirlwind. Between the usual rigors of tech, a brutal heatwave, and the particular challenges of this show . . . I think we were all ready for a few nights off. The following is my initial reflections on our process and the run so far.

Tech (Oh TECH!!!) Tech started off as it usual does. We begin with a 9:00 am call for crew and have the cast show up at 1:00 to get oriented with using the Memorial Union ballroom, working with microphones, and all the other new additions to running the show. Leading up to tech, rehearsals had been progressing, but I still felt we were a little behind. We had SO many issues with scheduling this summer, making consistent progress was often frustrating. I only had five rehearsals with the full cast until we got to tech . . . that’s a very low number and prevented me from scheduling movement workshops and as many run-throughs as I would have liked. That said, cast members maintained sunny attitudes and worked hard. But, I’ll admit I was getting a little nervous with the lack of time we really had as a full ensemble. 

Brian, PJ, and I warned them repeatedly about making sure they brought snacks, water bottles, and sun screen. The cast had spent most of the summer dealing with the physical challenges of the Quad and were more or less prepared for a long day in the heat. For whatever reason, however, the crew had not taken these warnings to heart. Two of our crew members didn’t bring sunscreen at all. Luckily I come to every rehearsal with a well-stocked “Bard Bag” with no less than three types of sun screen and instructed them to slather it on. I mean . . . they knew they would be working outside all day . . . Oy.

Set up went relatively smoothly, but as always happens little things get forgotten like having enough cable or batteries or other things. I made several trips back and forth to Withycombe to retrieve supplies and we got everything up. We brought out our canopy usually used during tech for the booth which sits out in an unshaded grassy patch. But, this time we put it where the musicians would be sitting on stage since they would not have an opportunity to seek shade. You might be thinking: Why didn’t we get a second canopy?  Even two weeks later my husband brings this up: “Well, no one thought to get a second canopy?” Yes. NO ONE thought to get a second canopy. Not our production manager, stage manager, technical director, set designer, or myself. No one on the crew. No one brought up getting a second canopy. So we were quite exposed in the sun for many hours. From my perspective, this is not unusual. During tech, I’m never under the canopy anyway since it’s too far back from the “stage.” I sit out there, usually in a long-sleeved shirt to stop the sun, constantly re-applying sunscreen, sweating and on the brink of heat-stroke. But, that’s just par for the course. 

The run started later than usual. Although the cast was called at 1:00, between orienting them, mic checks, and other business, we didn’t get started until nearly 4:00. While the run went on without any major issues, nerves were getting frayed. With the edges of my vision blurring and exhaustion setting in, I did yell at one point about the “fucking hay bales” not being moved at intermission. Not my finest moment. Although probably not my worst.

The sunburns and long hours were rewarded at the end with pizza and beer. Tech is always the worst day. It’s a hump to get over no matter the setting, but coupled with the relentless summer sun, it becomes extra challenging. This was, by far, not the worst tech for Bard. Usually for whatever reason tech always seems to fall on the hottest day of the year. While temperatures were in the high 80s, our “hottest” day didn’t actually happen until Thursday where they peaked at 104. Oy!

Lovely Genesis Hansen as the lovelorn Julia.

Let’s Put on a Show The rest of the week progressed well although going into Sunday and Monday, I had a slightly nagging feeling that the pace wasn’t quite coming together as I had hoped. It was hot. People were tired, particularly Stuart, Kyle, and Mike who were all dressed in many layers and long frock coats for most of the play. Putting together a show is a delicate business, you don’t want your actors to “peak” too soon. You want to keep throwing little challenges in their path to overcome and keep them sharp, but you can’t overwhelm them and you don’t want to burn them out.

I felt very good after Monday’s run and discussed with DeMara and Chad giving everyone Tuesday night off for rest. Looking at the exhaustion in the actors’ eyes, particularly Kyle who was taking a constant brutal beating (scraped up knees, blistered feet, etc.) as Proteus . . . I had to make the call. And sometimes rest is more important than more rehearsal. When I announced that they would be getting Tuesday off, a couple of the cast members looked as if they were going to shed tears of relief. They had worked hard and it was showing. Everyone needed a break from the rising temperatures.

Matt and Andrew with Adonis, taking on the role of Crab for the evening.

Opening night and the weekend has gone smoothly from a performance standpoint. People are really enjoying the show and I have received a lot of positive feedback from random audience members I have run into around our humble cow town. Reflecting on this with Matt, we have both commented that this show has been hard even for Bard standards.

Matt is the most seasoned of all the Bard veterans. This is his seventh time performing in Bard in the Quad and only my sixth time directing. From his end, he says that it has to do with his role and the way the cast is broken up. Because he is also in the band, he doesn’t have much “down time” to focus during performances and during rehearsals there was very little time to work through business with other cast members. Matt loves to work things and come up with new ideas throughout the process. This is one of the reasons I love collaborating with him so much - he works hard and makes everyone around him better. He is a fantastic ensemble player, creative, and very “free” on stage. But I can see how challenging this has been for him. Launce isn’t at all the “biggest” role in Two Gents, although it might be one of the most memorable. But it has is specific challenges of having to share the stage with a live animal and basically establish a relationship with the audience primarily through two long monologues and not through relationships with other characters. He does well, of course, but it’s not without a lot of work and focus.

Kyle Stockdall and Genesis Hansen as Proteus and Julia, bidding each other farewell.

In conversations with Kyle, he expressed another set of challenges, both physical and mental. Proteus is more or less the lead in the show. He has the most stage time, so Kyle is in the position of having the carry a lot of the weight and maintaining a driving energy throughout the narrative. On top of that the physical style is extremely demanding AND Proteus is so unlikable for so much of the play. From my end, he really stepped up to the challenge and delivers an extremely nuanced and funny performance. Something clicked, apparently, during one of our rehearsals late in the process. We had both been struggling with Proteus being such a dirt bag, but he still have to experience learning and discovery. This was probably doubly difficult since Genesis is so completely charming and likeable as Julia. It’s easy to root for the character anyway, but her nuanced and hilarious performance are difficult to compete with when Proteus is doing such despicable things. Kyle as Proteus had to realize that he didn’t love Julia anymore and then suddenly give himself room to rediscover that love. It ends up working since we have set up a context where people do act like that and we encourage the audience to applaud and “boo” accordingly. We make it okay for characters to do “bad” things and then be forgiven in the next moment and the audience is willing to go along with us.

I think that was one of the hardest parts of directing this play. Early on I did what I told myself I wouldn’t do as a director and try to “fix” Shakespeare. I need to remember to just “embrace the ugly” and just create a context where it makes sense. I was on the right track with the melodrama concept, I just had to go further with it, more meta in the end and allow Valentine to attempt to “give” away Sylvia. We also created a great convention for Proteus’ decent into darkness. Proteus without a mustache = good guy/ Proteus with a mustache = bad guy. And the audience is completely with us.

Other than those script challenges, there were some other things to overcome. We had four cast members drop in the first two weeks of rehearsal - scheduling, blah, blah, blah. And I had a devil of a time figuring things out. Luckily, Stuart stepped in as a sensitive and lovable Valentine and Andrew was willing to make his acting debut as Speed. Grace was asked to pull double-duty as Lucetta and a (very nasty) lady bandit. They all stepped up to these challenges admirably and have done excellent work. We also had show-specific issues to contend with - the music (wonderfully adapted and arranged by Sedona) ended up saving a number of transitions and helped with pacing and creating extremely memorable moments in the story. This, of course, comes with a lot of work and focus. And let’s not forget the dog! I was always hoping that our local Humane Society, Heartland, would be able to partner with us so that we can feature an adoptable dog for each performance. They have been absolutely wonderful and Henry has been a much adored addition to our ensemble.

Henry. Seriously, somebody needs to adopt this very good boy!

So, that’s where we are. Smack in the middle of a run. We’re back out in the Quad tonight! I’m sure I’ll have more reflections on this process soon, but for the moment, let’s boot-scoot ourselves back to Verona!