[title of show] Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1

[title of show]
INTERVIEW
Within the show, the characters that represent you guys talk very consciously about
not wanting to “sell out” and make changes in cast and content. How do you keep
[title of show] the feel-good love bonanza that it’s been since its early stages, when
there’s so much money involved?
HB: Well there’s more money, but it’s not ten million…yet! I think the cool thing with this
piece is that every experience was fodder for material in the show. There were pressures
when you begin to open up and bring in commercial producers. My first thought was, I
know how to write when we are just downtown and playing, but I don’t know how to write
an Off-Broadway show. The great thing was to just constantly check in with my friends who
happened to be my collaborators, and remind ourselves to welcome outside ideas, but
at the end of the day, say what we want to say. Plus, we could talk about those fears and
pressures directly in the show.
JB: It’s interesting because we did make a lot of changes. We didn’t want to “sell-out,”
but we weren’t fools; we wanted to entertain people and that was going to involve a bit of
old-school musical theatre rules. We made many modifications as most musicals do when
they’re growing up and making their way towards production, but we (the cast and Michael
Berresse, our director) were blessed with having a bit of necessary stubbornness that
allowed us to make changes but use our own voices when doing so. Ultimately, we always
arrived at something we believed in and trusted.
The characters names are Jeff and Hunter. Okay, so you’re playing you, and you’re you,
but you’re not you, because you’re playing you, alongside your real-life friends—it’s
enough to turn a person cross-eyed. What is it like interacting with audiences who are
getting close-up views and versions of your actual off-stage personas? Have you had
any crazy identity crises, or loony stalker fans who can’t separate meta-fiction from
reality?
Hunter & Jeff a little
less formal
HB: It’s been interesting. The characters are certainly based
on us, but they are not completely us. They are these kind
of heightened theatrical versions of Hunter and Jeff. But
more than any other show I’ve done, people do seem to feel
a deeper connection to us after they’ve seen the show. It’s
funny, sometimes I’ll meet people after the show, and when
I introduce myself, I’ll say, “I’m Hunter”..and they say “We
know.”
JB: No stalker fans…(fingers crossed)…yet!
- Interviewed by Joanna Parson (reprinted with permission) from
http://www.actorslife.com/article.php?id=109
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 12