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I did a couple play readings in New York
just to stick my toe back in the water,
just in the last eight months and I thought
you know, I should stick my toe back in with Steppenwolf and just see how it feels
and Tina Landau came to the second reading
and I know Tina a little bit
but she was just so excited to be at this reading
you know, of this play that we decided not to do.
I just thought, you know, this is a person I would like to be my boss. (laughs)
((upbeat instrumental music))
In The Wheel I play a character named Beatriz
and she is a Spanish peasant.
She goes on an incredible journey.
Basically, early in the play, a little girl has been abandoned by her father
and Beatriz takes on trying to find the father of this little girl
and it carries her through - she time travels,
she goes basically through a lot of different war zones
but the quest is all her trying to keep finding the father.
It's interesting working with Tina.
I've never done viewpointing before.
That's one of her main, you know, that's kind of an anchor,
a tool that she uses to help build ensemble.
When we're all sitting in front of her she says "Does anybody have
anything to say today? Does anybody have anything to tell us?"
People can just... she's just very - she's very open.
I think she's a real, um, brilliant director
but she's a real humanist, I think, as a person
and that shows and, I think, that that engenders openness with others.
Looking at all these, you know, photos that are around from old productions
and its - it's just kind of... amazing.
I was like "We were kids..." you know
and now - now I kind of love it
because a lot of the actors I'm working with in The Wheel
are the age where I was in these photos
and I actually kind of just go "Wow, where did the time go?"
When we had the first day of rehearsal when they have the introductions
and we were over at the Yondorf and there were -
well, of course, the cast is large
and then all the staff came over
and everybody, you know, there were like 45 or 50 staff members
and they were going around saying their names
and they were saying what they were doing
and halfway through I just started choking up
because I remember - it's gonna make me cry now -
I remembered 10 actors, you know, in this basement in Highland Park
in the basement of a Catholic grade school, in an 88 seat theater
and what is possible and what can happen
and I was very moved by what, you know, this -
this group did and what it created and what it inspired in others
and how it has grown and how it has flourished and what it has done for the city
and it's just like, you know, it's just small -
small beginnings can lead to amazing things
and I was very moved by that the first day of rehearsal.
((upbeat acoustic music))