#annewashburn

11/26/17 - Jeff Lowe is a Founding Ensemble Member of Alchemy Theatre Company.  He has performed, produced, and directed for Alchemy for five years and was most recently seen on stage as Benedick in Alchemy’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.  We caught up with him to discuss the company’s Orange County premiere of Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play at Costa Mesa Playhouse, December 1 to 16.  Tickets available at costamesaplayhouse.com.

· As a director, what excites you about this show?

What excites me about this show is the exploration of the human spirit. What gets us to the next moment and how we persevere despite overwhelming catastrophes, both external and internal. I think it’s also exciting to portray what it looks like to be a theatre troupe in this wasteland and how spot on Anne Washburn gets the relationships of a theatre company from top to bottom. I think using The Simpsons as a jumping off point helps ease us into this new world and prepares us for a discussion about ourselves, which might feel a little silly until you realize their struggles are just as human, they just happen to be cartoons.

· Can you explain your overall vision/concept for this production & how that ties into what you were looking for in auditions?

The overall concept of the show is to explore these survivors’ humanity and joy throughout their endeavors, how they overcome the obstacles in their most profound moments, and how those ripple into the tiny moments of putting on a stage show. They are a family, they are the new nuclear family if you’ll forgive the pun. These actors have to be able to be both funny and vulnerable as the show switches back and forth, and then beyond that in Acts 2 and 3, they need to be accomplished singers and people who are willing to use their whole bodies to convey the message of hope and determination which is at the heart of this comically dark show.

· How do you prepare for auditions? Take us through that process.

I prepare for auditions by reading the script a lot and doing research based on the playwright and the designers of the original productions. I dream up how I think the production should go, and then maybe try to view pieces of past productions to see what syncs up. This way I can know the show on a deeper level, and hopefully through auditions I find those hidden elements that really make an actor engaging and meant for this particular story.

· In auditions, what do you look for to help you make casting decisions?

For this show during cast I was looking for good voices as a start. The end of the show is primarily music. You have to have great singers; if we don’t, we trip at the finish line. After that I look for storytellers, which is even more important in this show than it is in others. Every character gets an opportunity to tell a story in this show, and it’s all on them to paint those images for the audience and their fellow survivors, and I have to say, we have some amazing singers and story tellers; I couldn’t be happier.

· This show explores the way that stories evolve. What’s your origin story? How do you feel connected to your origin now?

My personal origin story is not knowing anything about theatre. I used to play baseball, and when we were so bad that we literally didn’t finish a game in two years (murder rule) I tried my hand at acting. Much like these survivors, there weren’t a lot of mentors available to me to figure out what should and shouldn’t be done. For the past 15 years, I have simply been pushing, harder and harder, until I find the light and I know I’m heading in the right direction. I have made plenty of mistakes along the way that have made me stray from the path I was meant to be on, but it is a crucible of experience, education, and passion that has led me to the conclusion that this is what I was meant to do with my life, a feeling I’m sad to say, not enough people find.

· What do you want the main takeaway to be for this show? What would you like the audience to walk away with?

Map to the stars

Time can be timeless–and pass in a twinkle– or it can drag as if you were actually travelling to the stars. Antilia Pneumatica at PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS/PETER JAY SHARP THEATER. Nat DeWolf, April Matthis, Annie Parisse & Maria Striar. Photo by Joan Marcus It is either “an illusion,” as one of the characters in Anne Washburn’s new play, Antlia Pneumatica, at Playwrights Horizons through April 24th,…