One of the nicest aspects of seeing a play in The Roundabout's beautiful American Airlines Theatre is that it has fine acoustics. Little, if any, amplification is used when drama or comedies are staged at that venue do nothing stands between the actors' voices and the audience's ears. Such is the case with the charming revival of Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST which will be presented there until June 26th.
Throughout the play, the skilled cast performs without amplification and without those terribly noticeable microphones adhered to their foreheads. Every single voice carries beautifully and one that carries extremely well belongs to actor David Furr whose mellifluous voice can be heard even in the furthest reaches of the theater's balcony. Playing Jack Worthing, he clearly enunciated every syllable and consonant the playwright used to create some of the play's wittiest aphorisms and epigrams. The actor also looks fine in the attractive Tony Award winning period costumes Desmond Heely designed for this delightful production.
Meeting Furr in the office of The Roundabout's publicists finds him to be even better looking in person than he appears on stage. Perhaps it's because the dazzle of his cerulean eyes can't be fully appreciated from the 10th row of any theater. He's also extremely charming but that's to be expected of a native Southerner whose pencil line moustache gives him an uncanny resemblance to Rhett Butler. The difference is that Furr seems to be a man who actually "gives a damn" and offers his guest a cold drink before settling down for a lengthy conversation.
It's refreshing to find that David Furr isn't one of those actors who discovered their penchant for performing in his infancy. Volumes could be written about how youngsters portraying germs in theirs schools' annual health pageants heard the sound of applause and went on to greater glory. Furr decided on his career a bit later in life. The North Carolina native explains: "In my freshman year of college I was making friends and there were a couple of people I was getting to know who were going to audition for some one-acts. One girl who I really liked was going so I joined them. I suspected I'd enjoy it or even be good at it. They were interested in me for one of the plays but I wasn't sure I could learn the lines, which I admitted to the director. She made me, effectively, the stage manager and it was my first dose of being around a play. At that point it became rather addicting. By the end I kindda knew the lines without studying them because I was around them all the time. It became less of a fear."
He continues by adding, "The next semester I auditioned again and got on stage. I just got hooked and was having such a good time that by the end of that college experience I was doing Shaw and Shakespeare but wound up with no other skills." Furr chuckles as he looks back on the situation. He went on to obtain his MFA degree through The Alabama Shakespeare Festival and it's now defunct graduate actor training program. "I was there '96 to '98 and it was pretty much year-round. I got my MFA, and people in the program who don't have their Equity cards get them by the end. It should also be noted that it was a professional theater. I not only did my grad work but I was getting to know committed actors and directors. It was a good training ground in terms of graduate work and being around working professionals."
However, it is Furr's rich and resonant speaking voice that makes him a stand-out in EARNEST's
otherwise ensemble cast. How much vocal training did he have? "Well, we had some elements of vocal training at Appalachian State University, where I was an undergrad. More came at ASF, trying to meet the demands of Shakespeare and classical theater, which certainly nurtures your voice. Eventually I played Shakespeare outdoors and found myself having to project over the ambient sounds of nature," he says with a hearty laugh. "Ultimately, I would credit my vocal training to some schooling and then just loads of classical theater runs. I think that pretty much pulls it out of you in a way."
Coming to New York, Furr found that the first production he was cast in was a Canadian transplant of Shakespeare's KING LEAR that starred Christopher Plummer in the title role and had received critical acclaim at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. "They re-cast about eight ensemble roles with New York actors. I was one of them, playing, among other things the Good Servant who tried to stop Cornwall from gouging out and got killed by Regan."
