Applause and Encores for Michael Park

The pace of bringing an Encores! production to New York City Center's stage is not unlike that of bringing a soap opera to TV screens every day. For Michael Park, who is playing Bill Sampson in this weekend's Applause, and who has earned two Emmy nominations for playing Jack Snyder on CBS' As The World Turns, the process is largely the same—indeed, he says, this role is "heaven-sent."

"It's like rehearsing on steroids," Park says with a laugh. "You have to rehearse and memorize and learn lines and songs and choreography in a heartbeat." During a typical day of filming, he explains, the actors of As The World Turns have to shoot the equivalent of 80 pages of a script—the same amount as a full-length play or movie. "We're never really on break," he says, "because when we have downtime, we're usually rehearsing or running lines." Performers in an Encores! production, on the other hand, have an entire week to learn their lines, develop their characters, block their scenes, and learn their choreography. "It's almost no different than what we do here on a daily basis," Park says. "It's almost a perfect gig for someone who's in this medium."

Fortunately, Park is comfortable in both worlds. Back in 2001, he appeared in Encores!' Bloomer Girl with Kathleen Chalfant and Philip Bosco, and has appeared in numerous other Broadway and off-Broadway shows. "Each role that you play is a special thing," he says when asked to pick a favorite, though he calls creating the role of Monty in Violet "a gift," and says that his proudest moment was showing his family the Times Square poster for Smokey Joe's Café when he made his Broadway debut in that show. "I've been blessed from start to finish," he says humbly, but means it. His first Equity audition was for Michael John LaChiusa's Hello, Again, and the young newcomer was suddenly performing alongside Donna Murphy, Carolee Carmello, Malcolm Gets, Judy Blazer, John Cameron Mitchell, and Michele Pawk. "It was only after the show opened and we received the reviews that I realized, 'This isn't normal. People just don't go to New York and audition and get the job,'" he recalls. "I realized that I was extremely fortunate at that point. I have been fortunate from that moment to this one."

And now Michael Park is back at Encores!, recreating the role of Bill Sampson in Applause, and reuniting with Kathleen Marshall, who also directed him in Bloomer Girl. "I look back and I see a very fortunate person," he says about the road that brought him back to Encores!. "I don't want to say 'lucky,' because that's a misnomer. That's a terrible thing to say. That leads people to believe that there's no talent behind it. I'm very fortunate to have had the experiences I've had, or the opportunities to audition for the shows that I've been a part of, and to be in the right place at the right time. And I look back on all the experiences I've had and all the people I've worked with, and I realize that I've had a blessed career so far. And I love the fact that Kathleen saw me in this role. I love it. I'm really looking forward to playing with Bill Sampson."

Michael Park (photo from CBS.com)