Interview: Michael Cumpsty On Stage in THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN

If you like a gripping drama, you will want to catch Tony nominee Michael Cumpsty (Boardwalk Empire," End of the Rainbow and Michael Crane in The Body of an American, now playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre, directed by Obie winner Jo Bonney (Father Comes Home from the Wars..., Lost Girls) and presented by Primary Stages and Rhoda R. Herrick, in association with Hartford Stage. Winner of the 2014 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play and the Inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Award (shared with Tony-winner All The Way). The Body of an American tells the true story of an extraordinary friendship as two men, a war photojournalist and playwright, journey from some of the most dangerous places on earth to the depths of the human soul. Winning rave reviews for its previous productions in London and elsewhere, The Body of an American by Guggenheim Fellow Dan O'Brien is "a play that tightens its grip as it probes where war lives, and discovers we each carry it inside ourselves."

"Dan O'Brien's play is a haunting journey into the mindset of war and journalism," says Primary Stages Artistic Director Andrew Leynse. "Based on his true-life experience of traveling to the arctic to interview Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Paul Watson, Dan's writing blends poetry and theatricality that comes all together to pack a punch - a fresh and distinctive voice in today's theatrical landscape."

I spoke with Cumpsty recently about the show and the actor's life.

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First of all, I wanted to tell you that I am a big fan Boardwalk Empire. It was one of my favorite shows. was that as thrilling for you to do as it was for us as an audience to watch?

To be perfectly honest probably not because when I find I am a fan of a show, I get so imaginatively engrossed in the world and then I read something for example how the people on Downton Abbey have to sit in that big cold building between takes wrapped up in their robes, it dissolves some of the glamour of watching it. that's not to say I didn't very much enjoy doing it, because I did.

It was certainly quite the ensemble cast.

Steve Buscemi is just a prince of a man as well as a great actor.

Now you just had your opening night for the show... how did it go?

It went very well. We had a terrific performance with a good response and a nice party.

How did you get involved with this project? I have been reading the script and it is quite the riveting piece of theatre.

Yeah it's pretty intense. I have to say the way it works as a production...it's kind of hard to imagine from just reading the script. Jo Bonney, our director, has done a great job of theatricalizing it and giving it a structure so it makes a certain amount of theatrical sense as it jumps all over the place in terms of time and location. She gives it a kind of coherence. She uses projections in the staging is very simple. We only use two chairs and two other props. There's kind of storytelling theatricality that makes sense of it in a way that is really gratifying. Nobody has trouble following the story.

To answer your question of how I got involved, Jo Bonney, with whom I hadn't done a full production with but had worked with in workshop situations and had known socially for a long time, just asked me to do it when it was presented to her. So I read it and was thrilled to have been thought of for it. I loved the language aspect of it. I loved the character intensity of it. I loved the development of the friendship aspect of it. I liked what it was saying which it is no matter how bleak things are, there is some light to be found at the end of that bleak tunnel if you connect with people...if you form attachments and relationships and share with people.

This play is obviously very different than anything you have done before.

Yes, it's pretty much different from anything I've encountered before. It's a pretty singular piece which is another thing that attracted me to it. It's a very unusual piece.

Now I understand that you play a number of characters in this show?

I do but principally, one of the theatrical idiosyncrasies of the way Dan O'Brien has written the play is that, yes, Mike Crane, essentially plays Ben O'Brien and I essentially play Paul Watson. We do at times both play each other and the way that manifests...it's not like we are in opposition to each other in the way we are characterized in these people at all. It's more like you've got sort of a monologue which is being shared by two actors. Dan O'Brien sometimes talks about the play as a one man show for two actors. Thematically in the play, there is a lot of stuff about, for example when Paul, the guy I play principally takes the photograph of the dead soldier, he says "I feel like I'm standing beside myself. I feel like I'm someone else." And then we both play that same character at that moment and we talk back and forth to each other. So there are various theatrical conventions being employed but basically I play this guy Paul Watson. Paul Watson is a real guy. He is a man who is a reporter, a war reporter, and began to take pictures...he's not principally a photographer...but he began to take pictures because he want to be able to document what was going on.

Looking at your background, I see you have done a fair amount of Shakespeare. Do you consider yourself a Shakespearean actor?

Yes, I like to think so. I was born in Britain and lived there until I was 9, moved to South Africa and lived there until I was 16, went back to England until I was 19 and then I came to the states. My formative years were either in Britain or they were in sort of a British environment, so essentially a British cultural environment, where until quite recently (I'm not sure if it's still true to say as I haven't spent a lot of time in England in the last decade, so I'm not able to judge) it used to be if you wanted to be an actor in sort of the British cultural world, you thought about it as coming up through Shakespeare. I just kind of assumed if I was going to be an actor, I would be working sweeping the stage for some Shakespeare company and then I would work my way up through the ranks. That's just the way it seemed to work. So I was interested in Shakespeare from an early age and I just assumed it was going to be my entry point. And then I was very fortunate in that I did a lot of Shakespeare when I was in graduate school. When I came to New York, I arrived at exactly the time when Joe Papp was putting together what he called the Shakespeare Marathon when he announced his intention to do all 36 plays in six years. And it took a lot longer than that, it took much longer than that. But he was interested because he was launching this huge project, he was sort if interested in having this group of people who were not going to be the stars of the shows but who he could just sort of call to play the secondary roles. I remember when he cast me in the second one of those, he said "Welcome to the corps." I am not sure if it was official in any way but he had in mind this sort of group of actors that he could call on in these productions and I was very fortunate to become one of those people. I don't as much Shakespeare as I would like to but I do consider it the foundation of my being an actor.

How old were you when you got bit by the theatre bug?

I have a very, very clear like visceral memory of being like 8 years old when I was at my primary school, which was in Scotland actually. At the time we were living outside of Glasgow and the teacher was putting on a little Christmas pageant, the most simple of things. And she said "Who wants to play Joseph?" There were no lines. I was just going to standing behind the crib with the baby and some Mary holding the baby. And she wanted some kid to put a tea towel on his head and be Joseph. That's all he had to do was wear a tea towel. I wanted that gig so bad I think I must have looked like I was going to burst and she looked at me and said, "Ok Michael, you're going to be Joseph." And it was just something about the prospect of transforming into someone else that thrilled me at the age of 8. And I don't know...subsequently I learned that during the war years, the World War II years, my grandfather had been a sea captain so he was away at sea a lot, my grandmother was part of this little group that had been entertainers. They would do sketches and they would sing and do little operettas and they would do little playlets. They would entertain at a local community center but they would also go to the army bases or the service bases and entertain the troops. She stopped doing that after the war because her sea captain husband came home and she felt it was her dignity might be impuned if she was running around being an entertainer. I never saw her perform I only learned that she had been a performer way later when I was in my teens. So there was no direct connection but I think it was kind of a genetic connection. I just needed to do it.

You have done stage work, television and film...do you have a preference between the genres?

They are, as you know, so very different. I prefer theatre in this respect...I like to be responsible for telling the story, even if I'm not principally responsible for telling the story as part of a company of actors. But I like getting to the point where I am a member of a company that steps out on the stage in this room with some people in it and we've told a story. That's our job and of course, that experience you never get on film or TV. Never. There are other things I love about camera work, especially when you are working on a good script with a good director. It's kind of thrilling to have the opportunity to re-do things to know it's going to be shaped in a way that serves its very best and serves your performance best and that it's going to be distributed to a much wider audience and you're probably going to get paid better for it. All those things are lovely. I would say my favorite thing is being responsible for telling a story.

Special thanks to Cumpsty and you will want to see The Body of an American which plays a limited engagement through March 20, 2016 at Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, www.cherrylanetheatre.org.) Performances are Tuesday - Friday at 8PM; Saturday at 2 and 8PM; Sun 3PM. There is an added 2PM performance on Wednesday, March 9, with no evening performance on that date. No performances on March 17. Tickets are $70 and can be purchased online at PrimaryStages.org, by phone via OvationTix at 212.352.3101 or toll-free 866.811.4111 (9AM to 9PM Monday to Friday and 10AM to 6PM Saturday and Sunday), or at the box office. Group Tickets (10+) are $45 each ($35 for student groups) for all performances and available by calling (212) 840-9705, ext. 204. Enjoy the show!