Broadway Bullet Interview: Pablo Schreiber of 'Dying City'

 We interview Pablo Schreiber of Lincoln Center's "Dying City."

Pablo Schreiber was last scene on Broadway in "Awake and Sing" for which he received a Tony nomination. You also will know him from his role on HBO's "The Wire."

According to Lincoln Center's website: Christopher Shinn's Dying City is an intimate play, set in a spare downtown-Manhattan apartment, depicting the role of historic events that transform the lives of three closely observed characters. Infusing his play with references to the war in Iraq and to 9/11 and its aftermath, Shinn explores the loss of a loved one who has died while on military duty in Iraq, and the repercussions of this death on his wife, Kelly, and identical twin brother, Peter.

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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 107. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.

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Broadway Bullet Interview: Pablo Schreiber. currently appearing in "Dying City" at Lincoln Center.  

Broadway Bullet: "Dying City" is a play by Christopher Shinn that recently premiered at Lincoln Center, and while the title may be a metaphor about dying relationships as well as a certain city, the show is definitely not a dying proposition for one actor who really shines taking on dual roles. Pablo Schreiber plays twins and he is here in the studio today to talk about the show and his career. How are you doing?
Pablo Schreiber: I'm good Mike how are you?
BB: Fantastic. So what drew you to this role?
PS: Well, there are a lot of obvious things that drew me to it. One is just the simple- or difficult challenge I guess- of playing two twin brothers. As an actor, you know, presented with that opportunity to look into yourself and find two aspects of yourself and present them in one evening of theatre was definitely the thing that first off drew me to it, and then, of course, just being relevant to what's happening in the world today is always something that I try to look for in the work that I do is have a dialog with the audience about the world that's around them and what's going on in their own lives.
BB: Now before we talk about the play a little more, you have kind of an interesting career path. You have a large body of television and film work from like 2000 onward is that right?
PS: Yeah, I graduated from drama school in 2000 so since then I've been working.
BB: You've worked very frequently, but it seems like you had a hard time cutting through to name status?
PS: Yeah, yeah, well gosh I don't even know have I cut through to name status? I mean you're interviewing me here and calling me Pablo Schreiber so I guess I have a name, but…
BB: You stepped onto the Broadway stage last year?
PS: Right.
BB: In "Awake and Sing" and what happens?
PS: Yeah, I got nominated for a Tony in my Broadway debut, which was fascinating, and thrilling, and sort of unbelievable all at the same time. And, yeah, so I guess "Awake and Sing" was big in terms of breaking me through, in the theatre world at least to people knowing who I was and being aware of my work, and, yeah I'm 28 years old and I look at it as a lifetime occupation. I have a tendency, just because I'm an ambitious person, to get impatient with things and want them to be moving faster then they are. So I've battled that ever since I got out of acting school, but I'm just so thankful that things are picking up and moving fast now.
BB: I always wondered what an agents discussion is behind the scenes, when you're like doing well in the film and TV world and then you decide to do something on Broadway. Is your agent like this is a good move or is he like whoa whoa we're going to lose some momentum here?

 

PS: Everyone was delighted about the fact that because I had about 2 and 1/2 years ago, no 3 years ago, I had made a concerted effort to start doing more theatre. I was working very frequently in TV and film and very disenchanted with the roles and opportunities I was getting, and people I was being able to work with, and I decided I was trained in theatre and I wanted to get back to that and get back on stage and have a direct interaction with the audience and feeling people really appreciating and having a dialog with people right there in the moment. So I did that, so I told my agents that I wanted to do theatre, and really try to do that and see where that goes. So we were really on a path to build that and see where that went and it was really a 3-year progression of moving up the rungs and Lincoln Center on Broadway was kind of the peak of that experience. Everyone when I got that job was very thrilled, and obviously it turned out well.
BB: Stepping back to "Dying City" not only do you play twins, but you get to play two very different characters as one is gay and has, it seems to me, kind of throughout the show kind of an admiration slash jealous relationship with his other brother who is very military and what were some of the biggest challenges you found in terms of setting up the two characters there?
PS: Well, just purely having…being one human being myself and trying to bring two living breathing characters to life and have them be true and honest that was the basic challenge of course. You said jealousy and he also looks up to him I guess I hadn't thought a lot about the jealousy.
BB: Well, the jealousy I see in the show is the wife.
PS: Ah ha. Sure he's very jealous of her. He has a lot of jealousy of her. He has a lot of mixed feelings about her. He has a lot of mixed feelings about himself. We're talking about Peter now the gay character and he has a lot of self loathing that he's working through, and his way of dealing with that is that he idolizes Craig and he can put him on a pedestal of this perfect version of who he wants to be. So, he's come back to deal with his twin brothers ex-wife and to help her, in his own manipulative way, to help her with her emotions around the thing, which she hasn't dealt with since his death. So yeah he idolizes him, and has this version of him that he would like to emulate as a perfect human being, which of course aren't true, because Craig had all of these issues with violence and manipulation, and not always being such an upright citizen.
BB: I see more then one review comment on how this seems like a real departure for Lincoln Center. A young playwright, as a cast you two are pretty young, she's making, Rebecca Brooksher, a pretty important debut, as far as a real big juicy professional role it seems to be her coming out. Now the design of the stage is very simple but effective, and there comes a moment, and I'm wondering if you guys feel it on stage, because it seems like the whole audience discovers it at the same time, of "oh the sets turning."
PS: What moment was that for you? Do you remember?
BB: I can't remember the specific moment, but it didn't seem like it was just me it felt like this wave passing through the audience, and I was wondering if you felt that?
PS: No, I don't feel that. I've sort of canvassed people and asked them after and it seems like people sort of have different times, and I think that's the beauty of the thing. Basically to catch people up to speed, we're on a platform, the stage rotates 360 degrees over the course of the show very slowly and it's moving the entire time. So I think at different times in the show people sort of having this dawning revelation of "wait a minute I was looking at this from a different angel a moment ago." And in a great way hopefully that's a great metaphor for the show and the play that you're constantly having to look at things from a new angle and reevaluate what you know because of new information that's coming out.
BB: Leading up to this you said you had kind of layed out a strategy with your agent to sort of tackle theatre in New York. What was it that led you to "Awake and Sing"?
PS: One of my biggest professional experiences that had the most profound effect on me was doing a series, "The Wire" on HBO I was on that show a year and that was just a crowing achievement for me career wise. David Simon, is the writer/producer down there and he's very much politically along the lines of my beliefs and he's dealing with these huge issues like poverty in America and what creates it. So he's got this sprawling canvass that's now in it's 5th season, and I was lucky enough to be a series regular in the second season, so that was the biggest experience I'd had so far. And then all sorts of smaller roles in big movies, small movies. I had a small role in "The Manchurian Candidate" and I had a small role in "Lords of Dog Town," which was the experience that kind of sent me back to New York to do theatre. It wasn't that it was bad, it just didn't feel creative. I was out there for 8 weeks 9 weeks and I didn't really learn anything. I met a few nice people, but I just felt really drained afterwards, and like I had spent a lot of effort not doing much, and I came back just really wanting to re-charge my batteries and be creative again. I came back and first did a show called "sin" at The New Group where I played a victim of child molestation by a priest. Then I went into a show called "Manuscript" which was a young playwright named Paul Grellong who is now writing for "Law and Order:SVU". Then I went up the Roundabout and did a show called "Mr Marmalade" and then I did "Awake and Sing."
BB: So you had a nice progression moving up?
PS: Yeah, it was kind of moving from downtown to uptown and culminating in the Broadway experience.
BB: So I have to ask is your back sore?
PS: (laughter) Good question. Yeah, I make a point of getting a massage once a week on Mondays, on my day off, I go down, I'll give a little plug, to this wonderful Chinese massages studio on Spring and Mott where they just get right in there and do all the dirty work and it's the most painful experience of my life because of this show. I get beat in the back…
BB: It's pretty fierce.
PS: It's real fierce. Yeah it's no joke.
BB: It's in the round so you can't hide it.
PS: No she lays out on me and I've got knots the size of apples in between my shoulder blades. It's outrageous.
BB: Does she like come back after and laugh?
PS: No, no she's very polite and apologetic most nights, but what can you do? You've got to tell the story. Oh, I think she's feeling good. We try to stay close and communicate how we're feeling before each show, and it's only two people in the cast so it's really dependant on honest and true interaction between the two of us so we're really trying to stay close to each other and in tune with how we're feeling. I think she's feeling good, you know? It's a tough show and there's a lot to be done each night so we're really just trying to stay close to the vest and in the zone.
BB: along with that we mentioned the turning stage, but along with that only two set pieces: a TV and a couch.
PS: So we're the show.
BB: Which you'd think is refreshing.
PS: Take us or leave us. You have to be interested in what we're doing or you won't be interested in the show and that's the state of it. There are a lot of things in this show that I think – it's very minimalist, it's very striped down and the writing itself touches on things that are pretty uncomfortable with. So I think the whole show puts people in touch with things in themselves that are pretty uncomfortable with them. So the responses have been quite varying and, but that's what I love about it that it puts people in a place of questioning things about them and their lives that I think are quite necessary right now.
BB: So do you have any future plans at this point or just living in the moment?
PS: I have plans to dominate the world. I have tons of future plans. I have a couple of screenplays that I've worked on, one thing I've optioned is the rights to this story about this solider in Iraq who refused to fight, so a bunch of things I'm working on writing wise, and a bunch of things acting wise so hopefully it will be a good one.
BB: So you think you're going to do a little more time on stage? Or head back to television and film?
PS: Yeah, I think I'm going to take a little break from theatre for a while, just for a minute. "Awake and Sing" was another hard show, hard experience, it wasn't easy, and I can take a break from the 8 days a week for a little. I feel like I had a pretty good run of three years being on stage consistently and it was amazing and has really filled me up and made me feel like going out and creating some things in some other mediums, so I'm going to go pursue some of those avenues I think.
BB: Well, that won't be too soon because "Dying City" is still playing through...
PS: April 29th at the Mitzi Newhouse at Lincoln Center and I think there are still a few tickets available, but not many so I'd rush out and get them if you haven't yet.
BB: And one last thing: during all of this have you had a chance to catch your brother who is on stage at the time?
PS: I did. I went to opening night to "Talk Radio" the other night and he is fantastic as usual. The play is hard, it's written by a monologist who...
BB: Wait was his Tony win last year too?
PS: No no it was two years ago…
BB: I was going to say then it would have been the same year…
PS: No that would have been embarrassing because that would have been the same category and I would have been beaten by him, but no. Instead I got to be in the same category as Mark Ruffalo and we both lost. So, he won two years ago, and I think he may get it again, but maybe in the future in the leading category.
BB: Has he seen your show?
PS: Yeah, he came to our opening. We were lucky that both of our openings were on Sunday nights so we didn't have shows and both got to attend.
BB: All right, well I thank you so much for stopping in and talking with our listeners.
PS: Thanks so much I really appreciate it.

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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 107. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.

 or MP3 Feed with XML