Interview: The Walking Dead's Jayson Warner Smith of BLACKBIRD at Robert Mello Studio Blackbox

David Harrower's celebrated 2005 play, Blackbird, is coming to Atlanta this August at The Robert Mello Studio Blackbox. The Tony-nominated play, which The New York Times called "gorgeous" and "unsettling," tells the story of Una, a young woman, who shows up at the office of Ray, her former lover, who, after having been imprisoned at the age of 40 for his illicit relationship with the 12-year-old Una, has tried to make a new life for himself. A new name. A new relationship. But when Una pops up 15 years later to rehash the details of their former love affair after seeing his picture in a trade magazine, Ray's carefully constructed new life begins to collapse. BroadwayWorld recently caught up with The Walking Dead star Jayson Warner Smith to chat about his turn as Ray in the self-produced run.

BWW: Blackbird is one of my favorite plays, so I'm really excited to talk about what drew you to this project.

Jayson Warner Smith: I was in the car one day, listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and she was interviewing Jeff Daniels, and they were talking about Blackbird on Broadway, and I found it a fascinating story. So, I ordered a copy of the script. I teach acting in Atlanta, and I'm always looking for good scenes for my students to work on and things like that, and I read the play, and I was even further intrigued by it. And so I assigned it to a couple of my students and said, "You know, it's a two-person play. It's one big long scene, so just pick a section that's five, six, seven minutes long that can be held together, and do that." At the time, it was Randy Havens, who was Mr. Clarke on Stranger Things, and Heather Rule, and I assigned a scene to them, and then they did the scene in class, and then right after that we were going to do a showcase for local casting and agencies, and that was chosen as one of the scenes to use in the showcase, and it went really well, and when that was over with, I was talking to Heather, and I said, "We should produce this play, and you and I do it." And she was like, "Yeah, let's do that."

BWW: So, you produced the project yourself? What was that like?

JWS: Yeah. I said, "We should do an Indiegogo to try to raise some funds for this." And we did. And I basically called in all the favors I could. I had a friend who I'd made a couple of short films with. I showed him the script. He loved it. I said, "Let's shoot this little promo video." And we put that on the Indiegogo, and we put together some perks, and we're amazed and surprised at how much money we were able to raise. We've had people from all over the world send us money. Even people who can't come to the play have sent us money. And now we're halfway through rehearsals and open in a month. So, here we are.

BWW: Did you end up seeing the Broadway production with Jeff Daniels after hearing the interview?

JWS: No, I didn't. I've seen a clip from it. And I know the film with Ben Mendelsohn and Rooney Mara is out. It's called Una, and I don't want to watch that.

BWW: Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know about that.

JWS: I don't think anybody knew about it. It also came out either early this year or late last year. It was one of those little small films. I don't think it was even in theaters, at least not in Atlanta. So, that's where we're at.

BWW: I assume that this role has brought with it specific and interesting challenges. What have been the challenges of playing Ray, a pedophile who's ...really messed up?

JWS: There's a line in the play where he says that he made the biggest, most stupid mistake of his life, but why did he make that mistake? That's the big question. So, I equated this to - it's not a great equation - but to someone who is an alcoholic for three months and then went on the wagon for the rest of their life. That's kind of the way I see this character, Ray. There was something going on with him at that particular moment in his life that allowed him to allow this to happen because he was a responsible adult, supposedly, who should have stopped this, and he didn't. And then he realized that (a) he made a huge mistake and then (b) he paid the penal price. He really paid a price the rest of his life, but, you know, if you don't know his past, and you know him under his new name, you wouldn't know anything was going on, but it's still going on with him. To have [Una] suddenly thrown into his life again is... yeah. It freaks him out.

BWW: So, you're building the character as though he has genuinely rehabilitated?

JWS: I don't know if you know anyone who's an alcoholic, but they always say, "I'm in recovery." And I think it's the same thing with him. You know, he's just dealing with... It's there, but he -

BWW: That's interesting because at the end of the play - I've not read the play. I've only seen it on stage - but at the end of the play, without getting very spoiler-y, there is a moment, at least in the production I saw, that there is the possibility that Ray might, to use your analogy, have fallen off the wagon.

JWS: Absolutely.

BWW: That's got to be so hard to inhabit this role having that knowledge.

JWS: Yeah, and you asked before, "Why this play? Why now?" And, you know, I'm the right age. And I think we're strong enough actors to pull it off. And the director, Marc Gowan -

BWW: Is he from The Walking Dead, too?

JWS: He was on The Walking Dead for a short while. He was in three or four episodes. He and I go way back in Atlanta theatre. He's been involved in the Atlanta theatre scene since the 70s, and he directed me in a couple of productions back in the 80s, and so when it came time to find a director, he was my first choice, and he hadn't directed in quite some time. So, I met with him and gave him a copy of the play, and he said, "You know what. I'll think about it." It took him about a month to make up his mind.

BWW: You know, Rebecca Robles, who played Una in an Atlanta production of Blackbird last year, mentioned to me that this play is really hard to memorize because of the way that it's written. Have you experienced challenges with that?

JWS: It is. Oh, my God.

BWW: Tell me what it is that makes it so difficult.

JWS: The way he wrote this is unlike any script I've ever seen. I actually rewrote the entire script by hand in a more normal fashion that would make it easier for me to memorize this. The characters are constantly interrupting themselves. There's one part where my character has a line where he says something to the effect - Ray says, "When they do a tour - Uh - When kids -Uh - When they're - Uh - For a person- "And that's a line. You know, he's trying to form thought, and how we talk as human beings when we get into stressful situations, we stutter and stop and start and interrupt ourselves. And then it's got a bit of that Mamet feel where you've got two monologues happening at the same time that are interlaced like in a Mamet play. And it has moments like that as well. And there are portions of the play where each character - you might remember - has a very long story to tell. And even that - the way that Harrower wrote it, he just writes like three words and then a word and then he goes to the next line and then he writes a word and then four words and then he might put a period on it and then he goes and puts two words with no period and then a full sentence. And then there might be a total of 10% of the script in complete sentences. Everything else is - That's the hardest part. One thing I try to teach my acting students is that everybody sometimes has two or three different thoughts that they think before they speak, and these characters are having those thoughts out loud before they speak. And, as an actor, you have to fill in the rest of the sentences so that you know where you are going. You have to finish the sentence in your mind based on the script, and that's your choice as an artist, but it makes it difficult to memorize.

BWW: It's such a wonderful piece of work to showcase. So complicated and powerful. Looking forward to seeing it.

JWS: Thank you.

Blackbird runs August 3-19 at the Robert Mello Studio Blackbox.

For tickets and information, visit https://blackbird.bpt.me/.

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