Interview: NCIS: LA's Peter Cambor Talks TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA on the Boston Common

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's "Free Shakespeare On The Common" is celebrating its 18th season with a production of Shakespeare's comedy THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, inspired by Rat Pack-era Vegas.

Among the cast is NCIS: Los Angeles' Peter Cambor, who stars as Proteus, best friend to Valentine (Andrew Burnap) and fickle lover to Julia (Jenna Augen).

Cambor has also tackled Shakespeare in AS YOU LIKE IT in Los Angeles and performed in a number of plays while pursuing his MFA at the American Repertory Theater. Outside his portrayal of "Nate Getz" in NCIS: LA, Cambor has appeared on television in The Wedding Band, Notes from the Underbelly and more.

BroadwayWorld recently spoke with Cambor about his Boston-area roots at A.R.T., playing a fair-weather friend and beau, his love of cooking, podcasting and more!

---

I know you've worked with A.R.T. a lot in the past, so you're obviously familiar with the Boston area. What's it like returning there?

It's great. You know, when I was at A.R.T. I actually auditioned for the Commonwealth Shakespeare when they were doing a production of HAMLET in 2005, and I was also cast in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN, but I couldn't do it because I was doing something else.

It's great being back in a more Boston-centric capacity. Before, when I was at A.R.T., Cambridge was kind of my world. In graduate school so many hours are spent doing everything in the theatre that I didn't get to spend as much time in Boston proper as I would have liked. But yeah, I'm excited to be back, and one of the company members from A.R.T. is in the production, which is great because I worked with him in four shows when I was there. It's just kind of fun to come back and visit old stomping grounds.

So have you been splitting time between Boston and New York City, or have you been pretty much camped out there?

Just spending time in Boston. The show has sort of become this musical on some level. It's set in Rat Pack-era Vegas -- late '50s, early '60s, Vegas. There are all these musical numbers and dance numbers, so on my days off, there's not really time. There's so much material and so much to memorize and understand that I haven't really had very much time to relax.

I was going to ask you about the Rat Pack/Vegas spin. How does that change, if at all, how you deliver lines or stage scenes?

It doesn't change too much. It's actually kind of funny how well it works in the context of this play. Two Gentlemen of Verona is probably best known as being sort of a problem play and one of [Shakespeare]'s less accomplished works -- one of the earlier works in the cannon.

In Act 5, Scene 4, the problem is this forgiveness that comes way too easily; Proteus almost rapes this woman, but his friends forgive him immediately, and at the end the woman that was almost raped has nothing to say after that moment. But this whole idea of sin, it being in Vegas -- we've co-opted the expression "What happens in Milan, stays in Milan" -- sort of takes the terror of it and lightens it somehow. It just makes it this airy, breezy summer thing. And the point is not to shine a light on that moment as much; it just kind of is what it is, handled in a really appropriate way.

And there is this whole part of the play that a lot of people speculate was added in because audiences didn't like how the play was written. It's always said that if you want to make a play funny, you stick a dog in there, or something like that, although I bet [Shakespeare] didn't know it was going to shape the show. [Laughs.] But it fits. It almost seems kind of like this Vegas-y, nightclub comedy bit, which I think works really swimmingly with this time period that we've set everything in.

What's it like playing such a fickle character -- somebody who seems to turn on a dime? Proteus is professing his undying love for Julia, then leaves and is automatically in love with Sylvia.

Well, I was talking about this with Andrew Burnap, who is playing Valentine, and when you play somebody like this, you can't really look at it like, "Oh, I'm playing this sinister guy." In my mind, everything he does, you have to sort of justify it by saying that's just how he is. It's sort of no big deal [to him]. And to think like that works because he is so thick and sort of perverse that it's borderline sociopathic in that sense. It's kind of OK with him. Although he struggles with it initially, once he's on his way, he is on his way. So, on some level I have to think, "Oh, I'm a really good guy; these are totally normal things that I'm doing."

I think that, then, at the end, when the weight of everything comes crashing in, and he's busted by everybody -- his best friend, his former love, the woman he's trying to pursue -- he's just alone there. And for me it makes it that much more powerful, because it's like, "Oh my God, what have I done?" as opposed to early on in this play when I'm doing soliloquies where he's toiling with it. But then once he's off to the races, he just has to keep going.

Can you talk about your chemistry with the cast? I was reading some of your Tweets about the show, and you talked about "losing it" onstage. Is it hard to keep a straight face?

The funny thing is that in some ways I'm the outsider because a lot of these people have done this before, and they're all sort of Boston-area actors who are fantastic -- they're incredibly talented -- but they also know each other, so there's this inside camaraderie. But it was very easy to slip into it. And it's just a ball. Everyone's having a lot of fun. I can't imagine doing this with a nicer group of people.

It's such a cool experience. I was describing it to my friend in New York the other day, and it's not like at a theater on the common, it's just on the common. It's not like at the Delacorte or something - I know the Delacorte is free, but there's all sorts of things you have to do to get in. So here anyone can just come. And there's this real sense of community and having people just show up and welcoming everyone in the circle at the commons to see this show. It's a really amazing feeling to be a part of something like that.

At our first preview there were something like 4,000 people. And it builds and builds and builds until it gets up in the area of 10,000 by the end of the run, which is just amazing. And people at coffee shops are talking about it, people at restaurants are talking about it. Everyone, every year, hears about this amazing thing that everybody in the community seems to cherish and go to and love. And in terms of being a part of that sort of communal sense of theatre, it's just incredible.

The first night I went out to go do the soliloquy, I was like, "My God, there are so many people here!" And the sound is echoing off these buildings in this gigantic space, it's unbelievable.

So would you do it again?

Oh, absolutely. In a heartbeat. No question.

You act onscreen as well. Do you have a preference for stage over screen, or vice versa?

It's a different type of satisfaction that one derives from either of the mediums, I think. There's a really satisfying feeling about doing television, especially with a show where you know the crew and there's a real feeling that everyone is in it together, and it's not hard to work into the late nights because you're all pulling for each other. That feeling is a real buzz, a high. When you have a great day on the set, it's great.

But there really is nothing like doing live theatre, and there's nothing like doing comedy. Especially with Shakespeare, mining the character that he's given you and reaping the rewards from that, with laughter, especially at this scale.

But I like doing both.

Can you talk about any of your upcoming projects? I know you finished filming the pilot for ASSISTANCE recently.

Yes, we shot that this past spring. It's still sort of up in the air. There's still room for that to go in the mid-season slot. I'm still playing Nate Getz from NCIS: LA, wandering out there on his secret missions. I'm under the veil of secrecy for NCIS -- I'm not allowed to talk about that too much, but you know enough that he's going to pop back in. And then it's back to LA in August and back to the grind, seeing what's out there. Just the life of an actor, I guess.

And I saw that you do a podcast?

I do a couple podcasts. I do one with Brian Avers, an actor friend of mine who's currently in THE EXPLORERS CLUB at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. We do a basketball podcast together. And then Kathryn Fiore, who played my wife on THE WEDDING BAND, we do a cooking podcast together which has not been launched yet, but we've recorded a couple of episodes. The basketball podcast is called "Ballin' Coast to Coast" and the cooking podcast is called "The Down and Dirty Kitchen".

So you're a man of many talents and interests -- that's very cool!

Just trying to stay busy. My mom was a really amazing cook growing up and she still is, and I love, love, love to cook. The basketball podcast sort of came from Brian and I -- we would talk together on the phone once a week for like an hour and a half, and finally Brian was like, "Why don't we just tape this? This is so ridiculous. We should get it out there." And sort of the same thing with the cooking -- I spent so much time doing it that I decided we should make this into something. If it gets a following that's fantastic. But if not, it's just a way to articulate your love for something and have a record of it.

So going back to Shakespeare and TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, is there anything you'd like to add?

It's a really fantastic group of people. Everything about it is just so Boston. It's a really fun show. It's incredibly accessible. The idea surrounding [Shakespeare] is oten that it's going to be difficult to understand. And I have to say that sometimes if I have the option to go to a Shakespeare play I'm kind of like "Ugh, it's like reading subtitles." But this show is very approachable.

It's a cool time being back here doing this, coming back to Boston, with this fabulous Boston cast, and it's an amazing thing to be out there on the common. It's just a really big summer show. I'm sort of here to plug it, but in all sincerity it's just a really fun, nice way to spend a summer evening, sitting on a picnic chair with a glass of wine and seeing some Shakespeare.

Playing now through Sunday, July 28, 2013, performances of THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA are free and open to the public. For reserved chairs, special events, and more information, visit online at www.commshakes.org or call (617) 426-0863.

Production photos by Andrew Brilliant/Brilliant Pictures.