Broadway Bullet Interview: Exits and Entrances

This week we profile the play "Exits and Entrances" and interview actors Morlan Higgins and William Dennis Hurley and director Stephen Sachs.

"Exits and Entrances" is the autobiographical play by South African playwright Athrol Fugard about the friendship between a young playwright and an older actor.

Morlan Higgins has won two Ovations and four Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards. In Los Angeles he has appeared in numerous productions including the world premier of "Exits and Entrances."

William Dennis Hurley also has won numerous awards for his theatre work in Los Angeles including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award and the Backstage West Garland Award for the world premiere of "Exits and Entrances."

Stephen Sachs co-founded The Fountain Theatre in LA where he has directed many productions. He also is a published playwright and his plays have been PEN USA Literary Award Finalists and Garland Award Winners.

"Exits and Entrances" is playing at Primary Stages.

You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 108. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.

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Broadway Bullet Interview: Stephen Sachs, Morlan Higgins and William Dennin Hurley of Exits and Entrances

 

 

Broadway Bullet: South African Athrol Fugard has written many plays that I'm sure many of you are familiar with. "Master Harold and the Boys" is one of his Tony nominated plays. His newest has been been performed all around the country, and in fact, New York is one of the last places to see it. Veterans of all of those productions are here with us. The directors and the actors. How you are you guys doing?

All: Great.

BB: Do you want to take a second to introduce yourselves to everybody?

Stephen Sachs: I'm Stephen Sachs. I'm the director of the play.

Morlan Higgins: I'm Morlan Higgins and I play Andre.

William Dennis Hurley: I'm William Dennis Hurley and I play the Playwright.

BB: Now how long have you guys been involved with Entrances and Exits, which is now playing at 59 East 59th Street for Primary Stages?

SS: It had it's premier at the Fountain theatre in Los Angeles in 2004 and we've been enjoying productions of it around the country since then, and it's been a real labor of love. It's such a joy for us, and the play has done just phenomenally well in each city it's appeared.

BB: Now, I'm looking at your bios from the show and it seems like one could play a game of where's Waldo, but where's the ovation. You guys have tons of Los Angeles Ovation awards between the three of you. Are there a couple you maybe want to highlight out?

MH: Highlight them out? They're sitting next to the pots and pans in my kitchen at home. No, its- the ovation is a community voted award. They call themselves the Tonys of LA, but they make nice paperweights.

SS: Morlan had the distinction the year we did Exits and Entrances in Los Angeles of winning every single leading actor award in LA that year.

MH:It cost me an arm and a leg.

BB: A lot of banquets to go to. The play is kind of unique in the fact that William you are playing basically Athrol Fugard in the play.

WDH: I am right.

BB: So maybe we should talk a little about what Exits and Entrances is actually about because it's a two person play and very autobiographical, but maybe a little less political then some of his other works. Isn't that right?

SS: Sure. Exits and Entrances I think is a very personal play by Athrol and a tribute not only to the theatre, but to his extraordinary friendship with this great actor back in South Africa back in the 1950s Andre, who is an actor who he ended up being a dresser for in a production of Oedipus Rex and learned very much from and ended up influencing a lot of what Athol wrote about for the rest of his life. He was at the beginning of his journey as a playwright. This man was sort of at the end of his journey as an actor and how their two lives collided and their two opinions collided and influenced each other.

BB: Now Steven you've worked on Athrol's works before haven't you?

SS: Yeah my relationship with Athrol began in 2000 when I directed the Los Angeles premier of his play The Road To Mecca at my theatre, the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which is an intimate 80-seat space in LA. As a rule Athol never goes to see productions of his work directed by other people, but he had heard…

BB: We should add that those Tony nominations were for writing and directing.

SS: Yes, he always directs his own plays as a rule. But he had heard good things about our production of Mecca and was finely convinced to sneak in and have a peak, and he was there one night and so touched by our production that he and I began an artistic collaboration by phone and e-mail, and he actually has a home in Southern California and in South Africa. So he and I began a creative dialog and I always said that if he were looking for a small, safe creative home to create a new work, away from the larger institutional theatre organizations, that the Fountain Theatre is his artistic home, and one day he sent me this e-mail with a file attachment on it and on the email it said "attached is my new play and I want you to direct it," and on the email it said "it's a small play." So, I downloaded the file, I opened it up, I read this script, and just wept. It was so beautiful, and it's such a beautiful large small play and I just thought it was extraordinary, and I just called him up immediately and said "Athrol, this is just beautiful. It's a beautiful, beautiful script and I'm just thrilled to do it," and that's how this remarkable journey began.

BB: A lot of shows hat come to New York, and a lot shows that originate in New York, only have about a month of rehearsal time, but you guys have been doing this pretty frequently since 2004. What does it feel like as actors and as a director to be hitting New York with a play so fully realized?

WDH: I think it's fantastic. Stephen mentioned before that this is a labor of love for all of us and so I have agents in California who are a little anxious for me to come back there, but they understand. I'm away for the second consecutive pilot season…

BB: That's a rough season to be away for.

WDH: But, it's without a question for me. And now we're here in New York, and we've been traveling around. We started in Los Angeles, and then went to Santa Barbra, and New Jersey Rep, and now we're here at Primary Stages, so we're incredibly excited to be here and believe it or not we're on stage here and Morlan and I can't believe how fresh it seems, but we keep working and finding things because the writing is just extraordinary.

MH: Yeah, this is my first experience doing a play this many times. We've done a couple 100 shows and what I've discovered is you hit 80 or 100 performances and everything becomes brand new, so now every time we go to it or do a rehearsal of it I'm going "oh that's what that means" which seems a little silly. You get caught in the minutia of it, but it seems fresher than ever to me, and I just love that. It's a testament to Athol's writing I think.

BB: This wasn't like a bus and trunk show. You did it for longer periods of time at a bunch of places, and I would think, just as a side note, that it has to be fascinating to just live and experience a bunch of different communities.

WDH: Oh, absolutely.

MH: Yeah, I had never been in New Jersey before, and people have a whole slew of jokes that can go along with that, so I didn't know what to expect, but I had a great time. The people were fantastic and that New Jersey Rep, that tiny little theatre, what a great group of people, and we found the same thing in Florida, and Santa Barbara. Theatre is alive and well everywhere in this country.

BB: Now Steven as you're kind of getting this play together, how often in the back of your mind is the thought of, "I get to do this play first, and he normally likes to direct them. I hope I don't mess this up."

SS: Oh, I was very much aware of that honor of being the first director, I think ever, of being trusted by Athrol to direct a world premier of a new play of his. With that comes a lot of responsibility but he is such a giving, wonderful soul, and it was just a delight to work with him on this play. I think he enjoyed the collaborations as well. Working on the script he was very open to suggestions made by me or and the actors. He had made a few revisions before rehearsals began, and then he'd come up on Fridays and have a look at what we did and we would share with him what he found and he's the type of theatre artist that just gets into the trenches with you and enjoys all of that creative work. He's just vibrantly alive and full of spirit and so generous and self-effacing that he puts you immediately at ease and one just loves being in his company.

WDH: I can still remember when we all got together for the first table reading in Los Angeles, and Athol was coming to the table reading, and I still remember sitting there all nervous and ready to begin this and the man walked in the room and I think everyone was immediately disarmed. His sprit and his life and love of the theatre- he just exudes it out of every pour- and I just went "ah" and the then we just sat around and had a great conversation, and there were a lot more people there because it was an Athrol Fugard premier, but he's really a wonderful wonderful man and a man of the theatre and a man of collaboration and he was so ready for this play to be given to the director and to the actors.

MH: So, yeah that was a very low-pressure situation. Twenty of us in a room to read a two-character play. I'm sitting right next to the head critic of LA Weekly who is actively making notes as we begin, and he's sitting right Athrol Fugard, and we're looking across the table going "I'm not nervous are you?"

WDH: We had to go around the table and introduce ourselves and I was sitting right next to Athol and I said, "I'm William Dennis Hurley and I play the Playwright," and then Athol said, "I'm Athrol Fugard and I am in the playwright."

BB: So, the show is opening on March 27th as Primary Stages- that's 59 East 59th Street, and you are running until?

SS: Until April 29th. So we'll open on Tuesday the 27th of March and close on April 29th.

BB: And where can people go to get tickets?

SS: Call SmartTix. That's the place to go.

BB: I appreciate you coming down. I know it's a busy schedule for you here getting ready to mount the show, but it's been fascinating to hear about it. I wish everybody the best, and another great New York premier for Athol Fugard.

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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 108. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.

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