Interview: Zack Varela of LEOPOLDSTADT at MAIN STREET THEATER

LEOPOLDSTADT is a regional premiere of Tom Stoppard’s last work, presented by Main Street Theater. It opens on March 28th and runs through April 26th. The unique thing about this play is that it's set in the wealthy Jewish community of Vienna in the first half of the 20th century. Five Acts take place in 1899, 1900, 1924, 1938, and 1955. Zack Varela is an actor in the show, and BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got to speak with them about the show and how it is to bring this show to life for the first time in Houston. 

Brett Cullum: Now, I was looking at your biography and some of the stuff that you've done in the past. You're an artist with a capital “A!” Actor, writer, digital content producer, you are all over the place. How did you end up in this particular production of Leopoldstadt?

Zack Varela: I'm a Houston native, so I've known of Main Street Theater, growing up through high school and college. My last production in my resume was in 2018. I was in THE BOOK OF WILL at Main Street. I was in that with Rebecca Udden; she directed that as well. I put theater down for a while, then came back. I changed careers, got stable again after the pandemic, and then came back to theater. 

Rebecca had gone to see the show in New York [when it ran on Broadway]. Back then, I was helping out in the box office, as it were. We started talking over lunch, and we got excited about the show. Then she got rights, and we kept talking, and then she's like, “We're gonna be reading for this part, I would love for you to read for it!” I had a conversation over lunch, and here I am. We talked about it, and we manifested it!.

Brett Cullum: How long ago did you both talk about it, though?

Zack Varela: Oh, it had to have been at least 2 years. I think it was 2 years ago. The play was on Broadway in 2022. Obviously, Tom Stoppard is a big, well-known playwright, and I knew it was gonna be a major project. To Tom Stoppard, it means a lot, and it has semi-autobiographical scenes. I was really interested in the topic of family and the topic of home.

Brett Cullum: LEOPOLDSTADT is considered Tom Stoppard’s most personal work. It was the last work that he wrote for the stage, and it reflected his family in many ways. How many people are in this thing? I looked at the cast poster, and I'm like, “Is everyone in Houston in this show?”

Zack Varela: Almost! It's the who's who of Houston, right? There's a cast of twenty. Then we also have some little ones, little actors coming in, they're helping out. It's a very large cast. I'm still learning everybody's name. That's the other fun part.

Brett Cullum: What do you think this show says to today's world? Why LEOPOLDSTADT by Tom Stoppard now?

Zack Varela: For me, the message of this play is that family is the most important thing. Having, keeping, and surviving those family ties and those memories. How people came through the generations, struggling. How everyone has their own generational struggle, some more than others. I'm Mexican, I'm Mexican-American. I'm different from some of the castmates because I had a different experience growing up in Mexican-American culture. We are very familiar. We have huge families, and I have a huge family! I'm one of twenty cousins, so this play is very much my family life. We're very blended, all the in-laws come in, we celebrate Christmas and Easter, and all that together. The play reaffirms that no matter what happens, where we go, or where we live, we are a family.

Brett Cullum: And the play goes into identity, too. There is a lot about how the Jewish community became the Jewish community here, the events of these landmark years, and the impact on that. It's an interesting time to bring this play back, given everything that's happening in the world.

Brett Cullum: Well, tell me about you a little bit. How did you first get into acting?

Zack Varela: I was seven years old. I was a little thing. My cousin had gotten into it before, and they invited me to come tag along, as a little cousin. I was the oldest in my family, so I had little ones to play with, and I was always into playing pretend. I remember finding out, “Wait, there are adults that do this for a living, and you could do this all day?”  I got into it that way. Then I found music and got really into music, and then I got into musical theater in high school and college. I oddly ran into it when I was really young. I had great parents who really supported me, and support me to this day. And I was fortunate to have a career here in town, in Houston, to support me.

Then the 2020 pandemic happened. I had a full contract, a full year of contracts, and slowly but surely, they all started to cancel, postpone, and close. And so I was forced to, to make my move. I moved to Chicago in 2021, completely changed careers to finance, and completely went a different direction. I was looking for a career that would be stable, no matter the political climate or the health crisis; it would survive. 

Brett Cullum: That's wild. That's two different parts of your brain. You've completely done a 180!

Zack Varela: Well, you have to be creative, and I'm very good at talking! I could bring those tools with me. Theater people are trained to do whatever. If you're a theater person, and you've done a 9-to-5 doing theater, teaching kids, you can do anything, I believe. That's my opinion.

Brett Cullum: Well, you know, it's funny, because my parents were really worried that I was going to major in theater when I went to college, and I didn't, but I did theater on the side. Honestly, which skills do I use most in my day-to-day corporate world? It's theater!

Brett Cullum: So, how does this work with you living in Chicago? You got a job in finance, and you're doing a play here. I mean, how do you manage that?

Zack Varela: You know, what did Gaga say? Plane, bus, no sleep, next club, next show! It's a tight schedule; I do a 9-to-5. Then I come to rehearsal, go to bed around 11, wake up, do it again. It's passion, you could say. It's insanity sometimes. It's coffee. I haven't done a show since THE BOOK OF WILL here at Main Street, back in 2019, before the pandemic. So this is my return! I'm energized to be on stage, and I'm just excited! I'm gonna collapse in May.

Brett Cullum: Well, you are playing the character of Ludwig in LEOPOLDSTADT. Famously kind of one of the more Tom Stoppardish characters. He really works with logic. So, I guess if I'm gonna get somebody to play this part, I do want an actor that, like, drifted into finance eventually, so there you are.

Zack Varela: It's life imitating art, art imitating life; it's very parallel. He has some lines that I'm like, “Do I say that in real life?” I do talk like that, and Becky was directing me, and I'm like, is she reading me, or is she giving me direction? And nothing… I mean, she didn't know, but it's very parallel. He's very parallel to me, for sure.

Brett Cullum: Yeah. Well, that happens a lot with actors. We gravitate towards parts that are closer to us. Life imitating art, art imitating life. There's something in you that the director saw to play this. So, yeah, it's absolutely in the room.

LEOPOLDSTADT is at Main Street theater, March 28th through April 26th, with a Fellini-esque cast of a crazy amount of people at the space! I don't know how they're gonna fit in a Main Street theater, but I'm there to just witness that! And only one set in this, right? 

Zack Varela: One set, it's our house, our home, our family home, you get to watch it over 50 years.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, thank you, Tom Stoppard, for making that part easy.

Zack Varela: Right? Thank you, Tom Stoppard! 

Brett Cullum: He had a lot of personal connections to this, so it's… it'll be amazing to see you in LEOPOLDSTADT running at Main Street Theater in Rice Village through April 26th!