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Meet
the Nominees Interviews - 2004
Michael Cerveris
American Theatre Wing: 58th Annual Tony Awards
May 2004
Transcribed by Lisa Zelenetz
video available on Tony
Awards Website
Clip # 1
I think
the most important thing about the show is not that it has a political
agenda or a political slant, because it doesn’t really. I
think the most important thing is that it asks questions. It holds
up these individuals and asks the audience to account for them.
You know, to explain their behavior to themselves and to each other.
In these days of very turbulent and sometimes terrifying days, it’s
easy to just sort of want to paint other people (especially violent
people) as just unknowable evil creatures and clearly that’s
not how people are born. I think this show sort of asks you to get
outside yourself and look at what the motivations might be for somebody
doing something so horrible. Hopefully, in that, somehow there is
a way to understanding and preventing and removing the reasons for
people to do things like that. So I think it’s a really, unfortunately,
a very current and important topic.
Clip #2
I think
what “Assassins” does particularly well is asks questions.
It doesn’t have a political agenda, it doesn’t have
a Liberal or Conservative, or Republican or Democratic slant. It
just asks us to look at the reasons behind the violence, in our
country especially. And hopefully in that, there’s a way to
understand and correct the problem.
Clip #3
I did
a lot of research before starting work on playing Booth. I read
especially a book called “Right or Wrong – Judge Me”
a collection of his own writings which was really fascinating and
illuminating. And there is also a book that his sister wrote that
obviously is a more complimentary reminiscence, but it gives you
perspective that is kind of missing in a lot of the historical writing.
Then I watched Ken Burn’s “Civil War Documentary”
which was fascinating and I was a little embarrassed at how little
I understood about the period that’s like one of the single
most informative events in the country’s history. And that
was just sort of to have a context for his actions and it helped
me understand a lot.
Clip #4
Booth’s
defining moment occurs during the “Ballad of Booth”
song where he essentially outlines his reasons and justifications
for doing what he has done. Those being that he felt that the President
was not listening to the people - was acting unilaterally and heading
the country into ruin. He believed - Booth believed himself a patriot
and that other people would follow him and applaud him. You know
all of the talk about him being a failed actor is not true. He was
a very successful actor and his brother was famous as well and I’m
sure there was rivalry, but none of that was the motivation for
the act. It really was a purely, deeply felt but misguided sense
of patriotism. I think there are a lot of examples of misguided
patriotism around these days and I think again that’s the
way that the show is strikingly relevant.
Clip #5
I think
the thing about “Assassins” that will surprise people
when they come to the theatre is that they discover sympathies with
people who are ultimately unsympathetic because of what they have
done. But, if you take away that horrific act that they commit you
realize very quickly that their passions, their flaws, their failings,
their fears, their marginalizations, are things that a lot of us
feel and maybe especially today. So people find themselves identifying
with these characters, and that I think, is disturbing and heartening
at the same time because I think that’s the opening the door
to the understanding that will hopefully lead to solving the problems
that we face today. All of that I think is a very emotional connection
and that borne out through the very entertaining manner in which
it’s presented sort of allows the whole thing, even though
the subject matter is so dark, to be a really cathartic and a really
uplifting experience in a really odd way.
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