'Forever Plaid' Actors Have Dreams To Fulfill
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
During an interview Monday afternoon, the four actors in the Wagon Wheel Theatre production of the show discussed what they want to accomplish in their life before they move on to the next world.
Matthew Janisse, who plays Sparky in “Forever Plaid,” said, “I would love the opportunity to be Burrs in either of ‘The Wild Parties,’ which is a musical based on a poem, my favorite poem, which I actually knew before the musical.”
Careerwise for Kevin Clay, who plays Jinx in the musical, he wants to originate a role that he then gets to record the soundtrack for.
“That’s one thing I’ve always really wanted to do, to originate a role and soundtrack,” he said.
“Lifewise, I want to travel Europe, still studying the arts, but more out of the country. Different countries’ takes on performance,” Clay continued.
Kyle Timson – Smudge in “Forever Plaid” – has a brother five years older than him who studied musical theater. His brother currently is in New York City working as an actor.
“For me, if I was ever to share the stage with him, I did shows with him as a little kid growing up, but to do a regional production or a national tour or Broadway show, to be on stage with my brother and kind of have made it with him, would kind of be the all-time success story for me because I watched him grow up and struggle through auditioning for schools and going to school, and now I’m watching him work as an actor and he’s fantastic. Just to do that with him would be the ultimate,” Timson stated.
Frankie in “Forever Plaid” is played by Matt Hill.
“I would love to do many things. This is tough,” Hill said. “I think if there was one thing I could do in one day it would be to perform on Broadway for my parents. Broadway is like awesome and it becomes this thing when you’re a child like ‘Broadway!’ Then when you’re older, it’s like ‘Broadway,’ and it could happen, totally. And now it’s become like my parents, who live in California, who have been to New York once in their lives, they want to see a Broadway show that I’m in. So that would make my life wonderful.”
He continued, “But if there was one goal that I have, it would be to start a theater company. For sure.”
Like each of the actors playing them, the characters in “Forever Plaid” are unique.
“These are four kind of nerdy, dorky white guys. Not nerdy in the sense of ‘The Nerd’ by any means, but they are definitely not socially comfortable as most people,” Hill said. “But Frankie is probably the most confident of the four. He considers himself, and they consider him, the leader of the group so they go to him whenever they’re confused or nervous about things. But he also has his own personal nerves and confusion. Frankie has asthma, so that kind of gets in his way.”
Smudge, Timson said, is “kind of, I think, the most awkward – in terms of being outgoing, being socially awkward, in terms of communicating. We kind of determined that Smudge is the choreographer of the group, which is kind of comical because sometimes in the show he messes up the choreography. A lot of the time. He’s the bass, so sort of like the anchor of the harmony group. He’s got heartburn and that kind of plays into it.”
Jinx also is socially awkward, Clay said, but the difference is that Smudge tries to be outgoing and connect to the audience while Jinx is the most sheltered of all four.
“He’s the most shy. He’s the most contained. His problem, I guess, is that he has a chronic nosebleed. Any time he sings really really high notes, he just starts to gush blood, so that’s a problem,” Clay stated. “But Jinx is kind of one of those characters that has a tortured background. Jinx and Sparky are stepbrothers.”
“I would say that Sparky is kind of the opposite of Jinx, that complements him. He’s the most extroverted of the group. He’s the class clown, the cut-up,” Janisse said. “But his journey is him becoming more in-tuned to who he really is and be more sensitive and caring.”
“Forever Plaid” is not a revue in the sense that it’s just actors getting up and singing songs in a particular order, Hill said. It has a plot, but not a traditional one where “A” meets “B” and there’s a conflict where “A” loses “B” and then that conflict gets resolved.
“But in many ways it is very, very close to home in the sense that no one will be surprised by where the characters go and what the dialogue is. That being said, the show very much takes place within the show. The performance is something that they’re aware of. So as they sing the songs, most of their dialogue, most of their segueways come from, ‘we’re in front of an audience, what do we do next?’ And the plot unfolds from that sense,” Hill explained.
“It’s really a study of the four guys, is what the show is,” Clay added. “So the plot rests within the audience getting to know us. Us, in a way, getting to know the particular crowd that night and us learning more about ourselves.
“I guess if there’s a plot to the show, it is just these four guys are, in the (prologue) you find out right away that they’re killed in a bus crash. And we’re back in 2013 to be able to give this performance that we could never give before we died. Other than that, the plot of the show really is let’s give this final performance before we make it back on top,” Clay finished.
Timson said they’re more “spirits” than ghosts.
“It’s kind of explained in the show that the stars have aligned and the planets have aligned so we’ve come back to Earth. It’s kind of like we’ve come back to Earth and we get one day on Earth as humans again. But we know that we do the show and when we finish the show, we have to go back,” Timson explained. “And it’s kind of a cool arc of the excitement of the characters to be back on Earth and the nervousness of doing the show that they’ve never actually did. Then they start doing it and their characters evolve.
“It’s kind of melancholy. Their characters have progressed and if they had really been alive for this, they could have gone places from where they end the show. But they have to go back. But at the same time it’s sweet because they got to do what they wanted to do in life but now it’s over,” Timson said.
While the characters are fictional, the idea of the characters is based off the kind of kids that were in singing groups in the 1940s and 1950s, he said.
To watch the complete two-part interview with the four actors, visit the free video section of the Times-Union online at www.timesuniononline.com
“Forever Plaid” runs through Aug. 24 at the Wagon Wheel Theatre. Tickets range from $16 to $34. Discounts are available for college students and on designated performances for seniors. For more information, visit wagonwheeltheatre.org or call 574-267-8041.[[In-content Ad]]
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During an interview Monday afternoon, the four actors in the Wagon Wheel Theatre production of the show discussed what they want to accomplish in their life before they move on to the next world.
Matthew Janisse, who plays Sparky in “Forever Plaid,” said, “I would love the opportunity to be Burrs in either of ‘The Wild Parties,’ which is a musical based on a poem, my favorite poem, which I actually knew before the musical.”
Careerwise for Kevin Clay, who plays Jinx in the musical, he wants to originate a role that he then gets to record the soundtrack for.
“That’s one thing I’ve always really wanted to do, to originate a role and soundtrack,” he said.
“Lifewise, I want to travel Europe, still studying the arts, but more out of the country. Different countries’ takes on performance,” Clay continued.
Kyle Timson – Smudge in “Forever Plaid” – has a brother five years older than him who studied musical theater. His brother currently is in New York City working as an actor.
“For me, if I was ever to share the stage with him, I did shows with him as a little kid growing up, but to do a regional production or a national tour or Broadway show, to be on stage with my brother and kind of have made it with him, would kind of be the all-time success story for me because I watched him grow up and struggle through auditioning for schools and going to school, and now I’m watching him work as an actor and he’s fantastic. Just to do that with him would be the ultimate,” Timson stated.
Frankie in “Forever Plaid” is played by Matt Hill.
“I would love to do many things. This is tough,” Hill said. “I think if there was one thing I could do in one day it would be to perform on Broadway for my parents. Broadway is like awesome and it becomes this thing when you’re a child like ‘Broadway!’ Then when you’re older, it’s like ‘Broadway,’ and it could happen, totally. And now it’s become like my parents, who live in California, who have been to New York once in their lives, they want to see a Broadway show that I’m in. So that would make my life wonderful.”
He continued, “But if there was one goal that I have, it would be to start a theater company. For sure.”
Like each of the actors playing them, the characters in “Forever Plaid” are unique.
“These are four kind of nerdy, dorky white guys. Not nerdy in the sense of ‘The Nerd’ by any means, but they are definitely not socially comfortable as most people,” Hill said. “But Frankie is probably the most confident of the four. He considers himself, and they consider him, the leader of the group so they go to him whenever they’re confused or nervous about things. But he also has his own personal nerves and confusion. Frankie has asthma, so that kind of gets in his way.”
Smudge, Timson said, is “kind of, I think, the most awkward – in terms of being outgoing, being socially awkward, in terms of communicating. We kind of determined that Smudge is the choreographer of the group, which is kind of comical because sometimes in the show he messes up the choreography. A lot of the time. He’s the bass, so sort of like the anchor of the harmony group. He’s got heartburn and that kind of plays into it.”
Jinx also is socially awkward, Clay said, but the difference is that Smudge tries to be outgoing and connect to the audience while Jinx is the most sheltered of all four.
“He’s the most shy. He’s the most contained. His problem, I guess, is that he has a chronic nosebleed. Any time he sings really really high notes, he just starts to gush blood, so that’s a problem,” Clay stated. “But Jinx is kind of one of those characters that has a tortured background. Jinx and Sparky are stepbrothers.”
“I would say that Sparky is kind of the opposite of Jinx, that complements him. He’s the most extroverted of the group. He’s the class clown, the cut-up,” Janisse said. “But his journey is him becoming more in-tuned to who he really is and be more sensitive and caring.”
“Forever Plaid” is not a revue in the sense that it’s just actors getting up and singing songs in a particular order, Hill said. It has a plot, but not a traditional one where “A” meets “B” and there’s a conflict where “A” loses “B” and then that conflict gets resolved.
“But in many ways it is very, very close to home in the sense that no one will be surprised by where the characters go and what the dialogue is. That being said, the show very much takes place within the show. The performance is something that they’re aware of. So as they sing the songs, most of their dialogue, most of their segueways come from, ‘we’re in front of an audience, what do we do next?’ And the plot unfolds from that sense,” Hill explained.
“It’s really a study of the four guys, is what the show is,” Clay added. “So the plot rests within the audience getting to know us. Us, in a way, getting to know the particular crowd that night and us learning more about ourselves.
“I guess if there’s a plot to the show, it is just these four guys are, in the (prologue) you find out right away that they’re killed in a bus crash. And we’re back in 2013 to be able to give this performance that we could never give before we died. Other than that, the plot of the show really is let’s give this final performance before we make it back on top,” Clay finished.
Timson said they’re more “spirits” than ghosts.
“It’s kind of explained in the show that the stars have aligned and the planets have aligned so we’ve come back to Earth. It’s kind of like we’ve come back to Earth and we get one day on Earth as humans again. But we know that we do the show and when we finish the show, we have to go back,” Timson explained. “And it’s kind of a cool arc of the excitement of the characters to be back on Earth and the nervousness of doing the show that they’ve never actually did. Then they start doing it and their characters evolve.
“It’s kind of melancholy. Their characters have progressed and if they had really been alive for this, they could have gone places from where they end the show. But they have to go back. But at the same time it’s sweet because they got to do what they wanted to do in life but now it’s over,” Timson said.
While the characters are fictional, the idea of the characters is based off the kind of kids that were in singing groups in the 1940s and 1950s, he said.
To watch the complete two-part interview with the four actors, visit the free video section of the Times-Union online at www.timesuniononline.com
“Forever Plaid” runs through Aug. 24 at the Wagon Wheel Theatre. Tickets range from $16 to $34. Discounts are available for college students and on designated performances for seniors. For more information, visit wagonwheeltheatre.org or call 574-267-8041.[[In-content Ad]]
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