'The Nerd' Explores Selfishness & Selflessness
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The difference is the biggest theme in the comedic play “The Nerd,” on stage at the Wagon Wheel Theatre through Aug. 10.
“Tony (Humrichouser), our director, had mentioned that a reviewer of the original show had said that some of the themes were selfishness and selflessness. And how there are times when even when you act for yourself, it’s not necessarily selfish,” said two-year Wagon Wheel veteran Rob Montgomery, who plays Axel Hammond in the play. “There are times when you need to stand up and do something with your life, for your friends, for yourself, that is actually the most selfless thing you can do. And it’s really difficult to know what that is at times.”
Montgomery continued, “It’s really hard to have the ability to analyze and perceive just what’s what and especially when we can be so ingrained in our ways and habits that we act like we act for years sometimes and we get stuck. It’s really hard to step back and get a perspective to see what’s going on. So I think the play as a whole is that disruption, that distraction that comes in and jars everyone into realizing that something’s got to change. And the play is how that change sort of unfolds.”
First-year WWT actor Matt Hill, who plays “The Nerd” Rick Steadman, added, “Tony, very beautifully, talks about how just words that we hear when we’re younger used towards us, ‘you’re a nerd,’ ‘you’re stupid’ or ‘you’re a jerk,’ how those words can just manifest in our body and grow and grow and grow. They’re like seeds. And generally, we reach a point and say, ‘no, that is not me at all,’ and we go away from it as far away as we can. And then sometimes, in rare occassions, those words bloom and we become everything they could mean.”
“Rick is everything a nerd could be, and that sort of manifestation needs to be destroyed or needs to be altered so that a real human being can come out and not just a definition of a word,” Hill continued. “Although Rick plays that part, it’s just to be a mirror to the main character, Willem, and say, ‘You’re doing something wrong with your life, you should change, you should be introspective and figure out what’s going on and what needs to happen.’”
Hill described his character as being “pretty much what you’d expect the nerd to be.” He’s a little more buffoonish and geeky, so he’s tripping on his words a lot and he’s not very smart. He really goes off on his own way a majority of the time, and expects people to go with him, but they don’t.
“He pretty much is the wrench in everybody’s system,” Hill said.
Axel, Montgomery said, is the quick-witted, very-dry humor, sarcastic best friend of Willem, the show’s protagonist.
“He sort of is facilitating just the flow ... of the play. He just likes to throw his quickie one-liners in here and there to keep the situation sort of light and interjected with a little bit of humor, even if the humor is sarcastic,” Montgomery said. “But he’s very, very smart and very calculating and he’s always aware of everything that is going on.”
Hill noted, “With Willem, Matthew Janisse, being the protagonist, you might say that Rob’s character Axel is trying to move him forward in life and my character Rick is trying to take him backwards or stop him. So we really are the ebb and flow of Willem’s life.”
Willem is a kind-hearted person, Hill said. When he was wounded in the Gulf War to the point he was immobile and passed out, Rick rescued him. When Willem woke up, he had no idea of what happened, but he was told Rick had saved him. Willem and Rick became pen pals, and Willem told Rick that if he ever needed anything to come to him and he’d give it to him.
“Lo and behold, Willem’s birthday, Rick shows up and says, ‘Hey, I’m here,’” Hill stated.
“And he’s not exactly what they expected,” Montgomery stated.
Axel tolerates Rick, Montgomery said. “We’re sort of at odds here with Willem. I want him to look forward and get him to start sort of making choices for himself. Get a little gumption, as we mention in the play. And Matt seems to just drag him down and down and down. So a lot of my commentary, a lot of my action, is sort of combatting Matt, the Nerd, and his sort of ridiculousness and the crazy situations he gets Willem into.”
Hill added, “And it’s amazing how the two of us, how rarely we interact, without going directly through Willem. He’ll say one thing to Willem and I’ll say another, and they’ll be completely contrasting. The straight man is sort of stuck in the middle and saying, ‘What on Earth do I do with these two complete polar opposite forces?’”
“It’s sort of like the angel and the devil on either shoulder,” Montgomery said.
Originally set in 1979, Hill said Humrichouser modernized the show a bit.
“So that’s been sort of a strange, fun shift to make. The play doesn’t live in the (’80s), the language doesn’t live in the (’80s), so it wasn’t difficult to modernize,” Hill noted.
He said changing the war Willem and Rick served in was the only huge shift.
Montgomery suggested, “Little subtle things. Cell phones here and there. And just sort of the way the set is set up. It’s just more modern. We’ve done so many dated shows. We’ve done like an ’80s show with ‘The Wedding Singer,’ and ‘9 to 5’ was the end of the ’70s and ‘Hello, Dolly!’ was 1890s. So we’ve done a lot of past period pieces ... and our director Tony felt it would just be good to give our audience a little bit of modern flavor.”
“The Nerd” is the sole play this year for the summer season, however, the actors like the change it presents.
“It’s definitely a different gear that you have to shift into because the songs and the music are such a powerful force in a musical that they’re really responsible for much of the action and much of the drive of the show,” Montgomery stated. “With the play, it’s all motivated by your characters and whatever actions they’re doing. And most of the times their actions are expressed in their words, so we don’t get songs, we don’t get dances, we have to move the entire action of the show with what we’re saying. So it’s just a little bit more specific, I think.
“Generally, we’d like to be as specific as we can, in a musical as well, but the stereotype is that they’re broader strokes with musicals and with the play we have the time, because there’s no music and dance, to hone in on the specific details of sort of the action and what interactions are going on,” he concluded.
Hill agreed, “Tagging on to that, it’s very easy to just say there are the songs and there are the scenes. And one goes to the other, and that’s just pretty much it. When everything is one big scene, you have to find the sections within that go from one to another, and it can’t feel just like flat. We have to find our own highs and lows. And so that’s really fun to find those sections and say, ‘Oh that is this section and that goes to this, and that goes to this.’ And it’s just really, really fun to play with. Because there’s so many ways to look at it.”
Montgomery is really excited about “The Nerd” because he’s never done a play before “in his life.”
“He’s doing a fantastic job,” Hill acknowledged.
To watch the complete two-part interview with Hill and Montgomery, visit the free video section of the Times-Union online at www.timesuniononline.com
“The Nerd” runs through Aug. 10 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.
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The difference is the biggest theme in the comedic play “The Nerd,” on stage at the Wagon Wheel Theatre through Aug. 10.
“Tony (Humrichouser), our director, had mentioned that a reviewer of the original show had said that some of the themes were selfishness and selflessness. And how there are times when even when you act for yourself, it’s not necessarily selfish,” said two-year Wagon Wheel veteran Rob Montgomery, who plays Axel Hammond in the play. “There are times when you need to stand up and do something with your life, for your friends, for yourself, that is actually the most selfless thing you can do. And it’s really difficult to know what that is at times.”
Montgomery continued, “It’s really hard to have the ability to analyze and perceive just what’s what and especially when we can be so ingrained in our ways and habits that we act like we act for years sometimes and we get stuck. It’s really hard to step back and get a perspective to see what’s going on. So I think the play as a whole is that disruption, that distraction that comes in and jars everyone into realizing that something’s got to change. And the play is how that change sort of unfolds.”
First-year WWT actor Matt Hill, who plays “The Nerd” Rick Steadman, added, “Tony, very beautifully, talks about how just words that we hear when we’re younger used towards us, ‘you’re a nerd,’ ‘you’re stupid’ or ‘you’re a jerk,’ how those words can just manifest in our body and grow and grow and grow. They’re like seeds. And generally, we reach a point and say, ‘no, that is not me at all,’ and we go away from it as far away as we can. And then sometimes, in rare occassions, those words bloom and we become everything they could mean.”
“Rick is everything a nerd could be, and that sort of manifestation needs to be destroyed or needs to be altered so that a real human being can come out and not just a definition of a word,” Hill continued. “Although Rick plays that part, it’s just to be a mirror to the main character, Willem, and say, ‘You’re doing something wrong with your life, you should change, you should be introspective and figure out what’s going on and what needs to happen.’”
Hill described his character as being “pretty much what you’d expect the nerd to be.” He’s a little more buffoonish and geeky, so he’s tripping on his words a lot and he’s not very smart. He really goes off on his own way a majority of the time, and expects people to go with him, but they don’t.
“He pretty much is the wrench in everybody’s system,” Hill said.
Axel, Montgomery said, is the quick-witted, very-dry humor, sarcastic best friend of Willem, the show’s protagonist.
“He sort of is facilitating just the flow ... of the play. He just likes to throw his quickie one-liners in here and there to keep the situation sort of light and interjected with a little bit of humor, even if the humor is sarcastic,” Montgomery said. “But he’s very, very smart and very calculating and he’s always aware of everything that is going on.”
Hill noted, “With Willem, Matthew Janisse, being the protagonist, you might say that Rob’s character Axel is trying to move him forward in life and my character Rick is trying to take him backwards or stop him. So we really are the ebb and flow of Willem’s life.”
Willem is a kind-hearted person, Hill said. When he was wounded in the Gulf War to the point he was immobile and passed out, Rick rescued him. When Willem woke up, he had no idea of what happened, but he was told Rick had saved him. Willem and Rick became pen pals, and Willem told Rick that if he ever needed anything to come to him and he’d give it to him.
“Lo and behold, Willem’s birthday, Rick shows up and says, ‘Hey, I’m here,’” Hill stated.
“And he’s not exactly what they expected,” Montgomery stated.
Axel tolerates Rick, Montgomery said. “We’re sort of at odds here with Willem. I want him to look forward and get him to start sort of making choices for himself. Get a little gumption, as we mention in the play. And Matt seems to just drag him down and down and down. So a lot of my commentary, a lot of my action, is sort of combatting Matt, the Nerd, and his sort of ridiculousness and the crazy situations he gets Willem into.”
Hill added, “And it’s amazing how the two of us, how rarely we interact, without going directly through Willem. He’ll say one thing to Willem and I’ll say another, and they’ll be completely contrasting. The straight man is sort of stuck in the middle and saying, ‘What on Earth do I do with these two complete polar opposite forces?’”
“It’s sort of like the angel and the devil on either shoulder,” Montgomery said.
Originally set in 1979, Hill said Humrichouser modernized the show a bit.
“So that’s been sort of a strange, fun shift to make. The play doesn’t live in the (’80s), the language doesn’t live in the (’80s), so it wasn’t difficult to modernize,” Hill noted.
He said changing the war Willem and Rick served in was the only huge shift.
Montgomery suggested, “Little subtle things. Cell phones here and there. And just sort of the way the set is set up. It’s just more modern. We’ve done so many dated shows. We’ve done like an ’80s show with ‘The Wedding Singer,’ and ‘9 to 5’ was the end of the ’70s and ‘Hello, Dolly!’ was 1890s. So we’ve done a lot of past period pieces ... and our director Tony felt it would just be good to give our audience a little bit of modern flavor.”
“The Nerd” is the sole play this year for the summer season, however, the actors like the change it presents.
“It’s definitely a different gear that you have to shift into because the songs and the music are such a powerful force in a musical that they’re really responsible for much of the action and much of the drive of the show,” Montgomery stated. “With the play, it’s all motivated by your characters and whatever actions they’re doing. And most of the times their actions are expressed in their words, so we don’t get songs, we don’t get dances, we have to move the entire action of the show with what we’re saying. So it’s just a little bit more specific, I think.
“Generally, we’d like to be as specific as we can, in a musical as well, but the stereotype is that they’re broader strokes with musicals and with the play we have the time, because there’s no music and dance, to hone in on the specific details of sort of the action and what interactions are going on,” he concluded.
Hill agreed, “Tagging on to that, it’s very easy to just say there are the songs and there are the scenes. And one goes to the other, and that’s just pretty much it. When everything is one big scene, you have to find the sections within that go from one to another, and it can’t feel just like flat. We have to find our own highs and lows. And so that’s really fun to find those sections and say, ‘Oh that is this section and that goes to this, and that goes to this.’ And it’s just really, really fun to play with. Because there’s so many ways to look at it.”
Montgomery is really excited about “The Nerd” because he’s never done a play before “in his life.”
“He’s doing a fantastic job,” Hill acknowledged.
To watch the complete two-part interview with Hill and Montgomery, visit the free video section of the Times-Union online at www.timesuniononline.com
“The Nerd” runs through Aug. 10 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.
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