John Shea (2/00, 8/11 The Director)
Excerpt from Curtain Up 2/12/00: John Shea
CurtainUp Review: The Director
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on 2/12 performance
As an admirer of actor John Shea's work, I went to see The Director with high expectations. Mr. Shea's does not disappoint. He brings the right degree of intensity to the role of a stage director whose uncompromising commitment to some most unusual experimental techniques have reduced him to working as a janitor in a rehearsal studio in exchange for the use of the space during its off hours.
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Running time: 95 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission 2/01/2000-3/30/2000; opens Feb. 15 Arclight Theatre, 152 W. 71st St. (West of Broadway), 279-4200
© Curtain Up
Excerpt from Playbill 2/15/00: John Shea
John Shea Makes a Hasty Return to NYC in OB's The Director, Feb. 15
-- By David Lefkowitz 15 Feb 2000
When do intense, psychological theatre techniques cross the line into dangerous mind games? That questions lies at the heart of The Director, a new play by Nancy Hasty set to open at off-Broadway's Arclight Theatre, Feb. 15. The show, directed by Evan Bergman, began previews Feb. 1 for an open-ended run. Starring as the "Svengali-like" has-been director is John Shea, last seen Off-Broadway in How I Learned to Drive. Best known as a film and TV actor, Shea appeared in "Missing" and "Stealing Home," played Lex Luthor on "Lois & Clark," and won an Emmy for "Baby M." Earlier theatre credits include Peter Parnell's Sorrows of Stephen at the Public Theatre in 1979 and American Days at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1980. Co-starring in The Director are Tasha Lawrence, Todd Simmons, Shula Van Buren and Warren Press. Laine Valentino is producing the drama, which features sets by John Farrell, lighting by Steve Rust and costumes by Jill Kliber.
© Playbill
Excerpt from Theater Mania 2/16/00: John Shea
The Director
Reviewed By: David Marcus · Feb 16, 2000 · New York
"You don't want to work with me. I'm a controlling monster," says the lead character to the budding playwright in The Director, Nancy Hasty's compelling new play running at the ArcLight Theatre. The drama deftly explores the obsessive and passionate relationship between a director and his actors--a relationship fueled by the fact that the director Peter (John Shea) is a disciple of acting method guru Jerzy Grotowski, founder of the highly influential Objective Drama Theory, which states that the only part of a play that matters is the spiritual and ritualistic relationship between the actor and the audience.
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The cast of the show, uniformly excellent, is led by the commanding and passionate presence of John Shea. The wonderful stage/film/television star is clearly working with a character who has huge emotional resonance for him. Peter is a contrivance of performing truth. He has the knowledge and emotional drive to become a great director, but lacks the most important quality, control.
© Theater Mania
Excerpt from The Irish Echo 2/16/99: John Shea
Tracings John Shea - portrait of an artist
By Olivia Tracey February 16th by admin
"Thank you for coming to see the play," announced Irish-American actor John Shea with a genuine appreciation and humility not usually expected of a stage and screen star, let alone accomplished writer/director. The play referred to was, of course, the highly acclaimed Off-Broadway production of "The Director," in which Shea plays the title role of Peter, a janitor by necessity, but an idealistic, though unemployed, theater director by profession. Enter Tasha Lawrence as the playwright who, having witnessed his work many years earlier, begs him to direct her first play, lending him the opportunity to passionately pursue his artistic vision. However, in so doing, he proceeds to manipulate the players through a series of horrific and humiliating acting exercises, the aim being to murder all ego and pretense and give birth to truth and art.
While Shea identifies with his character’s artistic goal, he absolutely shuns the means used to achieve it. Thankfully, he enjoyed a free and nurturing environment with the play’s director, Evan Bergman, whose skillful direction matched playwright Nancy Hasty’s equally gifted writing. Shea, is very much a down-to-earth, hands-on kind of guy who values more the work than the rewards. And he takes that work very seriously, preparing meticulously before every performance in order to give an honest, grounded and, I must add, superlative performance. Shea’s dedication to the part is a given, and the energy he exudes is as astounding as it is admirable.
Equally admirable is the real John Shea, the gentle and gracious personality who emerges after his intense and frenzied on-stage performance. Sitting on the wooden bench in the entry way to the ArcLight Theater, he chatted some about his most recent trip to Ireland, where he enjoyed the 1999 Dublin Theater Festival and stayed in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel with his very beautiful girlfriend, artist Melissa MacLeod.
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Finally, for this accomplished screen star, one must ask, why the return to theater? In a nutshell, his life underwent major transformations in the run up to the new millennium, including a divorce after 30 years of marriage, choosing to leave his agents at William Morris, and a long pressurized three years getting "Southie" on the screen. Feeling open and vulnerable, he embraced the idea of a catharsis, the innocence and simplicity of theater being the perfect antidote. For Shea, theater is very much a ritual, an almost religious experience of reverent celebration, actor to audience, priest to congregation. Coincidentally, this is especially evident at the ArcLight Theater, set in an old church complete with angels and doves on the ceiling, images of the Holy Spirit, rays of grace, the Crucifixion and an ever present archangel gazing down at Shea from above the mirror in his dressing room. John Shea has indeed been blessed as an actor, not just with the consistent opportunities afforded him, but also with an extraordinary talent that allows him to act, direct and write with equal aplomb. He is represented bicoastally by the prestigious Writers and Artists agency and managed by the Artists Management Group.
"The Director" continues an open-ended engagement at the ArcLight Theater, 152 West 71st St., NYC. Details, (212) 279-4200.
© Irish Echo
Excerpt from Backstage 2/18/00: John Shea
FACE TO FACE: John Shea - Playing a Wounded Idealist
By Simi Horwitz Publication: BackStage Date: Friday, February 18 2000
In Nancy Hasty's play "The Director," a work that could easily be dubbed, "The Theatre's Heart of Darkness," actor John Shea plays the title role, a tyrannical, borderline personality, who truly believes he is creating cutting edge theatre. Totally disarming (he admits he is a bastard), he manipulates his hapless actors into playing a series of horrific acting exercises that become progressively more deranged and ultimately spin out of control. Still, Shea will not concede that Peter, his alter ego in "The Director," a play that opened Off-Broadway, at the ArcLight Theatre, Feb. 15, is an abuser (to use current jargon). "Yes, he believes the end justifies the means. But I'm not sure you can call someone abusive if that's not his intention. And I don't think Peter is a sadist, although he flexes his muscles with impunity.
"I see him as a wounded idealist, doing whatever he has to do to fulfill his artistic vision," the 50-ish Springfield, Mass., native emphasizes. "I believe he is gifted. He gets his actors to be real. But his problem is one of degree. It's all or nothing. He has no room for compromise. He is an adrenaline junkie, but has no self-regulator. He can never hold his companies together [indeed, he is working as a janitor] and has no idea why. He has backed himself into a corner. He's crying out for help."
Having cast Peter, a bonafide brute, in a poignant light, the intense Shea-with whom we meet at the ArcLight Theatre before a preview performance-acknowledges that he (Shea) has been traumatized by teachers and directors that resemble Peter. "There's nothing worse than being at the mercy of these people who can fire you from jobs or expel you from school. They browbeat you so much you clam up, and the creative juices shut down.
"I did not use them as the models for this role," Shea remarks. "But they taught me what I didn't want to be as a director. To me, a good director is one who creates an atmosphere of trust where actors feel free to fail without fear of being belittled."
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Shea points out that he is drawn to dark, complicated, and contradictory characters that "I can both identify with and not identify with. That's the challenge. Like Peter, I understand what it's like to have a vision and then try to make it happen. I don't identify, however, with his bullying methods. I know when enough is enough."
Shea prepares for his nightly emotional rollercoaster by "carefully re-reading the play before each performance. I do physical and vocal warm-ups and yoga. I also crawl around behind the stage sweeping and cleaning up. I want to go onstage feeling proletarian and unwashed."
Onstage, his private exercises continue. "When the play starts, I'm reading the Chinese Book of Changes [the audience can't see that]. Peter is searching for answers. I believe he has just read, "Don't Waste Time on Trivial Pursuits,' when there's a knock on his door and the playwright enters. He sees her presence as part of a fateful design and everything flows from that."
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For his Broadway debut, he earned a Theatre World Award. More stage work followed, including A.R. Gurney's "American Days" (Drama Desk nomination), "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination), and most recently, "How I Learned to Drive" (with Molly Ringwald). Among his 35 films are starring roles in Costa-Gavras' "Missing," and Alan Alda's comedy, "A New Life." On TV, he starred in "Baby M" (for which he garnered an Emmy) and in "Kennedy," starring Martin Sheen, among many other TV productions.
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At the moment, however, his thoughts are focused on "The Director" and his hope that it will talk to audiences from all walks of life, not only those in the arts. "Tyrants who believe the ends justify the means can exist in any business: the exacting doctor in a teaching hospital or the bottom-line-oriented corporate chairman."
Having said that, he admits the guru in the arts is treading a more delicate balance than the businessman precisely because the arts are a grayer, more ambiguous area. Unlike the business tyrant in search of the bottom line, the director's response to whether the actor is scoring is subjective. And his disciples are in a heightened state of vulnerability. After all, their beings are on display. The emotional risks are greater, Shea acknowledges. "When you put yourself in the hands of a director like Peter, you're sublimating yourself, and have to trust it's for the greater good. You obviously hope it will open career doors and, if nothing else, make you a better actor. But you may not always be sure. As a result you can easily find yourself in a whirlpool of hope and insecurity."
Considering Peter, Shea says, "He is a controversial and ambiguous figure. I hope audiences will see that he can be well-meaning and mad, doing the wrong things for the right reasons, and the right things for the wrong reasons. I hope that at the end when the actors abandon Peter, the audience wonders if they'll come back. I believe they will return."
What a bone-chilling thought! q "To me, a good director is one who creates an atmosphere of trust where actors feel free to fail without fear of being belittled."
© Backstage
Excerpt from New York Times 2/25/00: John Shea
THEATER REVIEW; Getting Into Character In Life-or-Death Fashion
By WILBORN HAMPTON Published: February 25, 2000
For any of this to work on a stage the actors must be willing to surrender to their own deception, and the ArcLight production has a first-rate cast that excels as an ensemble while creating distinctly individual characters. Mr. Shea is a model of subtle, Machiavellian persuasion leading Annie and the others by incremental steps to his final "terror exercise." It's a role that invites exaggeration, but Mr. Shea wisely keeps his performance grounded in small specificities that make Peter a chillingly credible character.
© New York Times
Excerpt from New York Post 3/5/00: John Shea
BUSCH LEAGUE ‘ALLERGIST’S WIFE’
By Clive Barnes March 5, 2000 | 5:00am
Nancy Hasty’s “The Director,” at the ArcLight Theater, is all about a monster director who has misunderstood the work of fellow directors Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook. That misunderstanding is exacerbated by his manipulative ego, which is sado-masochistic, with an emphasis on the sado. The play is quite absurd, though also intermittently engrossing, but it’s most notable for the supremely and appropriately self-absorbed performance by John Shea as the eponymous antihero.
© New York Post
Excerpt from Variety 3/12/00: John Shea
Review: ‘The Director’
March 12, 2000 | 11:00PM PT
In structure, “Director” is a series of acting exercises a legit director meticulously plans and instigates for his new company of actors.
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Shea retires his leading-man image with a vengeance, while Lawrence never fails to convince in her series of submissions to Peter’s logic, as do the actor-victims: Tanya Clarke, Warren Press, Todd Simmons and Shula Van Buren.
© Variety
Excerpt from Backstage 5/5/00 & 2/21/01: John Shea
John Shea Moving in New Directions
Lazan, Michael 5/5/2000
John Shea, currently starring in "The Director," had a harrowing experience while performing in Ibsen's "Rosmersholm" some years ago. "I played John Rosmer, who commits suicide-and toward the end of the run I looked in the mirror and I saw this withered old man in front of me. I realized that I had been so deeply into the character that I had taken on his characteristics." The experience was a wakeup call for Shea, who now has a full exercise regimen consisting of yoga, tai chi, exercise and carefully considered dietary practices. The regimen has helped him considerably in going through performances in "The Director." "It's extremely physical," he explains. "I do headstands, move constantly-no way you could be overweight, smoking and drinking, and doing this part."
Shea is especially enthusiastic about his yoga and tai chi regimen, which he tries to do every day, about 30 minutes combined. He started yoga back in the days when he attended Yale Drama School, where the students started every day with an hour of yoga and tai chi. Since he had forgotten many of "the subtleties, the nuances" that he learned at Yale, he took a class at a Crunch gym and now performs Ashtanga yoga. "It has lots of moving postures, a lot of them requiring standing and lying. Other forms of yoga are involved with breathing-with this, you have to sweat," he says. He adds, "the poses are really hard; to hold them requires a certain amount of strength. When I first started, I couldn't do it all, but, slowly but surely, I started gaining strength."
Shea's interest in tai chi stems from walks early in the morning in the Chinatown area when his child was very young. "As I watched, I got more and more interested; there were 70- and 80-year-old men standing on one leg." Eventually, he took a class-"classes are the best way to learn"-and came to learn that the discipline, which requires "a constant fluid movement," demands "being in the moment just like the best acting does."
To energize himself through his day, he eats, contrary to trend, "plenty of complex carbs and protein, pastas, oatmeal." As far as Dr. Atkins is concerned, "I don't know, I don't care; all I know is I look good, I feel good, I go to the Italian market and buy fresh pasta and have it with tomato sauce." He also does cardiovascular exercise, lifts free weights three days a week, plays basketball, swims, and rides a bike.
The actor has sharp words for those who deign to blithely ignore health and fitness principles totally, although he is hardly a fanatic on the subject. "Actors are notorious for drinking beers and going to bed at 1:00 am. If you do this, you will fall apart and get injured. You can still do it-as long as you balance yourself with exercise during the day."
© Backstage
Excerpt from Playbill 5/29/00: John Shea
OB's Director To Stay Put Through Summer; John Shea Leaves June 17
--By David Lefkowitz 29 May 2000
Bergman added that although star John Shea would be leaving the production June 17, the rest of the cast would stay put. The possibility also remains that Shea would return for any commercial move of the show.
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Starring as the "Svengali-like" has-been director is Shea, last seen Off Broadway in How I Learned to Drive.
© Playbill
The Inquirer and Mirror 8/4/11: John Shea
Shea reprises Off-Broadway role in "The Director"
By Lindsay Pykosz (August 4 , 2011)
John Shea and Stephanie Cannon rehearse a scene from Theatre Workshop of Nantucket's production of "The Director," opening tonight in the lower level of the Methodist Church on Centre Street. Ten years ago, “The Director” entered the lives of Theatre Workshop of Nantucket’s executive and artistic directors, Gabrielle Gould and John Shea. The two hadn’t yet met, and their experiences with the play were completely different. But the production had a significant impact on them that has lasted to this day. Shea’s side of the story began in 1999 when a friend called him from Los Angeles saying there was a director named Evan Bergman who was looking for him because he wanted Shea to star in an Off-Broadway play. Shea, a stage and screen actor, recalled telling him no, that he was vacationing on Nantucket and Cape Cod but he could mail the script to him and he would read it if he could.
© The Inquirer and Mirror
Excerpt from Theatre Workshop of Nantucket 8/11: John Shea
2011 Season
August 4- August 27~ Centre Stage
Joyce and Seward Johnson with Armyan and Christine Bernstein present Nancy Hasty’s The Director TWN’s production of this psychological thriller reunites director Evan Bergman and actor John Shea from the original, long running Off Broadway hit.
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The New Yorker called Shea’s portrayal “brilliant.”
© Theatre Workshop of Nantucket