FPCT Spotlight - March 4, 2011

Torberg Tonnessen

 

What drew you to this play?

Torberg:  I wasn't specifically drawn to the role, as I wasn't really familiar with the show prior to the audition.  Reading it then and since, however, it's a pretty straightforward draw: it's fun playing the jerk.

 

What has been fun about doing this show?

Torberg:  Playing the jerk; bad guys are fun to play.  They tend strongly to revel in their actions.  And it's a great way to vent any of your own negativity and hostility.  I recently heard an interview with a long-time soap opera performer.  After recounting some of the craziness in the plot lines they've had, she was asked if anything every carried over into home life.  Her response that was the cast and crew all had wonderful home lives; they would get it all out of them on set.

 

What has been challenging about this role?

Torberg: Finding time to review/memorize my lines with a toddler in the house, for one, but I suspect you're looking for information of a different sort.  Identifying with the character has been a challenge.  Kent is a real jerk; I really have yet to find anything redeeming about him, and it can make it harder to portray a character when it's hard to identify with him.

 

How are you like or unlike Kent?

Torberg:  Well, I'm male, have a hot wife, and have a daughter;  I think (hope?) those are about my only similarities with Kent.  He's the macho bully; I was never that.  Growing up, I was actually always one of the youngest (and smallest) people in my classes...and a bit of a nerd. It, thankfully, never really happened, but I was the kind of guy who would be bullied as opposed to doing the bullying.  Though, to be honest, I did occasionally hear that my younger siblings' friends found me intimidating.

 

What keeps you coming back to the theater?

Torberg:  Fun.  Theatre isn't my profession; I do it for the pleasure of doing it.  I don't expect it to be a cakewalk, but when it can't be fun (for whatever reason), I step away for a little bit.  My wife and I (mostly) took a break from theatre after our daughter was born so that we could adjust to how life was going to be with her, but we've both missed it and are figuring how to come back to it.  Getting back into rehearsal and working on a show has been great.  As I write this, the show has opened, and that's helped so much more.  Getting the reactions from the audience really brought it back: people enjoy watching what we've done, and we enjoy doing it.

 

What else do you do when you aren't acting?

Torberg:  Well, my day job, for a start.  Spending time with my wife and daughter, too.  I'd like to say, "reading," but I haven't taken as much time for recreational reading lately as I have in the past, unless you count the fiftieth time through "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" with a toddler on your lap.

 

What is the craziest thing you have had to do on stage?

Torberg:  I think so far it's a toss-up.  For one, I was in a production of What the Butler Saw  which, for those not familiar with it, is a wonderful British sex farce.  I was the bellhop who's hitting on (and attempting to blackmail, as I recall), a lady.  It was the first time I ended up running around stage in my underwear, and later a blonde wig, leopard-print dress, and heels.  The other was my first real show aside from grade-school class shows.  It was a production of Lysistrata.  My character spent an entire scene trying to get his wife - who, like the rest of the Athenian women, were withholding sex so the men would end the war - back into bed.  Other parts of the show involved walking around with log props filling in for...well, let's say that sometimes a log isn't just a log.

I'm sure other people have done much crazier, but since they were both early in my theatre involvement, they felt pretty crazy at the time.



What is your dream role?

Torberg:  I'd love to play the Narrator in Into the Woods, even without the (conventionally doubled) role of the Old Man.  It's just an amusing character.  A small part of me, I realize as I write this, also ties it back to my very first stage role: the Narrator for my first grade class performance of "The Ugly Duckling."  Copenhagen is a show on which I've had my eye since I first saw it; I'd enjoy either Heisenberg or Bohr, though I'm still some years off from playing Bohr.  For real pie-in-the-sky dream roles, though, I'd have to say Sweeney Todd, Judge Turpin, Chauvelin, Javert, or M. Thernadier.  And, even though I've been lucky enough to have the role once before, I'd be really excited to try my hand at Iago again.

You know, I can't help but notice that there are a lot of antagonists, anti-heros, and anti-villians on that list.  I guess it goes back to what I said earlier: playing "bad guys" is fun.

 

What has it been like to work with Fuzz as a director?

Torberg:  Really good.  While he's not afraid to let you know what he'd like to see, he's very trusting of his actors and how they're seeing/interpreting/playing the characters.  It's a balance that I quite like. 

 

What is on the horizon?

Torberg:  Theatre-wise?  Nothing specific yet.  There are a few shows coming upfor which I'm considering auditioning, but I haven't decided yet.

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