NJ Rep Presents 6 Great Stories by 6 Great Performers
Welcome to the third release in our series, Keeping Live Theatre Alive!,
conceived by Dan Lauria and featuring original works created by actors who
champion theater. NJ Rep and our four partner theaters Berkshire Playwrights
Lab, Durango Playfest, Laguna Playhouse, and Seven Angels Theatre are the
recipients of this treasure-trove of heartfelt stories. Over the next several
months we will continue to bring you these stories performed by the authors,
who are prominent actors of stage, film and television. What they all have in
common is their passion and love for live theater.
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Joe Spano
Joe Spano was
a member of the San Francisco improv group “The Wing”, and in
college debuted as Paris in a production of Romeo and Juliet.
In 1968, he helped found the Berkeley Repertory Theatre appearing in
its first production, and staying with the company for 10 years. In Hill
Street Blues he played Henry Goldblume during the seven-year run
of the series and afterwards won recurring roles in various TV shows
including Murder One, NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Mercy
Point, and Amazing Grace. Spano won an Emmy award
in 1988 for an episode of Midnight Caller. In addition, he
has been a recurring character on NCIS playing FBI Special
Agent Tobias Fornell. His feature films include Apollo 13 with
Tom Hanks and Primal Fear with Richard
Gere and Edward Norton.
On stage he made his Broadway debut in 1992 in the Roundabout Theater
revival of Arthur Miller's The Price, with Eli
Wallach, which was nominated for a Tony for Best Revival. On the West Coast
his credits include Eduardo Pavlovsky's Potestad,
and David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow and American
Buffalo, for which he was awarded an LA Drama Critics Circle Award.
Spano also starred in the critically acclaimed drama, Heisenberg.
Click the button below to see Joe Spano's video about identity and
the American Dream,
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Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole
co-starred with Dan Lauria on the TBS sitcom Sullivan
& Son, in which she played Carol Walsh, and earned an Emmy
nomination for her work on One Life to Live. Early in her
career she appeared on Ryan’s Hope and was a cast member in
the first season of Saturday Night Live. She guest-starred
on Will & Grace, Dolly!, Just Shoot Me, Murphy
Brown, Ally McBeal, Samantha Who, Boston Legal, The
Colbert Report, and Royal Pains, and played the title
role in the sitcom, Rachel Gunn, R.N. Her films have
included Tootsie, Amadeus, Three Men and a
Baby, Mac and Me, My Girl 2, Richie Rich, Black Sheep and My
Favorite Martian.
Christine's Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century,
the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, the 1980 revival
of Camelot, the 2000 revival of Gore
Vidal's The Best Man, and the 2001 revival of 42nd
Street for which she won her first Tony Award for Best
Leading Actress in a Musical. In 2002 she was in the revival of Dinner
at Eight and was nominated for a Tony Award. She was also in the
2005 production of Steel Magnolias. In 2006 she appeared in
the musical of Grey Gardens where she played the dual roles
of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith Bouvier
Beale and after a sold-out off-Broadway run, remained with the roles
when the production moved to Broadway. For this role, she won her
second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. In 2009 she
appeared as Elvira in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. She also
appeared in the musical, War Paint, which premiered at
the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and moved to Broadway, playing
Elizabeth Arden, opposite Patti LuPone as Helena
Rubinstein.
Click the button below to see Christine's video about the road not
taken.
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John Cullum
John Cullum has
appeared in numerous musicals and plays,
including Shenandoah and On the Twentieth Century, winning
the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for
each. He gained his first Tony nomination for On a Clear Day You Can
See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently
received Tony nominations for Urinetown, The Musical (Best
Actor in a Musical) and 110 in the Shade (Best Featured Actor in a
revival). Cullum made his Broadway debut as Sir Dinadan in
Camelot, and understudied Richard Burton (King Arthur)
and Roddy McDowall ( Mordred), going on four times when Burton
became ill and succeeding McDowall. He played
Laertes opposite Burton's 1964 Broadway performance
as Hamlet (and in the film version of the production)
and appeared in Burton's final Broadway appearance in Noël
Coward's Private Lives in 1983. He portrayed Edward
Rutledge in the Broadway musical 1776, and reprised the role
for the 1972 film. Other Broadway appearances
include Cymbeline, August: Osage County, The Scottsboro
Boys and Waitress. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame
in 2007.
His TV roles include that of Holling Vincoeur in Northern Exposure, that
gained him an Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in
a Drama, as well as featured roles in the series ER and the The Day
After. He has made multiple guest appearances on Law &
Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and episodes of The
Middle. He has appeared as Senator Beau Carpenter on the series, Madam
Secretary.
Click the button below to see John's video about his first audition
for Shakespeare, just 3 weeks after arriving to the Big Apple from
Tennessee.
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Steve Harris
Steve Harris has
appeared on TV in Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street,
Heist, Grey's Anatomy, and New York Undercover. In
films he has appeared in Quarantine, Tyler
Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman., Bringing Down The House, The
Rock, The Mod Squad, Takers, and Minority Report. Additional
movie credits include his starring role in Regina King's directorial
debut film, Let The Church Say Amen, adapted from
ReShonda Tate Billingsley's 2005 best-selling novel. He has also appeared
as Nelson Gates in the TNT show Legends, and as Eugene
Young on the award-winning, legal drama, The Practice for
which he was nominated six times for an NAACP Image Award, winning in
2004.
Click the button below to see Steve's video about his introduction
to theater.
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Chris Sullivan
Chris Sullivan is
currently one of the stars of the critically acclaimed NBC drama, This
Is Us for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2019. He first
gained attention for his portrayal of Tom Cleary on
the Cinemax drama The Knick, and also
played Taserface in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and
Benny Hammond in Stranger Things. Other TV credits include A
Gifted Man, Elementary, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and The
Americans. In film he played Sprit in the Sundance Film
Festival nominated movie, North Starr, and appeared in The
Normal Heart and The Drop.
Much of Sullivan's early stage experience came in Chicago, where he
received improv training at the iO Theater and was in the cast
of The Ballad of Emmett Till at the Goodman
Theatre. On Broadway he was in the original cast of Lombardi,
and the long-running revival of Chicago.
Click the button below to see Chris' video about the night a seedy
comedy club caught fire.
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Dan Lauria
Dan Lauria has
appeared in over 100 TV shows and movies. As an active proponent of new
works for the stage, he is also a familiar face on the regional
theatre scene, having performed, written, or directed numerous plays. In
2006 he was in the Off Broadway production of A Stone Carver by
William Mastrosimone, and in 2010 appeared as Vince Lombardi in the
Broadway production of Lombardi. In 2012 he played the role
of Jean Shepherd in the Tony nominated production of A Christmas Story:
The Musical, a role that he subsequently reprised at Madison Square
Garden in 2013.
On TV, he is most recognized as the father on the highly acclaimed Emmy
Award winning show, The Wonder Years that ran from 1988-1993.
Among his many credits he portrayed NASA Administrator James Webb in the
miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and from 2012 through
2014, played Jack Sullivan on the sitcom Sullivan & Son.
More recently he appeared as FDNY Commissioner Stan Rourke in Blue
Bloods from 2015-2019, and as coach Al Loungo in the Fox TV show Pitch, in
2016. In films he played Commanding Officer, USA in 1996's Independence Day
and his most current role is in the Eagle and the Albatross to
be airing now on Amazon Prime. Dan is also a recurring guest star on This
is Us.
For New Jersey Rep he wrote and starred in the premiere of Dinner
With the Boys, which later moved to Off-Broadway. In addition, he
wrote, starred in, and directed North of 14th Street and
starred in Wendie Malick's The Conversation, both for NJ
Rep's Theatre Brut Festivals. In 2021 he will be returning to NJ Rep to
star in Lee Blessing's Tea With the Boss alongside
Wendie Malick.
Click the button below to see Dan's video "Battle Poem"
in honor of his mentor, Charles Durning.
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