A-LISTS theatre by david vera
DAMN RIGHT WE’RE ANGRY!
DANIEL TAYLOR AND MILES HEYMANNRELEASE SOME STEAM IN PATRICK WILDE’S WHAT’S WRONG WITH ANGRY? AT THE CELEBRATION THEATRE
Ever have something important to say, only to find that no one was interested in
hearing it? In 1993, Patrick Wilde’s story of a young British boy and his torrential bout with love and gay inequality opened at the Lost Theatre in Fulham, London with an unpaid cast and crew of nearly 20…and an audience of only six people. Through persistence and faith in the power of a pertinent story, the show had exploded with such popularity that it sold out in its final week. Fast forward to 2011. Director Michael Matthews and Celebration Theatre present us with the tale that has lost no relevance, but gained quite a following. The Rage Monthly had the pleasure to speak with the two leads ofWhat’s Wrong With Angry? (WWWA), Daniel Taylor and Miles Heymann, who play Steven Carter and John Westhead respectively. WWWAis a great example of the power that a great message can have and how quickly it can spread to open minds. What attracted you to the play? Daniel: To be honest, I was a little skeptical when I first read it. Michael Matthews,
our director started off our reading saying that this wasn’t a story that had never been told before and it might seem a little predictable. And when I first read it, I was worried it could fall into a cliché. But I’ve worked with Michael before and he is amazing. While keeping it in 1993, he really brought to life the issues that are still very topical today: bullying, labeling people, acceptance, equal rights. The opportunity to tell that story and stress those themes is what attracted me. The first production of the play in 1993 had an extremely limited initial following. How have your audiences responded to the themes inWWWA? Miles: We’ve gotten great responses, actually. Celebration Theatre itself already has
a great following. But the story is still relevant today with The Trevor Project and the It Gets Better Campaign. Patrick Wilde wrote a line at the end of the play that says it gets better. People are interested, they want to come see it. Daniel:Michael got a lot of buzz going into it because he received a NAACP Award
for a play that he’d done last year. Our group of actors is fantastic and we all had so much fun putting it together. I think that shows on stage, so people have a good time watching it. Miles: Some people might be worried about the show’s topic—they hear “bullying”
and they think, “Oh, this might be a really heavy show.” And I think that people are very pleasantly surprised at how much humor and balance of lightheartedness and touching moments. So you’re not coming to the theatre to get weighed down. You’re enjoying yourself and still getting a very informational message. And there’s great music that’s so recognizable, it brings people back. Daniel: It starts off with the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. The
play runs about two hours and 15 minutes with a 15-minute intermission, but everyone I’ve spoken to says that it does not feel that long. There are set changes but Michael transitions them together so seamlessly. It’s never boring…and definitely not for us! The eventual success of WWWA spawned the 1998 filmGet Real. Are you familiar with the film? How faithful to the play is the film’s take on it? Miles: I’ve seen it. The movie itself is very different from our version. People are com- ing to see our show telling us that they loved the movie. And then they see that the
22 RAGE monthly | OCTOBER 2011
show is a little different and they enjoy our piece as well. But the ending is very different. Our show is very melodramatic and it has a lot of viewpoint-type work involved into it. Daniel: I actually refused to watch the whole movie because I thought it might af-
fect my performance. I watched one scene with Miles and I was like, ‘Okay, okay that’s enough!’ Michael kept stressing the heightened intentions for us to have. With 16-year- olds, everything is life-or-death. Every situation seems like it’s going to be the end of the world. It’s really great to bring that kind of naïveté. That’s what live theatre should have, so everyone’s on the edge of their seats. The scene in the movie that I saw was the pinnacle bedroom scene between the two guys. It was very coy and subtle, where ours was funny and really awkward. What are your steps in the preparation of becoming high-school-age teens again? Miles:Well my little brother is actually 17, so I get a lot of inspiration from him—he’s
this cocky little sh*t. I absolutely love him, he’s on the lacrosse team, he has all the girls and stuff. But like Daniel said, at his age, everything is so heightened. He will tell you, he knows what love is, what it means to take care of someone and his idea of what the world is like. So with my character, I play the jock, but then I find this love in a very unconditional way—I find it in another schoolboy. Daniel:You just have to go back to a point of innocence. I always say that Steven is so
much more of a brave 16-year-old than I wish I could have been. He stands up for who he is and what he believes when everyone is against him. He just doesn’t care. When you’re that young, all that matters is fitting in, and the last thing I wanted at that age was to be a loner. Finally, what personally gets you angry and how do you find resolution? Daniel: I remember middle school being a really horrible time for me. Bullying made
it really difficult to love myself. I find it heart-wrenching to see young people struggle with that as well. People who force others into these molds and ways that they should be, instead of letting them be what they want. That’s what gets me angry. Before I decided to do this play, I had another offer to do a show in L.A. and I didn’t know which one to do. I asked my dad and he said, ‘This is when you have to look at the stories of the plays and decide which one you want to tell more.’ This was a story that could affect people, perhaps even save a life. Patrick Wilde actually wrote a letter to us before we opened that said this play has saved lives and helped change people’s minds. If doing this show can help at all, it would be awesome. Miles: I’ve watched YouTube clips of a family who will go on the street and carry huge
signs that read “God Hates Fags.” People who are so set in their ways and don’t hear others out, they’re the ones whopiss me off. There’s no need to go out to the street just to try to spread hate.
What’s Wrong With Angry? runs throughSaturday, October 29 at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Boulevard (1/2 block east of La Brea) in Hollywood. Understudy performances take place Wednesdays at 8p.m. Tickets are $30, to purchase or for more information call 323.957.1884 or visit
celebrationtheatre.com.
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