| Day Player |
| Written by Kevin Filipski | |||
 Johanna Day in ALMOST AN EVENING; photo by Doug Hamilton After a sold-out run at Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2 earlier this winter, the production has relocated to 45 Bleecker for a limited run through June 1, and Day has joined the cast. She spoke with me about working with her current co-star F. Murray Abraham, the Coens, and Edward Albee. ******************** TIMESSQUARE.COM: How did you end up in Almost an Evening? JOHANNA DAY: I had just finished Peter and Jerry and had gone up to New Haven to do The Evildoers at Yale, which was crazy, fun, and exciting. My agent called me out of the blue about Almost an Evening. I love the Atlantic -- I did a show with them a million years ago -- and they wanted me to do this, which was great. It was weird going from my last two plays to this, where I really don’t have much to do. At least in Peter and Jerry, I was onstage for the entire first half, which was 50 minutes. Since I’ve only started doing [Almost an Evening], I don’t have a routine yet on show days. I only had a few hours of rehearsal, so I’m still looking at my lines. But even though it’s a short evening, it’s great. Everybody’s so nice, so I get some social time out of this as well. TS: What's it like to play opposite F. Murray Abraham? JD: It’s absolutely fantastic. He and I hit it off right away. He’s not a gentle pushover, that’s for sure; but he’s a very giving, unselfish actor, and he really wanted me to, you know, beat him up onstage. All the guys I’m working with are so funny. During rehearsals, we were just howling with laughter. Murray has cracked up with me a couple of times onstage already. TS: And how are you enjoying the experience of working with one of the Coen brothers? JD: I love the Coen world! This is Ethan’s first play -- or plays, I should say -- but it’s wonderful. It’s so interesting that, after knowing the Coens' writing through all of their movies, I now have the chance to enter this other world of theirs. I absolutely love it. TS: What do you think Coen is trying to say in these one-acts? JD: He's making fun of a lot of different people in each play. In “Debate,” Murray is this egotistical actor, and my character has a specific feeling about what she thinks of the play he’s currently in. But inside, she’s very unhappy with their relationship: “Fine, fine. The play’s great, but everything has to be your way. You don’t want us to talk about our feelings, it’s always all about you.” The complaints become much more personal as we talk. TS: Peter and Jerry was very well received. Can you describe the experience of being in an Edward Albee play? JD: Well, you get a lot of clues to what your character is all about, thanks to his very specific writing. In the play I did after that [David Adjmi’s The Evildoers], all of our lines were scored like music: In the lines, there were two slashes where the next person’s line was supposed to start, so basically you had to know everybody else’s lines. I went into that show with only two weeks to learn it. That was a nightmare! [Laughs] TS: In Peter and Jerry, how did it feel to play the wife of a character that Albee originally created nearly 50 years ago? JD: Albee had said that he knew she existed, that he knew about Peter’s home life and his wife but never showed her to the audience in The Zoo Story. I did the premiere of Peter and Jerry in 2004 at Hartford Stage. I was so lucky to do it, but it was scary because there are so many people who have taken ownership of these characters. So before they even saw it, they said, “Why are they doing this?” in an accusatory way. I thought, “Great!” You knew that they were going to come to the theater and say, “Show me something.” But I think, more than not, those people now can’t imagine The Zoo Story without Homelife, and people who had never seen The Zoo Story before can’t think of anything other than having the two plays together as Peter and Jerry. ******************** [For more information, visit almostanevening.com] {mos_ri}
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