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Role Playing
PRTC actor comes home as director, writer
By Terry Jacoby, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: June 28, 2007
Some say home is where you are at the moment. Others consider home as where you come from or where you started your journey.
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For Matt Letscher, both definitions apply, as the actor returns to the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea for the world premiere of "Sea of Fools."
And while his first steps as an actor were on the Purple Rose stage, Letscher's return this time around won't be front and center. Instead, he will play his part behind the scenes.
The Purple Rose Theatre has come to mean many things to many people since Jeff Daniels founded the theatre in 1991. It's not only a stage and a showcase and a drawing board for outstanding talent, it's also a classroom.
The actors, actresses, writers and directors that come through the "Purple" doors are students, more or less.
Always learning. Always growing. Always striving to do more.
And the leaders of the Purple Rose, from Daniels to Artistic Director Guy Sanville, offer their "students" every opportunity to expand and grow.
Great actors are offered a chance to write. Others are offered the opportunity to direct. And some, such as Letscher, are given the reins to do both.
New world
Letscher, whose brother Brian wrote and starred in the just-completed "When the Lights Come On," can't wait for the lights to come on for "Sea of Fools."
Dressed casually in jeans, a T-shirt and an enthusiastic smile that is contagious inside the Purple Rose, Letscher is eager to talk about his play, his craft, his first experience as a director and writer, and the theatre that raised the curtain on his promising career.
"The seed of 'Sea of Fools' came about when we were shooting 'Super Sucker' a few years back, a story that Jeff (Daniels) wrote and directed," Letscher said. "A lot of people from the company were in that movie, such as Sandra Birch, Guy Sanville and John Seibert.
"On set we started to talk about screen names and how they used to come up with screen names; one method being your middle name plus the street you grew up on. And when we started going around the room with that, everyone seemed to have really good, old-fashioned movie star names."
The names created included Richard Deerfield, David Merriweather, Lee Newberry and Phillip Skyline. Armed with names, Letscher and the group began giving the names some character, in essence turning them into characters.
"We started to adopt personas for these names," Letscher said. "They were these incredibly self-important, yet completely unknown '30s and '40s movie stars. We just had fun with it and played around with it while we were shooting the movie."
Since all the names sounded like old movie stars, their "personas" became exactly that. Why make them car salesmen or accountants? Why not movie stars, since the actors already had some insight into that world? And, most importantly, they had the names.
"The basic idea was that this was a group of actors who talk as though they're as big as Clark Gable," Letscher says. "But, in reality, no one has ever heard of any of their movies or anything they've ever done. I describe it as 'Sunset Boulevard' meets 'Waiting for Guffman.'"
While it seemed like a fun and innocent way to pass the time on a movie set, Daniels believed it could become much more. He could see this craziness somehow come to life on stage - with highly comical results.
"I was in town here a couple years ago having lunch with Jeff and he told me that he had tried writing that 'play' a couple times about all those idiots you were pretending to be," Letscher says. "He said he couldn't do it, but thought I could. So he asked me to try and come up with something."
That "something" became "Sea of Fools."
"I came up with a story that centered around the wake of their director and leader," Letscher says. "They have been estranged for awhile and they are coming back together. A new prospect that they believe will vault them into the stratosphere of superstardom comes up, and it turns out Elia Kazan is also interested in this project, so there is sort of a struggle throughout the play.
"It's a pretty basic farce. And once I got that into my head it came pretty easy to me."
Familiar voices
One of the reasons the story came easy for Letscher was because of his familiarity with the actors. He wanted to incorporate parts of their personalities into the makeup of the characters.
Of course, he took some liberties with their personalities, stretching and accelerating them a bit for comedic purposes.
Guy Sanville, for example, isn't playing Guy Sanville. But maybe Guy Sanville is playing a certain facet or idiosyncrasy of Guy Sanville - multiplied by 10.
"I knew who I was writing for," Letscher says. "I knew Guy, John and Sandra were going to be in it. And I had a pretty good idea John Lepard would play the role I created (Davey Merriweather) because we are kind of similar. Just knowing these people was very helpful with the writing."
Sanville plays the lead, stepping out from his usual role as director. And even though the part isn't easy, like all great artists Sanville embraces the challenge.
"This play was grown as organically as possible," says Sanville, who has directed such Purple Rose hits as "Escanaba In Da Moonlight," "Escanaba in Love," "Across the Way," "Rain Dance" and many others.
"It started with improvs among the cast during long hours spent working on a movie in Jackson. Matt took those characters and wrote a hilarious play. 'Sea of Fools' is a rarity. It's a farce. I have 12 good tragedies on my desk, but to find a well-crafted new comedy is very hard; to find an exciting new farce is the rarest find of all."
Reminders
Having to direct someone of Sanville's stature - especially on your first professional play in the director's chair - could have been a little intimidating. But again, knowing Sanville made it easier.
"He's made it remarkably easy for me, and he's got enough on his plate to focus on without trying to help the director," Letscher says. "It's a very physically challenging role for him and it's a challenging role from an actor's standpoint as well. He's been focused on that. But he has been a sounding board if I ever had any questions. So far, so good. We work very well together."
While working through rewrites and rehearsals and more rewrites, Letscher says he gained renewed appreciation for the Purple Rose and the quality the theatre represents.
It's been a while since he's worked with some of these folks, and he's been left shaking his head over their talents more than a few times.
"It wasn't a surprise, but it's nice to be reminded just how talented all the actors are who work here," he says. "You give them something that's on the page and they take it and make it that much better. They color it in their own way, making it funnier and brighter than you ever imagined it. It's really gratifying to see how much great actors bring to the table."
New challenges
As an actor, Letscher has brought many great moments to the table. A native of Grosse Pointe and graduate of the University of Michigan, he first appeared on the Purple Rose stage in "The Tropical Pickle" by Daniels, and later in "Rain Dance" by Lanford Wilson.
He has appeared on Broadway in "The Rivals" at Lincoln Center for the Arts and the world premiere of Neil Simon's "Proposals."
His film credits include "Gettysburg," "Gods and Generals," "Identity," "Lovelife," Madison," "The Mask of Zorro," "Straight-Jacket," and "Super Sucker."
On the small screen, he's had big roles in "Good Morning, Miami," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," and also appearances on "Boston Legal," "CSI: Miami," and "The West Wing."
While he's never sat in the director's chair, his wide range of acting roles has helped prepare him for this new role in his career.
As a director, Letscher says there are times to clamp down and say, "This is the way to do it." Other times he lets the actors decide how a line is delivered or where a scene might eventually end up.
Many directors like to hear and see a few different interpretations of a line and then choose which one best fits into the overall objective of that moment or that scene.
"It depends on the situation, and that's what I am starting to figure out," Letscher says. "There are certain actors you want to take more of a hands-off approach with and see where their instincts take them. There are other actors who prefer to get much more specific direction to start and other scenes that demand it.
"There is a lot of physical comedy in this, so some of these scenes need to be blocked out very carefully and the visuals need to be very specific."
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Writers don't know where that moment comes from or how it arrives. They only know that when it comes knockin', you swing open the door and let it in. When it comes, you "simply (try) to keep up with their voices," Daniels said, describing how he wrote "Escanaba In Love."
It's "a burst of creativity playwrights live for," Daniels added.
That feeling of trying to type as fast as the lines come is a writer's dream come true.
The first reader of a new story is always the writer. And the best writers feel their story is ready only after it can sweep them off their own feet. If you can't impress yourself, you are not going to impress your peers.
Letscher felt as if he had swept himself off his feet when he took the finished product to the Purple Rose. But the best writers know and understand that this version, no matter how good it is, isn't finished.
"We came into rehearsals with the script in pretty good shape, and we work-shopped it once and had a couple of readings so it was close," Letscher says.
"It was at one point 108 pages and we've cut 20 from it over the course of the last year. And that's good. It's been streamlined and it's in real good shape.
"I found it relatively easy over the course of rehearsals to figure out where the play is not working and make the adjustments there. We will see what happens when it gets to the previews, but so far, so good."
While most of the changes at this point are minor - a new word here, a funnier line there - Letscher isn't afraid to mix things up if it means a better story.
"There are little line changes and there are larger things," he explains. "For example, just this week I put in a new scene that I really think helps one story line. The basic structure won't change too much, but now that we are getting into previews we will find out that some things are going to work, some things aren't going to work, some things aren't as clear and I will need to help with that."
Letscher said writing the play was enjoyable, but not as enjoyable as seeing the actors take his words off the page and make them come alive in their own voices.
"It's written for these people, and they've worked together for 15 years and some of this stuff is very specific to them so they can watch it and recognize something that's not just of the play, but also of the actor," Letscher says. "It was very helpful to know these people so well."
Exchange of energy
In any play, the relationship between the audience and the actors is special and unique to the story being told. The actors are as aware of the audience as the audience is aware of the actors.
Both need each other. Both feed off each other. And both are critical to the success or failure of a play.
"There is nothing that can replace the connection between actors and an audience in the process," Letscher says. "At some point after you've been rehearsing for a while you need an audience because you feed off of each other's energy. And it's a give and take. It's an exchange of energy between the actors and the audience."
Sanville, who has worked in front of his share of audiences, said each one has its own personality.
"Each audience is different and sometimes it depends on something like what night of the week it is," he says. "I believe, though, that there is no such thing as a 'bad' audience and I get in disagreements with my colleagues over this all the time.
"Some shows are better than others. There are audiences that aren't as engaged as others.
"We are all taught not to expect laughs. You try to stay ahead of them that way. The audience is your partner in the process. There are certain things that will always get laughs, but each audience is different."
Letscher says you can "always feel the audience."
"This is a communal experience and that's what I love about it," he says. "It can be the darkest of dramas and you know if they are not with you. You can feel it. But you also know when you have them by the throat because you can hear a pin drop. You can feel the stillness sort of swallowing everybody.
"In a way, it's harder to tell if an audience is with you in a comedy because the laughter can be deceptive. If you start to rely too much on the laughter it can become a false indicator of how much people are enjoying the story."
The play
"Sea of Fools," Letscher says, is pretty straightforward even if the characters aren't.
"There might be some acting references people won't get, but the exploration of acting and the story as a whole people will certainly understand," he says. "The characters are very strange and may take some getting used to. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a little time for people to see just how over-the-top they are."
Make no bones about it, "Sea of Fools" could easily be called "Sea of Comedy." This play is a farce, with big, broad comedic shoulders and enough physical comedy to not only bring the actors to their knees, but the audience right along with them.
"It's also inhabited by a group of strange people, but very likeable people," Letscher says. "The core of the play is about a group of people who represented a family of some kind, who have been estranged and through a set of circumstances are reunited and made whole once more."
It's also a story of triumph.
"You find yourself caring for these people," Letscher says. "It's not just about the jokes. There is some heart to it."
When Letscher sat down to write "Sea of Fools" he wanted to capture that spirit of the silliness that was created during the filming of "Super Sucker."
"We were just screwing around on the set having fun and I didn't want to lose that feeling in telling a story," he says.
"I have written plays before and what had always hung me up before was that I was writing with a kind of theme in mind. And in that sense they weren't really plays because they weren't about stories and characters, they were about intellectual pursuit.
"But when I sat down to write this I decided to just write a simple story about this group of morons and see where it takes me and just write stuff that cracks me up.
"Hopefully, that's what people will get when they come here: A simple story populated by likeable characters that will make you laugh for two hours."
Like Sanville says, comedies are not easy to write. The pacing of a comedy is very important. It's not Rodney Dangerfield or Chris Rock ripping off one-liners for two hours. There is a story to tell and the jokes, while part of the story, don't drive the story.
"What you have to watch out for is that you can't have a laugh at every line," Letscher says. "Everything won't land as a big laugh. It's important they are laughing, but it's also important that they are following the story that goes along with it."
Sanville has spent more time these days behind the scenes instead of on the stage. But this opportunity was too good - and too much fun - to pass up.
"This is the most fun I've ever had acting in a play, with the possible exception of 'Tropical Pickle,' which was my first play here," he says. "This is the hardest thing I've ever done and the most challenging thing I've ever done. But it's one of the most special groups of actors I've ever been on stage with.
"I knew it was going to be really cool and scary, but it's exceeded my expectations," he added. "I can't wait to see what happens once we get going. It's been five years since I've had the pleasure of acting on this stage and I don't take it lightly. I am honored that Matt included me in it.
"It's always great to work with great people."
The character Sanville plays is an "extremely extreme" version of Sanville himself.
"There are parts of all of us in the characters and that's part of the fun," Letscher says. "All of the actors have been game for whatever I've come up with and are ready to roll."
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