I learned two things last Thursday that I connect here: I won Best Supporting Actress, and Alan Arkin died.
Here’s how they are related: In the 1980s, my late beloved agent, Carole Russo, got me an audition for a piece Alan Arkin was directing. In those days one received the sides via courier a day or two in advance of the audition. I don’t remember what the show was, but I do remember it was funny.
Of course, like all actors, I was taught that to perform comedy you must be 100% serious. If even a glimmer of playing for the laugh is detected, you’re “indicating” or being “presentational”. In my young actor mind, serious meant solemn, subdued. Alan Arkin taught me a HUGE lesson.
Back then there were several large and small audition rooms on the 2nd floor of the Actors Equity building at 165 W. 46th st. My audition was in a relatively small room. I checked in early and the monitor called my name. I’d dressed the part, had my sides in hand though I knew the text, and smiled at the reknowned actor/director as I entered. I sat down opposite him at the table with 2 chairs. We read the scene seated, facing each other.
Then Alan Arkin said to me, “Let’s do it again, but this time I want you to up the stakes to make it a life or death situation. Like a train is coming by and there’s a little space between the tunnel wall and the train. Go!” I plastered myself against the wall, envisioned the train rapidly approaching, and screamed the climax of the scene. The second the scene was done, I could feel how much funnier it was: Alan Arkin buttoned the experience with, “You, Janet Aldrich, are a very talented comedienne and actress.” Even though he cast someone else in the role, I carried his lesson for the rest of my life.
Fast forward 40 years (Jesus!!) to rehearsing the staged reading or Larry Daggett’s BULLET POINTS at the New Works Festival on Theatre Row in June, 2023. Larry cast me as Alexa Wright, lead gun lobbyist for the fictional Florida Institute for Armed Response, FIAR, a division of the also fictional American Gun Association. Alexa is passionate about her message and driven to sell guns to everyone while ensuring all of the Florida Congress agrees with her by whatever means necessary. She shamelessly exploits horrible school shootings and fearful situations to persuade anyone and everyone to back her up. She uses the Young Guns In Training members as the Stand Your Ground Glee Club to pep up her rallies.
Embracing this narrative, so polar opposite of my own, took a lot of research and listening to others’ stories. Then, Larry sent me a song he’d written, “Empathy”, in which Alexa reveals what is behind her furtive push as a gun lobbyist. The song is a deep dive into her history, her pain and her hatred of feeling helpless. Finally, something I could grab onto, a shared purpose.
And this is when Alan Arkin’s lesson was applied: for Alexa Wright, carrying a gun in her bra or hip holster was how she could feel her own power as a woman, as a human. She was never going to let anyone hurt her again. We learned in “Empathy” that two devastating events happened in her life and we understand her fervor is a reaction to her pain.
Larry wrote her as the comic relief as well as the antagonist. Knowing her personal history along with applying Alan Arkin’s lesson in playing comedy resulted in being awarded Best Supporting Actress.
