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Have you ever thought of using more of his words?
What would that mean? He was not like Abraham Lincoln. He was a very accessible speaker – even his greatest of conversations are very talkative and they are rooted in his kind of homegrown, tough roots. Possibly, for example, “Why should your life be all about you?” Like, there are 10 sentences that I split. How simple is that?
How did you approach the Pasadena run?
One of the reasons I did this was because I always wore a lot of hats and had to work hard on every production. The work I was supposed to do on Broadway wasn’t on stage: There’s no one else to press for the show but me. I am the sole actor and also the creator behind the entire production in every way. And so I barely had time to think on Broadway and was playing the game as high as I could. I wasn’t doing any other work this time because I thought, I’m finally going to deal with this text as an actor. I really explored how it got from this flagstone to the next flagstone, to the lily pond, to the bridge, from the puddle to the stone – jumping from one thing to another. Because to have written a play is to never be ready to play it. Many different missions.
Has “Ann” changed your thinking about politics?
This show is not really about politics.
But in the end, for example, he talks about government and civil service, which is – or should be – an important aspect of politics.
I think it’s about participation. Today, when “politics” is mentioned in our culture, it has a somewhat negative atmosphere. He had a practical idea of how things worked; wanted people to be involved in their own agency life. you give [expletive] about what is happening around you and to other people. So it’s all about participation: “If you don’t participate, you’re just letting other people make old big decisions for you.” In that sense it was political. Exactly.
What was it like performing in front of a masked audience?
It sounds scary at first, but believe me, I have a lot of things on my mind while performing. And I’ve been living in surgical dressing for months: I was afraid of catching Covid, not for my own health, but because I would stop production. So I had a lot of general anxiety and lived behind a mask from the moment I agreed to do it. Every day would pass and I would say, “One more down.” We made it, and I’m relieved that that show didn’t close.
How was your last performance?
I found the last day very stressful. There’s a lot going on over the final performances. I also never go to an actor’s last performance, just as I try to avoid going to their opening night because I feel the anxiety of the actors. Openings and closings are very stressful, just difficult. But I think it went very, very well. People said so. I felt complete.
So was this really the last rodeo for “Ann”?
I think I might have a pain and maybe I will, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say, “Wow, I wish I could do it again.” I’m turning 80 this winter, and what I’ve done on this show is arguably the hardest thing I’ve ever done on stage. I no longer have enough confidence in my constitution to say, “I’m going to make another one.” Learning the text takes me two hours every day with someone on FaceTime six days a week for two months. Doing this again means I have to take five months out of my life, and I don’t have five such months out of my life. A great producer-director asked me how I felt on Instagram, and I said, “I’m glad.” I achieved what I wanted to achieve.
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