Q&A with Stephen James (playing the conflicted teenager Alan Strang) and Drew Moerlein (psychologist Martin Dysart), both senior acting majors and stars of Black Box Players’ production of ‘Equus’

The Daily Orange: How would you describe the play ‘Equus?’

Stephen James: This show encompasses so many different themes that I think almost anyone can find something to identify with. It encompasses religion, relationships, family struggles and various other universal themes.

Drew Moerlein: ‘Equus’ is about a troubled boy who has lived in a seemingly troubled household and a psychiatrist’s, dare I say, adventure to understand and pull out the truth from this boy and the truth of what happened in this horrific experience.

DO: How did you prepare for the show?

SJ: We’ve had a three-week rehearsal process with a great production staff. Our director Rick Brown has been living with this play for a long time. He started out by telling us his artistic vision, and then we did our best to bring what we thought about these characters to the story. Then we started out through just readings, and then staging and then eventually getting all the technical aspects.

DM: I got a hold of the script just less than a year ago and began reading it. Once I was cast, I sort of lived with it. I lived with a copy pretty much in my back pocket, in my bag or next to my bed. I’d try to read it pretty much every day, and then when we got closer to process I began beating it out and semi-memorizing lines. I watched a ton of psychiatrist films, like ‘Sybil’ with Sally Field and the old ‘Equus’ with Richard Burton, and I just did a lot of research in that realm, then looked up online multiple personality disorders and a lot of information. I tried to get myself living in that kind of a being, to connect to that understanding of the world.

DO: How do you feel about the nudity in the show?

SJ: Aside from the ribbing from friends and co-workers who were always saying ‘Oh I can’t wait to see you naked,’ it’s been relatively painless. We have a policy here at Black Box Players of how all rehearsals are structured. So we phase in and make sure everyone involved in comfortable since Jenna (Curtis, who plays Jill Mason) is also doing nudity as well. So it’s been a really painless and for me completely comfortable process. In the end, I feel completely comfortable because the show calls for it.

DM: One thing I think that is excellent, just amazing about our community, is every one of us understands that in the next show we could be the ones showing off our bodies. I think we all sympathize and support and are mature. Our production crew, our cast, our director and our department in general have been very supportive. I feel like it’s such a safe place to reveal yourself.

DO: How do you get into character?

SJ: Luckily, here at SU, we have great drama faculty who have really armed us with the tools to do a comprehensive vocal, physical and emotional warm up that gets you prepared for the wide range of colors of the human palate that you will see in the show.

DM: Personally, I get here about an hour before, and I will come into the space, and I run through almost all my monologues and speak to the empty seats and pretend there are people in them. There is a lot of memory, which is just sort of living through things that have happened to you and melding that with your character’s life and that helps bring the truth out. During my warm up, I go through scenarios that could happen in my life that could be extremely painful or things that have happened in my life that were great hardships and then meld those with (psychiatrist Martin) Dysart’s struggles in his life.

Published on February 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm