WKXL - New Hampshire Talk Radio
NH Unscripted with Angèlica Forcier Rosenthal, Garrett Meyer, & Mackenzie Goodwin
Todays' episode is part I of a two part series. Several members from the cast of Actors Cooperative Theatre’s productions of Cruel Intentions: The 90’s Musical stop by and give us a deep, deep dive into the show. Angèlica Forcier Rosenthal (Kathryn Merteuil), Garrett Meyer (Sebastian Valmont) and Mackenzie Goodwin (Cecile Caldwell) VERY delicately walk me through this insane show! ACT does some of the most creative, thought provoking material in the state. I’m not talking classics or Greek theatre or Moliere. I’m talking about crazy, sometimes gritty, sometimes just wild shows and this one ranks right up there. There is soooo much happening here on soooo many different levels that we had to break the discussion into two parts! The show goes up Aug. 2-11 at the MCTP Theatre at the North End Montessori School; 698 Beech St, Manchester and tickets can be bought at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=191346
- Duration:
- 45m
- Broadcast on:
- 17 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) Woo, baby! You are listening to NH Unscripted. Lucky listener, we consider ourselves the happening and I am your Supremes like host Ray Dudley. Yeah, baby, get those transistor radios out. Baby, you're Sony Walkman, if you're one of the rich kids, get those crappy headsets that come with 'em. But anyway, I am back from vacation, long to say about that, but that may be another day. We are coming to you, thankfully, from the YMCA like digs of the WKXL studios. Everyone, just fresh out of the pool. Mother of God, is it hot out there that humidity makes an old man like me sweating places we can't talk about? Really, I'm coming to you from 1450A at 103.9 FM in Concord, 103.9, a 101.9 FM in Manchester. For you, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful soles down there. Our URL is NHTalkRadio.com. Ooh, we got some specialty stuff going on today. But before we get to, I need to thank my sponsor, Lakes Region Fence, okay, look, El Chippo, you see that piece of junk in your yard? You're considering to be a fence, but really isn't a fence, because every creature known to God is coming across that thing? Yeah, yeah, time to break down, buddy. Time to break down. You know what, Summer is a viewer about midway through Summer, I'm guessing, right? So, why don't you just spring for it? You know, just spring for it. Go to lrfence.com, you can get a free estimate. Press the button, dude, press the button. Get a free estimate. You know, we all folks like free. We like coupons, we like free. We're in there, anything like that. That's why we get social security checks. There's mail into our house, it's free living. Anyway, out there at lrfence.com, Matt will come and give you a free estimate to get rid of that junk that your neighbors are threatening to light on fire, or maybe you need something to round your pool, or maybe you need your pickleball court, because you know when the ball to go away, anyway. Break down, it's time. Go out there, you'll find reams and reams and reams, and reams of photos out there, the excellent work they do. And here's a little tip. They are generally four to six weeks out. That's how busy those guys are. They do excellent work. I've been on their job sites. Matt is a good friend of mine, and we thank him. Book sypharously for sponsoring this show. Look, let me say this, today is the day of encouragement. I went and saw Jersey Boys up at the Winnipasaki Playhouse. I was in Secret Garden, 'cause they needed a fat old guy, and so happened to be available. It's summertime. Good God almighty, let me encourage you. Go out and see some theater. There's nothing like summertime theater. Take your favorite squeeze, go out for dinner, have a few drinks, or not, maybe other substances. Anyway, and then go see some theater. Dude, there are people out there working hard. Three of them are in the house today. We have the actors co-op, with a revisit from, we have allowed them back into the building. They had special entourage bodyguards coming in. Okay, so let's start off with introductions. Angelica, why don't we start with you? That way you can get all you're talking out of the way. Perfect. Okay, introduce yourself. So I'm Angelica Rosenthal. You are indeed. Certainly am. I'm a founder of Actors Cooperative Theater, and currently for the first time, I'm in one of the shows, and I'm playing Katherine Mertoy in Cruel Intentions. Okay, cool intentions is the play that we're here to talk about. Correct. Musical? The '90s musical. '90s musical, okay, we'll get back to that in a second. Mackenzie, good morning. Good morning, I'm Mackenzie Goodwin. I'm playing Cecile Caldwell in Cruel Intentions. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, okay, that's showing sweet. Mr. Garret. Hi, morning, happy to be here. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I am Garrett Meyer. I am playing Sebastian Valmont, one of the lead characters in the show, alongside Angelica, and been involved with pretty much every, I think, actor singer, sorry, not actors, I guess, actor's cooperative theaters. Whoopsie. Okay, actors cooperative theater. They both start this. We know where the edits are gonna come today. Ooh. Yeah, I'll show that after a second. I've also, yeah, so that's why I get the two big stuff, but yes, yes. Good plug. Good morning. Nice thing right. (laughing) Yeah, we're all sober here, no problem. (laughing) Garrett starts earlier. (laughing) It's five o'clock somewhere. So let's talk about, let's get the deets out of the way. Give me the URL, give me the dates, and then we can go from there. Hmm. Anyone, it's ready. Yeah, so, cruel intentions is going up August 2nd through 11th. It's going up at the North End Montessori School in Manchester under the guise of the hat box. So you can buy tickets on the hat box's website. That is the interesting part. It's like a three person partnership. It's the hat box, it's us, and the Montessori School. So MCTP Manchester community players. Yeah, oh, that's why I popped up on my calendar that way. So, who chose it? Technically the board. You have a board? So, ACTP is the adult offshoot of Kidscoop Theatre. So the board of Kidscoop runs ACTP as well. Okay. It's technically the board. Why was this one chosen? Well, so we had, the three of us had actually been in cruel intentions when actor singers did it, and the hat box had asked actor singers if they would tore it up to the hat box and the board of actor singers kind of let it go by the wayside. And so, a lot of us were also working at Actorscoop at the time, and they said, "Well, why don't we just send it up there?" So that's kind of how it happened. So, how big is the cast? The cast is about 20, 20. You all do go to rehearsals, right? Yeah, we're about, no, no, no. We're about 15 to 20, I would say. Okay. It's a bit of a smaller cast. That's pretty, I think it's pretty big. Oh, you think it's pretty big? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's not exactly airline traffic kind of, you know, figuring out, but. Sure. 20 people on stage, are they all on stage at one time? Sometimes. Well, because the leads are spread out throughout different scenes, but we do have a dedicated ensemble for a lot of our bigger numbers. So, yeah, so we probably have about, you know, closer to 15 people on stage at a time. All right, where are you getting the band from? So, Jessie has a lot of contacts through other shows that he's done. Jessie's the musical director as well as the director, and I believe he's co-choreographed a couple of numbers as well. Jessie is doing it all in the show. He reached out to people who originally did the pit for him the first time, and then kind of plugged in a couple other people 'cause vacations kind of cut things out for, I think the bass player. We had to replace, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, so are you excited about it? Yeah. I mean, you've already done it once, but are you, are you excited for people to see it? We'll get into what it's about in a second. Sure. So, I'm dancing around that. But are you excited to have people see this particular production? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting for me, and well, for all of us three here, but doing a show that we've already done, you know, two years prior, it's interesting revisiting it, but you know, with a little bit of a different, you know, twist on certain scenes, you know, different directions. It's been really, I think, a positive experience because we've gotten to focus on a lot more of the nuance having done this before. So, we've gotten to explore the material a little bit more in depth than we did the first time around when we were trying to get our feet in the water. So, I think, yeah, it's been really fun. Did you find that to be advantageous? Is it more stuff that you actually found out about your character or the other people that really you're able to try to shine in? Not only different stuff about the character itself, but also different interpretations. You know, one director might say this, one director might say, well, let's take this character in a bit of a different direction. We can obviously go into a little bit more in depth later, but having to kind of fight against the muscle memory a little bit of the first time around because I was so used to doing it this one way, it's a bit of, it provides a little bit of a unique challenge that I haven't experienced before. - Interesting, we can see you too. - Yeah, I, what I thought was interesting is I was lucky enough to go see it over on the West End a couple months before we started the process this time. - What? - Yeah. - So, the combined newness of getting to do it again and experience new things this time around with getting to see a professional production of it and see the way they interpreted things. - I can almost see you. - Almost fine, fine, the microphone stuff. Any, so did you, we, when you saw the profession, were you like, oh, that's something interesting. - Yeah. - Yeah, tidbits, did you pick something up? - Yeah, definitely. I think, well, they had additional songs that we didn't have the first time around and that aren't in our production. - Are they in this one? - No. - No, no. - Angelica's frowning. Now they're thinking, are you, you wish they were? - It's gonna learn a word so the show. - Oh, I see, I see. - And they had to change some references that would have landed within American audience and weren't gonna land with the audience over there. But it was interesting because they interpreted things entirely differently than we would and-- - Wait, is this British? - Yeah, it was on the West End. - Oh, yeah. - The West End, sorry, that means nothing to me, I know. - It was the Broadway. - You know, as far as I know, it's back in my porch. (laughing) The West End of the house. So, okay, so that's a very, oh, wow, wow, wow, wow. So they have a whole difference that the humor is well, period. Very, very dry at times. So let's tip to into, what is this for people who have not seen the movie? - Oh, baby. (laughing) - Oh. - Saved by the bell. - Baby, what? (laughing) Ooh, we got a pocket there for a second. We are walking on the lazy river here at NH Unscripted. I'm your Bobby Darrin, like host Ray Dudley. Coming to you from the Hannibal Baron, like things of the WKXL studios. And I'm so happy to be out of bed. Let me tell you, we are coming to you 1450 AM, 103.9 FM in Cackett. 101.9 FM for you beautiful folks in Manchester. NHTalk, radio.com is the URL. We're talking about cool intention, the '90s musical. We will be right back walking tenderly. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome back to NH Unscripted, where we're asking you to lay a little love and I'm the baby. I am your dusty screen. Oh, that's not dusty screen, Jim. I forgot my glasses today. Robin McNamara, that's who I am. That's who I am. Anyway, I am your host, Ray Dudley. We are coming to you from the ever, ever Taj Mahal like digs of the WKXL studios. My God, it's Cavendish in there. Too bad they don't have air conditioning. Anyway, I digress. 1450 AM, 103.9 FM in Concord. That's on your Sony Walkman. 101.9 FM for you beautiful folks in Manchester and the URL is NHTalkRadio.com. Yeah, we get a URL because yeah, we're cool. What can I say? In the house actors co-op, we are talking about a musical about to come up in August called Cool Intentions, the '90s musical. Hmm, what could this be about? Let's see, who wants to get fall under the bus first? (laughing) Glory, yeah, I can go ahead and provide a little bit of an excerpt into what is going on in this show. So, from Intentions by the Name, you might explore some more adult themes. It's based on an old French novel, which is centuries old, dangerous liaisons. It was adapted into a play. So, it is essentially, Cool Intentions was based on the '90s movie that was then later turned into a musical. So, what it is, is it focuses on two high school students. It takes us all the way back to high school. They're wealthy high schoolers who are a bit disassociated from society in large. They think that they're above the fold, above their other students. They're very manipulative, and so they basically are looking to make a bet, let's say. Oh, they play games with people. They play games with people. Okay, let's see. Yeah, they're very emotionally manipulative. They like to think of themselves as above it all, and yet-- Is there their high class? High society, yeah. High society, Manhattanites. Got you. Oh yeah, privileged, I would guess. Oh yeah. Okay. So, they're very disillusioned. Okay. So, my character, Sebastian, is essentially good friends with your character, Catherine. We're step siblings. We're step siblings. Okay. So, we like to play around with other people and never get attached to them, let's say. We like to make sure to keep ourselves distant. We never fall in love with people. We're very-- And Sebastian's like a playboy. He's kind of the stereotypical '90s guy who is just sleeping around, leaving women. In high school. Ruining people's lives, saying anything to have a relationship with them, and then when he's done, he's done. Yeah, okay. We are in high school. Hence the cruel part of the cruel identity. Right. So then, this other girl comes along. This, what Sebastian sees as the ultimate quote-unquote target. So, the headmaster's daughter who has published an article about the virtues of being chased and-- Saving yourself. Right, following God. And, you know, it's-- Sebastian sees this girl as, oh, well, I've gotten bored with all of the regular students. You know, he's very, again, disillusioned. So, he sees this girl as, well, why don't we go ahead and try to manipulate her next? You know, not knowing that going into this experience, he might walk out of it a different person. He might decide, well, not decide, but he might start to have feelings for this girl who, initially, he was going to try to manipulate and, you know, be this playboy. It was just another conquest, like I mentioned. Yeah, conquest is a good word. It is a good word. Meanwhile, while he's doing that, my character is-- my character, I see, is a very big feminist icon, especially in the '90s, where it was really women's value was not huge, especially in media, as well as the virtue and saving yourself was this big movement, and anybody who didn't do that, it was kind of like you were used goods and you were trash. And so, my character is very confident and grounded in who she is, but has to hide who she is to fit in in this culture and pretend that she is this virtuous pious person, though she is, you know, kind of doing her own thing and a strong independent woman. We, our characters, end up making a bet together of, I don't think you're gonna be able to get with this girl. And if I win, I'm taking your car, and if he wins, basically the bet is that he's been infatuated with me since our parents got married. Got you. That brings us to my motivation, which is my boyfriend left me for Mackenzie's character, and I, my character feels like, you know, we have these great relationships and then I always get dumped because men just want these, like, dumb girls who have never had any experiences. And so, I'm now out to destroy Mackenzie's character. What's your perspective, Kenzie? - What's your take on all this? - Going down that rabbit hole. - So, Cecile is about to start her first year at the high school, they all attend, and she's coming out of a All Girls Catholic school. So, she's very innocent, she's very inexperienced, she comes off a little stupid at times, and Catherine is upset that her boyfriend has decided to get with Cecile, and Cecile kind of just falls into the web of Catherine and Sebastian's manipulation and lies and gets caught up in it all. - Uh-huh, uh-huh, I see. So, we've got, what, like, three different couples? - There's like four or five couples in the show. - Yeah, four or five. - And then they also kind of, because I would count you and I as a couple, yeah, and then Mackenzie and I have a bit of a couple situation as well. But then Mackenzie's character falls in love with her music teacher, her cello teacher, and then he and I also have-- - I think, I really shouldn't think about that, Mackenzie. - I would miss them, and it's Ronald. - Ah, you might have yet, you might have left that an important point. - Yeah, so Cecile is taking cello lessons from an older guy, and she develops feelings for him, and they develop feelings for each other, and it upsets her mom greatly. - Mm-hmm, so, okay. - It sure does. - It does, it does upset her mother. - It does, can I ask to what degree? - So Ronald-- - Is it a spoiler alert in here anyway now? - No, Ronald's played by a person of color, and her mother is racist. - About guy, you got it, where's a lot going on here? Oh, yeah. - Yeah, well, it's a originally French piece, and French pieces are really interwoven in plot, and that's what I think-- - Understatement alert. - Makes it really exciting. - Yeah, it is, it's, that's why it's fun to have all of these different characters interact with each other on stage, because it really is this big web of manipulation like you described. - And everybody's relationship with every other character is its own thing. - Yeah, so, are there, do you think the audience is gonna have trouble keeping track of all of these things? I mean, there's a lot going on, there's a lot going on. Do they, no? - I don't necessarily think so, but just because the scenes themselves, they kind of keep it, we have a good way of blocking and understanding which couples are which, and when the different couples are interacting with each other and crossing over, we have a good sense of understanding as to what the purpose of this scene is, or why is this character suddenly interacting with this one? - And a lot of the scenes are just two people. - Yeah, they're kind of built that way, so that you see how-- - I'm like vignettes. - Right, so it has Sebastian, Catherine interact, but when it's Catherine and Cecile, it's just us and it's completely different. - Exactly, so how about resolution? Is it, again, without, if we can not have-- - I mean, the movie came out in 1999, if sure people know how it ends. (laughing) - Well, let's say you're old, and-- - Sure. - So you definitely know how it ends 'cause it came out in 1999. - So you've seen it a million times by now, actually. - Even in my background, you know, I would probably wouldn't have. - So does it resolve cleanly, is, are there, like, the happy ending kind of stuff, or is it like-- - No, it's not a happy ending, yeah. - Oh, maybe not a happy ending. - I don't think for us, I don't think for anybody, I don't necessarily think you have a happy ending either. - What? - I got a life ending. - I think she's-- - What? - It's that's more than something people have. (laughing) - Oh no, yeah, so of all three of you here, there's only maybe, maybe-- - She's probably kind of the best. - She's happiest, yeah. - Yes, I would say it goes you, you, me. - In terms of ranking the happy ending. - Oh, you don't have a pulse? - No. (laughing) - So, yeah, just so yeah, my character ends up not living after this, but-- - He dies. - He dies. (laughing) - Let's just get to the spoilers, right? - I'm so sorry, yeah. - Again, the movie's been out since '99. - It's a long movie, you really should see it. - And then come see the show. - What, okay, so let's talk a little bit about character development here, if at all that. Is this something that you really need to do character development on, you know, in research, or is it just something that you feel you could just put the character on and go with it? - I think it's really not so much about the development of the individual characters, it's about the relationship development, because Mackenzie and our relationship is very different from my perspective than it is for her character's perspective. - In what, can you talk about that? - I'm like, I'm just using her and I don't like her, but she thinks we're best friends. - Mm-hmm. Oh, oh no, let's get into it now. - Oh, so many questions, son of a gun. Oh man, you are listening to NH Unscripted. I am your host with the Bunny Slippers on Raid Dudley. We are coming to you from the Green Acres like studios of the WKXL studios in Concord. So, so happy to be out of bed always. 1450 AM, 103.9 FM in Cankit. 101.9 FM for the beautiful souls in Manchester. Yeah, yeah, we go to URL. Yeah, NH TalkRater.com, duh, as if you didn't know. We're gonna be right back talking a little bit more about cool intentions 'cause I think there's some stuff here I can mine. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Woo, the breaks of Roodle here at NH Unscripted. We got tonight, baby, 'cause I and your Kenny Rogers like hosts with me, Dudley. We are coming to you from the get smart light conditions of the WKXL studios and no, we are not using the cone of silence today. You would know that if you've been around with us long enough. We are, no, you are listening to us. 1450 AM, 103.9 FM and 101.9 FM for the folks in Manchester, NH TalkRater.com is our URL. I will give you some info on what's happening out there. When we come back next time for the D-blog, but we are pulling apart. Cool intentions happening in Manchester. Can you give me the deets on that again? What, the dates and... Yeah, so it's August 2nd through 11th at the... Mm-hmm, yeah, North End Montessori School. So 6, 8, 98 Beach Street, Manchester, New Hampshire in association with the Manchester Community Players and the Hatbox Theatre. The Hatbox, the Hatbox. Boy, I wanna go there and ask some questions about that. Have you been able to work in the theatre yet? No. You have not. So where are you rehearsing? We are rehearsing at the studio with Kidscoop. Yeah, I wanna say some of the funniest photos are up on Instagram. Were your group ones? Oh, yeah. Some of them didn't make it to publicity. Oh, really weird, huh? Yeah, I wonder. I think the worst photo was the one you and I took together where I had my photo on your chest and they made me hold it for a whole minute. And, whoops. It was a good amount of time. It was a good thing I go to the gym. I don't see it. Don't see understanding of it yet, we're cool. No, no, we're fine. We're walking the line. Walk in the line. We have fun, we have a lot of fun. And I think those photos were a good indication. You know, wait, we do have fun, our rehearsals. Yeah, and you know, I think it's a testament to the intimacy and the comfortability that we've all worked together and we're all feel very safe with each other. I'm gonna ask you a question which I think anybody who's seen the photos out there are probably wondering, you know, Mark's tie. Yeah. (laughs) Yes. It is hysterical. It is hysterical. Every time I see it. Tell me what's going on there. It is his thing, is it not? Is he just, what, who's he playing? So, Mark Kelly is playing Trevor who is Annette's boyfriend who's backpacking through Europe and we're not really sure he's real or not. Jesse has made him kind of have a moment. So, we are accepting that he's real but we're pretty sure that he's not attracted to women. Mine is also in the ensemble. And Annette I should mention is the headmasters daughter. I don't think I mentioned her name. So, the person that my character is interested in. I know. There are 20, you did mention there 15 to 20. Well, most of them are leads which is fun. Oh, yeah. Are there any other people you want to name drop right now besides Mark and who else is in this? Oh, so Sarah Landry is playing Annette. Christian Cornelio is playing Ronald, Rosemary, Doud Kelly is playing your mother, Miss Caldwell. Who am I missing? Oh, Blaine and Greg. Greg, yeah. Whole different couple we haven't even talked about yet. I haven't even gotten into Blaine. I know. But where do they fit in? So, weren't there like four or five couples already we've mentioned? This is a sixth. Well, there's more. Wait, wait, there's more? Yes, so, Connor Nugent is playing Greg McConnell and Rose Chafee is playing Blaine Tuttle. I think we've hit all the leads. Yeah. Oh, Phil Lacks is playing. Court Reynolds, who is my former boyfriend. Yeah. This is so involved. Yes. It goes deeper and deeper. It's so distant. And on top of that, you know, we have Selena Shea Miller playing your therapist. Yeah. Therapist. Oh yeah. Therapist. A good amount of characters in this show would benefit from therapy, yes. (laughs) You have therapy. I do have therapy. And it certainly has not helped. (laughs) But we'd love to get it on that. So the musical numbers, how would you rate them? First of all, are they like, get out of your seat kind of, yes, I want to sing along kind of things. Or are they more ballad-y? Where is this on the spectrum? I think there's a nice mix. Something interesting is that like, you'll see the show and you'll know every song. What? Is that true? Yeah, it's all the three kids from the 90s. (laughs) But we found that even like walking around stores or going to work when we're not at rehearsal. Wait, this is that pop? The song's from this? So it's Chupox. What? It's a jukebox musical. Yeah. So it's the songs from the Backstreet Boys. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay, so these aren't songs. Always and then, no. They're not original. Yeah. They're all hit 90s songs. Got you. Thank you for that clarification. I thought I was having a stroke there. He don't know? The original song's right there. (laughs) From cruel intentions. Yeah. Just rolls right off the tongue. The, when you move into other things, anything special, like that. I'm like. You want to get it? Is it something? Yeah. Yeah. So we're using LED platform floors. I rigged them when we did the Wizard of Oz. And so it was a big LED yellow brick road that span the whole stage, but they're all individual platforms. And what we're doing with those is we're building stairs, kind of not clean stairs, but like wonky stairs so that with three platforms each on each side of the stage, kind of to get the idea of like, there's weird stuff going on and get the juxtaposition of that in the set. And so because they're all LEDs, each strand of the bricks can move different colors, depending on the character that's on stage, or depending on what's going on. I love that. Yep. I love that. Is that difficult to program? Not program. It's difficult to rig electrically. It's just annoying. Also I'm color blind and electrics are all color coded. Yes, I could-- You know, connect the blue wire. I don't know what that means. (laughs) You've got to go to numbers. I just have to ask you to do it. Oh my God. So how long is it? Is it like an hour and a half, two hours? There's a lot of people, so is it fairly lengthy? I think it's more-- Is it two acts? It is two acts. It's probably about two hours. It's an hour and a half to two hours. It's on the shorter end, I think, for when it comes to musicals. 'Cause a lot of them can be two and a half. I'm even three hours, you know, so. Yeah, I think you've got to be with summer three hours. (laughs) Well, you know. Is it vocally challenging? Like, sondheim. Not in the way that the music is highly complex as Sondheim, but I think it's vocally challenging in, like, Mackenzie Singh's "I'll Make Love" to you. And it is just this huge, belting number that she is just killing and soaring and it's just her and the male ensemble. And classic boys to men number, and you have Iris. Yeah. I have "I'm the Only One" by Melissa Etheridge. And it's just these, like, big, belting numbers that everybody knows. So there's this expectation of what it's supposed to sound like, but also the arrangements a little different. And you just have to really not be shy. Yeah, what's the most upbeat number you've got? Oh, I saw the sign. (laughs) Really? Mackenzie Singh's that. Oh, all right. I get all the good songs. You too. You too. (laughs) Let's talk about, go back a little bit to character development. 'Cause I love the mechanics of theater. So what, maybe take me behind the scenes here to what you had to think about. Things that, one of the things about acting that people forget is a lot of what we do on stage, we do not do in real life. And acting. Oh, God, I hope we're not doing this. No, acting. And acting. (laughs) So that can make certain things uncomfortable because we don't do them. They're not something that, and then to have to say, "Well, that's not me, I'm just performing." So are there areas, places you had to go to mentally or how did your character development come about? So I think if, 'cause I know Angelica was mentioning kind of the interwoven relationship development for my character Sebastian, he is torn between his feelings for Catherine who he's known for a very long time and Annette, the headmaster's daughter, that he is very determined not to fall in love with but can't help but start to develop feelings for her because of her very strong, firmly held beliefs that he may not necessarily agree with, but he admires her because he is this character that is so driven by manipulating others and having no solid firm beliefs of his own because he's too busy saying whatever he wants to get these women to fall in love with him whereas he doesn't feel anything for him. So that's difficult as an actor to channel because not only am I thinking about the development of Sebastian who is this manipulative character, so I have to channel that, but also the genuineness, genuine clothes, some word like that. But he starts to open up and become more honest with Annette and his feelings for her. So trying to interweave those moments of honesty within the manipulation because he's also finding himself, it becomes a bit of a challenge. - So you've got an interesting character because did you have to wonder, he's cruel from the moment we meet him? - Yeah. - So there's gotta be some backstory there for this guy about where that's coming from, that hatred, that despising of other people, that manipulative aspect of his life. - Oh, it happened in every time. - We're right there, we're right there. - Oh my gosh. - Well, you were listening to NH Unscripted, we are coming to you from the F-troop like things of the WK-XL studios in Concord. - Ooh, we are glad, glad to be inside because it's only a hundred in here, compared to 105 outside, I think. 1450 AM, 103.9 FM in Concord. 101.9 FM for the beautiful folks and Manchester, we love you. NH.gradio.com is the URL and we are talking about cruel intentions with Heather, I mean, Mackenzie, Heather. - That's a different music going on. (laughing) - And Jellica and Garrett, I will be right back. (upbeat music) - Whew, baby, that was a tough one to get through. All right, we're into the final D-block, my God. And we are riders on the storm. I am your doors like host Ray Dudley. And we are coming to you from the Car 54 like digs of the WK-XL studios. If you've got your Walkman or your transistor radios, 1450 AM is where you'll find us, 103.9 FM, those are both Concord based 101.9 FM for the beautiful folks in Manchester and our URL, where all the cool kids hanging out nowadays, it's NH.gradio.com. Out there, you, there's a button where you can listen to anything happening here at the station live, all day long-ish kind of, well, there's a button and you can press it and find stuff. There's also archives of this almost award-winning show, what should be an award-winning show and maybe someday will be an award-winning show plus all the other programs here at the studio. All right, we're pulling apart cool intentions. I was asking Garrett about character development and saying that there are things and so there are topics in this play which are very sensitive. I'm gonna use the word could be triggering. You know, how do you prepare yourself to get that across as easily or gently, or maybe you don't, maybe you just want it out there in people's faces 'cause it's written that way. What's happening in your world? - Well, I think when it comes to the topics of intimacy, I know that we were talking about that a little bit beforehand of these characters interacting with each other, it is strong. So I know that a lot of our philosophy has been to really make the audience understand what they're walking into. We want there to not be any questions of this is what this show is about, be prepared to see it. So I know that we've tried to telegraph the conversations about intimacy and the more adult themes around that as much. I know that we're trying to frontload it to make sure that people aren't like, oh, I didn't know that this show was about these subjects. - Yeah. - We have a warning. - Yeah, we do. - We do. - What does it say? - I adult language. Sexual themes. Charged sensuality. And brief nudity. - I'm in on all of them. (laughing) - I mean, on top of that, there are themes of racism. There are themes of, I don't know how to express it. Putting people's personal photos on the internet, there is getting someone drunk to get them to do what you want them to do. - Well, this is a really-- - So those kind of fit under the umbrella of some other things that we kind of listed as well as some homophobia. - I might not bring my mom. - My mom's coming. - And that does not surprise me. - My mom came the first time. My girls loved it. Yeah, your parents loved it, yeah. - Mackenzie/Heather. How do you prepare for what you're doing in there? - Because you have a relationship here that maybe or maybe shouldn't be happening. What's going on in your mind? - It's out of relation, yeah. (laughing) - Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just building trust behind the scenes. I think making it a lot easier is that Angelica and I have been friends for seven years and Garrett and I have known each other for a while. - 30 minutes. (laughing) - A little longer than that. - Three, three, four years? - Yeah, about three years, yeah. - And for the first time, we did cruel. - Yeah. - So knowing that I can trust them as my scene partners and that we're gonna be comfortable when we're dealing with these heavy themes and the intimacy has been really helpful. Also, Cecile's like kind of goofy and silly and it's been tough to let go of my... - So are you walking a crazy balance here then between goofy and, I mean, there's goofy and then there's things happening? - Yeah, oh, she's goofy throughout. - She is. - You're like the comedy release. - I would say. - Yeah, yeah. - Okay. - Okay. - It's a show stealer too though. - Yeah. - 'Cause as we mentioned, Cecile's things I'll make love to you and it's this... - I've never been more in the show. - More jealous of an event. (laughing) - It's a lot of fun. - Yeah. - So it deals with some heavy stuff but she definitely keeps it light. - Yeah. - But it's tough to let go of my desire to be like pulled together and whatnot but it's about trust and... - Did you have to have on set at any point like a talk about things that are happening in-- - Yeah, we wanted to make sure that everybody knew what they were getting into, that they were comfortable doing what they were cast doing 'cause the three of us did it the first time, half the leads were new. And we also wanted people to be comfortable in what they're seeing because, especially with some of the scenes that Garrett and I do, they can be kind of shocking and we didn't want the cast to be put in a position where they were uncomfortable either. - Yeah, there's so much awkwardness here. - We're just trying to knock it. - You would probably... - I know, I know, I know. I know. - We're very comfortable on this side of the table. - But I meant in the production itself because you need to get 15 people who... Did you have to talk to them at auditions about-- - There's a disclaimer on the audition. - There is, there was. - Again, we don't, at ACT we don't want anybody coming in, getting the role and then being like, yeah, I'm not comfortable doing that. Unfortunately, this is one of those shows that it is very black and white of what needs to be done, plot wise. And if you're not comfortable doing that, then I want you to know that before you waste your time auditioning. - Yeah, this is about as adult thing as it gets. - No. - What? - No, I got some plans for next year to say nothing. - Oh my God. Okay, you threw it out there. Well, I'm gonna walk that plank if you wanna do it. - Sure. - All right, so since we're in the D block here and we're running out of time, or we will be, what's happening next year? Do you wanna tell? - Yeah, I can talk about it. We have a mixed show with the kids and the adults going forward and as well as a musical. And then the straight show that we're looking at, we're in talks with Anthony Burgess of State right now to do a clockwork orange. - Nice. - And that's a play with song. - I'm still scarred from the movie. - Well. - That was-- - It'll be even more fun live. (laughing) - I did not know there was a stage production. - Yeah, so there's a stage production. It was off Broadway in 2017. It was a cast of 10 all men playing 79 roles. - What? - Yep. And so I'm in negotiation with the estate right now and we're just kind of hammering out the last little bit of details, but that's gonna be October 20, 25. - Give me some information. So you say you're in negotiation, why? What is it? - So, no-- - The rights just aren't out there. - No, you have to contact his estate directly. - You do? - And I kind of just sent it on a whim thinking they'd be like, "Nope." And they were like, "Yeah, let's do it." And I was like, "Okay." (laughing) - What? - So, yeah, so I try to do one straight show a year because I'm a big fan, but with a clockwork orange, the ultra violence and the more sexual scenes are done in overclassical music and dance. So there is this more artistic element and knowing that movie, it is this extreme design. And so we wanted to have a whole year to really prep that show. - So do you have the rights? You've secured them? - We're just finishing it up. - You are, congratulations. - Thanks. - Wow, I don't even know where to start with that. - So that's what I mean. It's cruel is fine. - Yeah. - Oh, God, yeah, this is Mr. Rogers community. (laughing) So, oh my gosh. All right, I gotta pull back-- - It's useless. - I am on many levels. Cruel intentions, give me the dates again in the URL one more time. - Sure, it is August 2nd through the 11th at the Manchester North End Montessori School through the Hatbox and Manchester Community Players and ACT. And you can buy tickets on the Hatbox's website. - Wonderful. Have you guys performed at MCT before? - Nope. - So you have not. So you don't know anything about the environment that you're walking into. Is it proscenium? - I guess technically I have. I've played yours and there in the pit way back when. It is a proscenium, much bigger stage than the Hatbox would have been. But so, and not a-- - Well, that's not hard to do. I got a garage, bigger than the Hatbox. - So, it seats two, three hundred, how many does it seat? - I'm not sure. I believe about like 300 per show. - How are sales going? Do you have pre-sales yet? - We don't know. - Oh, because it's through a high spot. - I'm not the producer. (laughing) - Wait, so-- - I'm just an actor this time. - Who's directing it? - Jesse Drake. - Oh, okay. And how is that? Okay, so usually you have to take the directors kind of, the directors, the director sees something in a play or a movie and you get your job to kind of carry that through. Are you feeling that that has been accomplished? Are you, or are you still like (groaning) we're not quite there. We have a couple of weeks we can kind of tune in a bit. - Seriously, seriously, seriously. I'm gonna say, okay. Again, give it out real quick as we finish. One more time. - Yeah, August 2nd through 11th at the North End Montessori School 698 each street, Manchester, New Hampshire with Manchester community players as well as the hat box, actor singers. Nope. Now I am saying actor singers. - Oh my God. - It's all my fault. - Actor's cooperative theater is presenting cool intentions in the 90s baseball. - We've been listening to NA Jump Scripted complete with the flubs. Yes, sir. We, you can hear this show every Wednesday and Friday morning 9 a.m. I wanna thank everybody who came in today from the cast of Cool Intentions. Get out folks, it's summertime. There's nothing like summertime theater. All right, we're gonna close this one down. We can't tell it as much as we could. See you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)