Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2000)
34 ju st out • September 1. 2000 On the road again If it’s Tuesday, this must be Portland by M arc A c ito ou’ve worked all day. You fight traffic to get to the theater on time. You open up your program for the latest Broadway touring production and you think, “What a life these actors must have.” Think again. 1 recently got the lowdown from out actor Jim Corti, one of the stars of the national tour of Ragtime, which opens Sept. 5 at Keller (for merly Civic) Auditorium. A musical adaptation of the novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime paints a panoramic portrait of three New York families— one Jewish immi grant, one upper-class W ASP and one African American— in the early 1900s. As the families embark on personal voyages of self-discovery, their lives become dramatically entwined with one another and with real-life historical char acters including Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Booker T. Washington. Corti originated the role of Houdini on Broadway but for the past year has toured the United States playing the principal role of Jew ish immigrant Tateh. I caught up with him by phone from San Diego. “I actually prefer the touring production to the Broadway one,” he says, explaining that financial considerations forced the original cre ative team to focus less on the “eye candy” of elaborate sets and concentrate more on making the production character-driven. “The emo tional reaction is consistent across the country; this story speaks to people in a profound way.” Corti’s own story is the kind every gay hoy who starred in his high school musical pins false hopes on. His first gig after graduating with a theater degree from Loyola University in the early 1970s was with the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, he moved to New York, hut instead of languishing in the usual Actor’s Purgatory of waitering, he landed a role in the original cast of Hal Prince’s hit revival of Can- dide. Since then, he has worked steadily and has perfonned in the national tours of A Chorus Line, Boh Fosse’s Dancin’ and the ’80s revival of Cabaret with Joel Grey. “I’m having the experience of my life,” Corti says. “This is the kind of rich role any actor hopes to play.” Indeed, Corti says he and the entire cast of Ragtime feel grateful to portray such complex characters. (As opposed to, let’s say, a dancing chafing dish in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.) Corti also expresses grati tude that being open about his sexuality has not hindered get ting work. Because he special izes in character roles rather than romantic leading men, he never has experienced discrim ination in an industry that rou tinely insists gay actors closet themselves. Watching it happen to oth ers has made him sympathetic. “I would never judge an actor who feels he needs to play the game.” If it’s Tuesday, this must be St. Louis is the story of Corti’s Y Now Looking reservations online. Enjoy Sunday bruncb, daily lunck or dinner cruises on tke Portl and Spirit. Perfect for entertaining out Portland of town guests. Break free witk our Friday Early Escape entertainment cruises — August & September. Reservations and information available at w w w . p o r t l a n d s p i r i t . c o m . or call (800) 2 2 4 - 3 9 0 1 or (503) 2 2 4 - 3 9 0 0 . G o m m i/m en / c e r e m o n ie s a o a ila ë fe . G r o u p a n c fp r iu a ie y a c h i r e n ia i. Fine Arts and Crafts Festival nm iTTTi Labor Day Weekend September 2, 3, 4 Saturday & Sunday 10am-6pm Monday 10am-5pm NW Park Blocks Warren between Burnside and Glisan www.artinthepearl.com A Special Thankd to Our Sponsors 4 WILLAMETTE WEEK Jim Corti, looking for a Laundromat life on the road. He might not have been a waiter, but as an actor on tour, he spends a lot of time waiting: waiting for the plane to take off or waiting for the bus trip to end. Although the show occasionally “sits” for a few weeks in a major city, much of the tour is made up of one-weekers— and not always in a geographically sensible way: Miami, Cleveland, Atlanta might be the schedule. Each cast, crew and orchestra member— more than 50 altogether— must fit an entire wardrobe suitable for all seasons and climates into just two suitcases and two carry-on hags, which forces the gay boys to make the torturous decision whether to commit to black shoes and belt or brown. Necessity has forced Corti to develop a sort of Rumpled Actor Chic, if you will. “You have to invent a way of styling your self. In the end, you just reconcile yourself with saying, ‘This is me, I’m an actor, I just pulled this outfit out of a suitcase, nice to meet ya,’ ” he laughs. “After all, it’s only the people you work with who actually see that you’re wearing the same clothes over and over.” Corti’s typical day mostly involves the relent less pursuit of Laundromats, drug stores and gal lon jugs of bottled water. He tries to take in the sights, but most of his time is spent resting up for the demands of performing eight shows a week. And if maintaining a relationship while on tour is hard, then finding one is next to impossi ble. Corti, who is single, admits he’s made sacri fices to pursue his life’s work: “Most guys my age have a lot more stability...my heart is heavy sometimes that I don’t have that.” But he realizes the instabili ty of the actor’s life— not just the touring but constantly em barking on the emotional jour ney of being someone else— has come to feel stable to him. 1 can hear him smiling over the phone as he says, “Y’know, I feel very blessed that this is what life has shown me.” I Portland Opera presents RAG TIME as part o f its Best o f Broad way series Sept. 5 through 10 at Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W . Clay St. in Portland. Tickets start at $20 from the box office, (503) 241-1802, or Ticketmaster. M arc A cito used to tour as a professional opera singer. He now owns brown shoes and belts as well as black on es.
