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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2005)
may 6. 2005 • jUSt OUt 35 THEATER ▼ Stage sage nee you make the conscious choice, all the serendipitous things happen after that,” advises Michael Mendelson, a profession al stage actor for whom such con sequences have led him to a home and career in Portland theater. by T imothy K rause Growing up a middle child of three in Detroit, his parents wanted him to study archi tecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technolo in New York is about," Mendelson acknowl He’s also set new limits for himself, making gy. But Mendelson chose a different path, edges. “I needed to be stretched. I wanted to a choice nowadays to focus on only one cre enrolling instead in the Wayne State theater get a lot of input and experiences that I hadn’t ative project at a time rather than risk jeopar program. Although his passion for the stage had before in my lite. My acting has changed. dizing a production by overextending himself. earned him generous time in the spotlight, it 1 think I’m even more in the moment and "Actors feel they can’t say no,” explains wasn’t until grad schexd at University of Wash more present onstage, and I know myself better Mendelson, who, even as a union actor, holds a ington that he acquired a more grounded foun as a human being, too." full-time job as manager of Russell Street BBQ. dation in rigors of voice and move “There’s a real fear ment—traditional instruction that that if you say no to Mendelson says many young actors today something, you’ll never disregard. work again." His current role in Miracle Theatre’s But that hasn’t been a language-intensive Fuente Ovejuna illus problem for Mendelson, trates the importance of harnessing the whose resume includes movement of language and the language several notable mile of movement. “When you can’t under stones. stand one word from another, you have a “Bent was done dur —Michael Mendelson problem,” he emphasizes. “If you can’t ing 11992’sJ No on 9 hear the words, if you don’t know what campaign,” he notes. they’re saying, then you’re lost. If people “Not only emotionally don’t know how their body moves in was it a huge show, but space, they’re lost.” politically. People Ultimately, he contends, it’s a lack of would sit on the curb interest in craft. of the street outside of “It’s a living, breathing thing we do, the old Paris Theatre and you can’t wake up, get out of bed, where we did it and sob have a cup of coffee, hit the stage and at intermission.” expect to be good,” he says. “I see many An intensive Jeffrey young people moving into theater in this pushed Mendelson into town who have very lazy mouths, who therapy. think that they don’t need to work at “At that point, what they’re doing, that what they have is I would consider myself enough. And I say, what you have is not a very young actor in enough. It’s never enough. You can always that it was very hard for strive to be better if you want to be." me to figure out how to Which explains why Mendelson leave the show at the made the risky choice in 1999 to aban theater and then go don his well-established, no-need-to- home into my life,” he audition, two-time Drammy-winning says. “Now, as an adult career on Portland stages for a bite of the actor, I know how to Big Apple. While in New York, he leave the show at the worked at notable places such as Lincoln theater. And I know Center’s Clark Studio Theatre. But he that that’s my charac also landed out-of-town gigs that packed ter, and to differentiate him off to regional theaters. After one between that and the stint worked him away from his partner person that I am.” for 76 days, it was an easier (but no less A third milestone risky) choice to return to Portland, was Love.' Valour! Com' where the couple could settle down to passion!, a contempo nest. rary gay play by Ter “It made me a better actor and a rence McNally that fuller human being to get out of Portland Michael Mendelson stars in Miracle Theatre’s Fuente Ovejuna with, from left. was markedly different and experience what the theatrical world Jennifer Hartman, JR Wickman and Amaya Villazan. from his college experi Actor Michael Mendelson muses on life in Portland theater "There is gay theater that makes us proud of who we are and raises us to another level, and gay theater that is a guilty pleasure. My problem with [the latter] is if you do too much of it, that's all that people have expectation for. It's part of the dumbing of America. " DVD VIDEO MAGAZINES TOYS NOVELTIES LOTIONS AND MORE. WWW.TABOOVIDEO.COM j i I i i ence with The Boys in the Band, a gay classic that led him to come out to his brother. Mendelson says, “The guys [in Boys in the BandJ are so nasty to each other and them selves. We as gay men have come so far from that, that I was grateful for the opportunity to play John and James, the identical twins, with a new understanding of what the sensibilities were of the gay men of the ’90s and the new millennium.” Mendelson appreciates today’s more diverse gay canon. “There is gay theater that makes us proud of who we are and raises us to another level,” observes Mendelson, “and gay theater that is a guilty pleasure. My problem with [rhe latter) is if you do t<x> much of it, that’s all that people have expectation for. It’s part of rhe dumbing of America. We’re at a point now in our soci ety that there’s a place for theater for entertain ment’s sake, hut I have to say that I personally have to draw the line at certain things.” Above that line he places playwrights such as Tony Kushner, Larry Kramer and Paula Vogel—and, of course, McNally, who happens to be rhe current focus of Profile Theatre’s unique single-playwright season in which Mendelson recently appeared as Stephen in The Lisbon Traviata and is cast to read Corpus Christi. “One thing 1 love about Terrence’s writing is that he writes relationships, whether they are men and women, women and women, or men and men. He writes about the human condition. The fact that they’re gay men really doesn’t play a part in it—that’s just a given circumstance. I don’t think there’s any difference in playing a gay role or a straight role. Love is love. Hate is hate.” And villains are fun to play. “You have license to do anything. It’s much harder to play a role that is closer to the bone. Fuente Ovejuna is pretty far from me, and yet all of those things that 1 have to cover in Fuente Ovejuna— arrogance, violence, strength, shame, self-blindness—all of that stuff lies in me. It’s just choosing to bring that to the sur face and letting the rest of me go.” jo"! Miracle Theatre Group presents FUENTE OVEJUNA 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 14 at 525 S.E. Stark St. Tickets are $14'$ 17 from 503'236'7253. Profile Theatre Project concludes its Terrence McNally season with a staged reading of CORPUS C hristi 7 p.m. May 23 and 24 at 3430 S.E. Belmont St. Tickets are $10-$ 15 from 503'242'0080. When not applauding local theater, TIMOTHY KRAUSE is communications coordinator for City Club of Portland.
