While in undergrad I was working backstage for a summer stock in Ohio, and Fabio Polanco, the Ohio production's director (and original cast member from the BAM performance) was playing El Gallo in The Fantasticks. So I got to know him a little during that show. Then three or four years later I was finishing my BFA at Kent State's musical theatre program, and my advisor had seen a casting call for Missionaries, and they were looking for someone to play Romero, so he recommended me.

I went into the audition and sang for Fabio, who remembered me from the summer stock but didn't know I could sing. I did the audition and booked the show! Since the theater was in Cleveland, and I lived an hour south, I was only called to rehearsal two or three times a week, until two weeks before tech, and then I started coming up daily. (Lots of mileage on my car, LOL.)

Like Anne (Markt), I hadn't heard anything about the war, the four women, Oscar Romero, or even the struggle the people of El Salvador lived with. I started with the dramaturgical packet that was handed to us the first day, and read as much as I could. I also read a few books of Romero's speeches,and letters by the four women, I watched the Raul Julia film, and listened to the CD from the BAM concert.
 
The first time I heard the CD, I didn't initially like it. I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Then I listened to it again and listened to the words, and then the musical style and the rhythms fell into place for me. It was the first time I had experienced theater as something that could change your life and could speak to your soul. Like all of Liz's music, it's intricately difficult and simple and deep. The layers you can find within her work give actors so much to work with.
 
As for preparing to play Romero, being as young as I was (23 at the time), I think I played it mostly on instinct, which might not always have been the best choice. I think I did good work, and Fabio introduced some acting techniques that were new to me which definitely helped, but I think if I played the role today, having finished my MFA training, I would have a much stronger technique to propel my impulses further.

Absolutely. For one, we only had three or four rehearsals with the group. As Anne said, there were three of the four women from our Ohio performance, but the rest of the cast was filled with NYU's wonderful students, with everyone roughly the same age (whereas our cast had people of all ages-including people who not only knew about the atrocities in El Salvador, but also had lived through them). While we rehearsed for three months, they probably had only rehearsed about three weeks before we showed up.
 
As I understood it, they had offered Romero to the person who played it in the BAM performance, but he was unavailable, so I got an e-mail from Liz's assistant Preston (who is amazing!) inviting me to come and do the concert. The concert was shorter than our production - maybe a sixth of the show was cut out for time.

My first day of rehearsal for the Missionaries concert, I had flown in from Ohio that afternoon and went straight to rehearsal from the airport. Showing up to a rehearsal to sing the leading male role with a room full of New York actors, a musical director I had never worked with before, and the composer herself was extremely intimidating, and I sat down and Liz said, "Let's start with something simple - 'Blessings,' " which is Romero's most difficult vocal line, backed by full chorus, and belting out a high A for 8 bars. I did it, Liz smiled, said "Well then," and we moved on. Talk about an emotional rush!
 
Also, I worked with Liz on a recording of her show Judith, and I was working on Nebudchadnezzar's song, and wasn't finding the character very well. Liz kept working on me and kept pushing me in the right direction, and I finally had a breakthrough. She never gave up on me. She was unconditionally patient, determined and trusting in me.

"There is a Bird," "There Are Days," "Help Me Please," any song with the four women, the list goes on.

Missionaries changed me as a person and as an artist. It opened my eyes culturally, made me question and respond to my ideas of faith, and brought me closer to my beliefs and showed me that I can do God's work within my life and within my art.

The importance and care that went into the piece by everyone, in both casts; we all worked together to take care that the story came through, and that the story was heard. That's the important thing, that the story is heard. It doesn't matter that we're actors, it doesn't matter that we're singing, everything serves the story, and the story represents their lives. We had a responsibility to present them to the world.

Maura, Ita, Dorothy, Jean and Oscar. Liz Swados. Mother Teresa.

Kerri O'Malley, Andre de Shields, Gary Oldman and Steve Buscemi.

I took acting classes as a kid and have played piano since I was 6 or 7. I didn't think of it as a career until I was 17, towards the end of high school. At the time, I thought it was incredibly late to get in the game, but I wouldn't have it any other way. My parents sometimes ask if I'd ever consider teaching or doing something else. That's not really an option for me. (Although I do teach a little). I'm an actor. It's what I do. If I don't have work, it doesn't mean I'm not good, there's just not work for me at the time. Even the best actors don't work all the time.
 
Rolse I've played (selected); Judas (Jesus Christ Superstar) Deuteronomy (Cats), Casca (Julius Caesar), Dave (Full Monty), A Demon Dog and a Senator (Caligula) and Anselmo (Man of La Mancha). My favorite was Romero, and I'd play him again and again, anytime anyplace.

Study technique as much as you can, and then forget it. Technique helps you when you get lost, instinct leads the rest of the way. Acting is living truthful in imaginary circumstances (Sanford Meisner). It doesn't matter if you are the best singer in the world, if we don't believe you're telling us the truth, we don't trust you as the character.

I'm doing a few concerts with Liz Swados in March 2010. Also, I filmed a pilot episode for a new cable network called Halogen. Our show is called Start Up (You can watch the pilot at www.halogentv.com/startup, and if you're reading this by March 21st 2010, you can then vote for our show at www.halogentv.com/vote!