Opening last weekend to a packed house, Theatre Workshop of Nantucket‘s It’s Only a Play is generating a lot of buzz (and a lot of laughs) around the island. As the cast heads into a busy run through July 7th, they took the time to sit down with us to answer a few questions about their latest production, their careers and a few hilarious reviews.
SARAH FETGATTER
1. What is an opening night on Broadway that you wish you could have seen?
Easy. Ethel Merman in the original 1959 production of Gypsy. As for the after party… I hear Hamilton had fireworks.
2. What is your favorite role you’ve played in your career?
I recently was in Hedwig and the Angry Inch playing Yitzhak, a Czech-man-rocker-roadie who dreams of being a drag queen. The music is so fun to sing and playing a dude was awesome! I looked just like my younger brother. Haha.
3. Other than It’s Only a Play, is there another show-within-a-show that you love?
Yes! I was in a production of Accomplice by Rupert Holmes. It’s a murder mystery that is a play-within-a-play-within-a-play-within-a-play. …I think I got that right. It was a ton of fun and full of surprises!
TIMOTHY BOOTH
1. What is your favorite part or moment of It’s Only a Play?
There are many. But I really love when we are all moving at once toward the same end. It’s physical. It’s funny. It’s fun to look at your fellow actors and you’re all feeling and experiencing a version of the same moment.
2. What is the most recent Nantucket production you’ve been a part of?
Most recently I played Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird at the Dreamland.
3. If you had to describe It’s Only a Play in three words, what would they be?
Egos. Words. Mayhem.
RIAN JAIRELL
1. What is your most essential warm-up ritual?
I get to the theatre about an hour before the show. I stretch, breathe and do a vocal warm up I’ve been doing for years. I drink a lot of water and rehearse parts of my dialogue from the show.
2. Other than It’s Only a Play, is there another show-within-a-show that you love?
Well, I’d have to say Midsummer Night’s Dream. The rude mechanicals are so fun to watch throughout the play and their performance at the end for the lovers and the court is hysterical and sweet and sincere.
3. What is the best thing about being involved in theater on Nantucket?
Getting to do something you love on a beautiful island with lovely amazing people. It doesn’t get much better than that.
KAMAL SEHRAWY
1. What is an opening night on Broadway that you wish you could have seen?
I wish I could have seen the opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. After so many previews and changes throughout its creative process, I’m curious to know what opening night was like!
2. When the reviews come out of shows you’ve performed in, is it helpful or hurtful to your performance to read them?
Having only recently graduated from college, I haven’t had any experience being reviewed before, but it’s definitely been on my mind since opening It’s Only a Play. It can be a vulnerable experience to present a month’s worth of work to a reviewer, but I also think it can be valuable to hear from someone who hasn’t followed the show’s process and who can see it with fresh eyes (as long as the review is constructive). I’d say even if reading reviews doesn’t get less terrifying, they can actually be very helpful.
3. What is your favorite role you’ve played in your career?
That’s tough! Aside from playing Frank in this play, which I think might be my favorite role to date, I adored being in The Merchant of Venice in undergrad. I played the Prince of Morocco, the Prince of Aragon, and the Duke—my directors gave me free license to go all out with contrasting character work. It’s probably the only time I’ll ever get to have three different accents in the same show.
STERLING GATES
1. What is your favorite part or moment of It’s Only a Play?
Virginia’s amazing exit after the reading of The New York Times review.
2. What is the best thing about being involved in theater on Nantucket?
There is so much support from the community, not to mention the island is beautiful.
3. If you had to describe It’s Only a Play in three words, what would they be?
Fun. Exciting. Zany.
SARAH FRAUNFELDER
1. What is your most essential warm-up ritual?
Doing my hair stresses me out so much that I have to get to the theater early in order to successfully put in 1000 bobby pins.
2. What is the most recent Nantucket production you’ve been a part of?
Mamma Mia and The Sound of Music last season.
3. When the reviews come out of shows you’ve performed in, is it helpful or hurtful to your performance to read them?
I’m going to share with you my first review ever: Time Out New York called me ‘a coked up hiptard with no comic timing or charisma’ beside a 1/4 page picture of me in my underwear. I was devastated. Now I want it on my gravestone. Just the picture. Not the review.
