Hunter Bell   Jeff Bowen

Hunter Bell - Silence! The Musical (book writer/Overall Excellence Award-Outstanding Musical 2005 Fringe NYC), Stuck by EPCOT (playwright/Manhattan Theatre Source), A-Train Plays (Neighborhood Playhouse), 2003 finalist Warner Brothers Comedy Writers Workshop. Developed new works at Dramatists Guild, Irish Rep, PS 122, Goodspeed/ Chester, CanStage, and MTC. Taming of the Shrew, Forum, Gypsy (St. Louis Rep), She Loves Me, The Most Happy Fella (Cincinnati Playhouse), Anything Goes (Great Lakes Theatre Festival), Godspell (MUNY), Little Me (North Shore),The Tempest (Dallas Shakespeare Festival), Side Show (Cleveland Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet, The Boys from Syracuse (Alliance Theatre), Jumbo, Oh, Boy! (York), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Coconut Grove), Rags (Paper Mill), Promises, Promises (Stages), Me and My Girl (Goodspeed Opera House, CT; Outer Critics Award-Best Actor in a Musical). TV: Out of the Box (Disney Channel), Guiding Light. BFA- Webster University. Jeff Bowen has composed music for several shows at PS 122 including Avant Garde-a-Rama in Sparklevision and Hello, My Name is Avant Garde-a-Rama. Also, Sparklefest 2000 at Dixon Place, The A-Train Plays and the film, Boat Mime. His on stage credits include The Who's Tommy, The Diviners, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, Of Thee I Sing, The Sandbox and On the Twentieth Century, among others. Jeff is a proud member of the National Audubon Society and the American Birding Association.

Interviewed by Joanna Parson

[title of show] is an Off-Broadway musical about two guys racing to write a musical to submit to a theatre festival. It’s a warm and delightful love letter to the creative process, and it’s being extremely well-received by New York critics. You want to try describe it any better than that?
HB: Actually that’s pretty darn good. Jeff and I had collaborated in the past, and wanted to get writing again so when the inaugural season of NYMF came up (we found out about it three weeks before the deadline), we decided just to start writing, send something in and see what happened. In that process, we found that the most interesting thing, and what made us laugh and think the most, was us trying to create, and talking and singing about why and how we create.

JB: Yeah, that was pretty good. The show is really simply the story about the show you’re watching from its initial idea to the night it opened at the Vineyard.

What had been your writing experience beforehand, both separately and as a team?
HB: We had collaborated on a musical adaptation on 9 to 5, which went well. It’s being done next season, not our version, which for the record I thought was kick ass. I think from that experience, we learned that we loved working together and that it could be done, we just had to sit done and do it. Also Jeff, and fellow cast mate Susan Blackwell, had worked and written a lot together for pieces at various venues, PS 122, Dixon Place, and I got in on some of that action too. I also wrote the book for Silence! The Musical for the NY Fringe Festival, had a short play of mine done at Manhattan Theatre Source, and written pilots, spec scripts, and industrials.

You’d both been involved in different aspects of the business before writing—as working musical theatre actors, writing for various projects, and working behind the scenes of the industry. Why did you finally decide to write a show for yourselves?
HB: A few reasons. I love musical theatre, but lately, I’ve felt like I wasn’t surprised by what I was seeing. So, Jeff and I wanted to just try and create something we’d like to sit through. Also, from a performer’s point of view, I loved the idea of creating a vehicle for my friends and me. Having that sense of ownership just made me much more confident as a performer. There was no right or wrong, no preconceived notion of what the role was. It was what we came up with. Also, a lot of artists whose work I admire is sort of self-generated, Eddie Izzard, Margaret Cho, Ricky Gervais, Lily Tomlin, Christopher Guest, Rosanne…these are all people who inspire me because they create great material for themselves…they didn’t necessarily wait for someone else to do it for them…they just did it themselves.

JB: I had hit a point in my life where the theatre had become extracurricular again. There was really no pressure at all to just work on something that we just wanted to have fun with and do for ourselves. There was really nobody to try and please except us. We loved the idea of just gathering together our friends and having fun again.

How did you first fund the project for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, its first production?
HB: Our dear friend, and a current producer on the project Laura Camien, had a small company she had started (Bridge Club Productions) in association with the Manhattan Theatre Source. She had a few nights available in that space and had approached us. We figured if we didn’t get into the NYMF, we’d just perform the piece for friends and peeps at the Source, when we did get in to the festival, Laura and Bridge Club Productions funded that incarnation.

JB: Also, we kept the costs way down by having a simple set (four chairs) and using only one instrument (a piano). We eliminated any ideas of an ensemble beyond Larry and the four of us because we didn’t want to have to spend too much time coordinating schedules or reimbursing folks with Metrocards. We would have loved to have a full orchestra and a turntable, but we were trying to be realistic.

Take us through the stages of how the show then moved forward to its current off-Broadway incarnation?
HB: When the festival was over we thought that would be it. That version of the show ended with us mailing in our script, hoping to get in. At the end of that run, commercial producers were interested in us, and came on board encouraging us to continue writing and creating about everything that happened to us post-festival. That lead to a series of readings, time at the O’Neill center (which was amazing), a short run at Ars Nova (also awesome), and eventually our current run at the Vineyard Theatre. Artistic Director of the Vineyard, Doug Aibel, had seen the show, and we were very fortunate he extended an invitation to us at the Vineyard.

Within the show, the characters that represent you guys talk very consciously about not wanting to “sell out” and make changes in cast and content— did you experience any pressures once you went off-Broadway? How do you keep [title of show] the feel-good love bonanza that it’s been since its early stages, when there’s so much money involved?
HB: Well there’s more money, but it’s not ten million…yet! I think the cool thing with this piece is that every experience was fodder for material in the show. There were pressures when you begin to open up and bring in commercial producers. My first thought was, I know how to write when we are just downtown and playing, but I don’t know how to write an Off-Broadway show. The great thing was to just constantly check in with my friends who happened to be my collaborators, and remind ourselves to welcome outside ideas, but at the end of the day, say what we want to say. Plus, we could talk about those fears and pressures directly in the show.

JB: It’s interesting because we did make a lot of changes. We didn’t want to “sell-out”, but we weren’t fools; we wanted to entertain people and that was going to involve a bit of old-school musical theatre rules. We made many modifications as most musicals do when they’re growing up and making their way towards production, but we (the cast and Michael Berresse, our director) were blessed with having a bit of necessary stubbornness that allowed us to make changes but use our own voices when doing so. Ultimately, we always arrived at something we believed in and trusted.

The characters names are Jeff and Hunter. Okay, so you’re playing you, and you’re you, but you’re not you, because you’re playing you, alongside your real-life friends—it’s enough to turn a person cross-eyed. What is it like interacting with audiences who are getting close-up views and versions of your actual off-stage personas? Have you had any crazy identity crises, or loony stalker fans who can’t separate meta-fiction from reality?
HB: It’s been interesting. The characters are certainly based on us, but they are not completely us. They are these kind of heightened theatrical versions of Hunter and Jeff, But more than any other show I’ve done, people do seem to feel a deeper connection to us after they’ve seen the show. It’s funny, sometimes I’ll meet people after the show, and when I introduce myself, I’ll say, “I’m Hunter”..and they say “We know.”

JB: No stalker fans…(fingers crossed)…yet!

When did you first know you wanted to be actors?
JB: I started goofing around on the stage in 7th grade. I’ve always enjoyed acting, but never really thought I’d pursue it professionally. And actually I only really did pursue acting professionally for a couple of years in the early 90s. I’ve bounced around in all areas of the business for many years and I’ll probably keep doing that for the rest of my life.

HB: I’m not sure I thought it would be a career for me. I did plays in high school and it’s just where I felt most comfortable. I wasn’t sure how you went about making a living from it. I’m still not sure about that, but I ended up at Webster University in a conservatory, and began working on my BFA so I guess in my decision to go through that program, that was a choice to give this a try.

You have over (I’m guessing low here) 15 years professional stage experience between the two of you, at estimable theatres like the Goodspeed Opera House and the Cincinnati Playhouse. What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your regional theatre careers that you know now?
HB: I think I wish I knew how important those times regionally were for me. I loved working at all of those theatres around the country, but I was jealous of my friends who were in Broadway shows. I think I in my head that was “making it”, but I was working in amazing theatres doing roles in great shows. I’d like to go back and relax some of that anxiety about getting in a Broadway show, when all along I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

JB: I wish I had been further into my hobbies of bird watching and reading back then. I worked in some great states and a few great countries and I would have taken so much more advantage of the newness of the specific environment and their cultures - rather than merely sitting in a hotel room or actor housing and complaining about the show. I would have so much more respect for those opportunities now.

What kind of musical theatre training did you each have?
HB: I have a BFA in musical theatre from Webster University. I was pretty lucky they have a great program, and I liked my experience there very much.

JB: I have a BA in theatre and music from Stetson University. We had a great program, but my musical theatre training really was much more intense once I moved to New York and got some on-the-job training with the regional gigs. School was fantastic, but the meat of musical theatre training happens when you’re actually doing a show.

Jeff, you had shifted your career away from performing, and began writing and working at Davis Spylios Management, a respected management company for actors. But just when you thought you were out, they pulled you back in! Talk a little about your thought process in leaving the performing side of the business, and coming back now to star in an off-Broadway show.
JB: I’ve always been fascinated with the different aspects of the theatre and after several years of acting work, I found that it wasn’t quite satisfying enough. I wanted to learn about other areas and an opportunity came up to work in talent management, so I jumped in. I had a blast at Davis/Spylios and worked with two of the greatest people on this earth for several years that are now super dear friends and my representatives (see how that works?). I also started a theatrically focused internet marketing and design company about five years ago, for which I still report to everyday for duties.

So maybe you’re the person to ask—what the heck is the difference between a manager and an agent? When does an actor need a manager?
JB: One of my fellow DSM clients put it nicely about a week ago: When you go see your agent, you have to put make-up on to help remind them of how to market you. When you go see your manager, you can walk in with your pajamas on and cry a lot and they’ll still like you just the same. An actor should just find someone that they trust who will help them professionally - and that can be an agent or a manager.

The cast of [title of show]

What did you learn from working at Davis Spylios that surprised you? Any tidbits or lessons that could benefit actors who are looking for theatrical representation?
JB: Be yourself (sounds cliché, but it can’t be stressed enough) and get yourself into anything. You never know who is going to be in the audience and the only way to get seen is to be in something – no matter how small or incidental you think it is.

HB: Although I did not work at a management office, my answer would be to be yourself and create your own work. Pick a venue, get your friends together and create, create, create…nobody may come for a while, but eventually somebody will come.

There are a lot of actors out there getting together to write, film, or create in different kinds of partnerships. How have you guys protected one another as members of a creative team? Is it a handshake and a wink kind of deal?
HB: In the beginning, it was a trust and wink, and I think for Jeff and me it will always be that. But when you become of part of something that begins to cost and make people money, it is crucial to get things on paper very formally. I am very fortunate to be with Mary Harden (Harden-Curtis Associates). They represented me as an actor, so it was this great transition for them to help me as a writer as well. Anyway, when money and potential come into play, between Mary and Dale Davis and Harris Spylios, they were all very prudent in having us take care of our business very early on. That way if nothing happened with a property, no harm done, but if it went on to make a billion dollars, we would have a plan in place. I think that is the key. I feel emotions change when the financial stakes get higher, but if a solid plan is in place, and everyone has signed and agreed to the plan, things are not messy when the show moves.

At Actorslife.com, we talk a lot about how actors make choices for themselves and their careers. Some have a grand plan, some take opportunities as they appear. What are the toughest decisions that each of you have had to make through the course of your careers, that helped you get to where you are today?
HB: For me, it was a big decision to commit to writing and creating [title of show]. I stopped auditioning and turned down work and money. I lost my insurance; I’ve spent the past couple of years rocking the day job. It has been incredibly difficult both financially and emotionally. But, I have been completely creatively fulfilled. I am doing exactly what I want to be doing, and with my friends. And although I had no idea this show would continue as it has, it has opened a lot of doors for us both as writers, artists, and performers. It was a risk, and transitioning is difficult, however I am excited to have had maybe a rough two or three years that I think have potentially changed the rest of my career, and that will help me achieve not only success in this business, but the balance and control of my personal life, which is important to me too.

JB: Putting away the headshots and transitioning into management was a tough decision, but one that I knew I had to make. My ego wanted to stay in the ring so badly, but at the end of the day, I just was not feeling fulfilled as an actor back then. But, deep down I knew that acting never goes away. The opportunities would always be there and having made the decision to fully commit to different career paths made performing fun for me again. It was a tough decision but one that I’m so thankful I made.

And of course, the decision to invest so much of my heart and soul into [title of show] was terrifying. I had toed an imaginary line my whole life that kept me safely on the outside of the theatre’s “inner circle” or “the loop” as they say. I was always able to look in through a crack in the door and comment on all the things inside without fear of being exposed or criticized myself. When we got to the last line of the show on opening night at the Vineyard (which is “And now we have to let go; this is the last line of our show”), I could see that I was approaching the line I had toed at a thousand miles an hour and there was no stopping what was about to happen. Stepping past that line in that tiny little moment was probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.

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