We welcome the words of Willie Repoley. Willie is frequent actor on our stage and will be playing the role of Prior Walter in our upcoming production of Angels. Here's what he had to say:
"I posted something on the NCSC blog in 2007, when we presented this play as the very first (For)play reading. It has now been three years since that posting, and 10 years since I first performed in the play (as Louis) at Guilford College. That makes it about 15 years since I first experienced the play, at Charlotte Rep.It seems so unlikely that a single play would keep showing up in my life, and even more unlikely that I would be just as excited to approach it each time. After all, plenty of plays -- or songs or artists or you-name-it -- that once seemed vital and full of life now strike me as ordinary or even boring. What is is about Angels in America? Why does this play still seem so revelatory?
It's hard to say exactly or concisely, but I'll try. I left the theatre after seeing Millennium Approaches at the Rep in a state of amazement, and said to my dad, who took me, "That's why." It was the best I could articulate what had just happened at the time, but years later, I can recognize how seeing the play literally changed the trajectory of my life. Now that I knew firsthand what people meant by "the power of theatre," I knew that I wanted to share in making theatre that had the potential of affecting people in serious and profound ways. So, that's why.
It's also an unusual play in the sense that it is set so precisely in time, this moment in the mid- 80's when Reagan was president and AIDS was an almost wholly unknown and terrifying modern plague. Plays that are tied so closely to one snapshot of time run the very real risk of growing dated. No one wants to perform --or come see-- a play that doesn't feel like it matters anymore. And Angels is also about very specific people, all of whom are removed by at least a degree or two from "mainstream" America-- the lone WASP? He's gay. The white Army widow? She's Mormon. The black male nurse ex-drag queen? Well, you get the idea. But the relationships between these people are as vivid and emotionally engaging as if every one of them were a close family member or dear friend. When I first saw it, the play made me feel like a better citizen of the world and a more powerful inhabitant of the good old US of A, even though the world of the play was fairly far removed from my own life and my own experience. It is remarkable to me that a story about a particular time that is reasonably meaningless to me personally (I was 8 in 1986), and about characters have little to do with me personally are so well constructed and so true to themselves, that they can still engage me is such a visceral, immediate way. So that's why.
What can I say? The play challenges me, and engages me, and pushes me, and comforts me, and makes me cringe, and makes me laugh, and makes me sit on the edge of my seat in giddy excitement at my good fortune to be involved again with this story, and with these characters. I think it is one of those rare plays that actually helps me see me. Like, say, Hamlet: I'm never going to be in his situation, but experiencing his struggle engages me in not only his story, but, if it is done well, in my own. I think it is Alfred Hitchcock who is credited with saying something like, "If you want to be universal, be specific." It sounds strange, but when someone gets it right, it makes perfect sense, and for me Angels in America is about as right as it gets. It is very specific on every level: the time, the place, the people, even the language and punctuation of the play itself. And in risking making the play inaccessible to a wider audience, Kushner actually has allowed it to be much bigger than the sum of its parts. So, that's why.
I'm pretty much scared out of my mind to start work on the play with the specific goal of playing Prior Walter, who on the surface is very unlike myself. Where do I start? How do I present him honestly, coming from such a different place? I don't know. But I do know that the answers will be found in the rehearsal room with the help and hard work of not only myself, but of the entire cast and crew, and of course Angie. And ultimately, I know that the truth of Prior is already there, in the words, and in the very real connections he has with all the people and situations of his life. And I know, I have absolute faith, that I can trust in that.
And that's why, too.
I hope this play keeps showing up in my life. I will always be ready to visit it again. Let's get started. See you on the other side."
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Many thanks go to Willie for sharing his Angels story. If you have a story to share about Angels, please share it with us! Contact Lauren at laurenkriel@ncstage.org to do so.
Keep checking in every Monday (and mid-week, too) 'cause we'll have more stories, pictures, designer sneek peaks and interviews coming up in the next month. Thanks for reading!
