Joe just called from my agent’s office to let me know I’ve been offered the role of Pastor Manders in Emmy Frank’s Showcase production of an updated translation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts. Manders is a great character; he’s a preacher with the best intentions in the world, and a lot of influence, but his judgment is sadly off. His attempts to do the righteous thing go sadly awry, and at the end of the day, his reputation seems to matter to him more than anything else. He also still nurses an old love that he knows can never be consummated. He’s a contradictory and fascinating character, and I can’t wait to get started finding out what makes him tick. My thanks to my agent Renée for getting me the audition, to Jamie Schulman for reading so well with me, and to Emmy for casting me!
The production runs only July 7-10, and 14-17, at the Merchant’s House Museum’s Secret Garden, 29 East 4thStreet, NYC. So it will be a kind of site-specific production, which should be interesting. The historic house is reputed to be “manhattan’s most haunted”–which is appropriate for a production of Ghosts! I’ll post more information as I learn of it.