Production Dramaturg Alix Rosenfeld hosts cast members Maboud Ebrahimzadeh & Bailey Roper as her guests for Scoop, a casual conversation before select Wednesday evening performances of Shakespeare in Love. In addition to various ensemble roles, Maboud plays Shakespeare's contemporary and close friend Kit Marlowe, while Bailey appears as theatrical troublemaker John Webster.
Alix: What excites you about Shakespeare in Love?
Bailey: Making a play about the chaos, ridiculousness, pure joy and utter stupidity that goes into actually making a play – with some of the most talented actors I've ever met – is honestly just incredibly FUN.
Maboud: Getting to play Kit Marlowe. I’ve always been a fan of his work and the mystery surrounding his death. And I’m also a huge fan of Shakespeare’s so exploring a potential interpretation of their relationship is particularly fun and gratifying. Neither thought of themselves as the legends they would become, so getting to be the person before the legend is especially exciting.
Alix: What has been your favorite part of the process?
Bailey: The people. I really love the people involved in this show. Getting to work with some of my closest friends and make new relationships has been really lovely.
Maboud: The relationship we create on stage. More tangibly, the rehearsal process of discovering our relationship as actors as well as the people we are portraying. There is a fine line of separation between actor and role, so to see where they overlap, how we allow them to overlap, and where they don’t, is part of the joy of rehearsals. Seeing what can be mined from what we bring in our individual experience to each role and the relationship to each other, and the play as a whole is an experience to be relished and mined for every drop of truth and joy possible.
Alix: What was your first work as a performer?
Bailey: When I was in 5th grade, I got cast as Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Woods!
Maboud: The musical Pippin. The only reason I even auditioned is because it was a requirement for my Acting I class . . . Pippin was the first real opportunity I had to explore what it meant to live inside of a story and understand how my personal experience interacts with a story that exists independently from myself. Forgive me, but it was, well, magic to do.
