The Chosen Talkback # 2
by Paul Lazo, Marketing Assistant
The Chosen continues to astonish audiences, bringing them into the climate of the Brooklynneighborhoods and Jewish communities that resided there during the time of World War 2. After the November 4 matinee showing of The Chosen, Director Daniel Gidron and the cast, Charles Linshaw, Zachary Eisenstat, Joel Colodner, Will McGarrahan, and Luke Murtha, all joined our Associate Artistic Director Nora Long for another talk back with the audience.
The talk began with a question that really had actors thinking about how far their characters have come now that they are mid way through the shows run. “The more you do a run the more you can try new things and the more you can surprise your scene partner” said Luke Murtha, who plays the role of Danny Saunders in the show. Joel Colodner (Reb Saunders) has actually come to understand the text far more over the past few performances, “I’ve discovered things in the past week that I wasn’t able to understand during rehearsal… I began to understand why [Reb] was speaking through Reuven,” he said.
One audience member in particular was interested in the audience’s doorway into the show, Charles Linshaw’s character Reuven Malter, who functions as a narrator. Charles said, “If I mess up the timing I really really mess up the show… I’m sort of in between the world of the audience and the world of the stage.” Audiences were very interested in his character, who is directly addresses the audience – sometimes defining Jewish terms that some audience’s members may not have been accustomed to. “I had an intellectual idea of why I was talking beforehand but having a physical idea is different than knowing in my brain why I am doing it.” Charles coherently brought us into his process for such a difficult character that juggles a number of hats throughout the entire piece.
The entire piece was well received, many audience members getting lost in the universe of The Chosen citing that the show is one everyone can relate to, one you surely do not want to miss.
The Chosen continues its run at Lyric Stage until November 17th.