Mark is making his Seattle Shakespeare Company debut playing the role of Henry Higgins in Pygmalion. Recently he’s become very passionate about making sure that some of the great plays from the past (that frequently have large casts and are challenging to produce) still stay in the public consciousness. To that end he and several other local theatre artists created the Endangered Species Project (www.endangeredspeciesproject.org) to produce staged readings of the great plays from the past. Check them out and make sure to see Mark as Shaw’s irascible Henry Higgins in Pygmalion.
Reading
“I always have like five books going. I am reading a book about the Wobblies called We Shall be Free. I’m reading a book about starting a theatre that Jeff Steitzer gave me because we are doing the Endangered Species Project. I am reading John Sayles new book. And a book of ghost stories that I’ve been going through, and I don’t know why.”
Listening
“I listen to the radio, only in the car. I listen to music at home a lot. A lot of classical. I’m kind of a film score nut. At least the early ones. I’m not so crazy about them nowadays. I like really bold and accessible music.”
Watching
“I go to the movies, but I recently saw this documentary called the Renaissance Revolution. And in it this guy is talking about this amazing painting behind him. And he said, ‘What’s amazing about this painting is that everything you need is there. You can see it. It’s there. The difference between this painting and a modern painting is that the modern painting is all about what has been left out.’ And that idea has been burning in my mind ever since I saw it. And it has affected why we are doing the Endangered Species Project, because there are plays that have everything in them, not alluding to them. And Shaw is the same way. Everything is in it. It’s all there. If you want to find it, it’s there. He talks about it. It’s there.”
Looking forward to this theatre season
“I haven’t thought much more beyond Pygmalion. It’s going to be very interesting to see what ACT does with the Ramayana. I don’t know how that’s going to come across. It’s going to be very interesting to see. But I don’t know what that’s going to be like.”