Patrick Andrews charmed audiences this summer as Evan, the young, confused outsider in About Face Theater's smash hit The Homosexuals, and this fall the talented 26-year-old will undoubtedly have audiences seeing Red in the Goodman's production of John Logan's journey into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.
Red is set in 1958, when New York artist Mark Rothko ( Edward Gero ) had been commissioned to create a series of murals for The Four Seasons restaurant in the new Seagram building on Park Avenue. While Rothko was exhilarated by the free artistic reign afforded by this project, he faced a number of challengesincluding a prospective audience that he had professed to scorn. This emotionally and creatively charged event is the basis for Red, a two-man play that also features "Ken" ( Patrick Andrews ) a fictitious young assistant and aspiring artist who must choose between appeasing his mentor and changing the course of art history.
Eventually, Rothko decided not to honor his Seagram's commission contract, and he withheld the paintings for reasons that were likely only clear to the artist himself. Today, a few of those paintings are housed in three art galleries around the worldthe Tate Modern in London, the Kawamura Memorial Museum in Japan, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Windy City Times caught up with Andrews during the production's Tech Week, a notoriously chaotic time for both actors and stage crew. Phoning in from his dressing room backstage at the Goodman Theater, Andrews talked auditions, art, and activism, and why it's sometimes important to listen with your heart instead of your penis.
Windy City Times: Red is a two-man play and you just came off "The Homosexuals," which is obviously very ensemble-driven.
Patrick Andrews: Well, you know, I did American Buffalo and that had three people on stage, but The Homosexuals was most definitely an ensemble piece. For The Homosexuals, I had to practice or exercise my ability on stage to be an active listener. My character had a much lower arc than the other actors in the play, who, when you meet them are more fully formed than Evan, who is taking certain lessons from them. It was a great experience, and very humbling to learn about how to listen. It was a starring role that was actually a very supportive role. The payoff was slower, but if I did my job right, the audience went along with me on this incredible journey. Red is its own beast, you never really get a breakand that its own kind of beautiful challenge.
WCT: Talk a little about your audition for Red.
PA: The auditions were pretty rigorous. The characters have very passionate, cerebral discussions with each other that are very pointed, and the audition process is really about the director, Bob Falls, wanting to hear the language on us, and see if we have the ability to communicate the story the way he wanted it heard. Bob Falls worked a lot with me on the audition, which was pretty exciting and intimidating.
WCT: You obviously got a final call back. What do you remember about that?
PA: The final call back was on the Goodman's main stage, so that Bob could determine how our voices carried in the space. It was pretty dynamic to be up on Goodman stageI've never been on that stage before. At one point, he took the water bottle out of my hand and emptied it out on stage to give me a task, and so that I would have to clean up while I was speaking in character.
WCT: Red explores the creative process, and the all-consuming drive that allows visionary artists to do what they do. As an actor, can you relate?
PA: Yeah, [ acting ] takes a lot drive and it takes a lot of patience and ambition, and a lot of [ pause ] , you have to be able to deal with being broke, and the realization that things might turn out at a later time, and there's not always going to be instant gratification. The actors around me that have done well and are successful have all told me it's about patience, and that it's a waiting game.
It's a tricky businessin one audition, you could land a job that could make you famous and earn you thousands and thousands of dollars, but you never know when that moment will come, or if it will come. So, it's about how you balance your life outside of the theater and how you respond to rejection and success. You need a healthy balance.
As an artist, as a painter, you spend so much time working on a canvas, for example, for a group of people to say 'yes' or 'no' to it, but how much of that do you listen to? You have to fight for your own integrity but you also have to feed yourself, that question comes up a lot in Red, commercialism and what does it mean to stand by your art.
WCT: As you just mentioned, Red is also about the struggle for an artist to accept growing fame, money, recognition for his work and still be true to his craft. Doesn't Ken, your character, sort of challenge Rothko about hanging his contemplative work in a place of consumption like the Four Seasons?
PA: Yeah, Rothko is very well off at this moment in time during which this play takes place, while Ken is just at the beginning of his career. He doesn't have a lot of money, and he doesn't get to talk about his art ever, except for a few key moments. Ken really serves Rothko as a kind of a moral leader. He basically challenges Rothko on his ethics, although Rothko ultimately has incredibly ethicshe just has a moment in his life where he is questioning how he's serving the community. Rothko's been offered this great moment of recognition, and I think we have all met that kind of challenge, at one point or another, where we strive to be the best version of ourselves. We ask ourselves, 'if I do this, will it aid me in my overall journey or do I need to take a step back? Is this simply my ego talking, or is it my heart, or is this my dick talking?'
WCT: The 2010 Broadway production of Red received approval from the Rothko estate to recreate some of the murals on stage. Talk a little about the Goodman's set design for this production.
PA: The Goodman has an incredible artistic team that puts together these amazing atmospheres and spaces. There are representations of actual Rothko paintings, and they are actually characters in the play. The ritual of creating art is also very much a character in the piece, for most of the play we are in the work, making the canvas, stirring the paint or paintingso, that's been a beautiful challenge finding the rhythm of all of in the work.
WCT: Part of your role as Ken is to challenge Rothko's dismissal of Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns.
PA: Yeah, the late '50s was a very exciting time for art and culture. There were lots of shifts happening, and the play does speak to this shift of focus in visual art from abstract to pop art. Rothko has a hard time passing the baton, and Ken is there to help remind him that he had to do the same thing at the beginning of his career. It's about the cycles we all go through, aging, career, family, and moments where we freeze up because change is terrifying.
WCT: You mention that change can be unsettling, which makes me think of the evolution of your character in The Homosexuals. You've already touched on how your experience in The Homosexuals influenced you as an actor, but how did it impact you as a gay man?
PA: As a gay man, I got to speak to the things that are important to me, and I got to touch them. I got the chance to make out with a man, passionately, on stage. I got to live out my impulses as a modern queer person in front of an audience, and that's an opportunity that you don't often get as an actor. You know, it felt like it was activism and action every night, having the marquee we had in the middle of Lincoln Park.
WCT: Following its Chicago engagement, Red travels to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, D.C., where it will run Jan. 20-March 11, 2012. Are you traveling with the production as well?
PA: I am! I'm very excited! Sometimes, when a production travels, you get stuck in a city that is less than ideal, so we're really lucky to be going to D.C. As a young adult who has opinionsto be in the nation's capital is a great opportunity for me.
Opening Night for Red is Sept. 27, and the production runs through Oct. 23 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets are $25-$84 ( prices are subject to change ) .