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Steven Culp in "Old Times"
Press Coverage
May 17 - July 3, 2011 (55 performances)
Lansburgh Theatre, Washington D.C.
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Quotes by Steven Culp and
media quotes about Steven Culp in "Old Times" |
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| Quotes by Steven Culp about "Old Times" |
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| "I don't know if I've ever done a play quite like this one before. The more that you play realistically moment to moment, that reality is shifting around you. It's almost like being in a waking dream sometimes. When it goes well, there's something about the language. It just seems to soar." |
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| "People ask me what the play is about, and I tell them that it's about a couple who have been married for twenty years. And an old friend of the wife's, that she hasn't seen for twenty years, shows up. You do have to go at it very simply. There are shifts in reality that happen in the play, and when you get to a place where you can surrender to that, then more happens. You get into ideas about the loss of identity, about how things you thought were real aren't real. But, I think it's done through experiencing the play moment-to-moment." |
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| "In our rehearsals, we felt almost like we were in a waking dream sometimes. In those dreams, you act, and other people do things. They're very real when they're happening. But I don't think of it that way anymore. Now, it's just what's happening." |
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| "Part of character work is always just physical. Finding the right physicality to touch off the right things inside. I'm in a chair a lot, so it was helpful to figure out the most effective way to sit in a chair, and how to carry yourself [while sitting] in a chair. Because my physicality would change how we rehearsed." |
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| On doing a play by Pinter: "I should just say that we are all still very specific about our characters and our history. You make clear decisions about the specifics of this relationship, life histories, whether something's true or made up. But then there's a way that you can kind of let it go, and leave it floating. [...] Time isn't a linear thing. It's about past, present, and future all existing right now." |
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| On the play by Pinter: "That's a recurrent Pinter theme. Somebody comes in with their particular take on things. They're in a room, in a power position. And then an intruder comes into the room and takes over. That's a classic Pinter pattern. And it's a palpable thing. [...] It's much more comic than we thought it was. Which is good. [...] It's paradoxical, because it's such a language play. But it's really about the stuff that's beyond language. It's like a good poem. It's trying to get at those things that you can't verbalize and you can't describe about being a human being. Hopefully it works, and it touches people in a place that goes beyond intellect." |
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| "I talked to a director friend of mine before I came out here, and he said he'd seen a production that was very clear. The plot was very clear, and it worked. I think either Deeley or Kate had murdered Anna. But looking back on that conversation now, I'm so glad we didn't just do some theory and say, "This is what the play about." I think it diminishes the experience of going through the play. It's like saying that a poem means only one thing." |
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| On how to stay true to the characters: "Honestly, the first time I read it, I didn't have a clue. That's why I wanted to do it. [...] For me, it's just been a fantastic exercise of being in the present moment, and taking whatever you have in that moment, and going forward. [...] I have to go through the play every day. There were so many surprising and unexpected things that happened in rehearsal. I want to keep surprising myself. There are several places in this play that I can do only by jumping off the deep end and not knowing where I'm going to end up. That's a scary thing, but it's really fun. |
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| Media quotes about Steven Culp in "Old Times" |
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| "Mr. Culp is the audience's way into the play, since the world of Anna and Kate is too insular to welcome visitors, and he moves from assurance to jealous resentment with dexterity." ~ DC Theatre Scene |
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| "... the cast does excellent work. Middendorf and Culp quickly allow you to forget that you've been seeing these two character actors on your television for a decade." ~ WeLoveDC.com |
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| "I don't mean to slight actors Steven Culp or Tracy Lynn Middleton with passing mention, because they're both quite good." ~ Washington City Paper |
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| "In this instance the three actors — Steven Culp, Tracy Lynn Middendorf and Holly Twyford — make up an expertly assembled trio in the guises of characters who brandish their grasps of the past as weapons in the struggle to define who they are to one another at this very moment." ~ Washington Post |
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| "Culp makes for a terrific cauldron of male ego and entitlement, and he proves an amusingly readable foil for Anna's aggressive effort to stake a claim to Kate." ~ Washington Post |
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| "The husband Deely, expertly portrayed by Steven Culp (of "The West Wing" and "Desperate Housewives" fame) [...]" ~ Maryland Theatre Guide |
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