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Interview with Douglas Sills

NR: You can pick whatever order you want to answer these, but what's the best part and the worst part of your job?

DS: The worst part of my job? Fatigue, drain, strain, the strain it has on my life, other than my professional life. That I don't have time for my personal things. My personal relationships have suffered. My relationship to my environment has suffered, if you want to call my spiritual relationship has suffered. My health has suffered. My ability to encounter other professional projects has suffered. All as a result of physical and mental strain just trying to keep up with the demands of the piece.

The best part of it is... The best part of my job... (laughs) Oh, God, that's really tough. What do you guys think?

JG: I know you like sharing. I know you like having the chance to speak to people and maybe give them a little guidance 'cause you've often mentioned "I wish there was someone in my past like me who said 'OK, here's a pitfall and here's a good way to go.'" I think it's kind of nice that you're in a position to do that.

DS: That's true. Yes, that's probably true. The nicest thing is helping friends, and new friends, but mostly old friends succeed, get work, get out of debt, whatever it is I can help people do as a result of this position that I've been put in for a little while. That's probably the best part. But there's many things that run a very close second.

NR: What do you do when you're off, or on vacation, if that ever happens?

DS: Well, I try to regenerate but I also have to take care of my life. It's hard. I just try and keep up without drowning - whether it's taxes or returning phone calls or whatever it is I just don't seem to have enough time in the day to even get the little, just the minimum done. I'm drowning usually - drowning in paperwork, drowning in scripts to read, drowning in rehearsals or publicity events to go to.

NR: What do you want to do in the future?

DS: I want to do a production of Hamlet. I want to be in rehearsals for a production of Hamlet by the time I'm 40.

NR: Have you decided if you're leaving on March 7th?

DS: I would consider staying. That's the last conversation I had. I don't think I'd consider it in a very, very positive way, but I certainly told them that I would consider it. I do feel quite sincerely that there is a law of diminishing returns between an actor and a role. And I think I hit that wall six months ago.

NR: You don't think you've moved past that?

DS: I think that there was a period of re-excitement, re-energizing with the new show, but, no, I think that especially with the new parameters of the show, about variation, it comes back quite quickly. So, I sincerely feel, and I mean this in all sincerity, that for the best thing of the show I wish they could find someone who is fresh and had what I had a year ago for the show, because now there's a form, and they could REALLY soar. So, it's not that I won't consider it, I will consider it. It doesn't seem likely. For everyone involved it seems like I should go, or at least not stay on much longer than that. You know, if they said, "Well, could you stay on six weeks? It would make a huge difference to us." Well, of course I probably would. But, I think right now, my inclination is to say "You know what? It's a great day. It's a great time to go."

NR: Other than Hamlet, would you like to do films, more TV?

DS: Well, I look at careers of people like Ms. Close and Mr. Kline as models for what I would like to do. I would like to be able to move with ease between genres - that's an ideal career for me. To be able to move between television or television movies, feature films, plays and musicals with some ease has always been my ideal.

For the full-length version of this interview visit Talkin' Broadway


Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 Printable Version

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.




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