Michael Cerveris

If, as they say, acting is reacting, then I don't suppose there is a more genuine acting experience than being the guest Father in Tim's play.

I agree with everyone who finds it an unique and exhillerating experience, but without any of the attendant breathlessness or mild panic that might sometimes entail. It just quickly becomes the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps because I was relieved of the responsibility to "invent", I got the chance to do what I've presumably done my whole life: just sort of be there and see what happens. And that, of course, is the single hardest thing to do on stage most of the time. In a world where even real life gets performed on reality TV, there's something really subversive and valuable in what Tim opens with his work--for the audience and the other actor. Friends who saw the show said they felt almost as if they were personally and simultaneously experiencing what was happening to me on stage.

I've always felt my favorite part of being an actor was rehearsal with all its messiness, clumsiness, surprise and discovery. This was sort of the best rehearsal of my life and some of the best life I've had on stage.

also, I'm going to try to get Tim to radio all my lines into my ear from now on.