By Tom Nondorf
How aware of Avenue Q were you before you were part of it?
Was the puppet training intense?
When you are Rod or Princeton, do you think about whether people are looking at you, Seth, or do even you lose yourself up there?
Do you have a preference between Princeton and Rod? Are you allowed to say?
Have you ever met John Tartaglia, who created the roles on Broadway?
Who are your acting heroes?
And were there people in your formative years who helped encourage you?
You looking beyond Avenue Q at all or just taking it as it comes?
[Avenue Q is playing at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street. Check out avenueq.com for more info.]
Hither and Yon
Not a bad time to be Stanley Tucci, eh? Academy Award-nominated for "Julie and Julia" and directing Lend Me a Tenor, about to go into rehearsals for a Broadway run at the Music Box…Chad Kimball of Memphis stars in The Philanderer, part of Project Shaw, which presents the works of George Bernard Shaw. That's Feb. 15 at 7 PM at The Players Club in Manhattan. Visit projectshaw.com…Gregg Edelman has a couple of dates at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency Feb. 7-8, and Ryan Silverman of The Phantom of the Opera performs there on Feb. 15. Go to feinsteinsattheregency.com for calendar and ticket details…Edelman will also be a part of The Oscar Show at Birdland on Feb. 28. That's Jamie DeRoy's show celebrating Academy Award-winning music and movies. Go to birdlandjazz.com.
Tom Nondorf can be reached at tnondorf@playbill.com.
04 Feb 2010
What Do You Do With a BFA in Musical Theatre?
Seth Rettberg photo by Jordan Matter
As Avenue Q transitioned from Broadway to Off-Broadway, Seth Rettberg has made the leap to the New World Stages production, bringing his puppet alter-egos Rod and Princeton along with him. The native of Naperville, IL, who also did the first national tour of Q, believes moving the show Off-Broadway in fall 2009 re-energized the fan base and cast in equal measure. "The audiences keep coming," he says. "So as long as people keep wanting to see it, we'll be around."
Rettberg: I always was interested in the show. I was in college at the time that it won the Tony Award. I remember sitting around watching with my friends and saying, "What is this crazy puppet show about, and how can we be a part of it?" I grew up watching "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show," and they were such a part of my everyday life as a kid, that you become so used to seeing humans interact with puppets, especially when it comes to being funny and entertaining. So it seemed very natural to me. I certainly had no aspirations of being a puppeteer at all. But once the show came along, it combined my love for musical theatre with something I always loved watching, so I thought, maybe this is a good fit for me. It was quite the journey, learning about puppeteering and what an art form that is.
Rettberg: It was challenging, to stay the least. I had probably five or six auditions. I graduated from College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati in 2006, and I started my audition process in January of 2007. That continued through the end of March. Part of what that involves is what they call a puppet camp, which is a two-day intensive training process where they try to see if you can get the basics down: learning to speak and having your voice and words match what the puppet is doing, learning to walk with the puppet and breathe with the puppet. All these things you don't really think about. You just become so much more aware of your body. It's very self-motivating. You have to practice and watch other people who are good at puppetry do it. I go back and watch "The Muppet Show" from many years ago, and I am used to watching it for entertainment value, but now I watch from a technical place and it becomes so much more fascinating.
What do you think makes Q so enduring?
Seth Rettberg with the Princeton puppet photo by Aubrey Reuben
Rettberg: The interesting thing about the show is at first glance it seems kind of like a silly sort of funny puppet show that is all out there for the laughs. But the show has such a huge heart to it. That's what takes people by surprise. They start to feel for these characters that are made of felt and foam and fur. I think people don't expect that. They relate on a human level to these characters. These journeys of these young adult characters resonate with people, whether it's trying to find out one's purpose in life or losing a job and trying to find out what the next step is, trying to navigate adult relationships. All those things we learn as young adults [are] being taught to us by creatures that are reminiscent of those that taught us lessons as kids.
Rettberg: I wasn't really sure where I'd be fitting into the world of theatre and the business of it, but I do see myself as the funny leading man in a way. This show has taught me more about myself as an actor than I ever could have imagined. Being the only show I've ever been in for any extended period of time, I've kind of grown up in it, in a way. It has been really interesting to see how different things that have happened in my personal life have been reflected in this show. I did a couple productions of Urinetown, and that show is in such a similar vein to Avenue Q. Having done Avenue Q for so long, if I go into auditions or little cabaret performances, I always have to take a second and go, "Okay, there's no puppet on your hand. You can be yourself!"
Rettberg: Good question. At first, it becomes very much about you and the puppet. But once you really get it into your body, you sort of become one and the same in a weird way. For the audience, it is a really interesting process. I'll tell you my experience when I first saw the show. I compare the first ten minutes to being like when you watch a foreign film for the first time and you are navigating back and forth between the actors and the subtitles. Eventually you realize that you are really just watching the action. Eventually people come to discover that the puppet is capable of expressing so much from having the human face next to it. The puppets are only built with one expression, they are not manipulated in the face, just the body. So the infinite array of expressions we can create as human beings are magically translated to this inanimate object next to the human being.
Rettberg: You know, I love them both equally, but I must say Rod holds a special place in my heart. Maybe it's because of his uptightness which sometimes I tend to share. He's good at heart, and he's such a lover of life. I think his journey in the show is quite wonderful. He's one of the characters the audience loves so much.
Rettberg: You know, I haven't. That is so funny that you ask me because I was thinking the other day, I feel like I've met everyone who has ever been a part of the show except John. So there's an open invitation to John Tartaglia. I would love to meet him at some point in time. There is so much connection. Our director Jason Moore is the director of Shrek, and various other people from the original Broadway cast who I have had the pleasure of doing the show with, including Ann Harada and Jordan Gelber, but I've never worked with John, and I'm so anxious for that to happen.
Rettberg: Bryan d'Arcy James is one of the people I admired growing up, especially in college. I think it was the consistency of his work and work ethic that I really latched onto and appreciated in so many ways. I always was very inspired by his recordings and performances.
Rettberg: My parents were very supportive of me at every stage of this crazy dream to be an actor. There are two other individuals, Sue Aldridge and Margo Krug, both of whom were directors in children's theatre and in high school. They could not have been better in terms of inspiring me and encouraging me to go forward and really giving me a place where I felt safe, where I felt I could be creative and take risks.
Rettberg: I'm really taking it as it comes right now. I feel like so many doors have been opened for me from Avenue Q alone, that I feel like whatever's around the bend will be an amazing journey, no doubt. So for the time being, I'm happy to be living on the Q.
THE LEADING MEN: Kevin Mambo and Seth Rettberg
Looking at your acting résumé, you seem like someone who can handle romantic lead-work as well as comic energy.
