PLAYBILL.COM'S CUE & A: American Idiot's Stark Sands | Playbill

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Cue and A PLAYBILL.COM'S CUE & A: American Idiot's Stark Sands Tony Award nominee Stark Sands, currently starring as one of the central trio in Broadway's American Idiot, fills out Playbill.com's questionnaire with random facts, backstage trivia and pop-culture tidbits.

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Stark Sands Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Sands burst onto the Broadway scene with a 2007 debut performance in Journey's End that earned him a Tony nomination and a Theatre World Award. Other theatrical credits include Twelfth Night at Shakespeare in the Park, The Tempest with Classic Stage Company and the title role in the world premiere of Frank Wildhorn's Bonnie & Clyde at La Jolla Playhouse.

He has appeared in such films as "Die, Mommie, Die!," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Shall We Dance" and "Chasing Liberty." TV credits include “Generation Kill,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Six Feet Under.”


Full given name: Stark Bunker Sands
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Zodiac Sign: Libra
Audition song/monologue: For the longest time it's been "Corner of the Sky" from Pippin... might need to come up with a new one.
Special Skills: Wearing fake tattoos and playing soldiers.
First Broadway show ever saw: Starlight Express, 1987. Blew my eight-year-old mind.
If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? Probably Cats. I saw it when I was little, but every time I see photos from that show I wish I could see it again, for pure hilarity's sake.
Current show you have been recommending to friends: Finally saw Next to Normal right before Alice Ripley, Brian d'Arcy James and Jenn Damiano left it — truly an unbelievable, gut-wrenching, inspiring piece of theatre. Go see it!!
Favorite show tune: I went through a phase where I was really into Evita (did I really just admit that?). But I'll say "Louder Than Words" from tick, tick... Boom!
MAC or PC? MAC, which on a side note is the preferred computer of the petty-theft world. My house was broken into three years ago, and the only thing they stole was Apple products. Laptops, desktops and iPods cleaned out. No interest in my roommate's PC work laptop, which was actually sitting directly beside his MacBook. No joke.
Most played song on your iPod: Had to check (I shuffle a lot). It's "Flume" by Bon Iver.
Web obsession: www.FiveSecondFilms.com
Last book you read: "If The Devil Had A Wife" by Frank Mills. And John Gallagher Jr. just gave me "The Mist" by Stephen King — amazing!
Must-see TV show: "Arrested Development" is my all-time favorite. Genius television, too smart to stay around very long.
Last good movie you saw: "Exit Through The Gift Shop"
Favorite board/card game: Cranium, hands down.


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Performer you would drop everything to go see: Would have been MJ. I actually had tickets to the big comeback tour in London. Frowny face.
Pop culture guilty pleasure: "Top Chef"
First CD/Tape/LP you owned: I was in the end of the cassette tape generation, and my first purchase was Bobby Brown's groundbreaking album "Don't Be Cruel." Oh how the mighty have fallen.
First stage kiss: Amy Tibbals in my high school production of Guys and Dolls.
Favorite or most memorable onstage role as a child/teenager: Apologies for another Pippin reference, but in college (that counts as teenage, right?) I played the title role, and my best friend Charl Brown was the Leading Player.
How you got your Equity card: Journey's End, 2007.
Favorite pre-show/post-show meal: Pre-Show: Green Symphony- brown rice, samosa, Indian stew, curry chicken salad, soba noodles and cous cous. Post-Show: Sushi delivery at home. Usually three rolls and a dumpling or something.

Pre-show rituals: Leading pushups at the five-minute call, offstage left.
Worst onstage mishap: In a preview of Bonnie & Clyde at the La Jolla Playhouse last year. The first act ended with me (Clyde) committing my first murder by shooting a police officer in a grocery store. Or was supposed to. Props gave me a new stage gun that night, and the trigger refused to budge. It took about 8 or 10 seconds for me to get it to fire, and it took me grimacing and pulling with both first fingers like a six-year-old. I honestly thought about shouting "Bang!!" before I finally got it to fire.

Worst costume ever: A Chris Durang play in college: a pink frilly dress, Mary Janes and a bloody diaper. I've got to find pictures of that.
Pets' names: Cougar and Lynx
Favorite junk food: Shake Shack
Who would play you in the movie? Denzel. Gotta go with the best, and you know he could do it.
Worst job you ever had: The summer before college my friend Chris and I painted and catalogued finials in a warehouse. What's a finial, you ask? It's the little decorative spike that goes on the end of a drapery rod.
TV or commercial gig you most enjoyed: Having the good fortune to be cast in the HBO miniseries "Generation Kill," which allowed me to work and travel all over Africa for six months in 2007.
Leading man role you've been dying to play: Romeo
Three things you can't live without: A good night's sleep, air conditioning and my beautiful fiancée, Gemma. In the opposite order, obviously.
Who have you played on "Law & Order"? Which edition? Sadly I remain an "L&O" virgin. But maybe that's cooler. Like how these days, everyone and their mom has a tattoo, thereby making the tattoo-less people the interesting ones. Yeah. Which would actually make me double-cool, now that I think about it. Unless you count fake tattoos, which I have 12 of. Which would actually count against me, since they're fake, thereby making me negative cool. Damn.

"I'll never understand why…" Me neither! What a load of bulls#%t!

 
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