By Kathleen Kaiser, Ojai Valley News
For most stage actors, they never get to create a role that has never been produced. David Nelson Taylor has that honor in Richard Camp’s “Bless Your Heart,” opening Friday, September 6 at the Ojai Art Center Theater. With no video or previous productions to reflect on, how did he go about creating Thomas, the lead in the play loosely based on Camp’s life?
“Semi-autobiographical characters are always juicy and challenging roles for an actor,” said Taylor. “You try to navigate the fine line of honoring the person and creating the character. I have come to know and love Richard Camp over the last year of working with him. I want to do justice to his truth, his pain, and his love, all of which are deftly written into this script. But simultaneously making acting choices to create Thomas Fields, someone who is very similar to Richard Camp, but is not Richard Camp. Embodying Thomas comes with the responsibility of honoring Richard while creating a unique history and internal life for the character.”
The theme of the play crosses one of “proper society’s” never discuss topics – religion. With possible mind fields abounding, how did Taylor navigate the part?
“One of the most delightful and enlightening experiences of having the playwright at rehearsals is hearing the stories and anecdotes that Richard shares with us about the family members that are the inspirations for the characters in the play. I will never forget one early rehearsal where Susan Kelejian, who plays the character based on Richard’s mother, asked Richard a question to gain insight into her character, Martha. Richard responded by saying, “My mother…” and then burst into tears, overcome with emotion reliving his experience. Observing, and being an active member in Richard’s catharsis, has brought our cast together to go deeper into the emotional highs and lows of our characters. We try to find the specific threads of Richard’s evolution and weave them into the universal story of our audience’s lives.”
Any mother-son dynamics can be hard in real life and especially on stage. How is it working with Susan Kelejian, a naturally strong woman, as your mother?
“Susan is a tremendous force of nature, and working with her has been utterly magnetic. She is not only dedicated to her craft, but she is also a caring and thoughtful mother (her real-life son, Chance, plays my brother). We worked in and out of rehearsal to reach a depth of understanding around our characters and their complex relationship. Susan responded with empathy, consideration, and clarity as I’ve shared the intricacies of my personal life and the relationships which I draw on as an actor to ground the emotional life of Thomas. I couldn’t ask for a more present and thoughtful actor to play on stage within this role.”
Give me a few impressions of the story and the characters you play against.
“I absolutely love this script and am honored to bring Thomas to life. The comedy is smart and fast, the emotions real and grounded. I connect with Thomas on so many levels, from having been brought up to believe in the Bible, then following a path of humanistic Darwinism. After I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I got a Liberal Arts degree with minors in Philosophy and Anthropology. I love how Thomas uses the Bible as a teaching tool to try to bring education to his family.
“There’s a charming scene between Thomas and Charlene (played by KiSea Katikka). When they first meet each other, Thomas goes into teacher-mode to adjust her out-of-focus view on a Bible passage, and open her eyes to a different outlook. One of my favorite scenes is near the end of the show. Thomas and Bible-thumping preacher JD (played by Michael Holden) are going back and forth on the meaning of various Biblical verses, and the interpretation of their shared traumatic past experiences through very different lenses.
“But the heart of the play is the relationship between Thomas and his mother, Martha. Much of Thomas’s evolution as a character in the play comes from observing his mother and really seeing her in a new light. He sees her as someone not lost in the darkness of religious dogma she doesn’t understand, but rather someone who has an intricate world-view with a depth of understanding different than his own. It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one.”
The world premiere of “Bless Your Heart” opens Friday, September 6 with a gala reception to follow. The play runs for four weekends with evening performances at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, and a Sunday matinee at 2 pm. Tickets are available at OjaiACT.org or call 805-640-8797. People with wheelchairs are asked to call 24 hours in advance to reserve a wheelchair location.