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Todd Cerveris is a hard-working, New York actor whose most recent work – and success – takes him thousands of miles away from New York and thousands of miles around the country well into the spring of 2008. He plays Juror #2, one of the unnamed cast members of Roundabout Theatre Company’s touring production of TWELVE ANGRY MEN. I caught up with him not too long ago on a Monday, the traditional day off for actors. “Yes, it’s our day off, but I always have plenty to do on Mondays…it’s a catch-up day, basically,” he explains. I thank him for taking the time to talk to me, and I ask him what he felt about the first year of the tour. “It was crazy…just so successful!” he quickly responded. “I mean, here is this ingeniously structured play – sometimes thought of as a ‘small’ play – receiving rave reviews, thunderous applause, and standing ovations all over the country. And it didn’t matter where! We played to all different sizes of houses, but the reactions were the same from place to place!” He continued, “there were times when we felt almost like rock stars. The applause would go on and on, we’d take another bow, there’d be more applause…it was crazy! Then there’d be all kinds of people at meet-and-greets or the stage door wanting autographs or just to say ‘Hello,’ and nothing means more to an actor than that kind of reception.” He went on to explain that each city or area stay would produce even more for the smallish cast than just the roaring accolades. “We’re basically a group of actors who’ve been working for a number of years in the major theater or film locales, and sometimes you just need to get out of New York or L.A., get to other parts of the country and see the arts scene as it exists in the rest of the country. And I should tell you: it looks pretty good.” In each city the tour would visit, different cast members would also find personal areas of interest that they wanted to explore. “Guys who are into museums look for museums to visit, others might be looking for an aquarium. Shoppers check out the local retail scene. We all find things to do that pretty much correspond to things we like to do at home.” His home, I discover, is “New York City, but there are plenty of places out there to discover so much, including theater, that could rival New York.” I wonder if they all hang out together during the days or on their days off. “Well, yes and no. Like I said, different guys look for different things in each city, but there often are little groups of us that hang out together. I mean, we’re basically just a bunch of regular middle-aged guys whose only drug knowledge is Lipitor, or something like that.” Any thoughts about this second season of the tour? “Well, there are three new actors in the group, and it’s got to be a little dizzying for them. The rest of us have worked together so well for so long, and we know each other – both on and offstage – so well. But they bring a little bit different dynamic to the play, and that’s always a good thing. And [director] Scott [Ellis] is so good at getting actors to do what they do best. Throughout rehearsals he was so good at encouraging experimentation, allowing the new guys – and us – to try things, come up with things, do things that might make a few changes, even from the type of things we did in the first season.” Cerveris loves the actual play as much as the touring, the directing, the acting. “Reginald Rose expertly structured this interplay of archetypes. They’re not stereotypes as much as they are archetypes. Audience members see themselves – or part of themselves – in guys like the bank clerk, the painter, the sports fan, the coach, the bully, and the others.” Since he mentioned his character (the bank clerk), I asked him how he, personally, saw Juror #2. “Oh, he’s a quiet guy, a family guy, pretty easy-going. He didn’t want to be picked for jury duty in the first place. He is surprised at his own passion rising throughout the course of the play. His sense of decency shows through, especially early in the play when it bothers him that several of the men do not give each other even a chance to speak, although his meekness prevents him from saying too much.” “It’s interesting, too,” he continues, “that the defendant’s ethnicity is never made clear. It’s kept vague, so the crime can’t be hung on one particular type. People assume it to be something that fits into their own prejudices, but the accused is never actually identified as to race. It boils to down to ‘prejudice is prejudice,’ no matter what color.” Cerveris also explains the significance of the set. “This set can be built on lots of stages since it is one small room and nothing more. The set designer based it on several Center Street courthouse jury rooms, and it feels very much like a summer day in a small, un-air-conditioned hot box. We are seated at one long, rectangular table, with several actors’ backs being to the audience at various times during the play. Again, Scott allowed and encouraged much of our blocking to be organic, rising from the nature of the small room, the large table, etc. All actors can be heard, though, since we are all miked. But the claustrophobic nature of the room becomes palpable to the audience, which is something that would have to have an effect on any jury deliberations.” The whole premise becomes a riveting evening of theater. “It does something that you really don’t see much any more: one act with no intermission, sustained for a little over 90 minutes on one set, showing one tense conversation, necessarily resolved one way from the input of twelve men. In an age when people’s attention spans often don’t hold until the first commercial of a sitcom, this is an achievement, and one that audiences are reacting so favorably to.” Cerveris tells me he grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, but left at age 15 to go to school. As he talks, I learn more about his performing arts family. “My mother always said being a lawyer would be a good thing, but really, my parents have no one to blame but themselves that we’re all performers!” he laughs. “They were the ones that took us (Cerveris and his older brother and sister) to rehearsals and summer stock theater dressing rooms and recital halls and dance shows. They were the ones who showed us what a fantastic life the performing arts could be.” His parents met while both were attending Juilliard in New York City. His father was studying piano and his mother was studying modern dance at the Graham Studio. Along with piano, his father became a specialist in interdisciplinary arts administration, and was, for a number of years, on the faculty of Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. He has since retired and is now the director of The Arts Education Collaborative in Pittsburgh. His mother too, is retired, but has not given up dance entirely. She and her husband can be seen teaching and performing country/western 2-step dancing in Tucson, AZ establishments several nights a week. His sister was a soloist with the New York City Ballet for nine years. She also appeared on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera, and she was in the national tour of Carousel. “She’s just as excited about her new ‘life’ as well,” Cerveris explains. “She moved from New York to Bethlehem, PA, which is just about a half-hour from the city, where she runs her own dancewear and Pilateswear design and manufacturing company.” His older brother Michael is a well-known performer in New York, having starred in The Who’s Tommy, Sweeney Todd, and Assassins, for which he won a Tony Award. All three remain quite close, and get together as much as possible, generally no less than once a month. But what about when someone is on tour? “You find ways,” he tells me. “For example, I found out that when TWELVE ANGRY MEN plays Pittsburgh, not only will I get to see my dad and his wife, but an aunt has already bought 18 tickets and is bringing a group of [extended] family members. Family finds family.” As for the future, Cerveris and his actress wife are never sure what will come up next, both in and out of New York. Both have been involved in TV work, with Cerveris known as a “repeat offender” on the Law and Order franchise. |
