Enda Walsh’s play about holding onto humanity in a dystopian city runs May 31 – June 22 at CoHo Theatre and is directed by Isaac Lamb. Meet the outstanding cast who will be bringing this poetic, haunting drama to life.
Nick is happy to return to Third Rail where his previous credits are John and The Angry Brigade. He has also performed with Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Portland Playhouse, Profile Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Q & A with Nick
What excites you about working on Arlington [a love story]?
The rehearsal room and the people in it. The process with these particular artists. This play is also unlike any other in ways I do not want to spoil here, but come watch and you’ll know what I mean.
Critics and audiences have compared Arlington to 1984 and Black Mirror in terms of the setting and tone. Are there any other books, movies, or other works of art that it evokes for you?
The book Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
Arlington takes place in a waiting room of sorts. What is the best, or worst, waiting room you’ve been in?
I think the world we live in is perhaps the best and worst waiting room I’ve been in. It’s certainly the largest, and the magazines are still so out of touch.
What are you willing to wait for, even when you don’t know how long it will take?
Apparently I’m willing to wait for the Seattle Mariners to make the playoffs again.
When the world feels dark, what gives you hope?
Baseball.
Kayla, a member of Third Rail’s 2018-19 Mentorship Cohort, makes her Third Rail Main Stage debut with Arlington. She’s been seen on stage in Portland with Rutabaga Story Co., Shaking the Tree Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, and the Red Balloon Collective, where she is also a founding member and Managing Director.
Q & A with Kayla
What excites you about working on Arlington [a love story]?
So many things! I was already a fan of Enda Walsh’s work, and this script, especially the role of the young woman, is so enticing. Getting to create through movement and dance is what fills my cup artistically, so getting to focus on solely that is a dream. Being in a Third Rail show after having been in the mentorship cohort last year is also an honor. It feels good to know that you already admire, respect, and genuinely enjoy being around the people you’re working with prior to even starting rehearsals. It feels like coming back to an artistic home.
Critics and audiences have compared Arlington to 1984 and Black Mirror in terms of the setting and tone. Are there any other books, movies, or other works of art that it evokes for you?
Black Mirror was the first thing I thought of when I read the script. For me, that and The Twilight Zone go hand in hand.
Arlington takes place in a waiting room of sorts. What is the best, or worst, waiting room you’ve been in?
Worst- ER, DMV, waiting in line outdoors at a football stadium in the cold for a cattle call audition for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (spoiler alert- I wasn’t cast). Best- probably Disneyland (they’re spoon feeding me an experience).
What are you willing to wait for, even when you don’t know how long it will take?
Breakfast/brunch food. Caffeine. Love.
When the world feels dark, what gives you hope?
That all the happiness, hope, and safety that I’ve felt before are not isolated incidents, and that I’ll feel them again, the support from my friends and family, and vine compilations.
Company Member Rebecca Lingafelter‘s acting credits with Third Rail include Collapse, That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, and Belleville. She is also Co-Artistic Director of PETE.
Q & A with Rebecca
What excites you about working on Arlington [a love story]?
So much. I am excited about all of the collaborators on the piece. The design, production and performance team are just incredible and it is thrilling to watch all of these brilliant minds wrestle with this gorgeous text. I’m a big fan of Enda Walsh, Penelope and New Electric Ballroom are two of my favorite plays that Third Rail has done, and I really think we are the company that can best represent this work on stage in Portland. I am excited to be a part of that process. Finally, this is my first time on stage after having my daughter, so the way that I am seeing the world, the work, and the stakes of what it means to make a play about how we behave towards each other when the world is falling apart feels especially potent and rich.
Critics and audiences have compared Arlington to 1984 and Black Mirror in terms of the setting and tone. Are there any other books, movies, or other works of art that it evokes for you?
Enda is definitely swimming around in the sci-fi/post-future genre (of which I am a big fan), so yes, lots of references; 1984, Hunger Games, Minority Report, The Matrix, Children of Men… I could go on. I think what’s particularly evocative about Enda’s world is that he is elevating this genre into poetry. You can read the facts of the world as dystopian and post-future, and you can also read it as a metaphor for the ways in which we live our lives now. I think this is what the best sci-fi does; it uses an imagined future to illuminate something about our present.
Arlington takes place in a waiting room of sorts. What is the best, or worst, waiting room you’ve been in?
Best: The Singapore Airport – there’s a movie theatre, a spa, a giant mall, food galore… you never want to leave. Worst: Any hospital.
When the world feels dark, what gives you hope?
The relentless need for human beings to be in relationship to one another. Love is like a weed, it will grow in the most unlikely of places and destabilize the most well-constructed of foundations.
Company Member Kerry Ryan‘s productions with Third Rail include A Bright New Boise, The Realistic Joneses, The Angry Brigade, and Men on Boats. Kerry is also a member/founder of the Anonymous Theatre Company, and happily spends her days at the Oregon Children’s Theatre and managing Dog Adventures Northwest.
Q & A with Kerry
What excites you about working on Arlington [a love story]?
There is so much here that is left open to interpretation, and it has been amazing to create such vivid backstory ideas with this group of intelligent theatre-makers.
Critics and audiences have compared Arlington to 1984 and Black Mirror in terms of the setting and tone. Are there any other books, movies, or other works of art that it evokes for you?
Those two references are pretty spot-on. I’d also add just about anything written by Ray Bradbury. And maybe The Truman Show, in a weird kind of way.
Arlington takes place in a waiting room of sorts. What is the best, or worst, waiting room you’ve been in?
Just reading this question gives me anxiety.
What are you willing to wait for, even when you don’t know how long it will take?
My kid to grow up. I’d like time to slow down a little.
When the world feels dark, what gives you hope?
Community.
*denotes a member of Actors’ Equity Association