Mainstage Moment:

by Dana Jones

Ronald L. Brown

This week, YT had the chance to sit down with Ronald L. Brown, who is currently taking the stage as "Peron" in Evita on Mainstage. Check out the interview below!

You’ve played the role multiple times. How do you find ways to keep it fresh and new?

Each time I play Peron, I’m working with different people so I rediscover the little bits and pieces of the character. I have to work with what the other actors are giving me. Certain things are going to be similar, so there is a degree of falling into a kind of comfort zone. The long political speech Peron gives, for example, is just me.There’s no interaction with other characters. So for the most part I just go into what I know and then I work on it with the director. I want to make sure that I understand the director’s ideas and incorporate my knowledge into his larger vision of the show. I think that’s the key to being a good actor. When I do get hired for Peron, they don’t hire me because I know how to play Peron. They hire me because they like what I do with Peron and it fits within their vision. My first idea when coming into a production is, “I want to see what their idea is.” Then I know I have all the notes and everything I can do with it, and how it can mold together. I love Evita and it’s a fantastic show and score, but I would get tired of it if every director wanted it the same way over and over again. So you’re always looking for new ways to react. You have to always be listening and reacting, hearing new things. You have to be involved in it. When you have a line by yourself, you find your motivation and you just know it. The hardest part is when you’re not the main focus. When someone else is talking, you have to pay attention and focus and be engaged, but not drawing focus. When Eva is doing her speech or final broadcast, I have to be part of the scene, but I don’t want to be so reactive that people are watching my reactions instead of watching her. You have to find moments that show that you are connected. It’s a fine line to tread.

You’ve done a lot of regional theatres and tours. Can you talk about those experiences and lifestyles?

I love to travel. I’ve been in New York for 20 years and done several tours and tons of regional theatre work like this. The basic difference is just the regional theatre, you set up. You unpack and it becomes home. On a tour, that’s not really the case. A lot of times you’re just in a city long enough to maybe put some stuff in the drawers, but you still feel like you’re living out of a suitcase. That’s not the easiest thing for everybody, but I love traveling and seeing every areas in other part of the country. At regional theatres, you get to settle down a little more. For example, I’ve been in this area before on a tour that stopped in Charlotte, so I was vaguely familiar with the scenery. Now I’m really enjoying this because I get to explore and go hiking and really get to know the area. You don’t have a lot of time to do that on tours, even if you’re there for a week. I’ve also done truck and bus tours, where you’re only in a city for a day at a time. You spend all of your time in the theatre and in the bus. You drive through the day, go straight to the theatre, do the show, then go to the hotel and sleep, if you get to stay in a hotel. The crew travels through the night--they don’t even check into a hotel. It’s a very hard life, and it takes a toll on your body. You have to get into the mindset of sleeping on a bus, or you won’t be happy by the end of it.

How did you first get involved in theatre?

I was in a play in 5th grade, and it was an absolute disaster. It’s a miracle that it didn’t ruin theatre for me forever, but it did ruin it for a while. It was a 3-Act play, and at every rehearsal we started at the beginning. So when we finally performed, the first act was great, the second act was decent, and the third act, when all the real action happened, was a mess. I didn’t do anymore theatre until college. I played the French Horn and I went to college to be a band director. It struck me that a lot of times when you teach music, you start at a small town and you have to be the band director and the choir director. So I figured I should learn to sing and I joined a choir. The teacher asked me to be a pirate in Pirates of Penzance, an opera. That’s when the bug bit me. I realized I was having a lot of fun, so I did every show I could at the school. After, when I was teaching, I did some community theatre. When I went back to get my Masters degree, I started studying voice a lot more seriously and I worked to develop my voice. When I got my Masters, I didn’t find a teaching job that really suited me so I auditioned for some local theatres and got cast. I was working in Denver when I was encouraged to go somewhere that was a bit more competitive and had more professional theatres. I visited New York and I wasn’t ready, so I went to Chicago. I was there for 3 years, then bus and truck tour that lead me to New York. By then I had friends there and felt like I was ready. I got into acting in a very round-about way. I wasn’t a kid who just knew that I wanted to be an actor.

Do you think you’re lack of a musical theatre degree made it harder for you to get jobs?

I don’t. The only thing I wish I had done younger is dance. I’m not a dancer, and even in graduate school I took a couple of dance classes but I couldn’t teach a body that old to really dance. You want to be training your body at an early age if you can. Everything else I had the opportunity to do at my college. They used me every quarter, and I got bigger roles each time. In big theatre arts schools, you take a lot of classes and workshops and maybe get a lead eventually, but I don’t think you necessarily leave with as much experience. In that regard, I had just as much seasoning. But actors are always studying. You don’t learn how to be an actor. Actors and dancers and singers have to always be learning and growing, even after college. If you do go to a conservatory, that’s great and you’ll get a lot of exposure. But you’re not at a disadvantage if you’re not at a conservatory. You just have to take advantage of every opportunity wherever you go. If you stick with it, you will always be sticking with it.

What advice do you have for kids who want to pursue theatre?

You have to know what you’re good at and know what your strengths are. Some people aren’t going to fit the lead soprano ingenue part, but that’s okay. The side-kick parts and the quirky parts are always being written. When you go into an audition, you have to be yourself and be honest. That’s very hard to do, but showing casting directors personality and even flaws gives them a wider scope of your potential. And even as a kid, think ahead. Think ahead about the kind of parts you would be good for in the future and whether or not those parts are available.

To see Ron in Evita at the Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage, click here!