Back on stage
Posted on January 30, 2016 by bob in Features
Greg Thornton on an empty set of the Cloverdale Playhouse.
stories and photos by Bob Corley (except as noted)
Greg Thornton is moving ahead by going back. Having relinquished his role as Artistic Director of Montgomery’s Cloverdale Playhouse, he’s heading back to the stage. This month, Thornton, 66, takes on the lead role of Prospero in the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s production of The Tempest.
“Actors don’t stop,” he states flatly, relaxing on a sofa in his cramped, soon-to-be-vacated office at the Cloverdale Playhouse. “I do it because I love it. It feeds me in the best possible way I can imagine.”
As Rene’ Gallimard in “Madame Butterfly,” St. Louis Repertory Theatre, 1996. Courtesy Greg Thornton.
A working actor for more than four decades, Thornton has performed on stage, in daytime soaps, and primetime dramas. Prior to his stint as the Playhouse’s first Artistic Director, he was a resident actor at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival as well as theatres in San Diego, Denver, Princeton and others. At a time in life when many people contemplate retirement, he’s excited to be stepping back on stage.
“I’m not giving up. There’s no reason to. I feel sharp,” says Thornton. “For some actors it’s a chance to be someone else,” he says, leaning in, bringing hazel eyes and a chiseled countenance to bear on the too-frequently asked question of why he’s an actor. It’s a question he admits is difficult to answer.
“The things that fascinate me are the different elements of a person’s character, the things that go on inside of people,” he says, recalling one of the greatest compliments anyone has ever given him following a performance.
“They said, ‘God, I hated you but I understood you.’ ”
While acting has been a lifelong career, it wasn’t the first, or only, path he considered.
As Cyrano de Bergerac, ASF 1991, St. Louis Reperatory Theatre 1994. Courtesy Greg Thornton.
“I wanted to be a monk,” says Thornton. “That’s kind of where I was headed early on.”
He grew up in New Jersey, 20 miles from New York City. As a high school student at St. Benedict’s in Newark, he participated in theatre from his freshman year, forming friendships that would lead to another passion, music.
“I formed a trio called Trinity with friends I’d known in high school,” he recalls. “We were the house band for a couple of clubs in New Jersey. I would have loved to be a singer-songwriter.”
Thornton would finish a music gig at 2 a.m., then drive to an acting gig the same day. After the trio disbanded, acting took over, with legitimate theatre dominating most of his career.
“Television and movies favor the young and attractive,” he says, “while the theatre is less restrictive for older, more mature actors. You can develop a career in the theatre over time, particularly in the Shakespearean world. You can go from Hamlet, to that Scottish guy, and now – My Gosh! – I’ve been offered Prospero!”
But Thornton recognizes time is a relentless pursuer, causing even the most accomplished actor to glance over his shoulder.
“Sir Laurence Olivier had this terror when he was in his early 60s about never being able to remember his lines. And that’s what it is. Terror. The fear as you get older that I’m just gonna forget things.”
His answer to the terror is to know the script inside and out.
“Even if we run the show for two months, that script is on my dressing table every night. It’s like handcuffed to me,” he says. “I spend a lot of time pacing back and forth before the show, walking around, running lines in my head.”
For Thornton, returning to the stage, particularly to a role such as Prospero, is exciting, and terrifying.
“It makes you nervous, so you work harder. Acting is what I do. If you stop doing it for awhile, if you
As Horace Giddens in “Little Foxes,” Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1992. Courtesy Greg Thornton.
keep turning down job offers, they’ll stop coming,” he says with an air of finality. “I just want to get back to what I know I do well.”
How well he performs was apparent to Terry Teachout, theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal, in his review of Thornton’s role as Ralph Nickleby in the 2014 production of Nicholas Nickleby at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre.
“The cast is consistently superior,” wrote Teachout, “starting with Mr. Thornton, who plays Ralph as a hawk-faced, flint-hearted monster of self-will…What is most impressive about Mr. Thornton’s performance, though, is that it isn’t a caricature: You believe in its reality, which makes Ralph’s decision to live without love even more horrifying.”
When questioned about his favorite role, Thornton chuckles.
“I hope I haven’t played it yet!”
Thornton is also a director and playwright, and plans to carve out more time to write while pursuing other aspects of his craft.
“I enjoy recording books. It’s hard work. You have to really do your homework to bring the book to life.”
And the music muse continues to beckon.
“I’d like to get back to playing some more music,” he says. “And I’d like to learn how to play jazz piano.”
Singer, songwriter, actor, director, playwright, artistic director, almost monk. What’s next?
“Freedom in our business is the ability to say ‘no’ to something,” he says. “I’m at the stage of my career where I can say, ‘No, I don’t really want that part,’ or ‘that’s not a director I really want to work with.’ ”
An added dilemma for mature actors, he notes, is the loss of a “network” built over many years, an important factor in getting jobs.
“A lot of the directors I’ve worked with, and the casting people I trust, are coming to the end of their careers,” he says. “I look at the list and say, ‘Oh, no! It’s dwindling!’”
But that won’t change the plans he has in mind following his stint as Prospero.
“I’ll come back to Montgomery and see my grandson,” he says, smiling. “That will be fabulous. Then…” Thornton pauses, weighing his next statement. “Then, I’ll get in the car, and drive to New York.”
One Response to “Back on stage”