INTERVIEW: Charles Busch, theatrical legend, to appear at NY Indie Theatre FF
Photo: A special screening of A Very Serious Person will be featured at the fourth-annual New York Indie Film Festival, and director and star Charles Busch is set for a talkback. Photo courtesy of NYITFF / Provided with permission.
The creativity in New York City is seemingly boundless. Here’s some evidence of that fact: while other cities have separate film festivals and theater festivals, the Big Apple spreads the creative love around enough that there’s an annual festival celebrating the cinematic work of theater professionals.
This year’s edition of the New York Indie Theatre Film Festival runs Feb. 6-9 at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village. There are many highlights on the expansive program, including works by Victoria Clark, Alyssa May Gold, Brooke Berman and Wendy MacLeod, among others. Marc Stuart Weitz serves as producing director, while the New Ohio is the producer.
The opening night event is a special reading of Polly Freed, a new screenplay by Berman and starring Annie Parisse, Paul Sparks and Alysia Reiner.
The closing night feature is A Very Serious Person, a 2006 film directed by theater luminary Charles Busch, who also stars in the feature and co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Carl Andress. The film, according to press notes, displays the friendship between a young boy, who loves show tunes and old Hollywood films, and his Danish mentor (Busch). The setting is the Jersey Shore, and the theme that permeates the film is one of self-acceptance passed down through the generations.
A Very Serious Person screens Sunday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m., followed by a talkback with Busch.
For the unbeknownst, Busch is a bonafide theater legend who frequently dons drag to play flawed female characters based on the Hollywood actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is currently starring in his own play, Primary Stages’ The Confession of Lily Dare, a sendup of early, pre-code Hollywood films. (Read Hollywood Soapbox’s interview with Jennifer Van Dyck, who also stars in Lily Dare.) And his other shows over the years — everything from The Divine Sister to The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife — have kept people in stitches.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Busch about his cinematic work, which in addition to A Very Serious Person includes Psycho Beach Party and Die, Mommie, Die! Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to create A Very Serious Person?
I was asked to write and direct a short subject film for Showtime. It was called Personal Assistant. I really enjoyed the experience and showed the film to my close friend, the theater producer Daryl Roth. She loved it and on the spot said she would produce a feature of mine if we could keep it extremely low budget. I immediately phoned my friend Carl Andress, who had been directing many of my plays over the past few years. I told him we needed to strike while the iron was hot.
So we quickly collaborated on the screenplay. I had always wanted the experience of playing a film role that demanded a very minimalist style of acting. So I used this opportunity to give myself that acting challenge. Daryl liked the script, and within a few months, we were on location. That so rarely happens. It was very 1932 Hollywood.
Was it always your plan to direct the film, and was this new role a nerve-wracking or an exciting challenge?
Yes, it was always the plan that I would direct the film. I loved the experience.
I’ve never had the slightest interest in directing a play in the theater. I suppose I’ve always had a strong visual sense. I have an art background, and I found the whole thing incredibly stimulating. I surrounded myself with very gifted and experienced people. I learned so much from the director of photography, Joe Parlagreco, and the editor, Frank Reynolds. I learned on the job. Everyone was so helpful that at the end of shooting, I did wonder if I actually directed the film. But then I thought about it, and yes, I did direct the movie and am responsible for its high points and its errors.
Why set the narrative on the Jersey Shore?
Well, I spent two summers during college working as a quick sketch portrait artist in Wildwood, so I was familiar with the area. However, we ended up shooting the movie in Far Rockaway, which was far closer and had every kind of background we needed, including a boardwalk. We also shot a few days at Coney Island.
How is The Confession of Lily Dare going?
Very well. It’s always interesting to revisit a play after some time has passed. We did a production of Lily Dare about a year and a half ago at Theater for the New City on the Lower East Side. It wasn’t a workshop or a tryout. We just did the play for 24 performances, and that was fine. However, Primary Stages Theater, where I also have a long relationship asked me to be a part of their 35th anniversary season, and so we decided to give Lily Dare another life.
This time we were able to have a much more evocative set and rethink some of the costumes, and I also did some editing on the script. It’s a play I’m very proud of, and we brought back the entire cast. I had written the roles for each of them, and they are all first-rate comic actors.
When did you first fall in love with classic movies? Have you been watching them since you were a child?
When I was a child in the ’60s, old movies were on TV several times a day. My mother died when I was 7, and when we had to hire a live-in housekeeper, she was given my room. Since my father was out working all day and mostly out dating at night, twin beds were moved into his room, and so I was set up there.
When my father came home late he would watch old movies on the Late Show that began at 11:30 p.m. I was supposed to be asleep but who could sleep when James Cagney was on? Or Bette Davis? My father was a totally permissive parent, and so this was great quality time for us. I was educated in the catalog of MGM and Warner Brothers films between the ages of 7 and 10 years old. I rarely need to do any research for my theatrical genre parodies. The spirit of classic Hollywood is in my bones.
Do you ever feel a pull to go back to film for future projects?
All the time. I was very fortunate that my first three movies, Psycho Beach Party, Die Mommie Die and A Very Serious Person were basically thrown into my lap.
Since then it has been difficult setting up a new movie. I’ve had many false starts and flirtations. Carl and I are in the midst of writing a new movie, a wacky caper comedy that we hope to film on the lowest possible budget later in the year. I hope my new Samsung Galaxy smartphone is up to the challenge.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The fourth-annual New York Indie Theatre Film Festival, featuring an appearance by Charles Busch, plays Feb. 6-9 at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village. Click here for more information and tickets.
