INTERVIEW: For Carlo Albán, ‘Sweat’ is labor of love
Sweat, the new play on Broadway from writer Lynn Nottage and director Kate Whoriskey, has engaged audience members with its blue-collar storyline that encompasses so many topical issues, including labor strife, unemployment, race relations, and unionization. Playing at Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan, the show has earned critical acclaim, Tony Award nominations and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In the play, Carlo Albán plays Oscar, an outsider who dips in and out of the narrative and listens to the ensemble vent their frustrations, triumphs and setbacks at the local bar. His is a pivotal character but one very much relegated to an outsider role, someone who watches and listens.
Albán is a veteran of stage and screen, having performed for The Public Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, Intar, Vampire Cowboys, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Labyrinth Theater Company. He has had recurring roles on Sesame Street, OZ and Prison Break.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Albán about his role, the new play and his love of acting. Here’s what the actor had to say:
On the importance of Sweat in his career …
“It’s hard to measure these things, but it’s not hard for me to say that it’s probably the best play that I’ve been a part of, in as far as you can measure those things. This play is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It’s extraordinary.”
On his origins with the play …
“The first time that I became involved with it was in January of 2015. There was a workshop in New York. … Lynn had written a new draft, and she needed to hear it. And so she did a workshop of it. … There had already been a long period of development before that, that I was not a part of. I did that reading … and then I was cast in the Oregon production. So we started rehearsals for [Oregon Shakespeare Festival] in June of 2015.”
On whether his role of Oscar has changed since 2015 …
“I would actually say that Oscar is the one who has changed the least. Especially in the first act, the character is mostly silent. A lot of his action through the first act is not written in the script. There’s stage directions indicating that he’s in the room, in the bar working, but it doesn’t indicate anything beyond that. So what we created in Oregon in the rehearsal process with Kate and Lynn, it worked really well. The characters’ journeys through the play work really well, so we kept that. We kept a lot of what we did in Oregon. I would say the character has changed in relation to how the other characters have changed, and that’s not to say that I haven’t deepened my performance and grown it. But on the page, the character really hasn’t changed that much.”
On how he sees Oscar in the narrative …
“I think Oscar is very much an outsider in the play, and because he’s an outsider, he has that perspective. It’s like if we think of, not to get too philosophical, but if we think of society as these circles within circles, and whoever is in the center is the one with the most power. And as we get further out, the people further out are marginalized. Those who are on the margins just have a bigger perspective. They see more by virtue of just where they’re standing in the strata of society, and so he kind of sees everyone. He sees everybody staring. He sees other people’s pain, but not many people see his. And so that’s, I think, in many ways a gift and a curse for him because he aims to be where those other people are, but they won’t let him progress to that point because they don’t see him.”
On what the play has to say about society in general …
“You see the friendships, and you see the camaraderie that forms. … You see how it relates to our society in general, but what has struck me the most in the experience of doing this play is … the experience of being on stage as an actor generally is about connection. It’s about communication. It’s about connection. It’s about looking people in the eye and receiving something from them and giving something back, and Oscar is so unique in that he doesn’t get that through a lot of the play.
“He’s on stage, and he’s largely ignored. It’s like being in a vacuum, and the experience of doing it has been extraordinary for me in terms of his being put in that position, and experiencing that on a daily basis and then thinking about the people in society that actually are in that position. I’m playing a character, and in so many ways I’m privileged. I’m so much more privileged than Oscar is, and it’s been really illuminating to have to put myself in that position and to experience how really marginalized and painful it is.”
On working with Whoriskey …
“Kate gave me a lot of leeway because the character was largely unwritten in terms of his action through especially the first act, and she was so focused on creating a lot of the other characters that she gave me a lot of leeway to kind of find my way through the play, and where Oscar existed in the world of the bar, and how his work manifested in the play and how those things were reflections of what the other characters were doing. … So she gave me a lot of leeway, but then she also, if I had any questions or if she saw something that I wasn’t quite getting, she would step in and give me a piece of direction.
On Nottage’s role during the play’s rehearsals …
“f I had questions I could certainly go to Lynn, and there were a few times that I did that. But for the most part, Lynn would communicate things to Kate, and then Kate would communicate them to us. We could approach Lynn if we needed to, and she would sometimes join in on conversations. But most of my communication was through Kate, but Lynn was absolutely there. And she’s extraordinary. I love her to death. She’s just an extraordinary human, not just in terms of her ability as a playwright, just as a person. She’s so incredibly giving and so attentive, and she really listens. And she’s so smart. She’s incredible.”
On helping to create the world of the play …
“At the end of the day we’re all going through this journey together night after night, and as much as Oscar is an outsider in the play, I still listen. I mean he’s always listening, so I still hear and listen to what everybody else is doing. I think the other actors are the same. It’s part of the job is to, even if you’re not on stage, oftentimes you live in the world of the play. You exist in the world of the play, and even if you’re not interacting with the other characters, you still listen to them. And you still hear what’s happening, and so there’s that aspect of that. The actors see me. The characters may not see me, but the actors see me.
“And then also because the play is so tough, we’ve really made an effort to become a family and to become friends, so outside the world of the play, there’s a lot of camaraderie with the cast. And it really is a pleasure to be around those people, so we make sure to have a good time when we’re not in the world of the play.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sweat, by Lynn Nottage and starring Carlo Albán, is currently playing Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
