Category Archives: Theater Interviews

Talking With Brandon G. Green

Award Winning Actor To Play
Benvolio In Commonwealth Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet

by Bobby Franklin

For its 22nd season Commonwealth Shakespeare Company will be presenting Romeo and Juliet on the Boston Common. The production, which is free to the public, will run from July 19th through August 6th.

Brandon G. Green

Brandon G. Green, will be taking on the role of Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin and friend. Brandon grew up in Selma, Alabama and earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Alabama State University. He moved to the Boston area to attend Brandeis University where he received his MFA. He now teaches at Brandeis.

Most recently he was seen on a Boston stage in the part of Mr. Tambo in the critically acclaimed SpeakEasy Stage production of The Scottsboro Boys. He also won the 2016 Elliot Norton Best Actor Award for his role in the Company One/Arts Emerson production of An Octoroon.

I had a chance to speak with Brandon before rehearsal at the Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College in Wellesley.

When we began our conversation I was struck by his rich, deep voice. I could immediately imagine Brandon in the role of the peacemaker Benvolio. His tone would convey both a calming effect and a command that would certainly enable his message to be heard and understood. Accepting that message will prove to be another thing.

Brandon Green grew up in Selma, Alabama. I asked him if there was much opportunity there for a student to pursue acting. “I went to a school that was very much about the arts when I was in the 6th grade, the School of Discovery. I got the bug there. Well, I actually had the bug before then.”

When I asked about what he used as an outlet in his younger, pre 6th grade days, he responded “Yes, I had the bug way before then. I would take part in school assemblies, Christmas Plays, as well as at church.” Was he a class clown? “No, actually, I was really quiet, very quiet. In high school I was in the marching band and choir. There wasn’t a lot, but what they did have helped me out.”

He recalls his time at Alabama State University in Montgomery fondly, “It was a really amazing program. I would argue it is one of the best undergraduate programs in the country.”

“I kind of feel like I’m playing a bit of myself…”

Our conversation turns to his latest project, playing Benvolio for CSC. “I kind of feel like I’m playing a bit of myself. The peacemaker almost reluctantly taking care of his cousin. Benvolio has his own things but he is definitely there for Romeo, and definitely the peacemaker. I was very much that in my friend circles. I was also the one people would come to for counsel in a way. I found myself there a lot of times, and there were times I was in need of a Benvolio in my life.”

Kai Tshikosi (Tybalt) and Brandon Green (Benvolio)

When I ask about Benvolio being a voice of calm and reason in a play where so many characters are irrational, Brandon gives some insight. “Benvolio means good will, well wisher, peacemaker. I feel like the straight man to a lot of the chaos that goes on. He is the cool head that is trying to prevail and survive in a way.” Why is Benvolio no longer in the play after Act I? “The peacemaker in this world has decided go away. He’s not there and that dims the lights a bit.”

Brandon tells me he has always loved Shakespeare. At Selma High while in the 10th grade he took a theatre arts class. He remembers, “LeBaron Mack taught us the Scottish Play (MacBeth). It was my first way into it and I fell in love with it there. When I got to Alabama State I saw Othello. It was amazing.” Brandon would go on to the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 2010 and then to Brandeis where he got more training in classical theatre. Two years ago he played Oswald in the CSC production of King Lear.

Fight Director Angie Jepson, Kai Tshikosi, and Brandon Green.

Does he have a dream role? “I kind of already played it and that was in An Octoroon. I could not have dreamt up that role. It scared me. That was the perfect storm. A role that called on all my facilities as a performer. It was fun. It was challenging to myself and the audience. I got to let loose in a way I wanted to, or that I didn’t know I wanted to. I will carry that with me forever.”

As our conversation winds down I ask Brandon why people should see the CSC production of Romeo and Juliet on the Boston Common. “It is a magical experience. I truly believe that. Also, seeing a cast this diverse telling the story is incredible. There is nothing like this, it is transformative. You are out there with thousands of people. It’s crazy and it’s beautiful. A very unique experience.” His enthusiasm is contagious.

“Theatre is a collaborative between the audience and the performers..”

In closing I ask Brandon what he would like to say to the audience. I found his comments very thoughtful, sincere, and important. “Theatre is a collaborative between the audience and the performers, so please, we need your energy as much as you need ours. It’s reciprocal.”

Shakespeare said “All the world’s a stage.” Well, you have a wonderful opportunity to share that stage this summer with a very talented and committed actor. Join Brandon Green and the rest of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company on the Common for what will surely be a great experience.

Romeo and Juliet
Boston Common
July 19 through August 6
commshakes.org
617.426.0863

Photos by Bobby Franklin

Ken Fallin

Ken Fallin:

Doodling The Stars From The Broadway Stage

To The World Stage

Ken Fallin
Ken Fallin

You have most likely seen Ken Fallin’s work as it appears with “alarming regularity” in the Wall Street Journal, Playbill Online, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker and on the posters for Forbidden Broadway. He also got his start here in Boston doing a weekly drawing for the Sunday Arts section of the Herald back in the 80s. You may not know his name because he prefers to not allow it to intrude into his pieces.

Woody Allen
Woody Allen

Ken has always loved cartoons, and has been drawing, or what he calls doodling, since he was a kid. His dream was to be an actor and he pursued that career for many years, but found he made more money drawing caricatures of his fellow actors on the side. Eventually, he got his big break, not in acting, but when he was asked to do the drawings for the poster for “Forbidden Broadway” in 1983. This led to the job at the Boston Herald, followed by working for Wall Street Journal, where he still contributes work every week. I recently spoke with Ken by phone from his home and studio on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

The first thing you notice when speaking to Ken is that there is a calmness to his voice. He comes across as a man who loves people and enjoys his work. I ask him about how he calls his work doodling and not his art.

“I try not to take myself too seriously.” Did you doodle when you were a kid?

Aladdin
Aladdin


“I did, I did, but it was something that was just a lot of fun. I loved cartoons. I loved comic strips in the newspapers. I loved watching cartoons on television, and I loved Mad Magazine. Warner Brothers made a lot cartoons with caricatures of their famous players like Humphrey Bogart, and that just blew my mind that they were taking real people and making them into cartoons. That’s how I saw it…it was just the best, because when I would look at people, especially funny looking people, I would think this person looks like a cartoon. That’s where I think I got my love of caricatures.”

 

Max Schmeling
Max Schmeling

Were you taught drawing?“It wasn’t taught. It’s kind of an instinctual thing. You see somebody and the way you see them is your own vision of them, and I don’t think you can teach that. It’s the way you see the person.”Ken has doodled just about every major Broadway performer in the past thirty-five years as well as world leaders including President Obama for the Wall Street Journal. I was curious what it was like to sit with these famous people and sketch them. I was in for a surprise.

 

“I don’t get to meet them. It’s not a glamorous life like a photographer where you actually get to go and see the person. I work from photographs. Photos are sent to me via the Internet. Sometimes I get an assignment at 11:00 A.M. that has to be done by 4:00 P.M., I can work fairly fast.”

Ian McKellen as Richard III
Ian McKellen as Richard III

A lot of the time Ken does not know anything about the person he is drawing,

“I usually try to pull probably a dozen photos, and if something catches my eye I think, I can draw that, I can draw that angle, the eye, or the nose, or whatever; and I try to do that, and sometimes it doesn’t work and I have to switch over to another photo.

 

Commissioner William Bratton
Commissioner William Bratton

Ken has been heavily influenced by the work of Al Hirschfeld. I ask if he had ever met the great artist,

 

“I have. Well, this is funny because years ago I actually got my big break doing a show called “Forbidden Broadway”, and Al used to go to all the opening nights. He went to one in New York and they showed him the program cover that had my drawing on it and said, ‘what do you think of it?, and he thought he had done it. I took that as the ultimate compliment. He was a very nice man. I never got to know him really well. After he died I got to know his wife and I got to go up to his studio. I actually got to sit in his chair. That was

Rocky The Musical
Rocky The Musical

very exciting. Louise Hirschfeld and the people at the Al Hirschfeld Foundation have been very supportive of my work. They can see I am influenced by, but not copying him.”

 

Other artists, photographers, and architects, have influenced Ken including Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn. I read a quote from Irving Penn to him. “Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show to the world…very often what lies behind the façade is rare and more wonderful then the subject knows or dares to believe.” I was curious if this would apply to Ken’s art.

Madmen
Madmen

“Usually, when I am drawing, my mind is pretty blank because I need it to be that way in order to create something. It’s probably subconscious with an artist. Anytime you do anything creative you’re not really aware of it at the time, but things come through when you love it, and I really love what I do. I am an old fashioned illustrator. I use a quill pen that I have to keep dipping in ink, and scratching on illustration board. I love the old fashioned stuff, and I’m hoping that comes through, and when people buy my stuff and they tell me they love looking at them that means the world to me.”

Billy Joel
Billy Joel

With his upbeat yet easy going manner, Ken hardly seems to be a suffering artist. I mention that I don’t see him pulling a VanGogh and cutting an ear off. “I sometimes clip a fingernail, but that is as far as I go.”

I find it amazing he is able to draw such meaningful doodles without having met his subjects. It is as if Ken has a sixth sense.

 

“I’ve had relatives of people I’ve drawn tell me you captured something there, and I’m like I did this from a photograph. I guess it was subconscious, but that is such a compliment.”

 

Rocky
Rocky

Ken got his start with the Wall Street Journal in 1994. “I had an agent and she got me my first WSJ job, and they hired me to draw sports figures. I did every sport. I even did the Winter Olympics that year.” I ask if he got to go, “Oh no, it’s all photographs. You’re trying to make my life much too glamorous. I’m not a sports person and I know very little about it, but I would look at photographs and just hope they wouldn’t come out looking like chorus boys or something. And it worked cause they had me doing that for almost four years.”

 

I bring up the subject of drawing political figures without having his own views, either positive or negative, come across.

“I have to be real careful if it’s somebody I know and that I don’t like, and they don’t want my drawings to be editorial. They just want me to show the person. It can be frustrating, but then I think of the paycheck and I push forward.”

Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway

Caricature can be a bit of a minefield particularly when drawing different ethnic groups. Because so many of the early illustrators had a field day making hateful statements with their disgraceful pieces. Ken is comfortable with any subject he doodles.

Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry

“I grew up around a lot of prejudice, but I never understood that, it didn’t make sense to me to be prejudiced. I just didn’t understand why people didn’t like other people. It usually is from ignorance and fear of the unknown. With caricatures, it’s interesting we are talking about this, when I got my first assignments to draw black people my editors would sometimes be very nervous, but I would say, ‘You shouldn’t be nervous’, and this is true, I’ve drawn blacks, I’ve drawn Asians, you know, all types, and I approach all of them the same way, and I think it shows in that. It’s not like I’m trying to make fun of any particular person, it’s just the way I see them without being cruel, I never try to be cruel. I’ve never had a problem.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Death of a Salesman
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Death of a Salesman

I ask Ken how old he is, and as he tells me he is 65 he reflects a bit on his very interesting journey.

 

“When I turned 50 my life was actually better. I got started in my late 30s that is when I got my first big break. Things have just gotten better. The really great thing is I don’t think I peaked too young, and I’m not jaded. It’s like things are happening. I’m hearing from all these people I went to high school with and they are so happy to be retiring, and I’m thinking I love what I do, I would never retire unless somebody stopped paying me.”

 

Fallin talks about his time in 1975 at the New School in New York and studying under famed cartoonist Mort Gerberg.

Joel Grey Caberet
Joel Grey Caberet

“I wanted to be a cartoonist for a brief period. Mort knew all these cartoonists at the New Yorker, and every week he would bring one in to talk to us, and we had people like George Booth and Charles Addams, and they were wonderful. And for our assignment every week we had to send a batch of cartoons to the New Yorker, and we had to bring in our rejection slip to show proof that we did it.”

 

Ken had spent a number of years after school as a starving actor as he kept pursuing his dream. What went on during those “lost years” from school until your big break in 1985?

 

“I did everything you can imagine. I’ve had just about every job. I’ve never worked in a hospital, but I’ve done just about everything else. I’ve been a waiter and a cab driver (Ken drove for Red Cab in Brookline, MA). I was drawing and acting, that was my original goal and the reason I came to New York. I got a job in 1979 working in a summer stock company in Connecticut, and I was making more money doing their posters for the shows and doing caricatures for the actors. You know, they’d pay me like five bucks for a drawing of them, and since I was only making like $45.00 a week as an actor, this came in very handy. I still thought of myself as becoming an actor but it got to the point I was making more money doing illustrations, these rinky-dink jobs, but they were coming in. What’s ironic is now a days I have meetings with Broadway producers and directors and writers about my art, but I’m always thinking, gosh, why didn’t I know these people when I wanted to be an actor. But it all worked out, I have no complaints.

Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett

“It wasn’t until my late thirties when I got my big break. It got to the point where I didn’t think anything was ever going to happen, and I was very discouraged. But then things just started happening and it was great. I think you just sort of have to be ready. If you believe in your self, and I have to admit there were periods that I didn’t, but if you can just sort of hold on and have somebody else tell you they believe in you that helps too.

 

“I have to throw this in because everyone has a parent story. My father never understood what I did as an illustrator until I started working for the Wall Street Journal, and other people would say ‘look at what Ken’s drawing here.’ And he started taking pride in it, but he could not believe people would pay you to draw. He was a salesman. If I was selling drawings that would be one thing, but he finally got it. Just before he died he told me he was proud of me, and that made it all right, but for years he thought I was a bum.”

 

What else would he like people to know about him?

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“You can say I am very kind to animals. I do dog rescue, that’s my big, big thing. I help rescue dogs out of the shelters here in New York. Our main goal is to get them out of the kill shelters cause we have very bad shelters here in New York. We try to get them either into foster homes or into a shelter that doesn’t kill. I like drawing dogs too. I don’t get to do that much in my pay work. I think they are such characters.”

 

After my conversation with this very warm and talented man I feel it is never too late to pursue your dream. It wasn’t easy for Ken, but he persisted and we are all the better for having him sharing his art with us. I hope you will now feel you know the man behind those wonderful doodles you see in so many publications.

 

Originals and prints of all Ken’s work are for sale including his work for the Wall Street Journal. The day we spoke he had earlier been on the phone with Patrick Stewart who was buying a copy of the wonderful piece Ken did for Playbill of “Waiting For Godot” starring Stewart and Ian McKellan.

 

You can contact Ken through his website at kenfallinartist.com