Brad Rudy has been on the Lighthouse stage a number of times, including last year in Kristen Da Silva’s Sugar Road. He’s also played Fran in Educating Rita and a dual role of identical twins in Something Fishy. He’s also spent 26 seasons at Stratford Festival and acted as Ted Narracott in Mirvish’s production of Warhorse at the Princess of Wales Theatre. We were able to sit down with Brad and chat about his favourite line of dialogue in A Pack of Thieves, why he wanted to be involved in this production and who else in this play is going to blow people away with their performance.
Lighthouse Festival (LF): Without giving anything away, what’s your favourite line of dialogue in the show?
Brad Rudy (BR): “I’m a river of many moods.” Padre is describing himself to the other crooks.
(LF): Why did you want to be involved in this production?
(BR): I wanted to be in this production because a) I’ve only been in one other Norm Foster play in my whole career, and he has become rather ubiquitous, b) I last worked with director Jamie Williams over 25 years ago when we were both actors at the Stratford Festival and I was excited to work with him as a director, c) I’ve never worked with Derek as an actor; he’s only ever directed me, so I couldn’t wait to share his energy onstage, d) I love playing a ‘heavy’ character, e) I welcome any opportunity to work at Lighthouse, and f) Jamie offered me a great role and I was available.
(LF): Besides yourself, which actor in this production is going to blow people away?
(BR): That’s the toughest question of all. Without intending to sound diplomatic, there is something about what each guy is doing that will probably blow people away. But Alan is the only actor I had never met before and he is VERY funny; he certainly makes it difficult for me to keep a straight face.
(LF): What’s going to surprise people about this show?
(BR): Hopefully all the plot twists and character revelations will surprise people. In a comedy like this, you don’t want the audience to be ahead of you or the jokes just won’t work.
(LF): When did you first perform?
(BR): I first performed for Lighthouse Theatre about 5 or 6 years ago in a play called Something Fishy, playing identical twins. Those were some quick costume changes! If you are asking about when I became a professional actor, it was in 1980 in a production called Alberta Song, while I was still in university.