Last on the Lighthouse stage in 2008, Adrian Marchuk stirs the pot in On The Air.
Adrian Marchuk has spent a few years away from the Lighthouse stage… maybe a few too many! He last appeared as Cale Blackwell in 2008’s FIRE. Since that time, he’s been in Jersey Boys in Toronto & Las Vegas, The Light in the Piazza, & Marry Me A Little, to name a few. We wanted to know more, so we asked him if it’s easier to play his character or be himself on stage, what’s his favourite stage show, and who in the cast is going to blow people away.
Lighthouse (L): Who in the show is most like their character? Who’s the least?
Adrian Marchuk (AM): A younger version of me is a lot like this character. Matt is overconfident, not very self-aware, and his life/work balance is all out of whack. He’s got to learn to hold a different definition of ‘success’ if he wants to be happy and stop messing things up. I was a lot like that in my twenties and early thirties.
David Rosser is the least like his character. Uncle Art is harsh and abrasive and condescending whereas David is warm and kind and generous.
L: Is it easier to play this character or to be yourself on stage?
AM: Well, every character needs to be, in some sense, ‘yourself’ on stage, because you bring your own experiences and your own imagination to playing any part. Some characters are certainly easier to inhabit than others, an easier ‘fit’, in that their choices are more similar to your own, but in every case you’re trying to be as honest and truthful as you can, within the confines of what the writer has set out for you.
L: Besides this one, what’s your favourite stage show?
AM : Ha! That’s a big question. Let me pick across a few genres. Favourite musical: The Light In The Piazza. Favourite drama: August: Osage County. Favourite comedy: Lend Me A Tenor. Favourite Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
L: What will the audience be thinking about in the car as they drive home after this show?
AM: They’ll be thinking about how living and thriving in a small-town community is all about embracing and elevating the culture that is already there. My character’s big mistake is that he comes to town and tries to change everything and make it more ‘big city’. He learns to appreciate why his Dad loved this town, and why it might just be exactly where he belongs. So I think the audience will come away loving the quirks and idiosyncrasies of Port Dover.
L: Besides yourself, which actor in this production is going to blow people away?
AM: Oh, don’t make me choose! Everyone is terrific. If I had to be backed into a corner, Stephen Sparks as aging rocker Buck Mitchell is pretty fantastic.