'It's really opened my eyes': Oradell 'Ragtime' production set to push limits
"Ragtime" is about collision.
Of cultures. Of classes. Of characters who improbably bump into each other — and into an entire roster of early 20th century celebrities, including Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, Admiral Peary and Evelyn Nesbit.
But "Ragtime," the musical production by Oradell's Bergen County Players, running Sept. 17 through Oct. 15, risks another kind of collision.
"Ragtime" will feature 34 actors — and 9 musicians, on a raised gallery — on a stage that measures 23 feet wide and 25 feet deep. It's one of the biggest ensemble shows they've ever tried to squeeze on their not very large stage.
And that's just for starters. To further try their luck, they've cast in their leading role a gifted baritone who is legally blind.
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But it may be that Ari Mack — of all the cast — is best equipped to navigate that crowded platform.
"I'm actually very lucky to have a really good memory," said Mack, who plays the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr., the ragtime pianist whose fight for justice is at the center of this kaleidoscopic portrait of America in the Teddy Roosevelt era.
"I really do rely on the rehearsal process, muscle memory, and a lot of glow tape," said Mack, who lives in New City in Rockland County. "After a while, you just know where things are, how many steps you take before you're at the end of a platform. Hopefully, it's working like a well-oiled machine, and there are no surprises."
Been there, done that
Mack speaks from experience. He's been on the stage for 11 years, in productions of "A Chorus Line," "Rent," "Of Mice and Men." In The Rockland Shakespeare Company's production of "Othello," he alternated as Othello and Iago. Did we mention he also does choreography?
When director Larry Landsman of Wyckoff first auditioned Mack — whom he'd never worked with — the actor's good reputation preceded him. But news of his vision did not. "He has this beautiful, resonant voice, and I just heard so many incredible things about him as an actor," Landsman said.
Mack did do one curious thing on audition night, Landsman recalled. When handed his "side" — the script pages actors audition with — Mack took a picture of them with his smartphone camera. Later, when it came time to audition, he appeared on stage with no paper in hand. It turned out that the pages, viewed on a lighted smartphone, were easier for Mack to read — and memorize on the spot.
"He has a near-photographic memory," Landsman said. "I didn't realize he was in the process of memorizing it, right then and there."
Mack was easily the best candidate for the key role in the company's 90th anniversary season opener — a show more challenging, both logistically and content-wise, than most. But Landsman still needed to know how this would work. "I had to have this conversation with him," Landsman said. "How do you do this? How do you pull this off?"
He needn't have worried. Mack has been doing it for a long time.
Early start
"It started when I was 7 in church," said Mack. "That's when I got into the acting thing. In high school, I did all the shows there. Once I hit college, I did all the shows there."
His vision issues date back to birth. In recent years, they've gotten more severe. But they never discouraged him from the stage. And — as important — no one else has, either.
"Fortunately that has not happened," he said. "Early in my career as an actor, most people didn't know. But over time, my vision has been getting worse, so I had to tell them."
Even so, he usually takes his time, and chooses his moment. "I guess hiding that card close to my chest has helped a bit," he said.
The inclusive spirit of this casting coup mirrors the themes of "Ragtime" itself — the 1998 Broadway musical based on E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel about how the immigrant Jews, African-Americans and WASPs of early 20th century America interacted in heady, and sometimes painful, ways.
"I would say this show is very timely, with the unrest we've seen in the last two years, the low tolerance that is now more apparent," Mack said.
Soul searching
The show, with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by the late Terrence McNally, also features Owen Sheridan, Kay Koch, Peter Stoffan, Miranda Holliday and Rich Ardito in other key roles. And the entire cast, Mack said, has been willing to do the extra work and the soul-searching that such a project requires.
"We've actually taken on the racial themes of the show, and had team-building sessions where the cast will come together and say, how do we talk about this?" Mack said. "The cast has done a really wonderful job of being vulnerable."
As for Landsman, he's come away with a broadened vision of what he can stage, and how he can cast.
"I've learned that there are no limitation for individuals," he said. "Ari has shown me that you can raise above any limitations if you are passionate, and you have support. This has actually opened my mind, in any future projects, not to limit my vision. It's really opened my eyes to what is possible."
At the end of the day, Mack would just as soon not make too big a thing of his eyesight — or his resourcefulness in dealing with it.
A much bigger challenge for him, as a musical theater performer, is that there aren't enough roles for baritones. "In musical theater, the lyrical tenor is put on stage a lot," he said. "But there are not a lot of roles for dramatic baritones."
Tom Collins in "Rent," the dual roles in "Jekyll & Hyde," are among the good ones. Better yet is Javert in "Les Miserables." That's the prize he has his eyes on.
"I have not done him yet, but I'm on the lookout for that part," Mack said.
"Ragtime," Sept. 17 to Oct. 15, Bergen County Players, 298 Kinderkamack Rd, Oradell. 201-261-4200 or bcplayers.org
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 'Ragtime' by Bergen County Players in Oradell will push limits
