Performance - September, 1998

Published: April 24, 2008, 8:57 p.m.

The panel of performers talk about their training and when they decided to become actors. Power Plays co-stars Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss talk about working together at Northwestern. Both Billy Crudup (Tony winner for The Coast of Utopia) and Dana Reeve (More To Love: A Big Fat Comedy) pursued Master of Fine Arts degrees in order to teach as well as act. In England, Roger Rees (Nicholas Nickleby, for which he won a Best Actor Tony) trained primarily by observation. Two-time Tony Award-winner James Naughton (for City of Angels in 1990 and Chicago in 1997) discusses the Blue Light Theatre Company, started by his son Greg Naughton, where Billy Crudup is in Oedipus. The panel also discusses what they've gained from working with brilliant directors, being both director and actor, and preparing for auditions.