For me, Old Love is an exploration of what it is to be a man. I'm lucky to play three men in the show: first and foremost Bud, but also Arthur and Arthur Junior.
Truth is, I've spent my whole life pondering manhood. It's something I've never taken for granted. My own dad died when I was five, which left me to learn the manly ropes on my own. Even in my sixty-third year, manhood for me is a work in progress.
I sense that Bud's experience is similar. He speaks of his dad just once: it was his dad, he says, who gave him the nickname Bud "and it just stuck." But the spirit of his dad hovers over him throughout the play. Bud's real name is Lionel, but, he says, "I haven't been Lionel since I was ten." With the exception of a moment when he sits in his office and tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade the grumpy secretary Shirley to call him Mr. Mitchell, he always insists on being called Bud. I think this is more than mere chumminess. I think it's a subtle way he honors and connects with his dad.
Bud says several times, moreover, that he was 'taught' the value of hard work, and surely it was his dad who did the teaching.
I know I'm drawing on my own experience here, but I have the sense that Bud lost his dad when he was just a teen. Really he and I are not that different.
So Bud has come to manhood on his own -- he's had no-one to guide him. He's ventured forth tentatively and through trial and error, but always with integrity and perseverance. And he's done well. He's become successful his way, forged his own life. And if this has made him 'slightly off-kilter', well, at least he's been true to himself.
A psychologist once told me that boys who lose their fathers early tend to retain a boyishness even as they age. They tend to be attentive, eager to please. And while they may not be the kind of men every woman wants, there are nevertheless women who find them very appealing indeed.
I'm just riffing here -- trying to tie Bud's experience to my own. I mean, this is what an actor does -- he seeks the parallels and analogies between the character and himself. I love Bud's kindness and compassion, the fact that he is one of a kind, not like other men. Certainly he is unlike his boss Arthur Graham (a part which, incidentally, I also play). Bud is not the warrior, the alpha-male. He is his own person, quirks and all.
As I probe his depths further, I'll write again.
Nicholas Rice
Truth is, I've spent my whole life pondering manhood. It's something I've never taken for granted. My own dad died when I was five, which left me to learn the manly ropes on my own. Even in my sixty-third year, manhood for me is a work in progress.
I sense that Bud's experience is similar. He speaks of his dad just once: it was his dad, he says, who gave him the nickname Bud "and it just stuck." But the spirit of his dad hovers over him throughout the play. Bud's real name is Lionel, but, he says, "I haven't been Lionel since I was ten." With the exception of a moment when he sits in his office and tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade the grumpy secretary Shirley to call him Mr. Mitchell, he always insists on being called Bud. I think this is more than mere chumminess. I think it's a subtle way he honors and connects with his dad.
Bud says several times, moreover, that he was 'taught' the value of hard work, and surely it was his dad who did the teaching.
I know I'm drawing on my own experience here, but I have the sense that Bud lost his dad when he was just a teen. Really he and I are not that different.
So Bud has come to manhood on his own -- he's had no-one to guide him. He's ventured forth tentatively and through trial and error, but always with integrity and perseverance. And he's done well. He's become successful his way, forged his own life. And if this has made him 'slightly off-kilter', well, at least he's been true to himself.
A psychologist once told me that boys who lose their fathers early tend to retain a boyishness even as they age. They tend to be attentive, eager to please. And while they may not be the kind of men every woman wants, there are nevertheless women who find them very appealing indeed.
I'm just riffing here -- trying to tie Bud's experience to my own. I mean, this is what an actor does -- he seeks the parallels and analogies between the character and himself. I love Bud's kindness and compassion, the fact that he is one of a kind, not like other men. Certainly he is unlike his boss Arthur Graham (a part which, incidentally, I also play). Bud is not the warrior, the alpha-male. He is his own person, quirks and all.
As I probe his depths further, I'll write again.
Nicholas Rice
