Sunday, August 17, 2008
A+E, In this Issue..., Theater

The Spotlight Awards

SP's annual roundup of the very best of local theater

Lead Actor: DAVID KRONAWITTER in "The Poetry of Pizza" (Theatre in the Square)

Photo: Jason Mallory

David Kronawitter’s amazing breakthrough as a romantic Kurdish refugee in "The Poetry of Pizza" calls to mind any number of show-biz clichés.
 
Like the one about the "overnight sensation”—who’s only been plugging away at it for eight years: The 34-year-old Atlanta native graduated from Florida State and spent a few years in L.A., but he’s been back here since 2001.
 
Or the one about an actor’s rags-to-riches, boondocks-to-Broadway rise through the ranks: He started out doing shows with suburban community groups like Kudzu and Big Top, starring in plays like "Closer" and "Hamlet" for edgier little companies that came and went, and finally landing some smaller roles on the professional level ("Mary Stuart," "Take Me Out").
 
Of course, aside from the fact that it seemed to come out of nowhere, what made Kronawitter’s performance a revelation was that his character never felt like a cliché, when it so easily could’ve been another oddball foreigner, some Borat- or Benigni-esque "personality." As Soran Saleen, a dislocated pizza-maker in Copenhagen who falls for a touring American poetry professor (Agnes Harty), Kronawitter brought a natural and engaging charm to the role that was utterly believable and relatable.
 
The enormity of it all—such an undeniable showcase for such an unsung actor—wasn’t lost on him. "Hands down, best theater experience ever," he submits. "I was surprised Jessica [Phelps West] even wanted me for this part. It’s not like she’d seen me do anything like it before. Nobody had seen me do anything like it before. Everything about the show just fit together and worked perfectly—good script, great director, all of the right actors in all of the right roles. For me, personally, it was also a chance to really prove myself, but in a way that was just the icing on the cake." (The sweet Soran couldn’t have put it more humbly.)
 
Between stage jobs, Kronawitter has found success on the movie and TV front, too. On the big screen, he played an anchorman (with breaking news about Madea, no less) in "Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns." And in last year’s season premiere of "Prison Break," he was in the pivotal opening scene (as a U.S. consulate), clips of which were used in all the commercials. "It was pretty exciting to keep seeing my face on Fox for two or three weeks," he notes with a laugh.
 
"Whenever folks ask me what I do, and I tell them I’m an actor, the first thing they always want to know is, ‘What have we seen you in?’" he recounts. "I can rattle off all the theater credits I want, but mention I did ‘Prison Break’ or ‘Meet the Browns,’ and suddenly I’m legitimate!"
 
Whether "Pizza" alters the grand scheme of his career remains to be seen. For his part, Kronawitter confesses, "You know what I’d like? With my look, I’m usually cast in a lot of ethnic roles, and I completely understand that. It pays off in some respects, when you get cast because of it. But sometimes, I’ll think, I grew up here. I get the whole Southern culture and mentality. I consider myself as much a good ol’ country boy as anybody, you know? I want to be that guy."—Bert Osborne 
 
 
HONORABLE MENTION:
 
MATT FELTEN in "Valhalla" (Essential)
JON HAYDEN in "Diary of a Madman" (Metropolis)
CHRIS KAYSER in "The Merchant of Venice" (Georgia Shakespeare)
THOMAS PIPER in "Doubt" (Alliance)
DANIEL TRIANDIFLOU in "Expecting Isabel" (Synchronicity)