Sunday, June 08, 2008
A+E, Theater, Reviews

As he likes it

An older Brad Sherrill settling gracefully into supporting roles

Bill DeLoach
Carolyn Cook and Brad Sherrill in Georgia Shakespeare’s 2004 production of “What the Butler Saw.”

By Bert Osborne

Brad Sherrill’s days of playing virtuous young lovers and heroic leading men for Georgia Shakespeare may be behind him, but the 46-year-old Atlanta actor is hardly past his prime. As content now with occasional supporting characters as he ever was during his prolific reign on the local theater scene of the ’90s, Sherrill hasn’t slowed down so much as he’s redefined his focus. Physically as well as philosophically, it seems, he’s aging gracefully.
 
“After 20 seasons [with GS], the roles themselves don’t really matter. For years, I did just about every young lover there was, so it’s nice to be older and letting others do that,” Sherrill concedes with a smile during a recent lunch interview. “I was 40 the last time we did ‘As You Like It,’ probably the oldest Orlando in history. At that age, how believable can I be as someone who’s falling in love for the first time or still trying to find his way in the world?
 
“There’s a danger in playing similar roles, doing the same things, only in different costumes,” he continues. “Interesting directors and concepts help circumvent that, but there’s always the risk of overexposure. The longer it goes, the more I worry that audiences will get sick of seeing me. That’s another reason I like hiding in the crannies of the smaller parts.”
 
In this summer’s repertory, he’s cast as a trio of “minor baddies”: After two turns as Orlando in “As You Like It” (1990, 2001), Sherrill now portrays the “threatening” Frederick; in “The Merchant of Venice,” he reprises his “unappealing” Salerio from the company’s first version (1994); and in “All’s Well That Ends Well,” he’s the “lying coward” Parolles.
 
“Sometimes, I’ll get a great role like Claudius [in 2006’s “Hamlet”], but at this point I don’t have much left to prove, so I’m more willing to jump aboard whatever the director’s vision is, to try almost anything. It’s about making my characters work for me, making choices I’ll enjoy playing. Otherwise, I’m just going through the motions, and I don’t like that,” Sherrill explains.
 
Indeed. Outside of GS, he spent the ’90s as one of the city’s busiest, most reliable leading men. (He cites “Rescue and Recovery,” “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” as favorites.) Even so, he recalls, “I found myself getting tired of going from one play right into another, adding up the paychecks, fixating on where my next job was coming from, saying ‘yes’ to stuff I really didn’t care about,” he says. “I had stopped responding to a lot of the work itself.”
 
So Sherrill turned to the Bible—literally—and conceived a staged reading of “The Gospel of John.” Since 2001, he has performed it (to popular and critical success) more than 500 times across 40 states, and he recently returned from a tour of England and Ireland. Sherrill says the experience has moved him in personal and spiritual ways that his “regular” theater career rarely did. (Of late, those appearances are limited to GS and a periodic Alliance “Christmas Carol.”)
 
What his one-man show can’t give Sherrill is the “challenge and reward” of acting alongside other GS ensemble members like Chris Ensweiler, Chris Kayser, Tess Malis Kincaid, Joe Knezevich, Park Krausen, Daniel May and Allen O’Reilly. “It’s like having a big family reunion or going to summer camp every year,” he offers with another smile.
 
“We’ve been through a lot together. Putting up three Shakespeare shows in six weeks can be crazy, so it really helps to have a core group of people who’ve already established a relationship,” Sherrill notes. “One of the things I love most about acting is that moment-to-moment interaction, working with good actors and directors who are only going to make you better.” SP
 
“As You Like It” opens on June 13; “The Merchant of Venice” on June 27; “All’s Well That Ends Well” on July 11. The shows continue in rotating repertory through Aug. 3. For more information, call 404-264-0020 or visit www.gashakespeare.org. SP