Tony Shalhoub (#274) - June, 2010

"Lend Me a Tenor"'s Tony Shalhoub talks about the challenge of playing farce, including the shifts from rehearsal room to theatre to playing in front of a live audience, how you can suddenly "lose" a consistent laugh, whether the actors ever crack each other up on stage, and why he's lost 20 pounds since starting the run. He also talks about his journey from Green Bay, Wisconsin to the University of Maine to -- with considerable prodding -- the Yale School of Drama; the experience of working in both student productions and with professional actors at Yale Rep during his Drama School days; his continuing education over four years as a member of the company at Cambridge's American Repertory Theatre, under the leadership of his former Yale dean Robert Brustein; his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's gender-reversed "The Odd Couple" -- and why he turned down the role that ultimately went to Kevin Spacey in "Lost in Yonkers"; how he healed after the loss of his own father by playing a yearning son in Herb Gardner's "Conversations with My Father"; why he has appeared twice in "Waiting for Godot", at A.R.T. as Pozzo and for CSC in New York as Didi opposite John Turturro, and why he'd like a chance to do the play yet again; and the continuing "problem" that prompts him to pick up stakes every so often and put himself in the position of starting over again as a novice. Original air date - June 23, 2010.