With the talent, versatility, excitement and strength he brings to his roles on stage and on TV, the part of the perennially excited and infatuated George Tesman, in the acclaimed Broadway production of Hedda Gabler, is perfect for Michael Emerson.
Emerson first jumped from obscurity to "overnight stardom" with his extraordinary performance Off Broadway in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. More recently, he won acclaim and an Emmy last season for his recurring role as the piercingly cold "might-be" serial killer William Hinks on the top-rated ABC-TV series, "The Practice."
Emerson's first love is the stage, but the attention he garnered from Gross Indecency and, two seasons ago, for his work in the ensemble of the Tony-nominated revival of The Iceman Cometh, as the poetic attorney fallen on hard times as a skid-row alcoholic, has given him a nice financial cushion and high visibility. He says his current role as Hedda's academic but ever-boyish husband in the new adaptation of Ibsen's classic by Jon Robin Baitz is a dream come true. Already there are predictions of a Tony nomination.
Before Broadway (Ambassador Theater), Emerson starred opposite Kate Burton and Harris Yulin in an ensemble that includes David Lansbury (the recent Bway Major Barbara) and Angela Thornton (An Ideal Husband) at Sag Harbor, Long Island's Bay Street Theater, Boston's Huntington Theater Company and the Williamstown (MA) Theater Festival.
"I haven't worked without Kate in over two years," says Emerson. "Before this, we did the Brian Friel play, Give Me Your Answer, Do at the Roundabout. This project actually grew out of that. Kate and I got along famously and, one night, we were having a conversation backstage. She said something offhand about what I thought of Hedda Gabler. She said there were plans afoot to do it the following summer, and I said, 'Oh, I'd like to be in on that.'"
Though there's a huge volume of Ibsen in his dressing room, Emerson doesn't consider himself an expert on the Norwegian's plays. "I sort of avoided Ibsen," he laughs. "I'd read Hedda because, years ago as an undergrad, I played Eilert Lovborg [Lansbury in the new production]. I was just dreadful. I was terribly earnest and serious."
This adaptation by Baitz and director Nicholas Martin was first performed in Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse in 1999, in a different production starring Annette Bening. Emerson says the text, "is extremely accessible for contemporary audiences. You feel you know these people. This translation was and wasn't a surprise. I like it. There's nothing radical about it, because Jon Robin Baitz worked off a line-by-line literal translation. It's the same lines as in Ibsen's original. It's the idiom Jon chose. It's now more American than English." Emerson believes that choice accounts for the smoothness and immediacy of the language in this production. It also leads to some unexpected audience response.
"We hear a lot of laughter," noted Emerson. "People have this expectation that Ibsen is going to be this dour, angst-ridden, cold Scandinavian event. They don't want to give Ibsen his due as a scathing social observer and wit. The play is full of wit, and that's Ibsen, not things that Jon Robin Baitz added. Between Jon and our director Nicholas Martin, they've highlighted that and turned it into a much more entertaining play. There is no less tragedy in it. It just gives us somewhere to go."
Emerson is delighted to be working with Burton again. "I adore Kate. She's the most easygoing, fun-loving person. We've gotten along famously. With her, the work has taken care of itself without a lot of hand wringing and psychoanalysis. Even when we're working hard, it's fun. Nicholas Martin created a wonderful atmosphere. Our rehearsals were so high-spirited that it was like a party. That's a wonderful way to work, even in such a deep, dark play."
He added that, after the luxury of doing the play for such a long time, the company is "like a family. We -- Kate, Harris, David, Angela and our newest addition, Jennifer Van Dyck -- look forward to the work and to seeing each other."
Emerson, now in his mid-40s, took a circuitous road to "fame." As a farm boy growing up in central Iowa, mid-way between Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, he got hooked on acting accidentally. In high school, says Emerson, "I joined the speech club, not the drama club. I always gravitated toward language. I loved debate. We'd got to district and state contests, and I sort of excelled in extemporaneous speaking and humorous declamation. In other words, I was a ham!"
It was in college that those skills made him a desirable candidate for campus productions, which he did on a lark "until I was totally consumed by the acting bug." After four years of theater courses in college, "I couldn't get to New York fast enough," he laughs. "I was ready for Broadway. Unfortunately, Broadway nor Off Broadway nor Off-Off Broadway was ready for me! I couldn't even get a job as a spear carrier!
"I thought I was too big for Iowa," he adds, "but found New York too big for me. New York was all I ever dreamed of and, when I finally got there, I never pursued my dream. I was too busy trying to survive."
For ten years, it was all he could do to barely eke out a living. "I worked every -- and I mean every! -- job imaginable, dozens of them in the theater district, until my interest in theater evaporated." Emerson relocated to Florida, where after work, he was extensively involved in every aspect of community theater: designing scenery, acting, directing. "Eventually came commercials and training films," he says. "With that, I made half a sensible person's living."
The actor traveled the South in his pickup truck, "becoming everyone's favorite non-union journeyman gypsy actor in classic repertory. When I'd 'gone about as fer as I could go,' I knew it was time to try New York again."
But Emerson says he didn't want to endure what he had in the past. "I decided I was either hitting New York cold, which wasn't a terribly appealing prospect, or I was going to find an MFA program that would allow me to mix with professionals and a higher grade of directors."
He says he wanted to test to see how good he was and to expand on what he'd learned and experienced regionally. "Basically," he relates, "I wanted to get a fresh perspective on myself." Emerson was accepted into the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's University of Alabama-sponsored Master of Fine Arts/Professional Actor Training program.
He found the idea of having a "monastic theatrical experience" appealing. "It was an opportunity to leave the world and get focused on intellectual pursuit. However, I was 38, and felt like the world's oldest graduate student."
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival MFA program takes place at their state-of-the-art facilities in Montgomery rather than on the main campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. It is an 1-month program. Eight students are accepted annually on full scholarship plus a stipend. All become members of the ASF acting ensemble in addition to rigorous study disciplines (workshops in stage combat, vocalizing and commercial technique) six days a week.
For two years, Emerson says, "I was immersed body and brain in every aspect of theater. In fact, they ran me ragged. There were no breaks, no holidays, no nothing. Just voice training, movement, technique classes on how to deliver the classical texts, fight training, theater history courses, everything. Classes were from nine in the morning to noon, then we had a one-hour break. Rehearsals for the current production were from one to five, with performances from seven to eleven.
"You had to apply yourself not only with dedication," says Emerson, "but also dedication to the work ethic. It was absolutely intense but also absolutely incredible."
Eventually, he starred in productions as varied as The Crucible, Othello and The Way of the World. After graduation, Emerson returned to New York to appear in the annual ASF showcase "where you hope a few agents will attend and show interest."
He met an agent who took him on a non-exclusive basis "and I stayed, ready to fight the good fight in earnest."
Ironically, he got his big break on his own. Emerson heard that Moises Kaufman, a playwright/director/teacher and (founder and) artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project (The Laramie Project), was auditioning actors over 35 for a reading of an Oscar Wilde play.
"I was familiar with the Wilde plays," states Emerson, "had even acted in a couple -- and could do a credible British dialect."
Kaufman, was about to give up on finding the right Oscar when Emerson walked in off the street. He was cast after the first audition, "but it took two-and-a-half years to make it to Off Broadway." And stardom came on a fluke. "Moises produced on a shoestring budget. Even then, we had first-class costumes and sets. He splurged a bit to hire a veteran Broadway/Off-Broadway publicist who loved the production so much that he began writing letters to The New York Times' chief drama critic to come and review Gross Indecency. "In a miracle of miracles," Emerson continues, "the Times bought the idea and broke precedent by having their first-string Broadway critic review an Off-Off Broadway showcase. We were a bunch of grumbling, out-of-work actors hoping to find agents, but, thankfully, we rehearsed as if it was Broadway."
The Times review was a wave of raves, and audiences packed the tiny theater. The showcase was extended and then secured producers to move it to the Minetta Lane Theater off Sixth Avenue, where it became the sleeper of the season and a long-run box-office champion.
"My life changed forever," Emerson says. "I knew it would never be the same. Who would have thought that one role in a tiny showcase would net such amazing recognition and press? It was dazzling and pretty dizzy. I overcame the stress and settled in to do the best I could. When it got overwhelming, I'd just go home and hide."
Emerson was offered movies and a big-money role on Broadway "but I decided to stick with the show. After all, where would I find another part like Oscar Wilde? It was what every actor dreams of. And how often does the dream come true? I was happy. I had a regular paycheck and was finally able to quit my day job (which he kept until well after the Off-Broadway opening)."
He went on to do Gross Indecency in San Francisco and Los Angeles to equal acclaim. Finally able to afford to buy a ring for his long-time sweetheart, Carrie Preston, another benefit of his Shakespearean training and whom he married three years ago. He and the Georgia-born Preston met performing together in the South. (Preston is featured this season on the NBC sitcom "Emeril." Moviegoers will recall her from "The Legend of Bagger Vance," "The Cradle Will Rock" and "My Best Friend's Wedding." On Broadway she played Miranda in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Tempest that starred Patrick Stewart.)
Emerson's recurring role of the serial killer on four episodes "The Practice" had quite an impact on TV audiences. "I'm still recognized on the street, for better or worse. He was a rather chilling character, and some are still uncomfortable with William. Ironically, like the character himself, I was never sure if William was a serial killer. It was the topic of much discussion among the actors and the director. I'm not sure David Kelley had it sorted out in his mind."
Emerson was unemployed at the time "and just happy to get an offer to work on a top-rated series. The part was well written. It was only to have been one episode, and then, as we began to work, Kelley got excited and kept writing and writing." It also gave Emerson quality time to spend on the West Coast with his wife. Now, with Preston West and Emerson East, theirs is a bi-coastal marriage. "The nice things about sitcoms," Emerson says, "is that they shoot three weeks and then take a week off. So, guess who'll be flying to New York every three weeks!"
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