The positive reception Joseph Giani got from the parish of Grace Van Vorst Church encouraged him to do a production of Waiting for Godot, by Noble Prize-winner Samuel Beckett.
"Earlier in the year we did a Moliere play which was a comedy and got a very good response from the parish members," said Joseph Giani.
With the positive reception, Giani decided to make play productions at Grace Van Vorst Church, located 39 Erie Ave., an ongoing project.
Last Wednesday night, a group of five male actors, all either members of the Grace Church or friends of members, began final rehearsals for "Waiting for Godot." The play will performed at the church from June 19 to 21 at 8 p.m. in the church sanctuary.
"We got a small grant from the Episcopal Archdiocese of Newark, which gave us the chance to do the last show of the year," said Giani. "I was an English major, so I was drawn to the classics."
In Beckett’s two-act play, two bums, Vladimir and Estragon, argue, eat lunch and contemplate suicide while awaiting the arrival of Mr. Godot. Giani believes the play has a lot of appeal to people in the Van Vorst Community and relevance to the world in general.
"A number of the people in the neighborhood are artists or actors," explained Giani. "We have so much talent around here that this play has a lot of appeal. Godot is a lot of peoples’ idea of good theater."
All five of the cast members in Godot are from the downtown area or the Heights section. Four of the leads are also professional actors. Christopher Reed, who plays Vladimir, hadn’t looked at the play in a long time and remembered it being shorter.
"When Joe first asked me to be in the play, I thought it was just one act," said Reed, a native of Pennsylvania, who has lived with his wife and children in Jersey City since 1997. "Then I saw it was pretty long."
Undaunted, Reed applied himself to the play and feels he has the part down.
"The play deals with issues about human existence, what life is about, and things like that," said Reed. "You have to be sensitive about how you play the part."
Reed has worked as a professional actor in both New York and London before moving to Jersey City. During that time, he studied at the famous Actor’s Studio in Manhattan. Working with Giani and the other cast members, Reed found he was able to balance what he saw as the elements of humor and pessimism in the play.
"As an actor, there is a physical aspect to the humor in the play," stated Reed. "The Actor’s Studio can come off as very serious, but the play has an aspect of silliness to it."
Walking the fine line between Godot’s serious and comic facets was something Giani worked on. Noting that the 1980s Broadway version of Beckett’s play that stared Steve Martin and Robin Williams in the lead roles, Giani and the performers decided to steer the middle course between the two aspects of the play.
"My memory of the play was of how dark it was," Giani explained. "When I read the play again, I found myself laughing out loud. There is a lot of physical and verbal humor written into the play."
Jim O’Connor, an eight-year resident of downtown who plays Estragon, found doing Samuel Beckett different from his usual line of work.
"I host a television show on the Food Channel called ‘All American Fest," explained O’Connor. "Doing the play is different from being a television show host, which is very light-hearted."
Along with the Food Channel program, O’Connor has had bit parts in movies like "Sweet Home Alabama" and hosts another cable program in Manhattan called "Everything in New York," a weekly program devoted to the "best of everything" in New York City.
O’Connor said he got his start as a television show host in the mid-1990s with a program called "USA Live" on the USA cable network.
"It was what you call a ‘wrap-around’ show," said O’Connor. "We would be on for little intervals between shows like People’s Court and Love Connection. We’d be drinking coffee and interviewing celebrities."
The guests ranged from Tony Randal and Judge Wopner to Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island.
"We interviewed a lot C- to D- level stars," O’Connor added.
"It’s different doing a Beckett play from hosting a TV program," O’Connor said about preparing for the part of Estragon. "As a TV host, you have to make sure the village idiot can understand what you’re saying. If people don’t understand, then they’re being excluded, and exclusion is not good television."
Noting that a production of Waiting for Godot is a little more complex, O’Connor added, "If people buy a ticket to Beckett, they should know what they’re in for. If they don’t, they soon will."
Playing the parts of Lucky and Pozzo, a pair of master and slave vagrants the protagonists run into during the course of the play, are Joe Fellman and Mat Amory. Amory, like O’Connor and Reed, is a father of young children. In his case, his two-and-a-half-year-old baby son Hunter has been very helpful in teaching him how to act.
"Sometimes I’m at a loss on how to deal with my son," explained Amory. "But he has been a good teacher of commitment and dedication. If he doesn’t get the cookie or treat, it’s the end of the world."
That kind of dedication, for Amory, is what acting is all about.
For tickets and information on Grace Van Vorst Church’s performance of "Waiting for Godot," call (201) 659-2211.