Exclusive Interview: Care Nagle and Russ Schwartz of Rosedale Community Players' 'Eyes to the Stars'

Why are so many fascinated with space? Is it because of its untapped potential as the final frontier? The vastness that extends past galaxies and superclusters filled with the promise of other planets with life just like Earth? Whatever it may be, so many people turn their eyes to the stars in wonder, a wonder that Rosedale Community Players are bringing in their sci-fi adventure stage show! The stage is set for Eyes to the Stars, and ahead of liftoff, we spoke to two of the crew members aboard the SS Resurrection, Care Nagle and Russ Schwartz, about their mission to save humanity!

In this exclusive Box Seat Babes interview, Nagle and Schwartz talk about the journey that Eyes to the Stars has taken since its beginning. Developed initially as a virtual theater show during the COVID-19 pandemic, Eyes to the Stars is finding new life on stage. Blending technology with a traditional theater experience, this play is pushing the boundaries of what audiences can expect. These brave space rangers have been on the mission since its inception and discuss how the show has changed and challenged them. How do these two find their characters? What messages from space speak the most to them? Give this interview a listen to find out all those answers and more!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thank you so much for joining me today.

(00:01):
How are you two doing?
Doing good, how about you?
Doing all right.
How about you, Russ?
How you doing?
I'm alright, thanks so much.
I appreciate you both taking the time from your busy rehearsal schedules to be here.
um How has the rehearsal process so far for Eyes to the Stars been so far?
It's been awesome.
uh I think the very first day there was a bit of a...

(00:22):
ah It was its own type of special thing, uh its own type of special fun, and just like awake up because we've, you know, the show developed at a virtual theater and so actually
getting to like walk through scenes uh for, you know, character that I've known for a fewyears now was...

(00:44):
uh
It just felt incredible.
Care to help out for you?
How's that process been so far?
Yeah, no, it's been really cool.
um I've had a bit of a unique experience with the original version of the show because Iplayed the ship's AI system, so I wasn't on screen except for the intermissions.
So my rehearsals tended to entail my video camera being off and just like turning on mymicrophone to say lines every so often.

(01:08):
I didn't really get to play off of the cast as much or really, you know, see how they wereplaying off of each other as much.
It's been really cool to be in the space and like actually see everybody playing off eachother.
I get to appear on stage this time, so I do get to do some playing off of the othercharacters.
And it's just fun.
mean, the cast had great chemistry even when we were just virtual.
And just being in the space and us having known each other for three years has just...

(01:31):
I don't know, shown how well that's been going even after all this time.
So for those who may be unfamiliar, and Russ we'll start with you, what's kind of thestory of Eyes to the Stars?
So the story is uh that you have three astronauts who need to make it to Titan.
uh to bring back uh resources that are going to rejuvenate Earth.

(01:53):
uh It kind of assumes that we're still on our destruction path ah and is sort of aspeculative, well, what's someone going to do about it when the time comes?
And uh so that's sort of the path, but along the way, then there's all the jillion thingsthat can go wrong when you're on a multi-year space mission.

(02:14):
uh And uh so the real meat of the story is sort of about the characters, uh the way theyrely on each other and fight with each other and uh find ways to keep moving.
It kind of sounds like this story while it is like balances the sci-fi and something likethat, but it's pretty much a very character driven story.

(02:35):
Is that true?
Yeah, yeah, no, this is the story of an AI system that's constantly getting broken by thepeople who are supposed to be running it correctly.
And no matter what she tries, she just can't get fixed.
No, but no, no, it is very much a character driven story.
I mean, the adventure is definitely an appeal.
There isn't a ton of sci fi theater that you see being done a lot lately.

(02:56):
So it's very cool that we have a lot of those sci fi elements in there.
We have a lot of the technology incorporated, but
The reason to keep watching the story is the relationships of the characters.
It's wanting them to get home and get back to their families and survive.
It's a heavy story.
I mean, it seems like a heavy story from the outside.
And you said you're playing the AI system, correct?

(03:19):
What is that character to you?
Or like, who is that character?
So, MAI uh stands for Mission Artificial Intelligence, and originally it was a reallysmall role, it was just meant to, they almost did voiceover for it, just like a recording
of it, and it kind of turned into getting to give a little bit of character to what istechnically a non-sentient system or whatever.

(03:45):
um The role got expanded a bit for the stage version of the show, and we get to meetanother AI system actually too.
um
when we get a little further in the story and I play that one as well.
So it's fun developing the difference in those two characters as well because technicallythey're the same program but they get to have a little bit of different like personality

(04:05):
and such to them.
even in the virtual version, then the amount of character that MAI had really came throughand was sort of the breakout.
I feel like to people who saw the show, they just loved the hell out of MAI.
The entire concept of the character and also a lot of the stuff that Care added and someof the fun kind of games that this...

(04:33):
that this company plays with the idea of having an AI character, uh interactiveintermission stuff, then I feel like that made MAI a lot more than a prop, which I think
can be a uh potential trap of having a robotic or non-human character in your script.

(04:57):
I think when it comes to sci-fi too, it's very interesting when you have characters likethat.
I always think back to like 2001 a Space Odyssey or even like Interstellar where thesecharacters sometimes are the villains, sometimes they're like the, they're, they have such
like a comedy to them that you can really have like a blank slate when it comes to havinglike an AI character such as that.
Russ, where are you playing?
So my character is mission specialist Nathan Baskin.

(05:20):
um He is a...
uh So he has all kinds of technical proficiencies that are there for the mission, but he'salso a film buff and...
uh
he is the kind of guy who just uh randomly there's always this track of old movies playingin his head and these references pop out.

(05:45):
And uh that was really unfortunate for me to read as an actor because I'm like, it's sohard to play people who are like me in that way.
uh And so I think that a big balance that we've been trying to do is to say, where is uhthat aspect of his character that's
relatable, that's not a gimmick that doesn't just sort of reduce him to a schtick becausehe's, I think he is also kind of uh the, sometimes the class clown of the group, but

(06:19):
they're in constant life or death situations.
And so the other balance, one thing I love about Baskin is that there's always the sort ofteether totter of tension and the need to uh release
and to express themselves.
So with a character like that, and Care I'm going to ask you the same question as well,but I want to start with Russ.

(06:42):
So when you're kind of developing a character such as that, and you kind of mentioned thathe could easily become a shtick, how do you develop that character?
How do you see that on a page and then determine how you're going to present that onstage?
So the first thing for me is always playing the stakes.
Okay.
uh the situation that that person find themselves in, you know, a human being confrontedwith, man, we're running out of oxygen.

(07:08):
Like, you know, your priorities have to be in order.
But uh I think in Aaron's script, the playwright is Aaron Osgood, there's a whole lot ofmeat in the relationship between the characters and how they, uh evidence that you get
about them and how that comes out.
For example, like from beginning to end, the Baskin,

(07:30):
at Riley, is uh another astronaut who's played by Ashley Croft.
They're sniping at each other and uh fighting the entire time.
uh And you learn a lot about who they are by the way that they fight.
uh And they both react differently to uh the boss, Commander Fields, who is Jenny KellyPittman.

(07:54):
uh
they both take orders differently.
They both have different relationships.
You know, they push back in different ways.
And from there, then you, know, from, me, that's what I start building on to say, youknow, what are the most important things about Baskin?
What do you need to know about him in this moment?
And, you know, what is going to develop as the stress increases and as the mission goes onfor months, years, uh and the stakes keep on getting higher.

(08:23):
What I love about that answer is that it's not only just about who the character is, butit's all about the relationships as well that he's developed with all these different
people.
All of which is super important, obviously, but that's, again, some of that work thatmaybe you don't even see, you're not verbally saying, but you're seeing on stage.
Yeah, and that's the information that the script gives you.

(08:43):
I think particularly when you get this lovely bonus of working with a writer who, I mean,she wrote the original script and we had some back and forth with her on it.
And then when she was updating the script for this format, then she kind of had us inmind, uh which is a cool feeling.

(09:05):
And there's just...
uh
Having someone who is uh having the opportunity to build it around those relationships andto build with, uh have like a collaborative role in the voice of the character is uh such
a privilege.
It would feel wrong not to wring every last drop out of it.

(09:28):
And it seems like that would make for more authentic performance if you're able to reallyhave a collaborative approach to developing this character.
Yeah, except again, then there's some things about Baskin that I find too relatable.
And I'm like, okay, I need to create some distance just because having Russ in space isprobably not the, it's not the show that I want to do.

(09:52):
uh It might not be the most fun choice that we can make.
I want to add to that, that it is funny the kind of roundabout way that the casting wasperfect from the get-go, because the characters were written like Riley is a sarcastic,
you know, kind of hero complex type character, and Baskin is a movie buff who, you know,the thing's about to die and he's gonna quote Spock, right?

(10:17):
So it's funny how that's the way they were written, and then Russ and Ashley, and then ofcourse,
Crimson is played by uh Jenna Pittman and also does a fantastic job taking on theleadership role.
But so the characters were written the way they were and the actors were cast into rolesthat the communication style of the characters fit them so well that then when Aaron was

(10:38):
writing with the actors in mind, it didn't change them all that much.
Like it was still very much in line to the point where like, know Russ, you were
suggesting your own movie references for some of the scenes.
You're like, actually, I think this would be a great place.
to include this quote and it's almost written that way anyway so like