#actor : raúl esparza

[dadsinsuits]

Raúl Esparza

[callixton]

have i mentioned that this is like. top 3 musical performances from him. cannot even describe the way it affects me but it's probably best it stays in my head anyway.

[willgrahamsbecoming]

Brother every time I open your blog I shed a tear. This is a masterpiece (no fucking clue what it means)

pitraúl <3<3 i love him. he jumpscares me every time i open my blog

[aengusnatureking]

Happy birthday to the amazing Raùl Esparza.

[majorbaby]

trapper x trapper.........

[babymadeofbones]

i made this pic in october of last year bc i was "ironically" obsessed with rafael barba but i wasn't actually obsessed with raúl esparza until january of this year, therefore i consider this image my proof of concept for my hyperfixation

[ragneda-r]

I wish I had this link earlier.

Here are all Raúl's roles in TV shows that mention every episode. No need to check wiki of every series anymore!

[pattytasm]

Raul Esparza - Company - Report - The New York Times

Breaking Character for the First Time in His Life

By Joyce Wadler

Nov. 26, 2006

THOSE who have doubts about the pressures that only children in immigrant families face just need to see Raúl Esparza imitating Mother. That’s mother with a capital M because Mr. Esparza’s mother, born in Cuba and shipped out at 14 to make her own way in the world, is theatrical and bossy enough to be a Sondheim character herself.

Consider that Mr. Esparza, just turned 36, is the star of “Company,” one of the most anticipated Broadway revivals of the season. It doesn’t even open till Wednesday, and already Mother is on him about the next step.

“She says now you’re going to have to get some work in a TV show,” Mr. Esparza says in his dressing room, taking a break from the stuff that is tearing him apart, though of course this is part and parcel of the stuff that is tearing him apart. “I said, ‘You don’t mean that.’ What I’m hearing is: Your name over the marquee in a Sondheim show on Broadway is not enough. And you kind of internalize that.”

He’s laughing, riffing: “Well, I guess I could be king of France, ’cause it’s not good enough to be the president of the United States. I’m going to orbit Mars. Why not three times?”

“Company”: The story of Bobby, a charming single man, who is unable to commit to a relationship and who may have questions about his own sexual identity.

Raúl Esparza: No longer truly married but not entirely separated, whose romantic conflicts go far deeper than that of the character he plays and have no easy fix.

His dressing room suite is done all in beige, the better to soothe. To make it more so, Mr. Esparza dims the lights. There’s the comforting sound of the little electrical waterfall and Bill Evans’s mellow jazz, though how much this helps is difficult to say. Broadway denizens may remember Mr. Esparza for a confrontation with Rosie O’Donnell when he had a featured role in “Taboo” and she was the producer, but there’s no hint of a difficult guy now.

You meet instead a funny, self-deprecating man who arrives in jeans and an old sweater and kicks off his shoes. He starts out a little fast and nervous; joking about his star dressing room; saying that in Cincinnati, where he won raves for this production earlier this year, his character wore Hugo Boss and here he wears Armani, not that he can see the difference. He talks about those windows to the actor’s heart, the photos on the makeup mirror. That’s the grandmother who raised him; that’s Michele, whom he married at 23, on their honeymoon.

But he gets to the stuff that’s been tearing him up, the stuff that most leading men would never discuss, pretty early, almost as if he wants to make a public statement. He’s been reading a book that suggests sitting quietly for 10 minutes a day and just seeing what feelings come up, he says, and “basically, there’s a lot of sadness underneath, sadness and anxiety.”

Image



Raúl Esparza, who plays Bobby in the new production of “Company,” says the emotions raised in the musical have a particular meaning for him.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Why is that?

“Michele and I are separated,” he says. “It’s the end of something I thought was going to be perfect. She’s my best friend, I’ve known her since high school.” They’ve been separated, on and off, he says, since he came to New York in 2000; they even went for divorce papers once, in Miami, but couldn’t go through with it. He can’t get away from the feeling that he’s doing something wrong, disappointing other people, particularly their families.

“Life has been very complicated,” Mr. Esparza says. “I’ve been very unsure of things since I came to New York. I was terrified that I would never work here, that I would be starving and useless. Then all those things that happen to an actor. Issues of sexual identity too.”

He says those issues, which first arose in college, “shook the core of who I was.”

“So many artists I admire are bisexual,” he says. “I knew a lot of gay men growing up. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it as long as it was someone else, but not me.”

Mr. Esparza grew up in Miami. His father was an engineer, from a family of engineers; his mother was always working, as interior designer, banker or travel agent. The family moved a lot, and his parents fought. Mr. Esparza’s maternal grandmother, America García Pell, moved in with the family when he was 5, and it was she who provided unconditional love. Mr. Esparza attended the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, which stressed service to the community. He liked girls. He wanted to be a lawyer. But while still in high school he started acting professionally, and his parents encouraged him to pursue that. Perhaps because they had lost so much leaving Cuba, he says, they understood that life was short and you should do what you love.

Then he went to New York for his sophomore year in college and everything changed. He fell in love with a male instructor at New York University, a composer, who was only a few years older. After Mr. Esparza graduated, it was this instructor who helped him get an audition in Chicago at the Remains Theater Company, which resulted in a job.

“He was tough and impossible and manipulative and brilliant and really inspired and believed I’d be a big star,” Mr. Esparza says.

Was he in love with this man?

“Yeah, I think I was very much,” he says. “The best thing about him is he made me feel like a great person, no matter what I was doing. He didn’t seem to feel gay or straight was much of an issue.”

Mother, however, very much did. She discovered the affair by reading his journal when he was home on vacation and demanded Mr. Esparza see a therapist.

“He told me my mom would be better off visiting him,” Mr. Esparza says. “He also said he thought I’d be successful, no matter what happened in my life, but that something was wrong with my mother prying in my life.”

Mr. Esparza did not appear entirely comfortable with the experience himself. Two years after graduating, in 1993, he married his high school girlfriend. And, like the character he plays in “Company,” he was able to distance himself from difficult emotional entanglements.

Image



Raúl Esparza, leaning against the piano in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Company."Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“There was a part of me that was trying to get rid of it,” he says of his relationship with a man. “That was saying: ‘That was interesting, that was part of me, but it’s not all of me. I choose, because I love this woman, to marry her.’ It was a little bit naïve of me: That was then, that’s that city, that was an experience and wasn’t that interesting back then? When the truth is, it’s not a person, not a place, not an experience. It’s you, who you are.”

In 1998 his former lover killed himself. Less than two years later, after starring in a 20th anniversary tour of “Evita,” Mr. Esparza came to New York — alone. It was a move he felt he had to make, but had resisted, for years.

Had the death made it safer to come back? “Yes, yeah,” he says. “It also made me look long and hard at myself about all the things I had been hiding from now, and not just about gay/straight, man/woman. I also realized that if I didn’t come to New York, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.”

He was terrified. But talking about it now he recalls an actor who told him that when you’re doing a play and you’re afraid of a scene, that’s the scene you should embrace, because that’s the scene that will tell you something about the play. Or, in this case, something about yourself. Still, those first months in Manhattan were awful.

“I couldn’t get arrested,” Mr. Esparza says. “I didn’t have any furniture. I had an apartment on 44th Street, sleeping on an air mattress. I had to sleep with the TV and lights on, I was so scared of the dark.”

What did he see when the lights were off?

“I saw this guy, one time, at the foot of the bed laughing at me,” he says, even now not using the words boyfriend or lover. “This dead man, my friend who had killed himself. He was rotten in the dark, laughing at me and how unhappy I was.”

His days were also depressing. Getting coffee at the Marriott Marquis, he saw some actors he knew from “Evita” who were working on Broadway. “I was embarrassed to go say hello because I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have a home, my marriage wasn’t the way I wanted it,” he says. “I just stood there with the coffee like there was a wall between me and them.”

Six months later he landed a job in “The Rocky Horror Show” and he was on his way: in the Off Broadway musical “Tick, Tick, Boom!”, for which he won an Obie; in two Sondheim shows at the Kennedy Center in 2002; as the male lead in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” in which, as he’ll tell you, the real star was the flying car.

Then came “Company.” John Doyle (who directed last season’s minimalist “Sweeney Todd”) offered him the role after their first meeting, without even hearing him sing. The casting director, Bernie Telsey, says the lead had to be someone whom all the characters are “a little bit in love with — only if it was love as in really like.” Mr. Doyle prefers to say that Bobby is the character to whom everyone is drawn, “not in the romantic sense, but as a catalyst.”

“Bobby is the man who is on the outside looking in,” he explains. “What’s interesting is that he’s observing, not doing.”

Image



Mr. Esparza in the musical "Taboo" in 2003.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

As for Mr. Esparza himself, he says: “I think the real thing that Bobby is going through is that he’s trying to grow up, and that means accepting things you can’t change, and it also means that in spite of all the messiness and failure you make a choice to love someone and live your life in the way that’s right for you. It’s messier than the pretty picture you painted for yourself. I had a romantic idea of what it means to be an adult: all husbands and wives who love each other get to stay together forever, love is enough.

“There’s a song in the show, ‘Sorry/Grateful’: ‘You holding her thinking you’re not alone/And you’re still alone.’ I remember with Michele one day holding her in bed and being very, very sad because we were talking about things that were so difficult for us to deal with. I remember feeling like this was a chasm between us. That the person I most loved in my life was as far away as another country, and there was nothing I could do or say to change.”

Mr. Esparza is now involved with an actor — nothing he can talk about, it’s still too tenuous, he says — but his wife is still in his life and, he says, he still adores her.

“We’re still trying to figure a new way to figure it out,” he says. “Boy, are we.”

Mr. Esparza and the man he plays have something else in common: the many people telling them how to live their lives. With his father it’s business advice; with his mother it’s professional. There are friends who still tell him that he and Michele should get back together.

“All this chatter, and I invite it in,” Mr. Esparza says, laughing. “I’m the one who says, ‘You are cordially invited to come to Raúl’s house and tell him everything that is wrong with him.’

“And I just did it to the readers of The New York Times. I’m only now learning not to issue an invitation. I can say you are not allowed to comment on my life.”

How is his family dealing with his sexuality these days?

“Dad doesn’t talk about it,” he says. “Mom used to really hate me for it, call me names and get ugly, but she doesn’t do that anymore. She wants me to be happy.”

Mr. Esparza spoke earlier of embracing the scene that scares you. In “Company” it’s the climactic moment when Bobby sits down at the piano and sings “Being Alive.” And yes, that’s the only thing Mr. Esparza can play on the piano. It’s tough both because of the song’s familiarity and his character’s emotional breakthrough. But he’s also had a rough time with “Marry Me a Little,” which was cut from the original 1970 production.

He talks about the contrast between the rhapsodic music of that song, “which alone can bring tears to your eyes, and laid over it these practical lyrics.” He recites them:

Oh, how gently we’ll talk, Oh how softly we’ll tread.

All the stings, the ugly things, we’ll keep unsaid.

We’ll build a cocoon of love and respect

You promise whatever you like

I’ll never collect.

“It seems so practical,” he continues, “It gets me right in the gut. I know what that’s like, to be in a relationship and know there is something seriously wrong here, but I don’t want to acknowledge it, because if I do I’ll have to talk about it. Let’s not talk about it, and it’ll be all right. And you know what? It can be all right for a long time and not just all right, great. And then one day, you’re not.”

[wwemcumuscleslover]

LAW AND ORDER SVU A.D.A MALE....

Raphael Barba

Peter Stone

Dominic Carisi Jr

Play by the amazing actors

Raúl Esparza

Philip Winchester

Peter Scanavino

[fanchonmoreau]

Broadway/Broadway-adjacent actors who should definitely guest star on Elsbeth, in no specific order

Patti LuPone Martin Short Vanessa Williams Hannah Waddingham Jonathan Groff Nathan Lane Leslie Odom, Jr. Bebe Neuwirth Donna Murphy Andrea Martin Neil Patrick Harris Alex Newell Tituss Burgess Rachel Bloom Tova Feldshuh Andrew Rannells Benjamin Platt (but only if he can act with his Parade wife Michaela Diamond) Raúl Esparza Stephanie Hsu Santino Fontana Cecily Strong Sandra Oh Wayne Brady J. Smith Cameron And finally... Lin-Manuel Miranda but only if he plays himself and is also the murderer

[thatchronicfeeling]

It has come to my attention that it's Period Drama Appreciation Week 2023. I love period dramas and grew up watching them. They have been a formative part of my life and I'm now too disabled to watch video. Even gifs are too difficult for my brain to process. It is also Bi Visibility Week and I'm posting this on Bisexual Visibility Day. Since I can't safely post a pile of gifs, here is a list celebrating actors/characters/moments from period dramas that have been significant to my bisexuality. [Yes, this is a big list. I am missing out on watching and re-watching A Lot of awesome period dramas and I hate it. This list is helping me reclaim a bit of joy. Also I've probably forgotten some favourites and may update this.]

Lori Petty in A League of Their Own

Jodhi May in any period drama

Mary Wickes in any period drama

Freddy Honeychurch in A Room with a View

Anne Hathaway playing cricket in that rust-coloured dress in Becoming Jane

Esther Summerson (disabled heroine!) & Allan Woodcourt in Bleak House

the freshly-painted yellow cabin door swinging shut with the names 'Calam & Katie' painted on it in Calamity Jane

the sequence where Doris Day sings 'Secret Love' in Calamity Jane

Michelle in Derry Girls (and James too, a wee bit)

George Eliot & Lenore in Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party

the moment where Emma and Mr Knightley start dancing together and it feels like you're inside the music in Emma

Polly Waker's haircut in The Enchanted April

Matthias Schoenaerts in Far From the Madding Crowd

Idgie & Ruth in Fried Green Tomatoes

Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack

recognising Marian Lister as a bisexual who hasn't realised it yet in Gentleman Jack

Mary Agnes McNue in Godless

Bel & Freddie in The Hour

June Allyson leaping over a hedge (or is it a fence?) as Jo March in Little Women

the Patricia Rozema adaptation of Mansfield Park

the whole sequence where Judy Garland strides onto the neighbours' porch to sock The Boy Next Door in the jaw in Meet Me in St Louis

Katie the cook in Meet Me in St Louis

the moment where Benedick braces his arm against a doorframe in a desperate panic to stop Beatrice from going to eat Claudio's heart in the marketplace in Much Ado About Nothing

Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing

Mr Thornton's hands (ok, and also his face) in North & South

tomboy Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay

Valentine in Parade's End

all of Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Papi in Pose

Lizzy Bennet declaring that she would never marry someone she did not love in Pride & Prejudice

Mr Darcy diving into a pond in Pride & Prejudice

both Angel and Joanne in Rent (the 2008 broadway version)

Martha the maid in The Secret Garden

Lelia Walker in Self-Made

swashbuckling Margaret Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility

the dance sequences in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

the whole Thomas Kent situation in Shakespeare in Love

Maria (when she is not a nun) in The Sound of Music

Kitty Butler onstage in Tipping the Velvet

Annie and Janette and Jacques and Linh in Treme

Audra McDonald and Anne Hathaway and Raúl Esparza in that promotional photo for Twelfth Night

Julie Andrews and her male co-star singing a version of 'Home on the Range' with the line 'and the deer and the antelope are gay' in Victor/Victoria

Justine Waddell in Wives & Daughters

[littleoddwriter]

Rules, Guidelines, etc.:

[Used to be: ronaldrx]

I'm a hobby writer and mostly write (x Reader) FanFictions and Headcanons. But I am also working on my original story whenever I can, so that I’ll hopefully publish it as an actual book someday. My Ao3.

Here’s a link to my Ko-Fi, in case you want to support me financially. It would mean a lot to me! (Obviously no obligation whatsoever! You never have to pay for anything on my blog, it’s merely an option for donations.)

Also, here are my sideblogs if you’re interested:

Dead Poets Society

Horror

Raúl Esparza

The Simpsons

Only ask for the characters I’ve got listed, please. I’ve written down all of the ones I actually write for, and the list is being updated regularly, as I often find new (actors, whose) characters I write for! (And yes, I always write for every character, so don’t ever worry if you wanna ask for one I haven’t written for in a long time, or ever, it’s fine!) Please always be patient with me. If I haven’t outright declined your request, it’s definitely in the works; even if it has been weeks or months since you’ve sent it in! And only send your requests via ASKs. No DMs or comments, please.

If you have a request, send an Ask to my inbox.

NO sexual NSFW requests, please (more details further down).

Requests = CLOSED (Max. Limit: 10)

Current number of requests: 10

Last updated: October 29, 2023

Masterlists are linked with fandoms/actors/characters below. I WRITE FOR:

ALFRED MOLINA characters:

Doctor Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus

DAVID DASTMALCHIAN characters:

Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man

Bob Taylor

Denham

James Lewis

Johnson

Kurt Goreshter

Lonny Crane

Murdoc

Philippe/Abra Kadabra

Simon Lynch

Thomas Schiff

ETHAN HAWKE characters:

Arthur Harrow

Ellison Oswalt

Goodnight Robicheaux

James Sandin

EWAN MCGREGOR characters:

Alex Law

Catcher Block

Christopher Robin

Curt Wild

Dan Torrance

John Bishop

Mark Renton

Obi-Wan Kenobi 

Roman Sionis/Black Mask* (Birds of Prey - Masc!Reader only) [Any other version of Roman Sionis/Black Mask can be with a Gender Neutral/Female!Reader.]

HUGH DANCY characters:

Adam Raki

Cal Roberts

Luke Brandon

Executive ADA Nolan Price

Will Graham

KARL URBAN characters:

Billy Butcher

Black Hat

John Kennex

Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy

Markiplier EGOS:

Darkiplier

Illinois

Wilford Warfstache

Yancy

PAUL DANO characters:

Alex Jones/Barry Milland [Platonic only!]

Dwayne Hoover [Platonic only!]

Edward Nashton/The Riddler

Eli Sunday

Jay (Okja)

Joby Taylor

Klitz

PEDRO PASCAL characters:

Agent Whiskey

Dave York

Dio Morrissey

Eddie

Ezra

Francisco “Catfish” Morales

Marcus Moreno

Marcus Pike

Max Phillips

Maxwell Lord

Oberyn Martell

Ricky Hauk

RAÚL ESPARZA characters:

Bobby

Dr. Frederick Chilton*

Jackson Neill

Jonas Nightingale

Rafael Barba

Characters from 9-1-1 (Lone Star):

Carlos Reyes*

Eddie Diaz

Evan “Buck” Buckley

Howard “Chimney” Han

Josh Russo*

Mateo Chavez

Paul Strickland

Bobby Nash

Tim Rosewater

TK Strand*

Characters from Law and Order(: Special Victims Unit):

Detective/ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi, Jr.

Sergeant Mike Dodds

Detective Nick Amaro

Executive ADA Nolan Price

ADA Peter Stone

ADA Rafael Barba

Deputy Chief William Dodds

Little Miss Sunshine:

Dwayne Hoover [Platonic only!]

Frank*

Our Flag Means Death:

Edward Teach/Blackbeard*

Frenchie

Izzy Hands

Stede Bonnet*

Prisoners (2013):

Alex Jones/Barry Milland [Platonic only!]

Bob Taylor

Detective David Loki

Renfield (2023):

Count Dracula

Robert Montague Renfield

Tedward “Teddy” Lobo

SLASHERS/Horror Film Characters:

Asa Emory/The Collector

Ash J. Williams [I will usually default to Ash from the TV show, unless requested otherwise!]

Billy Lenz (1974)

Billy Loomis

Bo Sinclair

Brahms Heelshire

Bubba Sawyer/Leatherface (TCM 1974 and TCM 2)

Charles Lee Ray/Chucky

Chop Top Sawyer

Corey Cunningham

Dewey Riley

Drayton Sawyer

Herbert West*

Jesse Cromeans/Chromeskull

Lawrence Gordon

Lester Sinclair

Luigi Largo

Mark Hoffman  

Nubbins Sawyer

Pavi Largo

Stu Macher  

Vincent Sinclair

William Easton

Star Wars:

Anakin Skywalker

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Qui-Gon Jinn

The Girl Next Door:

Klitz

Eli

Characters from The Simpsons:

Cecil Terwilliger*

Fat Tony

Frankie the Squealer

Grady*

Jack Lassen

Johnny Tightlips

Julio*

Legs

Louie

Moe Szyslak

Ned Flanders

Otto Mann

Seymour Skinner

Sideshow Bob

Sideshow Mel

Snake Jailbird

Timothy Lovejoy

Waylon Smithers*

What We Do in the Shadows:

Anton (Movie)

Deacon

Guillermo de la Cruz*

Laszlo Cravensworth

Nandor the Relentless

Viago

Vladislav

* Please note that an asterisk (*) means that these characters are Male/Masc/GenderNeutral!Reader only (including non-binary, of course). Platonic relationships with Female!Reader are possible, but no romantic ones.

If it’s a character that is open to all Readers, and you do not specify in your request what you want, I’ll usually opt for a Gender Neutral Reader by default.

SHIPS, such as:

BlackBonnet (OFMD)

SteddyHands (OFMD)

Black Pete x Lucius Spriggs (OFMD)

Buck x Josh Russo (9-1-1)

Dracfield (Renfield 2023)

Buddie (9-1-1)

Eli x Klitz (The Girl Next Door)

Nandermo (WWDITS)

Herbert West x Dan Cain (Re-Animator)

McKirk (Star Trek: AOS)

Oluwande x Jim Jimenez (OFMD)

Barisi (Law & Order SVU) 

Renfield x Teddy Lobo (Renfield 2023)

Sickrent (Trainspotting/T2)

Stobotnik (Sonic Movie)

Tarlos (9-1-1: Lone Star)

AnderPerry (Dead Poets Society)

ZsaszMask (Birds of Prey)

Lastly, I would like to add things I will NOT write (about):

Sexual NSFW fics/headcanons (I used to write those as you can see in my Masterlists, but I have my reasons for not writing them anymore. Any hints at sexual topics are fine).

Anything related to death as the main subject (this includes deadly diseases, anything fatal, really, etc.).

Anything that romanticizes Mental Illness (my Vent Fics about my own disorders obviously do not romanticize any of it and I do not stand for that).

(Recreational) Drug Use

Extreme Possessive Behaviour and/or Jealousy

Yandere

If you have something you would like me to write for, but you do not see it listed anywhere, please ask me before requesting it, so we can talk about it. I hope you enjoy yourself on my blog and have a good time!

My Asks and DMs are always open for any questions or simply to talk!

- Jesse

[snapeysister]

It occured to me that being emotionally obsessed with / invested in admiring celebrities (in my case as a straight woman - male), for instance to an extent of reading fanfics about characters which clearly are connected closely with the actors, creates a little of a weird cognitive dissonance feeling for me, who is actively in a romantic relationship (and about to marry soon) 🫣

As in, I am in full time swooning mode over Raúl Esparza (Rafael Barba, SVU), and another favourite actor, Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander). Including making up imaginary stories, exploring...fantasies... Frankly, I feel conflicted ..😬

Anyone else experiencing this phenomenon?

[aengusnatureking]

Raùl Esparza as Kevin Mulrooney in law and order Criminal intent.

[lumiereandcogsworth]

Your top 5 actors/actresses?

hmmm. okay. i’m gonna give you 5 actors and 5 actresses >:)

dan stevens (not a crush, he’s like my grandson)

dev patel (very much a crush)

tom hiddleston (started as a crush but now i just think he’s a very neat guy)

meryl streep (that’s my mom)

raúl esparza (big crush)

zendaya (one of my first crushes. my sexual awakening, even)

anne hathaway (that’s also my mom. my ageless, goddess mother)

trevante rhodes (i have such a big crush on him it’s ridiculous and i can’t think about him for too long because i get all giggly like a schoolgirl)

marishka hargitay (MOM)

gugu mbatha-raw (crush. potential wife??)

[intosnarkness]

List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material.

Tagged by @dreamtigress

Musical Theatre. You want history starring my boyfriend Inigo Jones and his designs for Masques? You want actors in the last 20 years who I think should kiss me on the mouth? (Raúl Esparza is first, I will fight all of you.) You wanna talk about my theory about how the OBCR of Rent changed the way cast recordings were engineered? You wanna hear about Sondheim and recitative? Wanna talk about shows I’ve seen in NY and elsewhere and why I think the staging for the 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd starring Michael Ceveris and Patti Lapone was some of the worst garbage I’ve ever seen outside of the opening and closing vignettes that framed it as Toby’s memory? Wanna talk about opera and minstrel shows and ballet and the American Musical? I got you.

Magical Realism. I have been thinking about Pedro Paramo again recently and how it changed the way I write and conceptualize stories, but also how Latin American literature in general is so underrated and I will gladly do a dissertation on memory and lost documents as a motif in Like Water for Chocolate and Chronicle of a Death Foretold as a metaphor for colonialism and erasure of culture.

Adult education and instructional design with an eye towards technology in training. This is my job, and if you want to know how I decide what ideas we pursue in terms of VR modules, I will gladly tell you.

Judaism, specifically the kind I grew up on (American, Conservative) and how it grants a unique worldview that you can understand perfectly by answering the question of “why are Aziraphale and Crowley the protagonists of Good Omens when they literally thwart God, which is not what a Christian Protagonist should ever ever do.”

Literature in general. My undergrad was in stage management and creative writing, and I will talk your fucking ear off about any number of niche topics like “what is that painting in the inn in Moly Dick about and is she really offering them cod or clam chowder as a joke about their genitals” or “Telemachus Sneezed: a line that haunts me” or “Why Jane Eyre is a realistic woman and Daisy Miller is an ideal woman” or my niche theory “Hamlet and MacBeth are a duology about how neither a warrior nor a poet can handle cosmic horror.”

This was much harder than I thought it would be. Most of my long discussions with Nat tend to be improv runs on things like what the birds are putting in Pip Weekly, the fictional newsletter the cardinals in our neighborhood are writing, and “nonsense” didn’t seem like a good faith answer.

Tagging anyone who wants to play.