Maggie Interviews the Stars of Paranormal Activity!

KTWV-FM / 94.7 The WAVE

Paranormal Activity at the Ahmanson Theater is an original story set in the world of the terrifying paranormal activity film franchise. Lead actors Cher Alvarez and Patrick Heusinger join us to tell us about the illusions, the story, who would love to see it and much more.

Transcript

00:00Have you been to the Amundsen Theater recently? Because if not, this is your big chance. There

00:05is a show like No Other Than Now going on through December 7th. It's called Paranormal

00:11Activity. And with us today, we have two of the stars, Patrick Huesinger and Cher Alvarez.

00:17Welcome. Thank you both for joining us.

00:19Hello, hello.

00:20Thank you for having us.

00:21So to start with, without giving away too much, tell us what Paranormal Activity is about.

00:28Uh, I'll lead us off.

00:35It centers around a couple, um, who've just moved from Chicago and are trying to escape

00:43their past, uh, as they explore and try to nourish the first year, the end of their first year

00:50of their marriage.

00:52Okay. You know, that first year of marriage is brutal. That's what they always say. And

00:56it's true. Cause you're trying to get used to everything. My mom told me that I'm like,

01:00come on, it should be the easiest. Oh no, no. So this is a good way to start off the play.

01:05I think, um, Cher, what's your character?

01:09I play Lou. Um, just a woman who's simply trying to navigate and manage the opinions of

01:16her husband and her husband's mom. And I think she's just trying to explore the lies from her

01:23past. And she's currently experiencing them in her present day as hauntings. And yeah, just like

01:30being in space with a lot of secrets. I have a lot of, yeah.

01:35Yeah. How about your character, Patrick?

01:37It's almost the exact same phrase. He's, uh, somebody who's trying to navigate the opinions

01:42of his wife and his mother, uh, as it relates to, to their marriage. Um, and also, also a lot

01:51of secrets that slowly get peeled away as the play goes on.

01:56Now I've heard it's terrifying. Is that true?

02:00I think so.

02:03I do.

02:04Special effects or?

02:06I, yeah, the, we worked with Chris Fisher, who is this illusionist master of his craft. And,

02:14but I also think like really going into the writing of it, Levi Holloway really explores,

02:20I mean, I think marriage and any kind of intimate relationship that you choose to share with anybody,

02:25there's horror behind it, especially if you got secrets, you got lies, you know? So

02:31I think there's a real horror and not really knowing the person that you've chosen to share

02:37your life with. Um, but we have some really cool effects that Patrick can get into. Patrick.

02:45Well, I want to, I want to get right after your question there too, which is, yeah, it is very

02:49scary. The audience screams throughout the play. It's one of the rare experiences in my life

02:54as an actor and as an audience member, um, where you hear the audience collectively,

03:00uh, shouting to the stage, uh, the same way that you go when you're at a movie theater and everybody

03:05kind of crunches into each other for safety. It's very exciting. Um, yeah, this, uh, Tony winning

03:11illusionist we have with us, Chris Fisher, who just came off of doing the illusions. If you saw the

03:17Harry Potter plays or stranger things, which was on the West end and now on Broadway or still is on

03:22the West end, uh, the back to the future, two, two, two, which played the Amundsen, he, he designed

03:27all of those illusions. And it's very exciting the way that, as Cher said, our wonderful playwright

03:33has woven this wonderful narrative and plot into the use of these very practical illusion effects,

03:43uh, to try to, you know, scare up some screens from the audience.

03:48Do you recommend a certain age group, you know, like not under 13 or whatever, just because

03:55of the scary factor? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's rated R. Oh, okay. There's like, I think if

04:05you're like 12 and up, sure, maybe just come, it's such an immersive experience. And that's the thing.

04:11It really takes a different kind of theatrical experience that this creative team is putting

04:17forward into the face of the American theater, you know? So it's, I think it's fascinating. And I

04:23think that there's, um, lots of magic that is willing and wanting to be explored. And I think

04:30it's just super cool, but you will get scared. Yeah. We had kids in the audience in Chicago and it

04:36was, you could hear them screaming. I want to go home. No, I'm kidding. Yeah. I think you're,

04:43my friends are going to bring their kids that are, that are 13 and up, but I think I would use

04:47discretion. Cher's right. I think that I would lean more of the rated R for sure for language,

04:52for the kind of some of the, the, the violence, um, and, uh, and subject matter. It can be very

05:00unnerving. Yeah. I think parents appreciate knowing that ahead of time. Yeah. Um, they're

05:06not that cool. Don't bring your little ones and don't bring your sweet innocence too. Yeah. Yeah.

05:10For sure. Easily scared. Right. Um, were there any challenges in playing your characters?

05:16I think for me, it's really, you know, you're doing eight shows a week and it's a matter of,

05:24um, endurance and discipline. Your body doesn't necessarily tend to know what's real or what's

05:30not real. There's neuroscience behind that. So I think for me, it's definitely like, these

05:36are my feelings. These aren't Cher's feelings or these are Lou's feelings. And like, how do

05:40we compartmentalize that? But I think other than that, there's one illusion that takes place every

05:46night and I'm terrified every night that it's going to go wrong, but I just, that's, that's,

05:51that's the most difficult part for me is like, don't freak out. Don't anticipate, be in it and

05:56trust your scene partner. And it's great. Wonderful to work with. So yeah. How about you, Patrick?

06:03Yeah. A couple of the cast members, uh, Shannon Cochran and Kate Fry in our play are, are,

06:07are legends and really masters of their craft. And they always tell Cher and I, Cher is an

06:13extraordinary actor. And I'm, I'm really lucky to be working with the scene partner who, who is so

06:20talented and has such a, uh, uh, handle on her craft. And, and they tell us we're both climbing a

06:26mountain every night. We really are as far as what we're being asked to do. Um, and just as Cher said,

06:32that endurance complex, uh, I worked with a wonderful actor once in New York who told me,

06:37your, your mind knows it's not real, but your body doesn't. And so it does sort of take a tax and

06:44ask a lot of the two of us every single night. And, but it's, but it's very thrilling. I mean,

06:48because it is the very thing that when you look at a script as an actor, you're like, Oh, I hope I

06:52get to do this on stage one day. Um, and we get to do it. It's really fun.

06:57Have either of you performed at the Almondson? This will be my first time. So I'm very,

07:02very excited and beyond grateful to have us. Yeah. It's a great, it's a, it's always a good

07:07audience there. So yeah. Um, I've seen stuff there a lot. Oh, I'm sorry. I see stuff there

07:12a lot. And I, I worked at the Mark Taper Forum. I did a play. Um, I led a play called Bent, uh,

07:20that Moises Kaufman directed there. Um, and was cast in an Almondson play, but had to leave for

07:26another job, uh, just before it opened. So this is my first time too. I'm very excited. The Mark

07:30Taper is kind of cool, isn't it? It's just so different, you know, like intimate. Um, what,

07:36what do you both hope, uh, people leave with the audience? What do you hope they remember or

07:41how do you want them to feel after? I hope people walk away and they,

07:48for me, this journey has been such a reflection on honesty. And so I hope that that's what the

07:57conversation is on the way back to the car of like, you know, you're walking with your partner.

08:01You're just like, do I tell this person all of these things? How do we make this work? So leading

08:08with honesty is, is really, I think that's the paranormal experience that I think we're experiencing

08:13as a collective right now. So yeah. How about you, Patrick? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love, I always like

08:20to say that I think the audience is going to walk out the door, uh, thinking about the illusions.

08:24There's so many cool effects that really are like, how did this happen? How did, I don't want to give

08:29anything away, but how was someone over here and then they're over here? Um, it's, it's, that part's

08:35very exciting, but then I think people are going to wake up the next morning and be asking themselves

08:41the lingering questions that the play leaves around, uh, this relationship, um, that leaves

08:47around you as a human being, which is ideally, I think what we want theater to do when we

08:52go see it. Um, and anything else you guys in closing want, um, audiences to know before

08:59they go? Come get spooked with us.

09:03You will actually have a genuinely good time. This is, I think for me, at least, um, experiencing

09:13this play, it's, it's such a different kind of theater and I think it's the new face of

09:21theater and it's just so much fun and it's integrating so many different kinds of facets.

09:25So like, just come get spooked, have a good time. It's, you're going to love it. You're

09:30going to love it. How can you not?

09:31Yeah. It's a real blast. Everybody, you know, the really fun part about it that we've left

09:37out is that it's very funny. I mean, people laugh throughout the play. Um, and the playwright

09:43really and the director use humor as a device to kind of, uh, let the tension release because

09:49we don't want to get you one of those horror situations where you feel so tortured. We really

09:54let you enjoy your experience throughout, um, by, by use of comedy and, and, and humor.

10:00Patrick has a really great grasp on the comedy. He is very, very, very funny.

10:07It sounds like a great show. Thank you, Cher Alvarez and Patrick Huesinger. We appreciate

10:12it and look forward to seeing you. Yeah. In paranormal activity at the Amundsen going on through

10:19December 7th. If you want to find out more, you can go to broadwayinhollywood.com.

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