‘Bluebirds’ to Premiere at Guild Hall
Joe Brondo, author and co-star of “Bluebirds,” which will open a six-performance engagement at Guild Hall on Friday, Feb. 20, did not grow up dreaming of a life in the theater. An East Hampton native, he was obsessed with computers while in high school. “That was all I did, I was always hunched over my desk,” he recalled. “I was kind of a class clown, but on the weirder end of the spectrum. I wasn’t the super-popular goofball.”
After graduating from East Hampton High School in 2000, he enrolled at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, now the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, studying computer programming with an eye to software design. After two years, though, he decided he wanted to be a writer. “It sounds kind of romantic to be a writer, because it’s just you and the page — but I never really did it.”
What he did do was take a playwriting course with Robert Reeves, who now, as associate provost of the Stony Brook Southampton Graduate Arts Campus, leads the development and expansion of graduate education in creative writing, theater, film, and visual arts. “I didn’t do exceptionally well,” Mr. Brondo said. “I kind of enjoyed the acting side of it more.” He transferred to the Southampton campus and finished his degree there before embarking on an acting career.
“In 2005 I went into the city hard-core. I was going back and forth, and I wasn’t that talented. I had high aspirations, and I had this deep passion. I found agonizing scenes very easy, but just having a conversation in a scene I found very difficult. And that, of course, is the meat and potatoes of acting.”
Mr. Brondo enjoyed some success “for the level of talent I was at.” He earned his equity card and secured a job doing improv at the Jekyll and Hyde Club in Manhattan. “It was fun for me because I didn’t have to remember lines. I had always been comfortable standing up and being the goofball.” He was commuting back and forth, but gradually spending more time in East Hampton, helping his parents in various ways.
Around the same time he got a job at Guild Hall, first moving old equipment during the theater’s renovation, then as receptionist, then working with the database, which utilized his computer skills. He was performing locally as well, with the Naked Stage and other companies.
“I wanted to get into the city to act, but I really liked Guild Hall and I didn’t want to leave and let them down. Plus, I was making money for the first time in my life. I started buying stuff, and you get caught in that trap where it’s nice to have some income,” especially as he was married by then, to Jennifer Cohen. They had met as Southampton College students working together on the musical “Follies”; she is now the general manager of the John Drew Theater.
After several years at Guild Hall, Mr. Brondo “wheedled my way into the theater department and stayed.” He is now its assistant technical director.
He always harbored “illusions of grandeur” to someday make a living as an actor, he said, “but in order to do that, you have to act. You have to do something and not dream about it.” He kept going to auditions, both here and in the city, and felt his acting was improving, although he wasn’t having much success.
During the summers the job at Guild Hall was full time, so city auditions were out. “I went up for stuff out here but didn’t get anything. I was feeling depressed, wondering where my life was going. I wished something would come along and just change my life, even though I know that doesn’t really happen. So I wrote ‘Bluebirds’ with that in mind.”
The play focuses on a married couple, played by Mr. Brondo and Sophie Vanier, whom he met while taking a master class in acting with Alec Baldwin and Michael Disher. Walt, the husband, accidentally steals a rare copy of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” signed by its author, L. Frank Baum. A year later, after the death of the owner, he decides to sell the book, but Sarah, his wife, wants no part of it. The disagreement leads to a night of recriminations and revelations. “Unlike Walt, Sarah is the kind of person who believes you have to earn everything on your own.”
“Bluebirds” runs 75 minutes with no breaks or set changes. Mr. Brondo began writing it in June after a frustrating year of back-and-forth auditions, often taking a 4:45 a.m. Jitney and returning the same day. “Now I don’t have time to audition. But, to be honest, I like this — writing — better.”
Ten days after starting to write the play he had 35 pages that he gave to Josh Gladstone, the theater’s artistic director. “He liked it, so I begged him for a slot in the J.D.T. Lab so I could get it on its feet.” The lab is Guild Hall’s ongoing program of free readings that provide support for new plays and performances.
After three months of rehearsals and rewrites, the play had grown to 65 pages. The September staged reading drew an enthusiastic audience of 150.
For the upcoming production, Mr. Brondo is not only acting but directing and doing the set design, sound design, even the poster. Sebastian Paczynski, the theater’s technical director, is doing the lighting, “because he’s amazing.” Sybil Lines, Megan Minutillo, and Kate Mueth are associate directors.
Mr. Brondo is committed to remain on the East End. “I said to Jennifer a few years ago that if I can live in East Hampton, make ends meet, and work on good material with good actors, I don’t care about being on Broadway. And now I find that’s actually true.” If he is able to take “Bluebirds” elsewhere, he said, he will happily do so. Meanwhile, he has begun a new play and has treatments for 10 others.
Performances will take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2, through March 1. Tickets are $15, $13 for members.