ANDY DRACHENBERG: What is at the heart of the story of You Can’t Take It With You?
WILL BRILL: You Can’t Take It With You is a play about people committed to having fun, and definitely puts out a very beautiful and strong message (particularly for New Yorkers), which is to relax, be easy on yourself, and be kind to yourself. It’s about a family (and some people who are not blood-related but who are part of that family) that lives together and are all deeply invested in having fun for their livelihood. This is a message that should be shared with everyone forever and always, because it’s a connotation that we very easily lose sight of. When you live in a city like New York, where people work so hard all of the time, it’s important to sit down, relax, and, enjoy what other people are doing and in that, feel inspired to enjoy yourself.
AD: What was your first encounter with this play?
WB: My very first encounter with this play was in high school when a lot of my close friends were doing it. Unfortunately I couldn’t see it because I was in a production at the same time. I remember it was tremendously heartbreaking because I heard that it was so funny! I heard about it many times over the following years, and then I started thinking about it a lot when I was doing Kaufman and Hart’s Act One at Lincoln Center. So, suddenly I had this new vision and understanding of it because I was seeing the play through the eyes of the guys who had written it. That was a really beautiful and enlightening experience.
AD: Who is your favorite character in the show and why?
WB: Part of me feels like I would be cheating on Ed if I didn’t say that he was my favorite character. And there is a lot about Ed that I love so much. His one great desire in life is to make his wife happy and to enrich her passions. He spends the majority of his time printing and playing the xylophone to bolster Essie, which I think is just such a beautiful and endearing trait –he’s really a wonderful guy in that way. But I also would not be true to myself if I didn’t say that I love Kolenkhov so much. I think he is such a funny character, particularly the way that Reg Rogers brings him to life is truly something to behold. It is so fantastic and so much fun to watch this zany guy take over the room with so much intensity that is so authentically him.
AD: Who is Ed, and what is it about him that appealed to you?
WB: Ed Carmichael is one of the three people in this house who decided to come to this place and make their life there. Ed has come into this house and really wholly embraced being a member of this family that loves to love, to be happy, and to be easy on themselves, while at the same time really spending their time doing things that they’re passionate about doing and that they love sharing with the world. I think everybody could use more Ed Carmichael in themselves because it is just so rewarding to do something that is wholly for somebody else and at the same time doing something that you love to do.
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AD: What qualities of yourself do you bring to your character, Ed?
WB: The greatest joy that I get in theatre rarely has to do with how much money I’m making or how high-profile the project is, the greatest joy that I can get is by making my close friends and family laugh and by working with people that I really love and want to spend time with. I think that is a quality of myself that has become one of Ed’s most important traits and is now very present in him.
AD: Do you have a personal experience from your friends/family that relates to You Can’t Take it With You?
WB: Well, my home when I was growing up was this two story house, and all of the bedrooms were upstairs and there was a den downstairs in the basement. That den became a place for so many friends and family members to congregate: during Thanksgiving it was the kids’ room and every other day of the year it was the kids’ room also. Friends were over there all of the time, and my parents were so good at fostering this place where everybody was welcome and you could stay for days on end. That was very special and also very true to the Sycamores. I think Grandpa Vanderhof would be proud of that sort of thing.
AD: What would you take with you?
WB: Well, I don’t want to give away where that sentiment comes up in the play, but things you can’t take with you really run the gamut. From my own experience as a displaced Californian, when you leave your home, there’s only so much you can take with you. You can’t have those people you love, but you can take those memories and feelings for the people you love with you. And that’s the idea of this play is that there’s this fantasy world- that is very possible and that we should strive for- which is that place of happiness, calm and joy. To try and take that with us… that is really the goal.
WILL BRILL (Ed Carmichael). Broadway: Act One. Barrow St. Theatre: Tribes (OCC nom.); Our Town. Other: Restoration Comedy; Ephemerama (Exit, Pursued by a Bear and Shelby Company; also founding member). TV/Film: Not Fade Away, King Kelly, Beside Still Waters, Muckland, “Louie”. Education: CMU, Jim Shelby, CMTSJ.