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Luke Macfarlane: Perhaps best known for playing Scotty on the hit ABC series Brothers and Sisters, Luke Macfarlane has reached the point where he has an ardent fanbase who track his every professional move through the typical avenues of digital age celebrity fetishism. His latest production, however, is a step away from the glitz and glamour of big studio television, as Luke Macfarlane lands in Poughkeepsie to embark on a one-man-show: Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir Macfarlane was wholeheartedly enthusiastic about being away from Hollywood, stating that his time with Powerhouse was “a bit like being in a monastery. I really enjoy the chance to get into myself.” Sticking with the monastic theme, he told me “money doesn’t equal passion. There are many passionate people in small theatre. Television has a tendency to be extremely technical for an actor, whereas theatre is truly alive” The production of Sam Bendrix has an incredibly organic air about it. Macfarlane met writer Keith Bunin at the off-broadway nonprofit theatre, Playwrights Horizon, back in 2006 when he worked on Bunin’s The Busy
Top: Adam Rothenberg, Bottom: Luke Macfarlane
rest of the cast were only a week away from the play’s premiere, proving an opportunity for me to understand an actor’s method that late in the process. “It’s about where my attention should be at certain moments,” he says, “and you’re constantly discovering things. That comes from digging deeper and deeper into the text and figuring out what the person is trying to do.” This isn’t Rothernberg’s first time at Powerhouse (“I did A Steady Rain up here four years ago, which was a great experience, and then last year, they asked me to come up and do a reading and I guess they liked me”), and if Rothenberg has his way, he’ll continue to do theater performances for years to come. When asked if he prefers live performances or TV, he says, “I prefer the work of theater and the pay of TV. Theater is war; you have to survive it every night.” Luckily for us, Rothenberg’s a survivor.