felt that the more times you see it the more you come to understand it.” Atlanta is the 11th city the 23-yearold Canadian will see on this tour that, he says, has given him an interesting view of the regional morals of America. Washington, D.C., embraced the show. Kansas City, Mo., was silent, with a lot of walkouts. Denver was very appreciative but very quiet. Austin, Texas, “really connected” with it. Fort Myers, Fla., seemed polarized, with some audience members loving it and others being shocked by it. “It’s really interesting,” Epstein observes. “In movies and TV, sex is a main topic. [However,] when you are talking about it onstage, it can make people very uncomfortable. “I always feel like we’re doing a good job when people get offended,” he says. “It’s not a bad thing to think outside the box sometimes. We’ve had walkouts, we’ve had things shouted to us from the audience. People have written or talked about how they relate to a character. During sex scenes you hear gasps, approval, disapproval. Some people will laugh uncomfortably. But that’s kind of the point of the play.” 12 EncoreAtlantA.com
As Melchior, he is rarely offstage. His favorite moments as an actor change constantly because the play, he says, is “really alive and different from night to night.” Currently, he enjoys a pivotal moment between his character and Wendla that leads to the song “The Mirror-Blue Night” and all of his scenes with Moritz, calling them fun because Melchior and Moritz are best friends who love each other and have each other’s backs but are very different people. And he enjoys the joyful “improvisational modern dance” that Moritz and Wendla do backstage before the final number, celebrating as the 2½ -hour show nears its conclusion. And about those rock-concert-worthy microphones? Think of Melchior, Moritz and company as “everyteens,” caught (as were all were) in the dramas of our own adolescence. Like teenagers everywhere, they are rock stars in their own worlds. Kathy Janich is an Atlanta theater artist and freelance writer. After more than 20 years in daily newspapers she has found a joyous second career as marketing coordinator and dramaturg at Atlanta’s Synchronicity Theatre.