Bev Coscarelli joins the 2nd Act Players ensemble for the first time in our 60 is the New 40 Play Festival, acting in two plays that present quite the acting challenges for her.
Come see Bev along with five other cast members, online Nov. 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7 p.m. For details, check out our 60 is the New 40 Festival page. For tickets, click here.
Below, read Bev’s thoughts on acting, the challenges she faced in the festival and her hopes for the future of theater.
1.How and why did you get into acting?
Vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare” meaning “to call”. With that in mind, the best description I found of my own journey was that one does not choose one’s vocation but simply chooses to STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM IT. I did my share of running, trying to be happy doing other things, but the One who gave me my vocation kept calling me back to where I was meant to be.
2. If you could play any character in any play or movie, who would you pick and why?
Catherine of Aragon I have always wanted to play her as I greatly admired her courage, her faith and her forgiveness of her husband, Henry VIII of England. Shakespeare had written her courtroom speech into iambic pentameter, but the her actual speech as she stood alone, surrounded by those who plotted against her and lied about her, was incredibly articulate, fiery, yet also poignant. Incidentally, I have done a lot of reading and research on Catherine through the years and the Starz channel’s current program, “The Spanish Princess”, is rubbish; don’t waste your time on it.
3. In this festival, how are you tackling the challenge of play multiple characters in multiple plays?
It has been quite difficult as superficially they seem similar; both are widows in their sixties and both are making moves. However in Symphony my character has decided on her own to move to a remote location and in her view finally “make her mark”. In Her Golden Years the character has buried deep the memories of having made her mark years earlier as a teen. What is beautiful in both stories is that the daughters and mothers clearly love one another and the daughters come to see their moms in a new light by the end of both one acts.
4. What are your hopes and expectations for theater in a post-Covid world?
I play two mothers in two separate one acts so I shall quote my own mother quoting FDR. Whenever a thunderstorm, the neighborhood bullies, or an upcoming test frightened me, Mom would gently but firmly remind me that “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” She knew fear could lead quickly to paralyzing panic.
Man is meant by his very nature to be in relationship, and theatre is all about man and relationships. Plagues have temporarily closed theatres throughout the ages but, we cannot ever again allow ourselves and our vocations to be deemed “non-essential” and give in to the paralyzing panic my mother warned me of so many years ago.