David Marshall Grant’s biggest moment of fame, so far, probably came when he was glimpsed partially nude, in bed with another man, on network television.
His semi-regular role as Russell on “thirtysomething,” and in particular his scene with co-actor Peter Frechette, broke ground and caused a short-lived stir. “As far as I can tell, it was the first time on network TV in which two gay characters were seen together in bed,” Grant says.
Grant’s acting career has gone on-he’s an Air Force lieutenant colonel in the recently released film “Forever Young,” starring Mel Gibson, for instance. But he’s now in Chicago-but not as a performer, as a writer. His new play, “Snakebit,” gets its world premiere Feb. 7 at Remains Theatre.
“Snakebit” is a production with a cat’s cradle of backstage twists and ironies. It’s written by an actor, getting his first full-fledged production as a playwright, and is being staged by another film actor (Campbell Scott), making his directing debut.
“Snakebit” also is a show all about acting, auditions and the Hollywood acting community, which Remains Theatre got wind of when one of its own actors (D.W. Moffett) ran into Grant at a movie audition in Hollywood.
“We were sitting next to each other waiting for an audition at Disney,” says Moffett, who brought Remains the script and who takes one of three lead roles in the production. “And I asked him why an audition would make him so nervous. He said, `It’s not the audition, it’s my play. It was just excepted by the O’Neill Playwrighting Conference,’ ” a big deal for aspiring writers.
Moffett shot back with his usual query: “Is there a part for a man in his mid-30s? He told me, `Two, actually.’ I asked him to let me read it and he reacted as if I were just being polite. But I gave him my routine, I told him I’m associated with this theater company back in Chicago, blah, blah, blah, so he sent me the script.”
“Snakebit,” in a way, is a kind of follow-up to Grant’s own role on “thirtysomething.”
Its lead characters, in fact, constitute a kind of Mod Squad for the ’90s: one male, one female, one gay. AIDS plays a big part of this triangular story, along with very frank talk-too explicit for detailing in print-on the subtleties of what is and is not safe sex.
All of this, mind you, is contained in what’s billed as contemporary comedy. Grant intends this work to be funny, and his setting and tone are light-hearted, right out of the “thirtysomething” milieu.
Jennifer and Jonathan are indeed in their mid-30s and are visiting their best friend, Michael, a gay man living in Hollywood. All three characters are at turning points. Jonathan is an actor up for a movie audition, a part that could mean a big breakthrough. Jennifer is at odds with her own soured acting career, her motherhood (she doesn’t think she’s a good one) and her marriage-Jonathan’s narcissim and selfish determination in his career have made him all but unbearable as a husband.
And Michael, whom the couple have known for years, has just been abandoned by his longtime lover, who left him for a man in his 20s. AIDS plays a part in the story and in how these three old friends are forced to bring up past issues to cope with current reality. Two of the three characters, in fact, are compelled before play’s end to undergo testing for the HIV virus.
“I was fascinated by the notion of fear, and how it affects our lives,” Grant says. “I wanted to explore how, in many ways, fear cripples us.”
“Snakebit” is almost as interesting for its backstage personnel as for its statements. Remains, like the characters in the play, is at a turning point: Larry Sloan is leaving as artistic director after an on-and-off seven-year stint, and the search is underway for a replacement.
Moreover, in “Snakebit,” Scott, the son of a pair of famed acting parents, George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, directs the daughter of Martin Balsam as part of the package. Scott, who has built quite a name on his own with his recent movie career (“Singles,” “Dying Young,” “Longtime Companion”), is making his directorial debut with the project; Talia Balsam, Martin’s daughter, plays Jennifer.
An actor for 10 years now, Scott says it never occurred to him to direct until a few years ago. He adds that he doesn’t know why he got the bug to this day. Despite his famous parents, he didn’t even take to acting until college, where, he jokes, he realized, “Acting is a way to express yourself without hurting anybody.”
Scott also to some extent shares Moffett’s feeling of homecoming on “Snakebit. He attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and used to travel down to Chicago to catch theater in the early ’80s. Memories include Steppenwolf’s legendary “True West” (which eventually catapulted that troupe to fame in New York) and Remains’ version of “The Tooth of Crime.”
“I always wanted to work here, only I assumed it would be as an actor,” says Scott, now 31. His participation stems from his friendship with Moffett, who Scott met while both were understudying “The Real Thing” on Broadway.
“He asked me to play Michael, the gay character, opposite his Jonathan,” Scott says of Moffett. “I read it and asked in return, `Do you have a director?’ “
Moffett, meanwhile, will be coming home as well, his first onstage role here since the 1989 “Speed-the-Plow” and his first ever on stage at Remains’ relatively new home at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave. He liked the script partly because it affords him a part (Jonathan) with a little more complexity than the good-looking, well-dressed roles he mostly wins in Hollywood-the “Ken doll” parts, he calls them.
John Benjamin Hickey, cast in the gay role, Michael, in “Snakebit,” recently finished a run on stage in “On the Bum” at Playwrights Horizons-co-starring Campbell Scott.
The AIDS angle notwithstanding, then, this show, to some extent, can be summed up as one all about actors on acting, put on by actors who are, in some cases, offspring of famed actors and who are, in others, real-life friends.
Actor-playwright Grant isn’t about to abandon acting himself. “I once said acting can bring the actor as close as possible to heaven and to hell,” Grant admits. “If you’re acting well, you’re truly in the moment, you’re in the mode all the self-help trips embrace.
“But if you’re bad, you’re worrying about the past, what’s been going on earlier in the performance, and about the future, how well you’ll do the rest of the night, if not the rest of your life. Acting is a perfect metaphor for what’s difficult about being a human being.”
