Newspaper Page Text
Jewish actor defines role
as ‘Biloxi Blues’ mentor
F"
by Vida Cioldgar
Andrew Polk doesn’t want to
give away too much about “Biloxi
Blues” before Neil Simon’s sequel
to“Brighton Beach Memoirs" opens
in Atlanta, but he’s willing, at least,
to describe “Arnold Epstein.” the
role he plays.
In a telephone interview from
Dallas, where “Biloxi Blues” is on
stage before its May 27 opening at
Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, Polk says,
"This intellectual from Queens,
N.Y., is thrown into the army with
a bunch of people that he would
not normally be thrown together
with. He’s a very self-righteous
person, standing up for what he
believes in” and “in the Army, that
gives you a lot of trouble.” Despite
the fact that “Eugene Morris
Jerome," (playwright Simon’s per
sona) describes Arnold as “the worst
soldier in World War II,” Arnold,
says Polk, “is unflinching in his
principles. He battles the platoon
bigot. Wykowski. and he battles
Sgt. Toomey’s efforts to fit him
into the mold.”
It is Arnold, according to actor
Polk, who makes Eugene confront
his own Judaism: “By example, he
shows Eugene that one must always
stand up for what he believes.”
As a youth, Polk’s own feelings
about his Judaism were much more
ambivalent than Arnold’s. He des
cribes himself as a Hebrew School
dropout “because I entered too late
and it didn’t mean anything to me
to have a bar mitzva. 1 didn't feel (a
bar mitzva) was anything besides
getting presents, and 1 figured if I
felt like that there was something
wrong, either with me or..." he
pauses and his voice trails off as he
adds “who knows.”
Even so, Polk says he feels very
strongly connected with Judaism
and “feels really good” about creat
ing a drama program at a Jewish
day camp. Camp Keetov, at his
temple, Beth El, in Berkeley. “That
way," he says, “1 could contribute
something to the Jewish com
munity.”
He’s especially proud of directing
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Andrew Polk
the American premier of “Laugh
ter," Peter Barnes' play on the
Holocaust, when he was a student
at Tufts University in Boston. “1
put more effort into that than I
ever had anything." Researching
the play, he says, “allowed me to
kind of sift out my feelings about
the Holocaust and how I relate to
it.” “Laughter,” which Polk calls a
“kind of absurdist, very dark,
stinging comedy,” was very well
accepted by the Boston commun
ity. During the process of directing
the play, Polk says he read every
Holocaust play there was and he
feels that “most of them are inade
quate because they don’t go far
enough. They allow you to become
sentimental and blame what hap
pened on a few people. It’s very
convenient to do that but 1 felt
there must be something more. So
I found a play that didn’t answer
the questions, but asked the ques
tions. It was. he believes, because
the play made people laugh at
things and then realize what they
were laughing at that made the
play important. “Laughter," he says,
is a great tool for making people
think; it’s very powerlul.”
Andrew Polk might well have
been a musician instead of an actor
He studied cello for about lOyears
and though he no longer takes les
sons, he does play chamber music
occasionally. Music came naturally,
because his mother is a concert
pianist.
Drama won, however, and he
has appeared with the American Con
servatory Theatre and the Trinity
Square Repertory Company; he
also won a Eulbnght Scholarship
for a year’s study at the Webber-
Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts
in London. And he’s only 23.
Landing the role of Arnold, he
says, “was basically a case of being
in the right place at the right time.”
Chuckling, he says, “My mother
wanted me to be a lawyer because
she figured I’d never make a living
in the theater. But she was wrong.”
Then he adds, “She’s glad to be
wrong.”
* * *
“Biloxi Blues” runs May 27
through June I, 8 p.m. Tuesdays
through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m.
Saturdays and 3 and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays, at the Fox Theatre. Call
873-4300 for information.
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PAGE 17 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE May 23, 1986