INTERVIEW: Tony winner Miriam Silverman returns to the stage in ‘The Disappear’
Photo: Hamish Linklater and Miriam Silverman star in The Disappear. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by BBB with permission.
Miriam Silverman, the Tony Award winner for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, has returned to the stage, this time starring in Erica Schmidt’s The Disappear, which finishes its extended run Sunday, Feb. 22, at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City. Joining Silverman in the Audible production are Hamish Linklater, Madeline Brewer, Anna Mirodin, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Dylan Baker.
In the piece, Silverman plays the character of Mira Blair, a novelist who is married to filmmaker Benjamin Braxton (Linklater). Their relationship is put to the test after numerous revelations are divulged in front of loved ones.
“This dropped into my lap out of the blue,” Silverman said in a recent phone interview. “We started rehearsals Dec. 1, and I think it was early November, maybe the end of October, it was not that far in advance that I got sent a script to read. ‘Read this for interest, and we’ll set up a meeting with the writer-director if you like it.’ And I was in a really busy moment, and I told my reps that I would need a day or two to get to it because there was a lot going on.”
That night, a few months ago, Silverman cracked open the script with the intention of reading a few pages. She stayed with the story all the way until the end; she was absolutely hooked by Schmidt’s words.
“And so that was kind of it,” she said. “I read it, and I loved it. I was totally fascinated by the script. I loved the role, and I was interested in Erica. I had never worked with her or actually had never seen her work before, and so I went into a meeting with her really intrigued. We hit it off famously, and that was that.”
At that time, only Brewer was signed up for the production, which meant Silverman had to take a leap of faith. She signed on the dotted line not knowing what actor would portray her on-stage husband. It later turned out to be Linklater.
“They were looking for new actors to take on the rest of the roles, and so I also took this on not knowing who was going to play my husband, the other lead of the show,” said Silverman, who also appears in the Apple+ series Your Friends and Neighbors.” And so it was kind of a big gamble in that way as well, and I kind of remember after accepting, every day checking in, saying, ‘Who is going to be? Who is it? Who are they out to? Who is it going to be?’ So much of my experience with this play is reliant on who is in that role. That’s how it happened, pretty quickly, pretty out of the blue, but I had no doubts about it.”
Silverman said the cast eventually became one big family. Schmidt not only wrote the script but also serves as the production’s director. Reviews have been positive, with demand pushing the closing date until the end of February.
“I am always more interested in characters that are complex that have unlikable qualities that are written to be, frankly, just very human, to be people who have very apparent flaws as well as goodness and ways that they are trying to affect change and are driven,” Silverman said of the role. “I’m always like, what is the engine of this person? It was very clear to me that this was a character who was really mired down by these conflicting things she was trying to hold in her life, both a lot of ambition and a lot of passion for her career and her creativity and struggling very hard to honor the energy and space that one needs for that, while essentially holding down all household responsibilities of being a wife and a mother and being a primary caregiver, and also wrestling with the dual artist career household that she lives in in this play.”
Silverman asked herself early on in the process what kind of mother Mira was. The fact that she’s not perfect is what makes the role so intriguing to play.
“Does this character experience some kind of change or evolution, or what moves through them and with them,” she asked. “I felt like it was a really interesting journey that Erica had written for the character. Plus, it’s just fun. Scene to scene I get to either have a knockdown drag-out fight. I get to have more funny, almost farcical moments. I get to have romantic and sexy moments. It’s sort of like everything that one would want to do as an actor I get to do on stage in this play every night.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Disappear, starring Miriam Silverman, continues through Sunday, Feb. 22, at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets for the Audible production.
