Wherefore art thou, Mitchell Buckley?

Wherefore art thou,

Mitchell Buckley?

UNABRIDGED

  

I’m just gonna start it anyways. Um…

Should I just get the Youtube app…would that be…

I don’t know.

Oh wait, hold on, it’s…come on. Oh, here we go.

They’re so loud, should we go upstairs?

If you want, it’s your thing.

Well, do you want other voices in your monologue?

No.

Okay, we’re going upstairs!

Is Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra Jr.?

No, there is a Frank Sinatra Jr.

But it’s a different person?

It’s his son.

Well, I wasn’t sure if he was the son. Okay, I’m just gonna type in Sinatra.

You, okay, well, we can also cut the…if need be.

Do you want to sit in the chair or the kidney?

I don’t care.

I get the chair.

How ’bout Sinatra my way? What’s your favorite Sinatra song? I’m just gonna turn on Sinatra’s greatest hits.

Okay. Hi.

Hey.

Sorry, still trying to pull up the Sinatra.

What’s your name?

My name is Mitchell Buckley.

You don’t have to lean into it.

I don’t know.

Mitchell James Buckley.

Yeah, Mitchell James Buckley.

The first?

The first of my name.

Where are you from Mitchell?

Um, I’m from a small suburban town in Virginia called Centreville. It’s just outside of Washington D.C.

Do you like Virginia?

Um, I think that Virginia’s a great state. Um, it’s beautiful, it’s an important agricultural state. In terms of where I lived…was boring as hell cause it was a suburb of D.C. There’s not a lot going on in the suburbs. You know, every house looked the same it was one of those places.

Do you have any pets?

I do. Um—

OH MAC.
Mac, yeah. Uh, we recently, very recently, like a year ago got our first pet. He’s a bulldog named Mac.

Do you ever call him Mac Daddy?

No. Um, sometimes we call him Big Mac.

Okay, that makes more sense.

Yeah. I wanted to name him Macduff, but my Mom—

You’re such a loser!

My Mom didn’t like that.

Um, so you go to school at Emerson.

Yeah, I go to Emerson College.

FRANK IS SCREAMING.

I’m gonna turn him down a little bit...

So Emerson…

Yeah.

And what year are you?

I’m gonna be a sophomore and I’m studying acting.

Cool.

Yeah.

The sun.

I know, the sun’s in your eyes. I’ll put my hand…

If I sit like this…I can interview you.

Right. I’m blocking. It’s okay, because this interview has—

It’s all about you.

No visual component.

Well, I mean, I take your picture.

Right.

Um. So you like Shakespeare.

Yeah, I do. He’s a great writer.

Cool.

Um, what attracted you to this program?

I was looking for a program that, I didn’t start off even, I didn’t know about Commonwealth Shakespeare Company like this time last year. Um, I was looking for some…a way I could spend my summer where I could be learning and performing at the same time, which is like really greedy of me. Um but yeah, I wanted to be able to learn and perform at the same time and so this program did appeal to me, obviously, because they have classes during the day and then we’re working with the cast of Twelfth Night, we’re in our own production of Much Ado About Nothing, we’re working on monologues and things, so I really felt like it was a place where I could do that, I could learn and perform at the same time.

You could do what you want.

Yeah, what I was looking for. And I just ended up finding it, it looked like the right fit, and here I am.

Just like, random like that?

Yeah.

How did you find it?

I googled it. Like I just, like, I literally like, I was like oh, like a Shakespeare program would probably be good for what I’m looking for, so I like googled Shakespeare programs in Boston and then, this is what I came across. And here we are today. It’s not a very beautiful story.

It’s a nice one.

But it’s an honest one.

An honest one.

Um, so what is your favorite Shakespeare play?

I love Macbeth. I think Macbeth is a great play. I really sympathize with Macbeth, ya know? He’s a man who wants everything. We all want everything I think.

I guess…you might…want everything? No?

Yeah. I’m ambitious.

Okay.

Um, who’s your favorite character? Wait, changing it, what character do you want to play in your life?

I mean, there are a lot of characters I want to play in my life. There are like stages in a person’s life, I think, like I couldn’t play Macbeth yet because, people who are 30 or 40 or 50 play Macbeth, ya know? 19 year olds don’t play Macbeth or like, I’d love to play King Lear when I’m 80 but it’s not gonna happen anytime soon, ya know? Who, uh, now?! Because I’m the right age, I’d love to play Hamlet, because I’m 19 years old and Hamlet’s a young troubled man and I’m a—

Young troubled man.

I’m a young troubled man. Same with like, Edmund, I’d love to play Edmund from Lear. He’s—

Another young troubled man.

Characters I can sympathize. Obviously sympathize not on their level but, there’s something in me that feels the same things they feel, I think.

As young troubled men.

As troubled young men.

Um, what else do I want to ask?

What?

Um. You like to read.

I love to read.

What’s…if you had to read a play, what play would you read?

Like one play for the rest of my life?

No, no, no, like if, if we went to the library right now, and you had to pick one play to read, what would you read?

Well, I’d pick something I haven’t read yet.

NO.

Fine, you want me to pick something I’ve read.

No, no, no…you can…no sorry, I’m not supposed to like answer questions.

Right.

You…one that you…okay starting over. Go back to where—

We’ll start the question over, we’ll cut that part out.

Yes, but I want to know both answers.

Okay. A play that I’d like to read that I haven’t read?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A play that I’d like to read again that I have read?

Yeah. Which one haven’t you read?

Um, there are a lot of plays I haven’t read. Some of them I’m ashamed of. Ya know?

What?

I need to read Streetcar at some point.

NO. SHAKESPEARE.

I’ve never—OH Shakespeare

YOU NEVER READ STREETCAR?!
No, I thought you meant a play in general.

NO.

Okay.

What, you haven’t read—

Shakespeare I’ve already read—

STOP. You’ve never read Streetcar?

No, I’ve never read Streetcar.

Have you—

No.

YOU ARE A YOUNG STANLEY.

I know, I have read all his other stuff, but I’ve never read Streetcar. Isn’t that weird?

Have you seen Streetcar?

No.

You don’t know anything about A Streetcar Named Desire.

No, I like know the characters, I like know the plot, but I’ve never read it. Let’s get back to the question. I want to read Richard III again because um, the last time I read Richard III was a couple of years ago, and I know that I like, missed a lot of the beauty and horror of Richard III.

Because you were young.

I was young, yeah. I’d like to read, with the understand I have of Shakespeare now, I’d like to read Richard III again. Um, and then um, I want to read the Henrys, I haven’t read Henry VI trilogy. I haven’t read those yet, so. But Joan of Arc is a badass.

Yeah, she’s pretty fierce.

Yeah.

(Sigh) I’m still upset about Streetcar, you shouldn’t have ever said it..

I know, I know…

Fool for Love?

Of course, I love Fool for Love.

And um, True West.

True West, True West is like my dream role, is—

Which brother?

 Aaron.

Okay.

The one who starts off normal and goes crazy.

Duh. Ambitious.

Right.

Um, can you do a monologue?

Yeah.

Which one are you gonna do?

Uh, I don’t know. I don’t wanna do something you’ve seen already.

Why?

I don’t know. I’m, I’m, you know what I’m gonna do? I just learned this monologue recently.

Are you nervous?

No. I’m gonna do, uh, I’m gonna do Romeo.

WHAT.

I know. Isn’t that weird?

Yeah.

The other one I would do for you is Edmund but like—

Are you gonna get up to perform this?

No, no, no, I’m just—

Getting on your knees…

Are you ready, I’m gonna do Romeo…

Okay.

Mitchell.

Thank you.

Some of the lines I messed up. I switched one of the parts and then I couldn’t remember…

It’s okay.

So anyone who’s well read on their Romeo and Juliet is gonna realize that I fucked up that monologue, but—

But it’s okay.

Yeah, I feel like the intention was there—

It’s just “Wherefore art thou,”

To hear my voice, to get my voice out there in the public…

Right, which is what this is.

Yeah.

Do you have a lot of readers? Does this blog have a lot of readers?

No.

We need to get you more readers.

There have been like, 500 views on the website.

That’s not so bad.

Yeah, for…

I’ve read it…once. A couple days ago I read it, your posts.

Did you?

Yeah. Is this still part of the interview?

Yeah. This is still the interview.

Who’s gonna interview you?

I don’t know. I’m a little nervous. I don’t know, I have to choose someone… I trust.

Right. Don’t pick me. It’ll all be like—

It wont be an interview—

Do you like poodles? Like…what…it’ll be weird questions.

Um, duh.

Okay, my favorite question.

Yeah.

Do you have a piece of advice that you like? That you’ve—

Just a piece of advice? Any piece of advice.

Yes, NO…that you’ve either received, given to someone else, or something you carry with you…or have carried with you.

I think my favorite piece of advice is…that I like to give people…

Okay…

Is that….the universe doesn’t care about you, which sounds like a bad thing, but it’s actually very liberating, when you realize there’s no, ya know, there’s no plan. There’s no, like…nobody has any idea where you’re gonna end up, so it’s up to you where youre gonna end up. That’s my favorite piece of advice.

That you give to others.

Right. People who I think, would want to hear it, ya know? Cause there’s a lot of people who do believe that there’s a greater plan for them. I don’t believe in any plans.

You don’t believe in plans.

No. Maybe there’s a god, I don’t know, but—

But,

I don’t think,

There’s a plan.

Where I end up is up to me, I think.

Have you received a piece of advice?

Have I received a piece of ad—I’ve received lots of pieces of advice.

Tell me one.

A good one…plenty of good ones. Um…

Tell me.

It’s something my mother said to me once. Um, when I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to school for acting, if  I wanted to pay that much money, because, to learn to be an actor, and she said to me…and I expected my Mom to hate that idea. I expected her to be like “Aw Mitchell…you gotta go find a job that’ll make you money.” And what she said to me was, she’s like “Mitchell. You’re like 18 years old and you’re good at something…and you like to do it…just go like, just go do it. And if it doesn’t work out, like, you’ll find something else to do.” So…

You told me that before.

Yeah, see? Cause it’s good advice.

It is.

Maybe that’s my favorite piece of advice. I mean, I like mine too.

Okay.

They’re similar pieces of advice in the end…that like, you have the power to choose.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anything else to say? NOPE. I have one more question!
Okay, ask your question.

Do you have a favorite experience here so far?

Oh, oh, that’s a beautiful question. Ya know, I have…I’ve had some good experiences here. Um, I’ve had a lot of good experiences here. I’m trying to think of the best.

You have to be very specific. Very specific.

Okay. Give me a sec…

I want details.
Alright. Let me think for a minute.

…it’s a pretty good Frank song.

It is a beautiful Frank song, It’s New York, New York, and I Get A Kick Out Of You is next, so that’s great.

Can this moment be my favorite?

Every moment’s my favorite moment. That’s dumb. That’s a bad answer.

That’s a dumb answer.

It’s a beautiful answer, but it’s the wrong one.

Yeah, I want—

You want like, an actual thing. A thing that happened…um…

Yeah.

You know, there was, there was a day where, cause we spent a lot of this time intellectualizing Shakespeare and like really thinking about Shakespeare, and like, digging into Shakespeare, which is the right thing to do, when you’re like first approaching a Shakespearean text, so that’s like, what we did with Twelfth Night for a while. We like went at these scenes from very like, like what am I saying, what am I trying to get across, what does that mean for my acting, like all these things, which again you have to do, it’s like, like job number one with any script, Shakespeare, or anything else. Um, but once we had gotten past that, I felt like I was kinda hitting like a block, like, now how do I get this in my bones, how do I get this like, in my gut instead of in my head and uh, Adam gave me a note that was like, he was like “Mitchell,” because I’m playing Olivia in our, uh, our Greenshow piece, um, who falls in love with Viola, he’s like “Mitchell, I want you to think about where in your body your love for Ol, your love for Viola lies,” and um, which like, it’s a good note, it’s nothing like mindblowing, but it’s a good note it’s a good like, reminder to have. And then we did the scene again, and like, I was so much more like, in my body, and I like, I finally felt like really good about exploring the character of Olivia. That was a good moment. Yeah.

I was there for that.

Yeah, you were. It was the first thing I could think of.

I think those are all my questions.

Weren’t you gonna ask me if I had anything to say to the people?

Yeah, do you have anything else to say? WAIT. Did I…I’m making sure I asked all the ques—

Yeah.

I did. Do you have anything you wanna say…to my people?

To your viewers.

To my audience.

Your loyal readers.

Which is ending up to be, well, it’s gonna be you.

It’s gonna be me.

Yeah.

It’s gonna be me reading my own—

Interview.

Word vomit.

Yeah.

Interviews are interesting. I think I would say to the people…make your art. Make your art. That’s it. That’s the whole…that’s all I’m gonna say.

Okay…you sure?

Yeah.

Okay.