Actress Erin Davie Discusses Her Role As ‘Mary’ In Fathom Events EASTER MYSTERIES

By Movie Geeks | March 22, 2016

By Stephen Tronicek

From the producers who brought you the Tony-Award® winning Broadway hit “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” comes “Easter Mysteries,” an original, and wholly entertaining musical theater depiction of the Easter story for modern audiences.

Presented by Fathom Events and SimonSays Entertainment, “Easter Mysteries” will play in select U.S. cinemas for one night on Tuesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. local time, and features veteran Broadway actors and singers from the stages of “Les Misérables,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and more.

In addition to the feature content, a timely interfaith discussion between Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders on the essence and power of Passion plays will complete the event.

Tickets for “Easter Mysteries” can be purchased by visiting www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy the event in nearly 300 movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

Broadway veteran actor Phillip Boykin, who plays Caiaphas, is enthusiastic about the production. “This is a Passion play like no other. The love bursts forth and the music soars. First there was ‘Godspell,’ then there was ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ then there was ‘Joseph,’ and now there’s ‘Easter Mysteries,’ and it’s at the top of my list!”

“Easter Mysteries,” directed by Danny Goldstein, was staged and captured before a live audience. This first-rate production offers audiences the chance to see, feel and hear real peoples’ experience of this touchstone story of Western civilization in a fresh and moving way.

The music, libretto and lyrics are by Tony Award-winning Broadway producer John O’Boyle with musical arrangements and music direction by Milton Granger.

Contributor Stephen Tronicek recently spoke with actress Erin Davie (Mary) about EASTER MYSTERIES.

WAMG: Have you ever been to St. Louis?

Erin: Yes.

WAMG: There’s been so many versions of the Passion and Easter Story put onto the stage. What do you think differentiates Easter Mysteries from a show like Godspell, or Jesus Christ Superstar?

Erin: I’d say it’s very different in that EASTER MYSTERIES, well they’re calling it an oratorio, so it’s mostly sung. It’s very minimally staged I would say. It doesn’t have a…hold on I’m trying to think back to Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar to compare them. It’s definitely. Gosh, that’s a hard question.

WAMG: Sorry about that.

Erin: What I do have to say it is completely different.

WAMG: Yes.

Erin: In feeling, in color, in mood. Jesus Christ Superstar is rock obviously, and goes in depth into each relationship in the story, and Easter Mysteries is a little bit shorter. It’s not quite every aspect of the story: you don’t see Jesus with the crucifix on his back, you don’t see the crown of thorns necessarily. A lot of things are implied, a lot of things are left to your imagination.

WAMG: Definitely, but the staging is incredible. The way that they get around those types of things. At least I thought.

Erin: Oh did you like that?

WAMG: I did, very much.

Erin: Yeah the staging was so interesting, I think it’s so interesting with just the stairs.

WAMG: Yeah, one of my questions was going to be were there any difficulties that came with such sparse staging? Very minimalistic.

Erin: It’s interesting because we filmed this in like October, so it’s like thinking back to it…the difficulties in staging I know certain people had, obviously like if you had any knee issues it’s a lot of stairs. It’s interesting because some stairs are deeper than others. You know, there’s step offs.

WAMG: Yeah, there’s layers to it.

Erin: The difficulty in really staging it… actually I think it give so a lot of freedom because you have the ability to just…it’s all up to the actor, you can use your body, and use your intention to create the mood and the story.

WAMG: Well the cast perfectly did that. It was really entertaining.

Erin: Good, I’m so glad.

WAMG: How do you think Easter Mysteries will play to a modern audience?

Erin: I actually think that it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful because I think it combines the old and the new in that the music I would say is mostly in the classical vain. However, I love how minimal our revision is really. It’s very muted. It’s, like you said the staging is very minimal, but the choreographer, love her movements, it was so organic…what was the original question I don’t want to get off point.

WAMG:  Oh that all definitely works, but it was mainly like do you think it will play to a modern audience well with all the changes or so?

Erin: Yes, I think it’ll play very well to a modern audience. I mean obviously you have to add a little bit, you know, like a little bit classical music, but I love that our cast is so multi-racial, and I feel like it you know it represents everyman. I don’t know I think it’s really cool, and a beautiful art piece.

WAMG: It definitely is.

Erin: I think it’s very modern, and it felt very modern even though we were telling an ancient story.

WAMG: So how did you come to be part of the show? Was it kind of an exclusive deal or was there to this?

Erin: You know, I think that I had one audition. I went in an auditioned once, and I didn’t hear about it till I thought I hadn’t gotten it, and then maybe two weeks later they said “Oh they want you to do this.” I don’t know how they cast everyone else, I don’t know how everyone else’s audition process was like, but you know it’s all actors in New York so they had a great pool to work with, and to choose from. I think that’s the best part of film is that when people put things like this in theaters around that country something that people otherwise wouldn’t be able to see other than New York city…

WAMG: Yeah, and it’s a fascinating musical, so I’m glad it’s coming to St. Louis. What do you think you brought to your character of Mary in the show? Do you feel there is anything large that you brought to the character?

Erin: You know the main thing that I took away from this piece was just how powerful the story still is no matter what your religion is or history because I have to say that the cast coming into this we didn’t know what to expect because it was a new piece, and you know we know about Jesus and the story, but I think we were all shocked by how moved every single one of us was in the doing of it. And I think that’s the best part of Easter Mysteries is how it really…actually it surprised us, and continues to surprise just how effective the story is, so what I feel I brought to it is so in doing this piece, I feel like it gave to me as much as I gave to it, and that’s kind of something I didn’t know I needed at that time in my life because my journey as Mary in the story is about feeling like an outsider, about space, about forgiveness, about hope, about it never being too late, and there always being hope, about you know there’s always someone there on your side, and go on and on, but I have to say that in the doing of it it was kind of cathartic for me personally to kind of feel all those things again. As far as strength and hope, and love and community.

WAMG: Well that’s really great. It’s really great whenever you can get into a show like that.

Erin: Yes, and you know they’re always a surprise, I have to say because some jobs they come to you and you have no idea what’s it going to be like and it’s a story that maybe you don’t connect with as much as you’d like to, but that’s the point of this experience. It’s really exceptional in that way for everyone of us.

WAMG: Was there a section of the show that was particularly difficult for the cast to pull off? I’ve been part of rehearsals for shows and there’s always that one section of it.

Erin: I think probably, there’s a section when angels come in and it’s staged as, you know one woman is at the front, and four women are on each side of her holding her wings. The wings are a piece of fabric, and getting that fabric quite right and just perfect I think was a little bit of a technical challenge at times, but they pulled it off beautifully.

WAMG: Yes they really did, Do you feel like this show is any different from other musicals that you’ve done like Side Show? I know the stories different, but the experience of the show do you feel it was any different?

Erin: Oh, it’s very different in that, I feel like the music and the story is really driving everything, and it’s new music that people don’t know yet but I think that they’ll love it. It’s just a really interesting piece in that, you know like I said it’s called an oratorio so it’s almost like a concert piece but it’s staged. It’s not here nor there. It’s not really a book musical, but it’s not just a concert so it’s kind of in this land in between. So you kind of get the best of both worlds in a way.

WAMG: Were there any defining moments of rehearsals? I was talking about difficulties, but there’s also those moments when something clicks or so.

Erin: When something clicks? Gosh. I know there were. Like when everyone came together, and you know. We worked on our music separately at first, and then everybody came in and you know when you first sing through those group numbers together it’s so powerful because the music is so beautiful, and not just the music the lyrics are really resonating and touching everybody so getting to sing that with a group of people who all feel it and had a personal experience with it like that I think is really exciting when you finally get together and  everybody sings that together, and you go “Oh wow this really is powerful.”

WAMG: Yes, I’ve had moments like that. It’s really beautiful, and really powerful.  Do you feel like there are any qualities brought to the piece especially from the director Daniel  Goldstein, or like how was it working with him?

Erin: Oh, he is great because he has no pretense, he didn’t come in with any baggage about how the story should be told.

WAMG: Which is kind of surprising because he did Godspell.

Erin: He is just a great storyteller, and it was really smart of them to bring in somebody who just wants to tell the story as purely as possible, and didn’t have any agenda as to what it should be. He just wanted to make it successful to everybody or for everybody, and he did a great job. I love him.

WAMG: That’s really good. Whenever a director can bring together a cast like that it’s incredible. This is kind of a funny question. I wanted to ask were there any slip ups during the show?  Moments when somebody missed their lines or blocking because I’ve had moment like that and their kind of scary.

Erin:  Yes, there were, let me think of what happened. The great thing about when we filmed it, we filmed it maybe two times, three times, and then they spliced things together.

WAMG: Oh that’s, ok.

Erin: So, we have an opportunity to fix anything’s that went incredibly wrong…I think I’m allowed to say that. It wasn’t all one day necessarily. It was filmed over two days.

WAMG: Well that’s understandable.

Erin: What was challenging was I think sometimes the lighting in particular in the show, with the stairs and such. Sometimes you might be in, with the lighting coming from the side there some issues with being in somebodies light or blocking their face, and having to just move upstage or downstage, so they could have light on their face. That was mainly the issue. There were certain lyrics that were hard to remember, but I think we all nailed it.

WAMG: Well it shows. That you nailed it that is. How do you think the show turned out? Do you think it turned out really well?

Erin: You know, I haven’t seen it yet. I’m going to see it with everybody else on the 22nd.

WAMG: Are you excited for the release?

Erin: Yes. I just hope that word gets out about it.  I feel like there’s a large community of people who would love this as long as they know about it. They know that it’s out there, they would absolutely go and enjoy it, and love it. I hope we’re able to get the word out to everybody who could have access to it.

WAMG: I’m sure through the Fathom Events they are able to get it out to the theatres.

Erin: Yeah because they have a huge need and longing for this kind of material out there, and so I that that’s the most exciting part about it. That there’s nothing quite like it, and I think that’s kind of exciting that we’re able to put it out there across the country like we are.

Visit the official website: www.eastermysteries.com