'The Self-Isolated Artist' Series: Toronto Profile of Tony Nappo
Interview compiled by Fabulist Theatre’s Vancouver correspondent, Damon Bradley Jang
Tony Nappo was born in Scarborough, Ontario. He attended U of T for two years until he dropped out to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan from where he graduated in 1991. Tony is a regular fixture on Toronto stages where he has appeared in Why Not Theatre’s ‘Butcher’ and was nominated for the Best Actor Dora, ‘God of Carnage’ for Theatre 180 and the Mirvishes, ‘The Seagull’ for Crows Theatre and Canstage. Tony has performed in nine shows at Tarragon Theatre including ‘Little Mercy’s First Murder’, ‘Motel Helene’, ‘The Real World?’ and ‘Alias Godot’. Other appearances include The Factory Theatre, The Centaur (Montreal), Theatre Calgary, Shakespeare by the Sea, Next Stage, Summerworks, Outside the March, Nightwood, Buddies in Bad Times, Luminato, Volcano and The Theatre Center. His last show was the critically acclaimed ‘Jesus Hopped the A Train’ by Stephen Adley Guirgis at Soulpepper where he played Valdez.
Tony has been nominated twice for the Dora Award, twice for the ACTRA Award, a Broadway World Award and a CSA Award. He has appeared in around 70 movies and hundreds of episodes of television. He also voiced the lead character of Jimmy Falcone on the animated television show ‘Fugget About It’.
He has been writing the very popular weekly theatre column in Intermission Magazine called ‘Nappoholics Anonymous’ for the past three years. COVID-19 put a halt on this working actor's career, and I had a chance to chat with him about it.
You were just about to start rehearsals for ‘The Cost of Living’ at Coalmine Theatre. Were you far into the rehearsal process?
Rehearsals were postponed for a week and then cancelled altogether a few days later. I had already been working on the script alone for a month but what can you do? I feel grateful that we hadn’t begun the process. Many other actors weren’t that lucky. They had rehearsed shows they never got to open or they had to play to empty houses until the production closed outright. I mean it was shit for me but way worse for many others.
What has been the hardest part of COVID -19 for you?
The worst part of this for me is mostly just concern for the number of people who are going to get sick and die. And, of course, money. I’m going to run out of money. I have always been terrible with it and have no real savings to speak of at all.
What are you doing to keep yourself busy?
I have been hanging out with my daughter, preparing food meals for us, watching a lot of movies and tv, exercising a bit and smoking a lot of weed and cigarettes. I did a bit of teaching and coaching just as the outbreak began but that’s all on hold for now. Not a whole lot.
What advice would you give to other performing artists who may be feeling stressful about this situation of COVID-19?
Keep creating. Keep working on your craft. Do something every day that makes you better at your craft. If you need to be paid to create art, you aren’t really an artist but someone who happens to work in the arts field. Nobody can stop an artist from making art. When this is all over and the new normal sets in, the audiences will return and the money will come back. You don’t have to be dependent on either of these things in order to create.
Are there any positives considering COVID-19?
I think, ultimately, there will be many positives that come out of this. I see that the federal government and the provincial governments are working together mostly, except in Alberta- to help people. The leaders have really all stepped up. You can criticize them all you want but they’re doing an excellent job. Anyone praising Ford and not Trudeau or vice versa is an idiot and part of the problem.
I hope we will see a lot less divide and a lot less polar extremes in people’s behaviour and politics when this pandemic is over. The self and distance isolation have become a true perspective shift. I think that people may begin to realize just how much of their lives are wasted on things that ultimately don’t matter. All the things that seemed so vital and necessary before the crisis began will be revealed for how completely disposable they truly are. We never really NEEDED any of them in our lives.
Hopefully people will value friends and family and each other again when this is over. Yes, money matters but not nearly as much as human connection. We are about to find out how much money we can NOT earn and can keep on living. We have also learned inside of a week how hard it is to not be able to visit parents or friends and how much we sometimes just need a hug. I also believe the planet is getting a little break from all of our carbon emissions, too as an added bonus.
Many artists are turning to online and streaming platforms to fill or share their artistic need. Are you participating in this?
I don’t really have an artistic need, per se. I have my column in ‘Intermission’ which gives me a place to express myself and entertain to whatever degree through writing. I work a lot. But mostly I work to make money. That’s the need.
I am lucky to have found a platform to express my voice on a regular basis. I do have a need to do theatre. Recently I discovered, after not having done it for two years, theatre helps me process and digest life itself. To do theatre also gives me a place to unpack a lot of the loss, fear, remorse, regret, pain, anger and angst so that I don’t need to carry it around with me daily.
Why do you love performing?
I don’t love performing. I love acting. I love the craft of acting. I respect the craft of acting. I understand it. I now teach it. It’s just the thing I was born to do. I’d been doing it most of the first two decades of my life without even knowing it, really.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to sound like an asshole or snob even if I am at times. I CAN enjoy performing but only when it’s fun and goes well or when I am involved in something that works. Then, it’s a pleasure.
The process of discovering the script and getting inside of it is always challenging and difficult. There is a puzzle to solve but you are the missing piece and there isn’t necessarily always an obvious space for you to insert yourself into to complete it. I personally enjoy that challenge and discovery stage of rehearsals. Once a show opens, as I say, it can be an amazing experience to share your work with the world when it’s generally well received and praised, but it feels way more like a job to me once rehearsals are over.
Once the puzzle has been solved, I am anxious to move on to the next one rather than spend six weeks saying, “Hey everyone!!! Look at the puzzle I solved!!! Please tweet all your friends and tell them that I solved a puzzle and they should come look at my puzzle, too!!!!!”
As a nod to the late James Lipton and ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’, here are the 10 questions he asks:
1. What is your favorite word? Fuck
2. What is your least favorite word? No
3. What turns you on? Authenticity and Loyalty
4. What turns you off? Bullshitters
5. What sound or noise do you love? It’s cliché, but it has always been my daughter laughing.
6. What sound or noise do you hate? The theme song from ‘Coronation Street’. It sounds like a dying horn that has decided to spend the final minutes of its life feeling sorry for itself.
7. What is your favorite curse word? Motherfucker
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
I aspired to be a teacher and will very likely end up becoming one. I have begun that journey now and folded it into my life. I have also been house painting professionally on and off since I was sixteen. No Canadian actor should ever not have an alternative way to support themselves.
9. What profession would you not like to do? I’d hate to try and sell something I didn’t believe in, or become a member of the Progressive Conservative party.
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? “I had to pull some fucking strings, man. Get in there a lay low for a few thousand years.”