Steven Lepore, 18, made his stage debut in the last two weeks in “Talk Radio,” at Allens Lane Theater. Also in the production was Steven’s dad, Chris.[/caption] by Carole Verona “Talk …
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Steven Lepore, 18, made his stage debut in the last two weeks in “Talk Radio,” at Allens Lane Theater. Also in the production was Steven’s dad, Chris.[/caption] by Carole Verona
“Talk Radio,” which ended its run on stage at Allens Lane on March 13, tells the story of Barry Champlain, an abrasive shock jock who confronts an assortment of lonely, angry, disturbed people who call into his show every night. The action takes place the night before the show is picked up for national syndication. The play was directed by Mt. Airyite Mariangela Saavedra, Casabuena Cultural Productions.
An unusual aspect of this production is that the part of Dan Woodruff, Barry’s boss, was played by Chris Lepore, and the part of Kent, one of the callers, was played by Chris’s 18-year-old son, Steven. Chris is a stage veteran, with 12 productions listed on his résumé. Local audiences have seen him in several Stagecrafters shows including “Tartuffe” (where he played the title role), “Night of the Iguana,” “Plaza Suite,” “The Dresser,” “Sly Fox” and “Moon Over Buffalo” and in “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged (Revised)” at Allens Lane, which was also directed by Mariangela. Chris also directed a stage reading of “Three Tall Women” at Stagecrafters.
“I have known Mariangela for some time,” said Chris. “Right after I got out of college. I settled outside of Washington, D.C., and met her when we worked together at a dinner theatre. I was only there for a couple of months, and then I moved on. We reconnected three or four years ago. Since then, we did ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)’ together. In addition to doing stage plays, she did a series with kids and adults based on the poems of Shel Sillverstein. Steven and I both worked with her on that.”
Steven is a relative newcomer in the acting world, having worked on several production crews. A senior at W. B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences in Roxborough, he appeared in a school recruitment video called “Alice in Farmland” that went viral on YouTube. “From that, I still get recognized at school. People come up to me and say, ‘You’re that guy,’” he said. He also handled stage lighting for the “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)” at Allens Lane and has worked on other technical projects for Casabuena Cultural Productions. He made his theatrical acting debut last year doing a stage reading of “Talk Radio” at Stagecrafters.
Why the transition from production to acting? “I looked at what my dad did and thought, ‘This is really cool. I want to do more of this.’ Then Mariangela said that she had this great idea and asked me to be in ‘Talk Radio.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ and then I heard that my dad’s in it. I am very happy to be working right next to him.”
In a review of the play, Hugh Hunter, a theatre critic for the Local, said, “The strength of the Allens Lane production is that you get to see these comically sad, lost people on the stage wings…”
Steven explained that his character is an 18-year-old prankster who aspires to be the radio talk show host. His character has some intense moments and dialogue. “At first I thought, ‘This is extreme. I don’t know how I feel about me, myself, as a person saying some of these lines in character. But I just get past it and go along with it, knowing that I, myself, do not condone this.”
Steven doesn’t remember asking for acting advice from his dad, and Chris said he wouldn’t give it to him anyway. “We already have a director, and we don’t need another one,” Chris said.
“I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that Steven wants to do this as well. When I watched him in the video he did at school, I found it hard to believe that it was the first time he had ever done anything like that. Both of my parents were actors, and this is the third generation. When I told my dad that Steven was doing this, he couldn’t believe it. All I ever wanted for Steven was for him to find something that set off a spark the way theatre has for me. It never dawned on me that he would find the same spark that I did.”
Chris and his wife Melanie have lived in Germantown since 1999. In addition to Steven, the couple has twins, Zoey and Hayden, who are 11. Chris is a Senior Web Developer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Melanie recently graduated from nursing school.
For more information, call 215-248-0546.
