Exclusive Interview: Chris Stepnitz of Avon Players’ ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’
When did you last laugh so hard that you lost your breath or had tears streaming down your face? It’s not every day that something can bring you such pure joy. However, Avon Players knows a thing or two about comedy and is ready to bring you the unbridled enjoyment of Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor! A play partially based on the real-life experiences of Neil Simon, Laughter on the 23rd Floor is set in 1950’s America, as the writers of the Max Prince show weather the power struggle of the station executives with the show’s host and the larger government and social changes that came with McCarthyism.
We spoke with Chris Stepnitz, who plays Brian in the show, ahead of its opening night. In this exclusive Box Seat Babes interview, Stepnitz discusses his time in this Avon Players production, how he brings Brian to life on stage, and how challenging it can be to juggle two shows back-to-back. All that and more are down below, so read on and enjoy!
[Note: The interview below may have been lightly edited for clarity. Warning for mild spoilers from Laughter on the 23rd Floor are below!]
Interview with Chris Stepnitz of Avon Players’ Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Brian Kitson: Thank you so much for joining me today, Chris; who are you playing in Laughter on the 23rd Floor and how do they factor into the narrative?
Chris Stepnitz: I’m playing Brian Doyle. He’s one of the writers of the Max Prince show. We call him the token Gentile. Okay. He refers to himself that way. He’s quick-witted but definitely not a leader. He’s a little more cutting, maybe we’ll say, than the other writers, but the room is filled with such personalities. They thrive off each other. It’s a great team.
Brian Kitson: I was gonna say the other two were talking about the great chemistry between everybody on stage.
Chris Stepnitz: Oh, there is!
Brian Kitson: So what drew you to this, to the show? What made you decide you wanted an audition?
Chris Stepnitz: Marlena, the director, is a very good, dear friend who directed Little Shop of Horrors with me a year ago. Helped me out a great deal. I would do anything for her. Plus, I love Neil Simon. This is a great show. I did do the last one (Farce of Habit at Avon Players), too. So, I’m doing back-to-backs. It’s, it’s a lot, three nights, three to four nights a week since November 14, I think yes, and no stops. But it is so much fun, especially a comedy.
Brian Kitson: How did you balance the two shows like that?
Chris Stepnitz: It was tough. We were in the last two weekends of performing, and I was having rehearsals for this play all week, pretty much. But no, I don’t know at my age if I would do it again. Back-to-backs are tough as an old man, I could imagine, but it is the energy of this place you walk in. You feel it.
Brian Kitson: So, what do you feel like your character’s motivations are in the show?
Chris Stepnitz: To be the funniest, but that is also like being a major league baseball player, and when I have the home run, because there’s so much talent in that room, you’re constantly Going after each other. Sure. Also, the motivation is to get as much knowledge, energy, and persona from Max as possible because he is just an icon. It’s all based on the Sid Caesar show. So Sid Caesar was the the Elvis of comedy before Elvis was even Elvis. And so, really, Brian’s there for that, but he’s looking to get ahead. He is constantly trying to get a play, an idea, out to Hollywood, and that’s in the show as well. So motivation is a stepping stone but to get as much out of this crew as possible, but he’s got an ego. My character definitely is an ego.
Brian Kitson: How do you, like, do you play that up the ego?
Chris Stepnitz: There’s a there’s a bit against Ira that, I mean, I become kind of, not a villain, but I call him off of being a turd, and that’s another thing from the show, and he is a turd the show. And, yeah, I definitely bring that up, especially when I’m going against that character. Soften it up when I’m with someone else, there’s almost I can feel a hierarchy in the room. We are all supposed to be peers, but this character is a little funnier, so I try to beat him with a joke and things like that.
Brian Kitson: That’s a lot of fun. So how have you, like, you kind of get the base scripts, you know? How do you take the character and kind of make it your own?
Chris Stepnitz: Look for unusual or not unusual, different ways to portray that emotion that’s coming out. And so there’s, I can’t say angry at my character’s got some anger issues, let’s say especially with the one. And so sometimes when you know you’re most angry, you’re not screaming, but then also trying to fight in the right tempo to deliver to the load lines, especially in the comedy, there’s never a throwaway line, because the author, the playwright, put it down there for a reason. But then, some things you need not only speed through but get through to get to the punch line. And you can drag an audience if you try. Think every word has the same significance in drag an audience. So that’s how you bring your characterization into not really an accent for me, nothing like that. But definitely, I’m in my mid-50s, and I get to play like a 35-year-old. So I try to bring a cocky 35-year-old.
Brian Kitson: Sure, there’s a different energy there. You know?
Chris Stepnitz: Amen.
Brian Kitson: What themes from the show resonate with you the most?
Chris Stepnitz: There’s so much, I mean, just with what’s going on in our whole society, with the divisiveness of the country that even comes through here. But the biggest thing is it’s sad to say that what I get is how the funniest thing in the world, corporate, wants to come in and squeeze it. They want observers to check what you’re doing and run every sketch through them. And it really is as Max says: live now, that’s what it is.
Brian Kitson: Final question for you, what are you hoping audiences take away from this production?
Chris Stepnitz: I hope they come off with that was the fastest two hours they’ve ever been through because it was so funny. I think they will be able to relate to this, even young people, young people; I don’t think with, especially Neil Simon type things I just, I don’t mean, to understand, but can grasp what was going on in 1953 that was so long ago. But when you start talking about Joe McCarthy, things like that. Wow, that really resonates with me, and it really can. And then you also see that, okay, there’s some language in our show. When I was a kid, I did. I thought that, like bad words only came to be in 1975 and later, right, right? And he realized, no, they’ve been saying that stuff in the 1950s, and it’s the same jokes, just a little different words, and that is the fun.
Brian Kitson: Well, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to seeing the show.
Don’t Miss Avon Players Laughter on the 23rd Floor!
This current Avon Players production is running until March 29 in Rochester, MI, so get your tickets from their website or box office! Have you seen a production of Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor before? Let us know on social media @BoxSeatBabes!
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