Role             Owen/Red
Where:         A Contemporary Theater
Playwright:   John Pielmeier

Photo 1......Photo 2

Voices in the Dark was a John Pielmeier play that I ultimately got frustrated with him for.  He was working this play out because he was gonna write a television play about it. And the third act was all about can the heroine steal the handcuff key from the villain without letting the villain know that that's what she's doing. And the handcuff key is this big (makes tiny gesture with thumb and finger). Now on TV you have inserts and close-ups but to keep that clear on stage it's impossible. And we went round and round about how to keep the plot clear, how to put a little blinking light, which was my idea and which ultimately kind of worked, but we went round and round. And it was the premiere of the play, I was the lead and I thought it was going to be a big break and ultimately the audience just wasn't really responding to it.  And suddenly John just says late, late in the preview process, he goes, "James, I'm sorry - the third act is a TV act. It's not gonna work for stage." And I was just like, "why did you bring it to stage???"  But you know, I have to say he was wonderful, amazing, so intelligent and I got to work with him and I'm still glad I did it.  I'm very proud of that.  I gained like 30 pounds of muscle for that.  (clip)  I was the killer who was pretending to be Owen, a mentally retarded kid who's actually Red - we never really knew who this guy really was, because on the phone he was pretending to be (starts southern accent) old guy from the south and he seduces the woman into openin' her door. And Owen is this retarded kid who lets people push him around and ultimately he's just an asshole, he's a killer.       
 JM.com  2007

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"James Marsters makes the extremes of his local misfit character vivid..."  Douglas McLennan · News Tribune · October 27, 1994