The first time actor Brian Kasicki tried to contort his body to accurately imitate the physical ailments of John Merrick, he experienced some notable physical pain.
“It’s very interesting to try and re-create that,” he said. “I had to try and figure out how can I try and re-create that comfortably but still do [it] justice? That became a challenge of the role.”
It may not have been easy for him to do at first, but Kasicki said it was worth it for the rewards of playing the lead role in The Elephant Man, the latest production from the Orcutt Community Theater (OCT). Along with Kasicki as Merrick, the play also features Jerry Beatty as Dr. Frederick Treves, Nitana De Hato Rey as actress Mrs. Kendall, as well as Dixie Arthur, Dan Bullard, Kate Sutterfield, Lilly Homan, David Bathe, Kristen Selkin, Larry Kaml, David Campbell, and Heather Smith in other roles.
While Kasicki had done some theater in high school, it was through OCT that he rediscovered his passion for performing.
“It had been a couple of years since I had done any theater,” Kasicki said. “A friend of mine [who was in their first fundraiser] messaged me asking me if I was available to be in their flagship show, which was Miracle in Bedford Falls.
Kasicki ended up playing multiple roles in that production, and from there he began a steady relationship with the troupe. For the OCT’s current season, he nabbed the role of Lenny in Rumors, a role he admits he had a lot of fun with.
From there, Kasicki decided to try out for the lead in The Elephant Man. He said for the audition Alan Sutterfield, the play’s director, challenged the actors to move outside of their comfort zone.
“[Sutterfield] had selected scenes for us to go over to see what people could bring to the table,” Kasicki said. “He would ask us to try it again and go for specific things in the readings.”
Sutterfield asked the actors to consider the characters’ motivations as they auditioned for their parts, a tactic Kasicki said helped them learn more about the characters (some of whom are based on real-life people) they were portraying. Kasicki eventually landed the role of John Merrick, also known historically as “The Elephant Man.”
Born in 1862, Merrick (whose first name was actually Joseph, not John), suffered from a rare disease that caused physical deformations to his skin and body parts. His physical appearance left him isolated and eventually led him to a life as a sideshow performer. Later on, Merrick resided at Whitechapel Hospital, in living quarters converted especially for him while members of London’s high society took up his cause and sought to raise money for his care and treatment.
Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man debuted in 1977, and since then a string of noteworthy actors have tackled the role, including David Bowie, Bradley Cooper, and John Hurt in David Lynch’s 1980 movie version. Kasicki said that compared to the other roles he’s played in community theater, this was his biggest challenge to date.
“This is a lot more responsibility,” Kasicki said. “There is a lot more depth to the character. It’s definitely been fun to bring [Merrick] to life.”
The first thing he did was to research Merrick’s real life and the era in which he lived. Kasicki said that while the play has certain fictional embellishments and took creative liberties, much of the plot does follow actual events of Merrick’s life.
Merrick did not want to be looked at or have attention from strangers, an aversion he cultivated after years of being forced to survive as a sideshow performer. In one particularly telling scene, Merrick meets a woman and has to shake her hand. Kasicki said the scene is important because the moment presented a strong emotional crossroads for Merrick.
“At the same time, it strengthens his resolve going forward,” Kasicki said. “It makes him a bit more confident and ready to accept people, even strangers.”
One of the most unique things about the play is that actors are not asked to don heavy prosthetics or makeup for the role but rather to create their own physical body contortion in order to mimic what Merrick must have felt like on a daily basis. Kasicki said the physical aspect was unusual for him as an actor.
“I had seen different pictures of the way that he had to stand,” he said. “The physical features of his body—it’s very different from what we assume from reading the story. Unless you’ve seen the pictures, it’s hard to truly get how disfigured he was.”
Members of the OCT, such as Sutterfield, view the play as a eulogy, Kasicki said, as an effort to honestly show who the people in the story are so that it can live on beyond the life of the play. As for the future, Kasicki plans to continue to work with OCT, as they begin to plan their next season. What he’s learned from taking on a role such as Merrick will help shape other characters in the future as well, he said.
“It was definitely very interesting to see the things he went through and the different hurdles he had in life,” Kasicki said, “and then try and bring some of that into the performance. It was really a remarkable experience.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose doesn’t want attention from strangers. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 7-14, 2019.