Out Actor Peter Paige Takes on The History Boys in its Los Angeles Premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre

BY CHRISTOPHER LISOTTA
PHOTOGRAPHED FOR FRONTIERS BY GREG THOMPSON

“Peter Paige—I love this guy, he is always early!”

That's what Center Theatre Group's press associate Ken Werther says when Paige, who is starring in CTG's production of The History Boys, walks into a downtown L.A. rehearsal room for Frontiers' photo shoot. It's about 9:15 in the morning, and Paige is more than fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. Despite being in the throes of intense rehearsals for the L.A. premiere of the critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning play about a working-class boy's school in 1980s England, Paige is smiling and relaxed as he gives Werther, the makeup person, the photographer, and anyone else in the vicinity a warm good morning.

You might think Paige would be a little more outwardly tense. For five seasons he played the outrageous yet tender Emmett Honeycutt on Showtime's gay drama Queer as Folk, but since the series ended in 2005, Paige has been working non-stop. He wrote, produced directed and starred in his own feature Say Uncle; did voice work for the animated Logo series Rick and Steve; guest starred on numerous network TV series including Grey's Anatomy; directed another indie feature; and is currently developing a scripted series for cable network E!, a process he is juggling during History Boys rehearsals.

But Paige is clearly enjoying the challenge of taking on a lead role in a play that took London and Broadway by storm, and racked up six Tony Awards in 2006, including Best Play. History Boys profiles eight high school students from the decidedly downscale Northern English city of Sheffield as they study for a series of examinations that could lead to their acceptance into Oxford or Cambridge, a long shot considering their middle class pedigree. They spent years being taught by the Reverend Hector, an instructor who loathes tests and teaches for the love of knowledge, but the school's headmaster has brought in the young teacher Irwin (Paige), whose new methods replaces knowledge with cynical strategies needed to ace the exams. While Hector and Irwin challenge one another over curriculum, their own sexuality becomes an emotional battleground that draws in several of the boys.

“It's very interesting playing a guy who is so conflicted,” Paige explains. “He teaches completely differently than he lives, and that is fascinating and surprisingly difficult to navigate. I always played nice guys. And Irwin has incredibly good intentions, but is misguided, but at the same time he's right. That's the complicated and really interesting thing-what he's basically saying to these boys is, you don't have a chance unless you work the system. And he's right. And that's the amazing, fascinating thing about the play. Nobody is right, nobody is wrong. Nobody is good, nobody is bad.”

Part of that amorphous good/bad dynamic is Dakin (Seth Numrich) the class heartthrob who uses his sexuality to work both his teachers, and Ponser (Alex Brightman), his sensitive, openly gay classmate who has a painful crush on the more handsome, charming boy. Dakin's pursuit of Irwin puts the new teacher in a situation he's never been in before, a situation Paige revels in playing as an actor.

“It's so much more interesting to have it happen on stage,” he says of Irwin's emotional awakening. “I think he thinks of himself as an asexual person when the play starts. But he finds himself swept into this boy's loop. It's very fun to discover every night. It's very fun to wait for it to happen. I imagine that will happen until we close.”

As Numrich gets made up for the photo shoot, he describes Dakin as a “very interesting guy. He is a little bit of the player in the group.”

Paige walks by and guffaws at Numrich's description.

“Ha, a little bit,” Paige interjects.

“Yeah, that's an understatement,” Numrich continues. “He is one of those guys who began to discover his sexuality at a very young age. So his ability to use that side of himself to his own advantage started coming out early on.”

Brightman, who dropped out of NYU to do the production, sees his character Posner as “extremely outgoing about his homosexuality, to an extent. I think it's more of a shield than anything else. He's flamboyant as a cover. He ends up taking a really gigantic journey about whom he is and who he wants to be.”

Besides all the sexual and emotional calisthenics performed in History Boys, the cast has had only a few weeks to tackle the specific accents of Northern England, plus absorb the incredibly intense dialogue and subject matter, which covers everything from the tiniest details of English history to the mood of the country during Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's rule.

Paige says that for the first four days of rehearsal, the boys worked with a dialogue coach while he and the three other actors playing teachers discussed “the socio-political climate of Britain in the early 1980s.”

“I have had to learn so much,” Paige admits. “Ironically I was a good student, but history? The only subject I hated. And here I am in History Boys trying to get passionate about it. And what's amazing is, it's been fascinating.”

Considering the play's track record and the anticipation that is building in L.A. to see such a theatrical phenomenon, Paige is remaining very calm by focusing on the basics.

“You want to live up to the hype, you want to live up to the project,” Paige says. “I'm more concerned about serving the play itself. That's my goal every day when I come in.”

The History Boys is performed through Dec. 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.centertheatergroup.com.

Giving Back

Paige Hosts Matthew Shepard Foundation Event

As an out actor in Holly-wood who is also socially conscious, Peter Paige is a regular at LGBT charity events and fundraisers, but he recently co-hosted an event for an organization that holds a special place in his heart—The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Named in memory of the Wyoming college student who was murdered in 1998, the Matthew Shepard Foundation works to combat homophobia and advocate for LGBT equality. According to Paige, getting involved in the Foundation comes down to meeting one person—Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother.

“She took the single worst thing that could ever happen to a human being and turned it into something incredibly powerful and incredibly triumphant,” he explained. “Honestly the woman could ask me to jump off a building, and I'd figure it was for the best and do it, because she is just so extraordinary.”

On Oct. 27 Paige and Days of Our Lives star and The Biggest Loser host Allison Sweeny emceed the event which honored Sen. Edward Kennedy and Terry DeCrescenzo and GLASS Youth and Family Services, among others.

Sweeny became involved after she learned about the organization through Ted Corday, an executive producer of Days.

“I was so touched and moved by it,” Sweeny said of the Foundation “I think it was especially because I have a son who is two and a half, and Judy's bravery and courage are quite phenomenal.”

Despite never meeting before, Paige said he and Sweeny had a great time hosting the celebration.

“We were back stage crying we were laughing so hard,” Paige said. “Actors have that thing where you can create intimacy in 30 seconds. We settled in and enjoyed our time together.”