5 Questions with Robert Zukerman, Barrington Stage Company

February brings many things to help us get through the winter season: Black History Month, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day and theater summer season announcements.

The best mid-winter theater event that has come around every February for the past 13 years is Barrington Stage Company’s “10×10 New Play Festival.”

There are many one-act play festivals throughout the Capital Region, but the “10×10” has a tight structure – 10 plays of 10 minutes each – which attracts BSC veteran playwrights such as Brent Askari (“Andy Warhol in Iran”), Jessica Provenz (“Boca”) and actors who are masters of the game. It’s an exciting, offbeat sampler of theater ideas done with an impressive amount of professional commitment and talent. Last year’s “10×10” won the coveted Berkie (Berkshire Theatre Critics Association) Award for Best Ensemble.

I was lucky to catch Robert Zukerman during his preparations for this year’s “10×10,” which will mark his ninth festival. He has worked extensively at the best off-Broadway houses such as the Atlantic, CSC & Irish Rep and regionally at Arena Stage, Pittsburgh Public and Florida Rep, among many others, but considers BSC his artistic home.

QUESTION: You’ve had a long history with this rather unique theater form, the evening of 10-minute plays. What do you love about the art form?

ANSWERr: I’m a character actor — have been since age 17 — so the opportunity to create a bunch of different characters in a single evening is both challenging and somewhat intoxicating, especially if the writing is good.

Q: What’s the range of roles you’ve played in the 10x10s?

A: I always play the “older male” track, so as much as I’d like to try my skills at playing zombies or ax-murderers, I end up playing husbands, dads and granddads, and historical characters. Last year I was cast as Norman Rockwell after a regional job playing Sigmund Freud. I was skeptical about doing Rockwell — I’m the antithesis of a New England Wasp — but with good writing, a talented scene partner and a perfect costume, it worked. Or so I was told.

Q: Have you discovered what works best in a 10 minute play, and is there a play that surprised
you by the audience’s reaction to it?

A: What works best in 10-minute plays are the same dramaturgical elements that make good full-length plays: creative writing and adherence to dramatic structure — rising action, conflict, resolution, etc. — though not necessarily linear storytelling. I also appreciate well-drawn characters that allow me to fill in the blanks with my imagination. Actors are often surprised by the reactions of an audience — whether it’s to our work or to the material — so there’s no one play that has surprised me.

Q: What acting muscles are stretched with a 10-minute play? Does it feel different than working
on a full-length play?

A: The primary acting challenge in doing 10-minute plays is the speed at which you have to move the piece along. A director once said to me, “Can you die faster?” That pretty much sums it up. I usually spend three to four weeks learning lines before rehearsals begin, because as an older actor I need more time to wrestle with a script. There’s never enough rehearsal time, even for full-length plays, where you’ve usually got more time to explore the subtleties of character and scene.

Q: What is a play that changed your life, and how?

A: I’m not sure that any play has changed my life, although my first show at Barrington Stage, “Thief River” in 2004, introduced me to what has become an artistic home. The process of building characters through research and imagination and rehearsal continues to challenge me to confront elements of the human condition — not all of which are good — that enrich my life creatively, emotionally and intellectually.

The “10×10 New Play Festival” will be presented at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center (36 Linden St., Pittsfield) with performances Thursday through March 10. For tickets, visit barringtonstage.org.