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Ralph Zito
Ralph Zito studied biological anthropology and thought he would
be a doctor—but his love of theater steered him to Juilliard.
After acting briefly, he apprenticed with Liz Smith as a voice teacher.
Zito—who has served as voice and speech consultant for Arena Stage,
the Shakespeare Theatre, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and
productions around the country—has been a Juilliard faculty member
since 1992.
Ralph Zito at a butterfly farm in Belize in December 2000. |
When did you first know you wanted to be involved in the
theater?
I had been interested in performing since sixth or seventh
grade, and I did plays in high school and college. But being a theater
major wasn't an option. As the grandchild of Italian immigrants,
I was a supposed to become a professional and wear a suit to work.
When I was a junior at Harvard, I was in an extracurricular production
of Molière's The School for Wives, which Harvard alum
Harold Stone—who had recently become administrative director
of Juilliard's Drama Division—came back to direct. I wasn't
sure what I'd do after graduation, but Harold told me he thought
that, if I worked hard, I'd have a chance at becoming an actor—so
that's when my thoughts turned to drama school and I came to study
at Juilliard.
What's the most memorable performance you've seen?
The first time I watched the Butoh company Sankai Juku
perform at City Center, sometime in the early 1980s, I was transfixed!
The level of concentration and commitment, the way of moving and
putting pictures on a stage and telling stories, was completely
unknown to me. I also remember a flamenco performance at City Center.
As the couples promenaded in a circle, there was a moment where
the men simultaneously took off their capes and, in one movement,
twirled them over their heads and down onto the floor, for the women
to sit on. There was this whoosh! before they landed, and
the entire audience gasped; it was the sexiest gesture anybody had
ever seen. I thought, I want one-tenth of that commitment
and energy, as a performer!
What's the most embarrassing moment you've had as a performer?
I was playing Antony in a production of Antony and Cleopatra
directed by Peter Sellars, done in an indoor swimming pool with
Cleopatra's barge actually a raft floating in the middle. In the
first big scene between Antony and Cleopatra, I was supposed to
walk in and interrupt her. There were entrances at four different
parts of the room, and you had to walk around this big corridor
and around the pool to get from one to the other. I had somehow
just skipped a scene in my head. I went into my place at the wrong
entrance and was listening for a cue—and there was a deafening
silence. There were some ad libs and I suddenly figured it out and
came stumbling in from the wrong end of the room. It was just horrifying!
I never missed an entrance again.
What is your proudest accomplishment in life?
My 14-year relationship with my partner, Rob Bundy, who is currently
the artistic director of Stages Repertory Theater in Houston. We've
lived in the same place for only two of our 14 years together. Any
successful relationship requires an extraordinary level of communication,
and that we've achieved this under these circumstances makes me
very proud.
What's the most satisfying aspect of teaching for you?
Unquestionably, witnessing growth and change in my students—watching
somebody achieve something they couldn't a year or two ago. Since
I also coach outside Juilliard, I see some students beyond their
four years here. Last spring I worked on a production of Romeo
and Juliet at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland
that had six Juilliard alums. Watching them all doing work they
couldn't have done when they started at Juilliard—or even
when they had just graduated—was an important reminder that
my four years with people here are just one part of a performer's
long life.
And the most frustrating?
In rare cases, I feel unable to bring about change or facilitate
growth, for any number of reasons. In drama, we're often not dealing
with people who've been taking lessons and planning to perform since
they were 5, like musicians or dancers. Sometimes they don't do
their first play until they're in college, when they become interested.
When they audition, we see that they have an incredible native talent—but
they've got four short years to learn a whole lot of things.
What would people be surprised to know about you?
People are usually surprised to find out that I have a big natural-scientist
bent. Unlike a lot of voice teachers, I like to sit through the
scientific paper presentations at voice conferences, because it
exercises that part of my brain again.
What "words of wisdom" can you offer aspiring actors today?
Be willing to do whatever you need to in order to embrace the unfamiliar
without judgment. If my teaching career has taught me anything,
it's that that is what gets in people's way more than anything
else.
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Month:
Greta Berman, liberal arts faculty member. |
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