Run Through

Jared Michael Delaney as Dan in "Skin Deep."

by Michael Persico & Anastasia Kotsosavas

”I think it’s important to be fully present in the character. You have to be that person rather than try to make that person be you. More often than not your instinct will lead to the right place. Probably the most difficult thing is really allowing yourself to be vulnerable. It’s exposing. I think a lot of actors find truth about themselves in moments like that onstage—where they really have to lay it out there and make it raw. I love doing it. Acting is one of our oldest artforms. There’s something noble about the actor whose willing to go up there and expose himself to show both the flaws and the triumphs of the human condition. We see ourselves reflected onstage. That’s why people go to the theater. That’s why they still go. Regardless of whatever the trappings are, however elaborate the set is, however big the budget is, people go to see themselves reflected back at them. In Hamlet William Shakespeare said in describing acting, “Hold the mirror up to nature.” That’s what you do as the actor. You hold the mirror up to nature so it sees itself reflected back.”

>> Through Jan. 18. $20. Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. 267.474.8077. www.inisnuatheatre.org