Dave Register has acted on Broadway and appeared on TV and film. This week, the Maine actor performs in a small, quiet play that will be staged outdoors behind a coffee shop in Portland’s East Bayside.
“The Aliens,” by Annie Baker, is about two angry young men who get together at a coffee shop in rural Vermont to talk about music and poetry. They befriend a young male employee, who joins their conversations about Charles Bukowski. It’s a play about the difficult nature of friendship among men.
“It’s a simple story about guys trying to connect and not really having the emotional intelligence or vocabulary to do so,” Register said. “Why can’t guys be affectionate and honest with each other? If they could, imagine how much simpler and safer the world would be.”
It runs Thursday through Aug. 15 behind Tandem Coffee Roasters, 122 Anderson St. The play is a group effort involving Tandem, Mayo Street Arts and East Shore Arts, a theater, film and new-media company that Register established this year. “The Aliens” is its first production.
Register, who recently returned to Maine from Los Angeles and lives in South Portland, read the play while studying theater at Columbia University. One of his professors, Sam Gold, directed the original production in 2010 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York.
“At the time, I wasn’t quite the right age for any of the characters, but something about it resonated with me. I read it again and again, and always had it in the back of my mind this was a play I would do someday,” he said.
That day arrived during the pandemic.
This winter, Register began thinking about producing a play in Portland and what that might look like. He assumed it would be outdoors, with a small cast. At the same time, he was teaching a contemporary scene study class on Zoom, and used a scene from “The Aliens” as part of the coursework. When one of the students did a wonderful job with the material, Register realized what he needed to do next.
He had to produce the play.
“It was one of those moments when everything clicked,” he said. “I knew we could do this. We just had to find the right venue and the right co-producer, and I would try my hand as a first-time producer and throw my weight into it a little bit.”
Dave Register rehearses a scene from “The Alien” outdoors at Mad Horse Theatre in South Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
In a manner of speaking, Register had considerable weight to throw. He grew up in Cape Elizabeth with an interest in theater, and moved quickly from acting in shows at Portland Stage in 2010 to Broadway in 2016, where he replaced Russell Tovey in the Tony Award-winning revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” He also appeared in the original Broadway production of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” His film credits include “The Witch Files” and “The Price,” and he has appeared on TV in “Madam Secretary” and “FBI.”
In “The Aliens,” he plays Jasper, one of the two older friends. Sam Rapaport plays his buddy, KJ, and Parker Hough plays Evan, the teenage coffeeshop employee. The three form an unlikely bond as they search for connection and meaning – a theme that feels particularly relevant during the pandemic.
Register recruited Sally Wood to direct the play. Wood directed Register in his professional stage debut, a production of John Cariani’s “Last Gas” at Portland Stage. He then enlisted the support of Will Pratt, owner of Tandem, who agreed to host the play, and Mayo Street Arts to co-produce it. And he rallied the neighborhood. Rising Tide Brewing Co., Dean’s Sweets, Evo Kitchen + Bar and Urban Farm Fermentory are all involved with various promotions.
The outdoor area behind Tandem is perfect for this play, Register said – a hyper-realistic coffeeshop setting for a hyper-realistic play. He envisions an audience of no more than 50 people seated on three sides around the actors, with the ambient sounds of the city providing a backdrop. It’s a quiet play, full of pauses. Playwright Baker’s stage direction suggests that at least one-third of the play be silent and that the pauses “should all be uncomfortably long.”
With its small cast and natural outdoor setting, the play felt like a “perfect project” for these uncertain times, Register said. “The location, the space and the general atmosphere all feel right.”
He expects “The Aliens” will be the first production of his newly formed East Shore Arts.
“My plan post-COVID is to work where I have to work and work where the work asks me to work and to be here in Maine when that is not happening – or to be working here in Maine. If all goes well and we don’t totally botch this, maybe we will do another one,” he said.
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