Gregory Lush of Kiestwood stars in the title role of Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” which runs through July 18 at Shakespeare Dallas’ Shakespeare in the Park.
Lush has been a professional actor for about 20 years, working in stage and film. He also teaches voice and musical theater at Richland College.
“Tartuffe” is a 17th Century French comedy about a guy who pretends to be a priest to trick a wealthy man into giving him all of his possessions, all while seducing his wife.
“The play is about hypocrisy and the people who blindly follow and the people who abuse that,” Lush says.
The last time Lush played in Shakespeare in the Park was 2007 in “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”
“It’s a totally different experience as an actor,” he says. “People come out there with their picnices, and some of them get really elaborate into the picnic life.”
The audience stretches from the stage far back into the park, so the actors have to amplify everything they do, without losing the reality of it, he says.
“You’re competing with traffic and sirens, and you know, stuff happens out there,” he says.
It gives actors a chance to “stretch the acting muscles,” he says, because everything has to be so big. On top of that, the play uses language from 500 years ago and is entirely in rhymed couplets.
“It’s big, broad comedy, so people usually have a lot of fun with that out in the park,” he says.
Tickets for Shakespeare in the Park, at Samuell-Grand Amphitheater, cost $10.
