Bang
Astin admitted this show is a bit out of his comfort range.
While he’s done a few oneact plays, this is first time taking on a three-act show with a month-long run.
“I think it will be fair to call this a debut, a theater debut,” Astin said.
Astin said he’s willing to throw himself into situations that are neither familiar or comfortable.
“That’s a good way to be,” Astin said. “Once I threw myself into this realm, I realized the skills and the endurance required to actually pull it off are much more complex and challenging than I anticipated.”
And he loves how it takes 30 minutes for his brain to unwind at the end of a fivehour rehearsal.
“I like that I’m committed to the routine,” Astin said. “Trust the routine, things just happen.
“Things fall into place the way they’re supposed to.”
Astin said he’s had experience with farce before. “The Goonies” is a farce in it’s own unique way, he said, pointing the various gadgets that the character Data deployed.
One gadget got him in to a sticky situation, while another saved him from it, Astin said.
“‘Goonies’ was a spirit of play,” Astin said. “There’s a spirit of fun that ‘Goonies’ had that’s alive in this farce.
“Maybe it’s returning to my roots in this way.” He liked the Shadowland to the Goondocks, the neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, where the Goonies lived that was threatened with being torn down by a rich developer who wanted to build a golf course.
“It’s worth saving,” Astin said. “It’s everything I would’ve pictured a theater like this to be.”
Astin credits Director James Glossman and Artistic Director Brendan Burke with bringing this premier to the Shadowland.
Glossman convinced Cleese it was a safe place committed to putting on good productions out of the red hot glare of the critics, Astin said.
“We’re making this show, the staging of this play for the people of Ellenville and the people of this area,” Astin said.
Astin described the Shadowland as a place with a “quality stage, great space, good people and an audience who is ready to be entertained.”
“You have to respect that exists, and that’s why we’re doing it here,” Astin said. “I hope people come out and enjoy good late summer fun.”
Looking back on his debuts, Astin recalled working with legendary director Stephen Spielberg in his first big film role in “The Goonies.”
“He had such a sense of mood and cinematic style,” Astin said. “You felt like you were learning from the master.
“The adventure tale was his idea.”
While he did serious stuff before, he had as much fun with a kids pirate adventure, Astin said.
“The first thing I’ve ever did was “Goonies,” Astin said. “My first play is a French farce. “Firsts are nice big steps.” Astin said he feels he’s fulfilling his mission on earth, which is following in his parents’ footsteps,
His dad, actor John Astin, 88, has taught theater at Johns Hopkins University for the last 20 years, and performed at the Shadowland on multiple occasions.
He knows all about French farces, Sean Astin said.
“I didn’t know anything,” Astin said.
Now this new role has brought father and son closer together.
“I’m lucky he’s still alive, my mom passed two years ago,” Astin said. “He’s got good thoughts for me.”