Michael Nichols-Pate isn’t a method actor. Despite countless TV and movie cliches that would make you believe it’s the only way to go, Nichols-Pate believes it can often do an actor more harm than good. “[I]t can just weigh on you,” he told a Writing and Reporting the News class at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts recently via a Zoom interview. “You don’t want to start embodying the negative aspects of your character, which is easier to do than embody[ing] the positives.”
The 31-year-old actor and Glens Falls, NY, native speaks from experience, recounting the unease that would follow him home after the final bows of Sandy Hill Arts Center’s production of “Cabaret” in June of 2024. Despite his upbeat demeanor, Nichols-Pate admits the car ride home from the theater was a struggle. “I’m still feeling everything…this is a heavy thing.”
He’s not a rookie, either. Nichols-Pate has been acting for nearly 20 years since landing his first role in a local production at age 11. His fascination with theater started long before that first show, when 5-year-old Michael was entranced by a high school production of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Minus a brief hiatus in LA where he wasn’t acting, he has been in theaters ever since.
Nichols-Pate plays the dashing Robert Martin alongside “Chaperone” and Salem Theater visiting-guest-artist Rebecca Paige in Fort Salem Theater’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone”.
As an actor from New York working in theater, it would be natural to assume he aspires to Broadway and, like so many in his shoes, spends each day striving to make it to Manhattan. Natural, but incorrect.
He’s much more excited about the theatrical work going on that’s a little less visible or mainstream. Some of the most thought-provoking productions, in his opinion, are happening on much smaller stages.
“We’re seeing a lot of really interesting and creative pushes being done locally and regionally that [are] not necessarily translating to Broadway.”
For one example, he points to the production of “Cabaret” he’d appeared in. The show’s run was a smaller stage in both the literal and figurative sense: Sandy Hill is a regional theater, without the same reach as Broadway, but it was also a uniquely immersive venue. “Cabaret” is set in a nightclub in Berlin as the Nazi Party is rising to power.
“Utilizing this small, little hole-in-the-wall theater that wasn’t even so much a theater as a banquet hall and allowing the show to be very immersive, I find that was really impactful,” said Nichols-Pate. “I’ve actually become really interested and invested in creating immersive theatrical experiences as I feel it helps further the story along.”
Building a world around audience members for them to react and interreact with is a frontier of theater that Nichols-Pate feels deeply connected to.
“You can go see Cabaret, or you can go and the minute you walk in the doors, you’re in the nightclub, they’re all around you, and then at the end when the characters are going through turmoil and the Nazis are stomping and marching around, you say to yourself: I could have stopped this at any point, but I, too, sat there. It creates an interesting, unique experience where each show is different.”
Nichols-Pate says Broadway productions can’t (or won’t) take risks. With so many eyes on them, these nationally known productions push fewer boundaries, and tend to stick to the brief. On the local and regional levels, however, companies can be bold. In choosing atypical castings, unique stagings, and unconventional designs, local theaters are going outside a box Broadway can’t afford to, with great success.
“You’re seeing that more locally because you’re not getting a list of folks, and you don’t have to make up $40 million to just break even. Broadway is not willing to take risks.”
It’s not just the capacity for bold choices that draws him to theater at the community, local, and regional levels. It’s also the accessibility. Nichols-Pate is the Executive Director of Bunbury Players: a company of volunteer theatrical artists who present easily accessible theater, free of charge. Bunbury Players was started by Garrett West, Nichols-Pate’s close friend, during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “Zoom Theater,” with the goal of keeping theater alive in a safe and accessible way. Since then, the company has transitioned into in-person productions, but the mission has remained the same.
“Theater has gotten so expensive. Not just to create it, but to see it…I get it, theater is expensive. But also, you want an audience to come, and you don’t just want a certain demographic. You want it to be accessible.”
It’s that desire to ensure that anyone who wants to see and engage with live theater can that keeps Nichols-Pate, and the Bunbury Players, going, he said. “Sometimes, the most important show is unable to be seen because there’s a price wall. Suddenly, there are children who might want to see ‘Cinderella’, and become inspired by it, who can’t afford getting to see it…It blocks people off.”
Bunbury Players aims to close that gap by making theater that is free to see and engage with. It’s Nichols-Pate’s way of giving back to the things that built him. “Community theater raised me. I stand by that.”
