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EDGE MAGAZINE
Page 1|2|3
by
Dan
Gregory
"CHATTING WITH CHAD"
Having just finished a six-year run as frontiersman Matthew
Cooper on the TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, hunky Chad
Allen appears on stage in *change at Babylon July 25th through
August 30th at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood. A post-AIDS
play revolving around a group of New York gay men and their
adventures at a Fire Island retreat, *change at Babylon is
about the families we as gay men come from and the families
we create. Acting onstage is not new to Allen--last year he
starred in Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World
and was "Cowboy" in the Boys in the Band benefit which raised
money for the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. His theatre credits
also include Biloxi Blues, A Man Called Peter and Oliver!
The 24-year-old actor has been successfully working in the
entertainment business for the last 20 years--as a tow-headed
tyke he starred in a series of He-Man television commercials.
Soon after he played an autistic child on the critically acclaimed
medical drama St. Elsewhere for NBC. This was followed by
roles on the TV shows Webster, Our House, and My Two Dads.
Allen was born in Orange County to have a large Italian Catholic
family with two sisters and four brothers. The person he's
closest to in his life, he says, is his twin sister Charity,
a liberal activist whose Italian features are compared to
pop star Madonna. A week before the opening of Babylon Allen
and his publicist meet me at industry-hangout Off Vine, a
cute bungalow restaurant in the heart of Hollywood. Besides
starring in Babylon Allen is also producing it--a feat which
has kept him busy with 7:30am meetings, advertising approvals,
and ever-ringing cellphone--which he graciously turns off
as we sit down for lunch. Dressed California-casual in blue
jeans and a white t-shirt, Allen is charming and funny as
he talks about his career and the importance of theatre.
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EDGE: What is it
about *change at Babylon that made you want to be part of
it?
Chad
Allen: It's sort of a long story
at this point, but I started a non-profit theatre company
called
The Creative Outlet here a few years ago with my friend
Heather Tom (from The Young and the Restless). We've been
producing theatre around the LA. area because we couldn't
find a company we felt was doing the kinds of shows we wanted
to do. Part of the problem with doing small theatre in L.A.
is getting people to come see it. One thing we noticed very
clearly was that the gay community was very supportive of
small theatre. We were also anxious to find a show with a
gay theme that we could put up that we thought was good. We
are constantly reading new shows. Part of the purpose of the
Creative Outlet was to get new material to foster the talents
of young writers, so we set out to get new scripts. I went
to New York at Christmas time and a friend of mine that I
known for quite some time--who's a friend of Brian-Paul Mendoza,
our author--brought me the script *change at Babylon and asked
if I would consider doing it in New York City because they
were planning a production of it there. I read the script
and immediately fell in love with it. The characters were
just phenomenal. A very well-written script for a first-time
author. But I couldn't come to New York to do it. When things
started to fall apart with the New York production, I thought
this was our opportunity. So I flew out there and struck up
a friendship with the author and convinced him that L.A. was
the place for the show anyways. And that we could take it
here, give it a top-notch production, work out the kinks in
it, get some good reviews and a good reputation, and go from
there.
EDGE:
Tell me about your character in the show.
Chad
Allen: I
play a character named Eric. He is a young man from an abusive
background--sexually and otherwise--who left a small town
to come to New York and become a A-list gay party boy and
gets seriously into drugs. It takes place on Fire Island at
a house owned by two gentlemen who died of AIDS, and they're
ghosts. They watch generation after generation of young gay
boys come into their house and make the same mistakes that
they made, not knowing how to pass on the lessons they've
learned. because they are dead. In this particular year Eric's
brother--who's straight--comes to find him on the island to
tell him that their father is dying. Eric says, "Fuck you.
I told Dad I had AIDS and he turned his back on me." |
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