Dan:  Could you tell me your name?

Stefano:  My name is John Stefano.

Dan:  What was your first reaction when you find out you were going to be performing 1776?

Stefano:  (Laughs) That's a good question. I knew in some sense from the beginning that I'd play John Adams because I came in as a guest artist. But I did have to go through the audition process.  The director and the artistic director then agreed that I could do it.

Dan:  What do you think of the musical itself?

Stefano:  I like it a lot. I think it's a good book. I think it's a very moving, powerful story. The ending, where they all sign the Declaration of Independence, brings tears to the eyes of most Americans, no matter whether you're left wing or right wing. And the effort that it took to create the Declaration is captured beautifully in the play.
    I also like the music very much. "Momma Look Sharp" and "Molasses to Rum" are two of the best musical theatre numbers ever written.

Dan:  How did you prepare for your role as John Adams?

Stefano:  I read several biographies. I read the letters that he wrote to his wife. There were hundreds, of course, over their many-year relationship. I also worked a lot on the script, doing an intensive amount of script analysis, too difficult to go into over the phone, but it was a lot of work. I learned the lines and I learned the music and I
spent about six months working on it before we started rehearsals in September.

Dan:  Did his letters really end with "Till Then, Till Then?"

Stefano:  No. I think that was added by the authors. There may be one of them that did, but no, they were just looking for a dramatic device as a way to finish off each of those letters.

Dan:  What else have you performed in?

Stefano:  Well, I'm a professional actor. I acted in Los Angeles years ago before I started teaching. I've done a variety of musicals and straight plays. I've done some weird stuff like Franz Kafka's "The Trial." I've done some Shakespeare like "Taming the Shrew" and "Henry IV Part 1," musicals like "Guys and Dolls," but I've been primarily a director for the last twenty years. I've directed a number of shows here at Otterbein including "Big River" and "Sweet Charity."

Dan:  Did you see the original "1776" when it first came out?

Stefano:  No, I didn't. I saw the movie when it was released, which is essentially the same cast. I don't think it works quite as well as a movie as it does as a stage play.

Dan:  How does your performance compare with William Daniels?

Stefano:  (Laughs) With William Daniels? I don't know. I don't think I'm in any position to be able to compare. People said they liked my performance. I had a good time. I believe I'm a better trained singer than Daniels is. He's an actor-who-sings, and I may be a singer-who-acts. I think the songs were sung a little bit better. I don't know if that's an improvement or not. It's a matter of choice. But I admired his work immensely. He was perfect for the role.

Dan:  Did your production include "Cool Considerate Men?" I think that's the best song.

Stefano:  Yes, it did. It is one of the best songs in the play. The director's inclination was to cut it, because it had been cut in productions he was involved in before, but I think he fell in love with it as we started working with it. It does a lot for the play. It really helps you understand the position of John Dickinson and the rest of the conservatives in a way which, if taken out of the play it all seems petty and personal.

Dan:  I have read that Adams and Dickinson hated each other.

Stefano:  Well, it's not entirely true. They did get into a fight once. It didn't happen inside the chambers. As a matter of fact, we don't know very much about what went on inside the chambers, and the sense I get from having read a number of different biographies was that it wasn't nearly as theatrical or dramatic as it is in the play. But Adams does say in his autobiography that after one particularly difficult debate Dickinson came outside and accosted him in the street and Adams was shocked, because as far as he was concerned what happened inside the chamber was ... you know, people got hot with each other but everybody understood that it was debate on the issues, and it was not personal. He was shocked that Dickinson had taken something he said personally and decided to challenge him outside. But, no, I don't think they hated each other. They do in the play! There is just no question. The actor that played Dickinson and I had a great time trying to irritate each other as much as possible.

Dan:  It would probably be pretentious to think so, but is there anything you would change about the play?

Stefano:  Is there anything I would change about the play? That's an interesting question. Yes, one thing that I can think of. The climactic song in the show belongs to Adams. It's what I came to call the Aria, but the actual title is "Is Anybody There?" It should be the biggest number of the show. It's the eleven o'clock show, in Broadway terms, and it's the one that should bring down the house. But the one that does bring down the house is "Molasses to Rum." "Is Anybody There" doesn't top it and it really can't. It musically is just not as good a piece, and dramatically it's not as arresting. I did, as an actor, everything I could with it, and I think I made it work as best I could. It would take a better actor than I to make that work. It just isn't "Molasses to Rum." The other great song of the show of course is "Momma Look Sharp" which ends the first act. There should be a build from "Momma Look Sharp" to "Molasses to Rum" to "Is Anybody There." But it's very hard to pull that off.

Dan:  So do you think there would be some way to improve this with the acting itself?

Stefano:  No, I think that if I had been involved in the original production, I'd have said this is the right idea, go back to the drawing board and see if you can come up with something musically more interesting. Pretentious of me to say that, of course.

Dan:  More voices?

Stefano:  No, I think it's right to have just him. No, I think that's absolutely right. I think the soliloquy is right on. It just is not musically very interesting and it may be too that the words are not quite right. But it may also be that I just wasn't ever able to find what I needed to find. I found the best dramatic arc I could. You want it to be like "I Pagliacci" and it isn't.

Dan:  I have heard that some of those words are from some of his letters.

Stefano:  Oh yes. Absolutely. That's one of the touching things about it, that it contains some of Adams' actual words, some of his dreams and visions.
    The interesting thing is that in the play Adams clearly cares more about the issue of slavery than I think he did in real life. Not that he wasn't concerned about it, but I don't believe he was quite the abolitionist he appears to be in the play. In the original draft of Declaration of Independence, in the slavery clause, Jefferson charges the king with being responsible for slavery, which is not true. In the play, Adams fights desperately to keep that clause in so that it will destroy slavery. In real life, as soon as he read it in Jefferson's first draft, he knew it would have to come out so the South would accept the Declaration. So he was a smarter politician in life than he appears in the play.

Dan:  If you could play somebody else, who would it be?

Stefano:  Actually, I love playing Adams. This was the right part for me, and I'd waited a long time to play it. I'd wanted to play it since I first heard the soundtrack and saw the film. Everybody else seemed to think I was right for it as well. So this was a great
experience in my life. And someday down the road, ten, fifteen years, I might play Ben Franklin. But not now (Laughs).

Dan:  "1776" is being played on Broadway right now.

Stefano:  It is. It's being played at the Roundabout Theater, and the actor playing John Adams is Brent Spiner who plays Data in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He's a damned good actor, a good musical theater actor. As a matter of fact, he was in the original "Big River."

Dan:  What has been your most memorable moment in "1776?"

Stefano:  Good question.  There was a moment in the first readthrough... no it wasn't, it was one of the early rehearsals when I was just reading through a scene with the actress who was playing Abigail, and the scene just flowed. We didn't end up doing it
that way. But what we did was inside of what we eventually ended up doing.
    The other moment I remember happened after we opened. We had opened on a Thursday night, and I was walking to class on Friday morning, and a student stopped me. He looked pretty scruffy. He actually looked like he wasn't even an Otterbein student. I walked past him, and he was wearing this long black coat, and he said "Hey, man!" People don't usually call me "man" on this campus..., but I turned around to him and he said, "Hey, man, was you in that play last night?" I said, "Yeah, I was." He said, "Hey man, that was hot shit!" That was probably one of the better compliments I've ever received.

Dan:  Can you give me some sort of highlight from your entire career?

Stefano:  Other highlights? Well, this was definitely one. Singing of "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" in "Guys and Dolls." It brings down the house. It's a lot of fun. There's a moment I invented for a production I directed of "Beauty and the Beast" where the Beast suddenly disappears and the Prince is revealed; it was as magical as anything I've ever done on stage. That was good.

Dan:  Do you have any great wishes or desires for the future?

Stefano:  Yes. This is the first major acting role I've played in a very long time because I've been involved in teaching and directing and researching, and I'm going to do more of it, get back on stage.

Dan:  Is there some production you'd really like to do?

Stefano: There are a billion of them.

Dan:  Any specific one?

Stefano:  None other than "Waiting for Godot."

Dan:  You've been a lot of help. Thanks a lot.

Stefano:  Good luck.

Dan:  You too. Bye.

Dr. John Stefano has been a faculty member at Otterbein College since 1992, where he is currently chairs the Department of Theatre and Dance. However, he has been involved in theater - singing, acting, directing, and teaching - for over thirty years. He achieved his doctorate at UCLA and has engaged in many acting and directing roles, including playing a part in a 1987 CBS miniseries, Murder Ordained, and has taught and directed theater at several different universities. At Otterbein he has staged Big River, Top Girls, Baby, Sweet Charity, and Robin Hood, and his first acting role was Adams in the 1997 production of 1776.

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