No Payne, No Gain

by Brian Suber, David Atlanta Magazine

Theater dervish Topher Payne discusses his latest stage creation, the challenges of comedy, and Joan Crawford worship.

TOPHER PAYNE HAS DONE MORE in his early 20s than most people twice his age. This Renaissance man lists actor, playwright, author, and coffee-slinger among his many credits. We caught up with Payne between rehearsals for his latest role in Eula Mae's Beauty, Bait, and Tackle, writing a musical, launching a play in New York, penning a book, and hawking coffee at Outwrite Bookstore and Coffeehouse.

So, what brought you to Atlanta?
I was born in Mississippi and went to school in Connecticut and California. Later, I toured with a children's theater production of a puppet show. I was supposed to be in Atlanta for ten months. That was five years ago. This is the longest I've been in one place since I was 12 years old, and Atlanta is a great place to call home.

When did the acting bug first bite?
I was doing church plays when I was four. My first role was a sparrow, I had one line and I forgot it. I auditioned for The Client (the 1994 film role went to Brad Renfro) when I was 12 or 13 and haven't looked back since.

And now you play several roles, including women, in Eula Mae's Beauty, Bait, and Tackle. How did you prepare?
Carefully. I didn't want to play the character as a man in drag but as a woman. One of the characters I play is a mother in her 40s whose life has been for shit. A lot of playing the roles is a matter of logistics. I have to tap dance in high heels and deal with the weight of boobs. It's real eye-opening experience and completely different from anything I've ever done.

Eula Mae's sounds like a hoot. What will people see?
There are actually two stories going on: The first is Eula Mae, a rodeo rider who's been pursued by the same man for years. Every year he proposes, and every year she says "no." Then something happens that makes her think maybe she should accept the proposal. The second story is about Rita Mae, who is competing in the Miss Alabama Pageant for the ninth consecutive time. She is bound and determined to win, but every year she loses, and this is her last qualifying year. The great thing about the show is that three people play all the characters.

What did you learn from playing Rita Mae?
Rita Mae is by far the most optimistic character I've ever played. In a swimsuit competition, this woman would never have a chance of winning, but she has this dream and all she can control is the energy and effort she puts into it. I am very goal-oriented and have very clear steps toward what I want. With Rita Mae, what she gains has little to do with wins or losses, just the attempt.

Which is harder, comedy or drama?
For me, comedy. With drama, you pour your heart out on the stage and you don't know how the audience felt until curtain call. With comedy, you have to sell it right there immediately, and when you don't get that response there can be real terror.

Where can we see you next?
I will probably audition for five shows next year and will be blessed if I get one. (Laughs) I'm also working on a new play, Christina Darling, that is Mommie Dearest from Joan Crawford's point of view. There's a new book I'm working on with my sister called Cinema Shindig, on how to throw the ultimate movie party. We're having a lot of fun doing it, and I'm getting to know my sister as an adult in the process. Also I have my first show opening in New York in November as part of The Fall Collection Series.

Wait. Joan Crawford?
(Laughs) I have had two role models: My father and Joan Crawford. There's a common theme there, personal happiness as an ultimate goal. After working for 25 years, my father quit and went with my mother after the life he was supposed to be living. He never would have found happiness if he had not taken the risk. With Joan, it was a search for happiness that she never found. But you gotta look.

As an actor, what's your dream role?
Now I'm writing so much that I only do one or two shows per year, and try out for roles where I feel I can bring something new. For me, the greatest roles are not the typical Hamlet or Mercutio; I've seen that. I guess because I am the most uncoordinated human being- I'm 6'2" and move around like someone learning to walk- my dream would be to lead a show-stopping song and dance performance. But I can't carry a tune in a bucket.

Atlanta Burning

People On the Rise in the Atlanta Arts Scene
2004 Atlanta Pride Guide

"...the strong willed Scarlett O' Hara types who prove the term "Southern Belle" can apply both to women and men. Atlanta's red-hot gay and lesbian community can always be counted on to move forward as keepers of the flame".

"TOPHER PAYNE. His first play, Beached Wails, is currently being produced around the Southeast. His next work, Christina Darling, (a retelling of Mommie Dearest from beleaguered Joan's perspective) is in workshops with the Process Theatre Company. Not bad for someone under 25."

Relations Unknown

Review by Wendell Brock, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Topher Payne's semi-autobiographical play traipses out high heels and wigs and plenty of references to the epicenter of gay life in Atlanta -- the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue. In the tradition of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City," the Process Theatre world premiere documents an incestuous circle of gay and straight friends who are transformed by love, death, Harry Potter and sperm-bank visits.
While the plot twists can be improbable and the emotions maudlin, the play buzzes along on the energy of Payne's crackling dialogue and loopy characterizations. Narissa (Cherise Jefferson) used to date Owen (Larry Davis), who is now the partner of Chris (Joshua Howland), who's dying of cancer and whose former boyfriend Shep (Dan Balmer) is HIV-positive. Into the chaos steps confused researcher Ms. Eckles (the delightful Marcie Millard), Chris' Mississippi mama, Dorothy Jean (Betty Mitchell), handsome hustler Cliff (Theroun Patterson) and an offstage drag queen named Reba McFlatTire. On the night we saw the show, Payne substituted for an injured Howland. His naturalistic performance merged with the facts of his life in moments of dark comic poignancy. At 23, this playwright seems wise beyond his years.

True Fake

"Credeaux Canvas"

Review by Curt Holman, Creative Loafing

You can almost feel Atlanta Classical Theatre's delight in decorating the set of The Credeaux Canvas. Keith Bunin's comedy-drama takes place in the tiny attic apartment of impoverished New Yorkers, and every detail is perfect: the hot plate, the stacks of empty pizza boxes, the arty postcards over the unmade bed, the rec room wall paneling.
Canvas finds humor in the plight of poor artists: "Did you get a clean glass from the tub?" But it also shows keen insights into the emotional risks of devotion, whether to art or to other people.
Jamie (Theroun Patterson), the penniless son of an art dealer, comes up with a get-rich quick scheme: to have his art-school roommate Winston (Topher Payne) paint an original work in the style of Jean-Paul Credeaux, a long-dead (and fictional) painter sure to be the next big thing. Jamie will pass the forgery off as a "discovery" to a credulous art collector (Michele McCullough).
What complicates the play isn't Jamie and Winston's fraud, but their friendship, especially when Jamie suggests that his girlfriend Amelia (Kimberly Jurgen) be the model. The tension in the nude posing scene is both erotic and comic, especially when Winston offers to make her more comfortable by removing his clothes. But as Amelia quizzes Winston about his work and his love life, the artist begins to feel "revealed." The scene has an intriguing dynamic of exposure and intimacy, although admittedly the talk would be less interesting if the actors were fully dressed.
Payne seems to play most of his roles in the same mild-mannered style, but it's a rewarding choice for Winston. By playing the part as sheltered and tentative, Payne makes the character seem unsure of his own feelings, as if he's not as remote as he'd like to be. The Credeaux Canvas pushes the humor a little hard but proves a surprisingly poignant drama, with Winston, who avoids emotional entanglements, turning his own self-portrait into a still life.

His Family Still Going to the Beach

Now they sit in the audience for play 'Beached Wails'
BY SANDRA OKAMOTO, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Topher Payne sat nervously in the technicians' booth.
It was a year ago, and about 40 of the playwright's relatives had come from Mississippi to watch the premiere of "Beached Wails" in Atlanta.
"On opening night, I sat in the booth and I was able to observe both shows -- one on the stage and one in the audience," said Payne, 23. After watching that run, he immediately went to work and rewrote the second act. That version premiered in Atlanta in October.
"It was a new play," he said. "It's done for now."
"Beached Wails" is now playing in the Garret Theatre of the Playwright Cafe -- its first run outside of Atlanta.
"We're thrilled about it," Payne said.
For as long as Payne can remember, his mother and her three sisters would go to the beach every year. That week "was as firmly rooted as Christmas. When I grew up, I was surprised other families didn't do that."
He was intrigued about the four sisters' trips. "The way they talked and communicated with each other" made him want to be a fly on the wall.
Asked if he'd ever been on one of those trips, the answer came quickly: "Good Lord, no."
The motto in his family is that the play is "loosely based" on the four sisters. "My mother is very quick to point that out," Payne said.
His mother and his aunts liked the play very much. "They tease each other," he reports. "Every time a character gets a laugh, they take credit for it."
Payne attended boarding schools in Connecticut and California -- the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., and Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, Calif. "They could not have been more divergent," he said. "Taft School was more 'Dead Poets Society' and Idyllwild was 'Fame.' I was this lanky Mississippi boy taking it all in."
But he says he didn't learn to write in school. He was much younger when he started writing and performing.
"I will always remember my stage debut," he said. "I played a sparrow in the church Christmas play. I had one line but couldn't remember it. I was 4. The first thing I ever wrote was my own version of 'A Christmas Carol.' "
When he was in sixth grade, his parents bought him a video camera. "It was one of the greatest things for me, but one of the dumbest things for them because they had to sit through hours of my movies."
He said he has a "gloriously extended family," and his "endless number of cousins" became actors in his movies. Even then, he didn't have enough people. So he dressed up mannequins and disguised his own voice and turned the dummies around so people couldn't see that it wasn't a real person.
"I was a very odd child, but it all worked out in the end."

Living for Today

Young gay playwright talks about his latest works, sheds light on motivation to live life to the fullest.
Topher Payne, a 22-year-old playwright, balances a part-time job with productions of two plays and pursuing his dreams at breakneck speed.

By Mike Fleming, Southern Voice

To approach Topher Payne as he holds court behind the counter at Outwrite Books & Coffeehouse is to be greeted warmly with wit, sensitivity and intelligence — hints that there is something deeper stirring beneath.
In fact, the young coffee slinger is also a playwright in a whirlwind of activity in the local theater scene, including two current shows.
It's possible right now to be out on the town for an entire day of "non-stop Topher theater," Payne says.
And that's all part of Payne's plan to realize his dreams, he says.
"I've always been taught that if you're not doing what you were placed on this Earth to do, you are wasting your life," Payne says. "I have always believed that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough."
Not bad for a high school drop out who has been on his own since age 15.
"It's not age that matters," he says. "It's experience."
That experience includes theater work in his home state of Mississippi and director of audience development at Woodruff Arts Center.
He decided to move on and take the job at Outwrite to give himself the time he needs to work on his craft.
Payne's comedy "Beached Wails" is enjoying "small but enthusiastic" audiences in a world-premiere production by Atlanta Classical Theatre. The show is the story of four Southern sisters and how they deal with adversity. It runs for an additional two weeks.
The play is based on Payne's own mother and aunts, who will attend the Nov. 1 performance.
"When I was growing up, I was fascinated just listening to them talk," Payne says. "It wasn't just what they said, but how they were saying it, and I think that comes off in this show."
"Beached Wails" is in part a response to another well loved Southern play about women, "Steel Magnolias," Payne says.
"Of course I'm aware of and love 'Steel Magnolias' like every other Southern gay man," he says. "But there were not really a lot of tough choices in that show. The thing I love about the women in 'Beached' is that they are all incredible women and they are all marvelously flawed."
While "Beached" runs, Payne's just-for-fun show "Solid Gold! That '70s Cabaret," shows in connection with Process Theatre Company.
In the show, Payne plays Cher circa the 1970s, Sonny Bono ("not at the same time," Payne assures), Brad Majors from "Rocky Horror" and a mystery character whose presence is a surprise in the show.
So how does a 22-year-old not only know what he wants, but how to pursue it?
"I've always taken chances," Payne says.
Payne will step back from stage work after "That 70s Cabaret" and devote more time to writing plays. His adaptation of "Cyrano," set in the 1960s, opens in March with Atlanta Classical Theatre. Four plays he's still writing should come to fruition next year.
"We have to take advantage of the time we're given," Payne says. "I could... be hit by a bus tomorrow. We have to approach things realistically and say 'This is what we're going to do with the time we have."

Wailing Wall

Beached Wails airs sisterly conflicts
by Curt Holman,

Creative Loafing

Perhaps young playwright Topher Payne can be forgiven for the terrible pun in his title Beached Wails. Writing in the tired subgenre of the Southern women dramedy, a la Steel Magnolias, Payne offers a reasonably original and well-observed work that currently plays on "off nights" on the 14th Street Playhouse's second stage, where Atlanta Classical Theatre is also presenting The Coast of Illyria by Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans.
Directed by Sonny Goff, Wails depicts the loving but fractious relationship of four sisters: matronly Virgie (Leigh McClelland), caustic widow Brenda (Kathy Simmons), "saved" Christian Katie (Julie Oshins) and working mother Dana (Jennifer Gaydeski). They're enjoying their annual vacation to Gulf Shores, but Hurricane Louis threatens to cut their trip short.
Inclement weather closes the roads and strands the women in a beach house with an amiable, 21-year-old underwear model (Scott Shelfer), who wears gratuitously little and bends over a lot (in a gesture at equal exposure, Dana frequently shows off her legs). The tradition for this kind of play is for each character to have a deep-seated problem to air out, but Brenda's is rather surprising, as she believes the hurricane might be a sign from her late husband -- who was also named Louis.
Given that the play involves a hurricane, it shouldn't be a surprise that the speeches can get a little windy, while savage arguments blow up with insufficient warning. But the four actresses have an easy chemistry with each other, comfortably delivering Payne's quips about pain-in-the-neck husbands, prayer circles and useless wedding presents. But Beached Wails could use a more definitive ending: Closing the show with the sisters miming along to a Supremes song seems like an idea of last resort.