Wildhorn Side began its third year with a double issue, which included interviews with Jekyll & Hyde's Andrea Rivette and Coleen Sexton; The Scarlet Pimpernel tour's William Paul Michals, Robert Patteri, and Douglas Sills; and The Civil War tour's Michael Lanning, Royal Reed, Amy Rutberg, Gregory Porter and Gwen Jackson. Here are some excerpts:

William Paul Michals (Chauvelin in Pimpernel) told us some of the things he may think of to help motivate his character when he walks into the garden and sees Marguerite:

William with Amy Bodnar as Marguerite. Photo by Joan Marcus.

We're given, especially in the touring production, a bare stage, so we can create whatever we want for scenery, in our minds. Sometimes I see the rose garden in front of me, or maybe a maze of shrubberies, and I find that very intriguing, an inspiration for the kind of cat and mouse game that Marguerite and I are about to play. Or sometimes, the smell of the rose garden will come over me, and I'm reminded of Marguerite's perfume. I've imagined in my own head that Marguerite wears a-- wears rose water and smells of rose. As I'm walking towards the garden and Marguerite, I'm overcome by a cloud of rose perfume, the fragrance. And a scent can trigger such deep emotion and such deep sense memories, you never know what's going to happen. What is that going to evoke? Is it going to evoke a bitterness? Is it going to evoke a softer side? Is it going to remind me of our last night together, or will it remind me of that last vitriolic exchange that we had on the stage of the Comedie Francaise? You never know what it might be. So it's hard to say, on a given performance, what might go through my mind. Those things and a thousand more.

Robert Patteri (Percy in Pimpernel) told us how he approached the role.

Robert Patteri as Percy. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Well, I'm coming at this role like I would any other role, which is to dissect who this character is, to know the world that he lives in. The sort of catalyst that starts things is the betrayal of the Marquis de St. Cyr, who's like, in my world that I've created, a father figure for me. So what is it like if I, Robert Patteri, lost my father? He finds out on the day he's married, and then he finds out that his wife betrayed him. So, where does life take you from there? And it's something that I absolutely love, because one of my pet peeves in life is injustice. I just can't take injustice. And I think I have a real similarity with Percy there, and that's why he takes on this mission, because he's tired of the injustice of what's been going on in France. We get caught in our everyday circumstances, which Percy did. He's an aristocrat. Like he says, he's basically one step away from a fop, as far as the world is concerned-- with the turmoil that's going on as he sits there on his pampered rear end, with all the pleasantries of life around him. It's like we do; we live in America, we've got everything at our disposal, and all of a sudden we look around at the turmoil that's going on in the world, and then, when something happens, that's how great missions start. Because that usually happens for someone who is going along just fine and dandy, until something rocks their world. Maybe a lover dies of a disease that they've never heard of, so then they're on a quest to find out what happened. And that's how everybody, I think, starts on their quests. So, here's Percy, who has had a major injustice, and he decides he wants to take action even if it's eight men against thousands, to find a way, to right this wrong.

Amy Rutberg (Sarah in The Civil War) told us about some problems she's had onstage.

Opening night, we had a bit of a sound problem. The sound went out on my first song. [Laughs.] On "Missing You, My Bill." My whole family was there and I was a little embarassed. But other than that, [laughter] it's been fantastic.

Other than the mic going out on you, has anything embarassing happened on stage?

My skirt split open on stage once. That was embarassing. But, actually, our producer was in the audience that night and he didn't even notice. It was probably our second week, in Cinncinnati, right when the tour started. At the very beginning, in the Prologue, Michael [Eldred] spins me and says, [sings:] "Oh Sarah, I'll be home soon." And he went "Oh Sarah," and my skirt went [ripping noise], and just ripped, and I had to do the rest of the song with my hands on my back trying to keep my skirt together. But I did. But the mic-- actually having the production manager walk out onto the balcony while I'm singing "Missing You, My Bill," and hand me a hand mic-- that tops the skirt opening, I have to say.