Dom Magwili plays Robert, Catherine's brilliant mathematician father who "revolutionized the field twice before he was 22." However, his genius led him to insanity, as he succumbed to mental illness before his death. Dom Magwili is a veteran theatre actor who has done over 40 productions at East West Players. He also directed the films Much Adobo About Nothing and Magma, and he can be seen in Adam Sandler's 50 First Dates.
APA: Can you introduce yourself to the APA audience?
Dom Magwili: My name is Dom Magwili. I play the part of Robert in the play Proof. Robert is a father to Catherine. In the play, Robert has died. He died about a week ago, so my character comes as a vision, as a ghost, as a flashback, three times througout the play.
APA: Were you a fan of David Auburn's play before you got the part?
DM: I had not heard of it, but I teach an acting class, and a number of my students were bringing scenes in from it. One, they just wanted to do it, and two, they were getting ready for auditions. That's when I came in contact with it. And I was really impressed by the writing. It was very good, but I didn't know there was a part for a father, so when I found out, I said, 'Oh OK,' and I auditioned for it.
APA: What was the environment like, working with Heidi and the other members of the cast?
DM: Well... it was like nails in the eyes. I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm really joking.
I've known Heidi since the late '70s, I saw her perform in Heartbreak House where I graduated from acting school. She was in the company. I was coming back to visit and I went to see the show, and I saw her and she stood out to me. And then many years later, in the '80s, she was directing a show called Tachinoki with the ensemble theater, and one of the male actors had gotten a movie role, so he asked me if I would understudy for him that week, for the last week, so I said 'Yea sure' and I went on. She was the director. And that's where I offically met her. And I met her again, I auditioned for a show by Wakako Yamauchi called Not a Through Street, and I got that role, and she was my director for that. And then my wife and I were running the East West Theater Conservatory, and we would hire Heidi as an acting teacher, as an acting coach. She's just wonderful, she's really terrific. Our paths have crossed many many times, and I'm very pleased that I get to work with her on this.
The others... It turns out that I have worked, or been in contact with, all of them. Kimiko Gelmen and I did Into the Woods together and I wrote a musical, I wrote the book to a show called Canton Jazz Club, and she participated in the workshop reading of it. And she used to work around East West for a number of years, so we go back since, again, either the '80s or certainly early '90s.
Joanne Takahashi worked with my wife in a play. I just seem to have known Joanne also for a very long time, through East West Players.
And David, who I thought I didn't know, came up to me and said that-- My wife Sachiko and I directed UCLA... We direct Samahang Pilipino Culture Night. We've been doing it since 1983. He was in one of those PCM's, one of those cultural nights. We did it once at Pauley Pavilion. He said he came up and introduced himself. I don't remember him at all, but he said he was there, so... I said, 'Wow, I know all these guys. I'm so pleased,' I'm so very pleased that I get to work with them, and that I get to work with a really really good play. It is the dream of every actor.
I would suggest that when you become an actor, it isn't to do 500 lines. You don't become an actor so you can say 'They went thataway.' Even though they pay well for that. You become an actor so you can do the roles that you see in the movies, so you can go up there and, in essence, shed blood on the stage. There is this wonderful introduction by Sydney Michaels, who wrote the play Dylan, about Dylan Thomas, about the theater, why people go to theater. You go to theater to see life, vibrant life, where everybody is the Prince of Denmark, everybody is a guy who's confused until his wife says 'Go on and screw your courage to the sticking post.' We use plays to, I think, enliven ourselves about who we are, how we feel about things.
APA: What is it like working on this play, which wasn't necessarily written particularly for Asian-American cast?
DM: I haven't seen the program. Heidi asked me, what's your last name. And I don't know if they put a last name to my character. I said. the last name is Ohara. It's Japanese, Japanese-American. Because my two daughters are Japanese. And in fact, I don' tknow if you know Amichi Kaki, Japanese American, he's a theoretical physicist. He has a radio program on NPR. Brilliant guy, I've seen him speak. This is not so out of the question. So I think this is all in our lives. We have a piece of it also.
APA: How do you find it being Asian-American in this industry?
DM: I have this opinion about Asian Americans in plays in particular. I think that, in our lives, as Asian Americans, we live a full life. We have love, we have heartbreak, we have family issues, we have work issues. All that stuff. But it doesn't necessarily appear in the media, and because it doesn't appear in the media, even though we experience a full life, it is as if we really didn't. No, it's for everyone else who shows up on TV and the movies, but not for you. Which, cause I think about that, and it shows up in very macabre ways, like people who do injury to other people and videotape it. You see variations on that. These guys who are charged with raping this girl, and they videotape it. Or guys, again, who are firing off paintballs at people and videotape it. What is this need to videotape our actions for something? And I think there is a need for peple to see a reflection of themselves.
When I put it to the Asian American community, somebody said, so what is.. you know this isn't an Asian American play, so what is the deal, what do Asian Americans bring to it? I think it's the other way around, I think Asian Americans will seize things that were always there. These are our emotions too. The frustrations, the fear, the familial conflicts, that's ours too. But we don't always get a hand on it. So that's our deal. And it is to enlarge our capacity, not to bring in our specificities. So it's a very exciting time, and a very exciting play. I hope you and your friends will come see it and enjoy it.
APA: Your rendition of the character of Robert has a lot of energy, a lot of physicality. Was that a choice you made, or how did you go about creating your character?
DM: That may be me. Different style actors, different style energy. I think relationships have a lot to do with it, my [Robert's] relationship with my daughter. A lot of back story comes into play here. I have a whole story about my two daughters. Like, Claire, Claire was the first-born. She's a beautiful woman, a beautiful child when she grew up. She's smart, not in a mathematical way, but more in an administrative way. She was student body president, head of the debate team, she was the homecoming queen. She was perfect in that sense. She also matched my wife, her mother, in her independence, so we didn't always get along, and she moved away from the house and lived her own life. We still communicated, but there was always a lot of tension there, because I tend to be kind of sloppy and offhanded.
Catherine, though is beautiful, in my eyes, she's beautiful, but she never thought herself as beautiful. She was like the scrawny ugly duckling sister, who was as brilliant as I am. And I dote on her because she thinks she isn't as smart, and I know she is. She doubts herself, but I know she's brilliant. So that back story is not written in the play, but I've written that for me, so I have something to work with, when I work with, mostly Catherine, on the stage. And when we talk about Claire, even though I don't deal with her in the play, I know about her, and my feelings about her.
APA: Do you relate to the character of Robert?
DM: Oh I have often felt that I will never work again. That happens for all actors. Once this play is done, I may never work again. I did a play called Dogeaters, and until I auditioned for this, I didn't know if I'd work again. You just don't know. So I understand where he's coming from.
APA: Robert is a mathematical genius, but his brilliant mind eventually goes crazy. Do you think there's fine line between genius and insanity?
DM: Well, one person's genius is another person's insanity. It depends on where you appear in the historical map, you know? There were some very cruel geniuses who could be considered villains, and there were very nutty people that could be considered geniuses. It is society's definitions on them. I think for those individuals, they're just trying to cope, and I don't think they're always like, in their heads, brilliant. I think they just go about their business. It's true, in the play, it's what you see in the stereotype of 'geeks, dweebs, dilberts'... like, hey come on... they're in a band! They get laid a couple of times. Come on...
APA: Do you have a favorite part or moment in the play?
DM: Right now, I relish every moment I'm on. What I learn as I get older is that life is real short, and when you get this kind of opportunity, you squeeze every drop of life out of it. So I don't have a favorite part, I love the play. Particularly since I'm in it!
APA: It was nice talking to you. Thank you so much for your time.