“If the opportunity presents itself, you go for it. Be open to anything, because you never know.”
That sage career advisement comes from Nick Page, who along with fellow Pittsburgh actor Jake Moon, spent the last year in England earning a postgraduate diploma and a master of arts degree from Drama Studio London.
The pair then promptly secured full representation at a London talent agency, Clarendon Management, that has them both already lined up with UK acting, voiceover and film gigs.
Page, 26, and Moon, 27, agree that venturing a full continent away from their established Pittsburgh theater base constituted a profound leap of faith — not just in their own abilities but in finding a theatrical community willing to accept them.
“I knew it would demand more of me than I’d faced so far as an actor,” says Page. “But I enthusiastically welcomed the challenge.”
Moon concurs. “I have so many tools to flow from now,” he says.
Affiliated with University of West London, Drama Studio London was founded in 1966 and focuses on developing individual talent rather than teaching conventional acting styles. Alumni include Emily Watson, Forest Whitaker, Shobu Kapoor, Roma Downey, Pip Torrens and Charles Andre Martinet, the longtime voice of Mario in the Nintendo Super Mario franchise.
Top row from left, Jake Moon and Nick Page celebrate with their Drama Studio London graduating class. Photo courtesy of Drama Studio London.
The curriculum is practical and wide-ranging: intensive ensemble work, training in specialty character studies and a steady cycle of scene performances from contemporary plays and classic Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen and Restoration and Pantomime genres.
A CAPA High School graduate, Moon has appeared locally with Iron Horse Theatre and in film and TV roles in “Mindhunter,” “Spellbound,” “Calamity Care” and “Son of a Preacherman.”
Page has performed with Damaskus Theater Collective, New Horizon Theater and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and starred with Moon in two Prime Stage Theatre productions, “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott” and “Witness for the Prosecution.”
They shared insights from their time abroad with NEXTpittsburgh at YINZ Coffee on North Avenue, as they readied plans to return to London last fall.
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NEXTpittsburgh: You were both already seasoned, in-demand actors in Pittsburgh. What gave you the idea to pursue acting studies in London?
Nick Page: My girlfriend was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Iceland. Which means she’s going to be gone for nine months studying glaciers and volcanoes and such. So I started looking for one-year acting programs outside of Pittsburgh.
NEXTpittsburgh: In England, specifically?
Page: Specifically in England. Jake and I have had many discussions about how it seems the English take acting very seriously. As a learned thing and as a profession, right? I found out about Drama Studio London, applied and got in.
Jake Moon: I heard about the program from Nick. We were doing the Rosa Parks play at Prime Stage at the time, and we’d had that discussion about theater outside America. When he got accepted to DSL, I said, “Good luck, don’t have any fun over there!” And he said, “No, you should audition, too.”
Jake Moon performs as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Prime Stage Theatre’s “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott” with Nick Page at top right portraying civil rights leader E.D. Nixon. Photo courtesy of Laura Slovesko.
NEXTpittsburgh: Seize the moment! What audition pieces did you use?
Moon: My classical was “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” by Mark Antony from “Julius Caesar.” My contemporary was “Killing Chuck” from “Unbearable Hotness” by Gabriel Davis.
Page: For classical, I did Dionysus’ opening monologue from “The Bacchae.” For contemporary I did Steve from “Fat Cat Killers,” his monologue about abducting his boss.
NEXTpittsburgh: Were you the only Americans in your school?
Page: Yes. Our class was super international. One of our housemates was from Turkey and another was from Spain.
Moon: There was a lady from Greece, too.
Page: Right, and actors from all over the British Isles. Twenty-six of us total.
NEXTpittsburgh: So, besides your classwork, you were getting exposed to a diversity of acting styles and perspectives from other students. And then the teachers brought their experience.
Moon: The classes were all taught by industry professionals, people working in the industry. They told me in the audition: Leave your life. Don’t bring your life with you into the classroom. You’re here to be professional. That’s just what it is. You learn everything. You learn how to dance, you learn how to sing, you learn how to breathe. You learn how to crawl, walk, run.
Nick Page appearing as Mr. Jekyll in “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” at Drama Studio London. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Claire.
NEXTpittsburgh: Your acting instincts are broken down to the fundamentals.
Moon: You learn quickly what you don’t know that you don’t know. As you’re learning all these things, your mind is opening up. What else is there that I don’t know that I was unaware that I didn’t know? How much of your body do you really need and for what purposes? You learn on your own, and you have to learn it quick.
NEXTpittsburgh: With your London training, have you come to think differently about what you do onstage?
Page: I’ve been acting for over half my life. I started acting when I was 9 in an afterschool program and taking acting classes when I was 10. I knew I wanted to do it as a career when I was 11. The time in London forced me to challenge myself, because just doing the first thing I thought of was not enough. Showing up in rehearsals and doing what the director tells you, that’s fine, but at DSL they say, “That’s okay, but we need a little bit more autonomy from you, buddy. We need you to do more. Come with more ideas.” And I have a lot of ideas. What I learned was I had to express them more.
NEXTpittsburgh: They’re looking for more interaction between actor and director.
Page: In the rehearsal room they want you to be present. They want you to do all the usual things, be pliable, sure, but also take yourself a step further and provide ideas. The actor needs to bring something into the process beyond being a very good sponge. The director obviously has the final say as to whether they’re going to implement your idea, but it’s the thought that you bring something forth into the process. Just taking a second to say, “Hey, I have this idea. Can we try this?”
NEXTpittsburgh: It expands your options within the role.
Page: I realized how much my performance changes whenever I’m passionate about something in the character or the narrative, even slightly. The performance will change drastically.
Flanked by Sam Lothard as Willie Dixon and Cole McGlumphy as Leonard Chess, Nick Page performs as legendary bluesman Muddy Waters in New Horizon Theater’s “Blues Is the Roots.” Photo courtesy of New Horizon Theater.
Moon: I can echo the same sentiment. Caring is a big part of it, because if you don’t care, that will show in your performance. The audience will not be fully connected with this guy on stage. He was performing it. He wasn’t doing it, you know? That will show. Nick and I talk about a ceiling when you perform. What’s your ceiling like? My ceiling goes higher when I care. You feel the audience trusts you, and you can’t let them down.
My metamorphosis came when we did the Chekhov/Ibsen block. What I thought acting was — it’s not that. I’m seeing now that it’s actually this. The whole first term was about finding The Truth. That’s what they nicknamed it. This is where you find The Truth. Doing Chekhov and Ibsen, it’s a lot of realism, and you can’t “perform” realism. People will know you’re acting if you’re trying to “act” real. You have to just be present in that character in this scenario. Even though it’s imaginary, you’re really embodying it.
Jake Moon, right, performs in the Restoration play “The Rover” by Aphra Behn at Playground Theatre in London. Photo courtesy of Drama Studio London.
NEXTpittsburgh: It’s great that you both have London agents and actual jobs when you go back to England.
Page: For Christmas season, I got cast in a “Polar Express” immersive train ride that rolls across northern England. I play the conductor. My aspirations have always been simple. I want to be a professional actor whose only job is acting. Just be a great actor who makes people feel things and tell stories that mean a lot to me.
Moon: You go through a lot figuring out how to be your best acting self, and I think I’ve found a better way to do it. In short, I’ve learned how to not act but how to be. How to be an actor that embodies himself in all forms of the craft and does his best every time. It’s not up to me for it to be seen as good or not. It’s just up to me to do the work.