Sam Ludwig makes quite an ass of himself — literally — in the role of Nick Bottom, the boorish egomaniac in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," whose head is transformed into that of a donkey in the third act.
Makeup artist Kelly Gardner said she couldn't bear to cover his face with an entire donkey head because it would waste his knack for facial expressions, which, as Bottom, range from pompous exuberance to bellowing agony.
At a rehearsal of the play at James Madison High School, watching Ludwig gyrate and call, "Ah, Pyramus, lover dear!" in a cracking falsetto or indolently roll his head and proclaim, "I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch," all the while exuding an obvious manic pleasure in the role, it is difficult to imagine him as a Hamlet or a Macbeth or any sort of serious character.
However, in conversation, Ludwig, a senior, presents an entirely different character, self-possessed and thoughtful in spite of the clownish makeup remaining on his face from rehearsal.
"It's what I probably do most, and some would consider it what I do best," he said of comedic acting, "but you always look for new roles. You don't want to get pigeonholed."
In 2004, Ludwig was nominated for a Cappie for his performance as Benedict in another Shakespeare play, "Much Ado About Nothing." He calls Benedict "one of my favorite characters of all time" because the role is comedic but becomes more serious toward the play's end.
"I like getting laughs because it's very rewarding, but ... in real life you're not always trying to get laughs, but also trying to get sympathy or to get love," he said.
Marshall Henderson, the performing arts director at Madison, calls Ludwig "a consummate actor — an actor's actor," emphasizing that he is not a ham, but knows how to play one. He points out that Ludwig "buys books like 'Azimov's Guide to Shakespeare' and actually reads them" and that he is "familiar with practically every American musical that's come out on Broadway in the last 100 years and has an opinion on every one of them — a fairly learned opinion."
Ludwig says his biggest acting — and singing — influence has been Mandy Patinkin, who has starred in many Broadway plays and musicals, and whom the layman might remember as Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride."
Singing, says Henderson, is one of Ludwig's skills that is underutilized in "Midsummer Night." However, he says, Ludwig has a feel for Shakespearian language, syntax and humor that makes him apt for the role.
"I think I'm better at Shakespeare or musicals than at straight acting," said Ludwig. "This is the only style of acting where there's a formula. The text is so rich and so strong that if you miss it, it's your fault."
ONE OF THE CHALLENGES of the role of Nick Bottom, he says, is the humorous use of malapropisms in the character's dialogue. He explains that Bottom misuses words like "whereforth" and "foresooth" to comedic effect, but audiences generally don't know what the words mean anyway.
"You want the audience to get it," he says, "but you don't want to feed it to them."
Ludwig says he became serious about acting in his freshman year, when he got the lead in the school's production of "The Boys Next Door." Working on that play, he says, he met six of his seven closest friends. "That kind of cemented me into this department," he said.
Looking ahead, he says the three roles he must play before he dies are all from Stephen Sondheim musicals.
"I have to play George from 'Sunday in the Park with George,'" he says, "because his character is the kind of person I'd like to be." He says he has to play Bobby from "Company," because the part is "probably closest to who I really am," and he has to play Franklin Shepard from "Merrily We Roll Along," he says, because "he's the character I'm most afraid of becoming."
Ludwig calls this "Sam's path to self-actualization."
While some say the joy of acting lies in becoming someone else, Ludwig says he feels acting is "more like being yourself. You can discover new things about yourself — things that make you happy, things that make you sad, things that can change your ideas about the world."
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is showing at James Madison High School on Nov. 3, 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. and also at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 5.