Hailing from Puerto Rico, Benjamin Cardona is an actor, writer, and director who currently lives in New York City. He studied Art History and Theater/Acting at the University of Puerto Rico, where he performed as Katurian in Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman and directed Patrick Marber's Closer.
Ben wrote his first short film, Viajar Quieto (Traveling Still), in 2008. His first play, Una Caja Hermética (Airtight Box), premiered as part of the Festival Puertorriqueño del Instituto de Cultura on April 2012. He directed, acted in, and produced his first feature film, Más que el Agua (Thicker Than Water), in 2014, and it premiered at the Puerto Rico Queer Film Fest later that year. He directed Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches at the Victoria Espinosa Theater in Santurce, P.R., in August 2017 as the first production of a local emerging company, Teatro Público. At present, Ben is developing his career as a storyteller and continues post-production on his second feature, Onomatopeya (Onomatopoeia).
Brent: Hi, Ben! Thanks for talking with me. You’re an actor, writer, and director now, but you began your studies in the visual arts, right?
Ben: I was studying Art History and took an acting class as an elective. That semester, a professional production came to the university auditioning for two roles. I did a walk-in, grabbed the sides, and within five minutes I learned the scene enough to audition without them. After I got the role, the director said he was impressed by how quickly I grasped the material.
Brent: Wow, that’s impressive! How did you do it?
Ben: I looked at the sides and quickly identified keywords—mostly verbs—that narrated the action. I was also lucky to be facing a dialogue in Spanglish, which gave the sides an additional layer of specificity. I got a grasp of the scene with the first read and then mapped it using these keywords. Active listening was also crucial as part of the mapping involved my scene partner’s lines.
Brent: Right, in an interview I did a few years back with Rocco dal Vera, he talked about mapping, vividly visualizing the physicality of the actions in a sequential story as if the actor had actually experienced them. How else has that helped you?
Ben: Later on, I remember being in rehearsal for The Pillowman, where I performed as Katurian. I was having a hard time until the director asked me about stories from my childhood. I quickly revisited the stories my grandfather used to tell me. We would sometimes repeat them, and even though he changed a word here and there, his approach to the turning points was always equal hence the story felt unaltered.
Brent: Great! Then you moved onto writing.
Ben: My approach to writing started a couple of years after I started acting. I was constantly bombarded by ideas that I wanted to see executed, which is why I felt the need to tell them. Living in Puerto Rico, I was trained with the classics. The Drama Department had a bunch of plays that had been translated into Spanish, but the language always felt odd, and the acting always came off as hollow and superficial. I saw the actors around me struggle to find a connection—because these words meant nothing to them.
Brent: Kate Wetherhead and other actors have told me that when a play is well written, the logic of what your character would say in a given situation makes sense. That wasn’t happening with the unnatural language in these plays. So that inspired you to not commit those errors in your own writing?
Ben: When I started writing I made a mission out of writing in a way that was accessible to actors. Yes. Sometimes we’ll have to face characters with speech patterns that are unrelatable to us.
Brent: That’s what being an actor means! You’re embodying a character that has a different backstory and motivations than you do. That’s where imagination comes in.
Ben: True, as we use our imagination to understand the root of their speech, we’ll find endless possibilities. I usually cast actors that can connect with the words even if they’re not off-book at an audition. If they changed a word for a synonym, that lets me know they’ve paid attention to the story. They just don’t use that word often themselves.
Brent: Do you allow any room for improvisation?
Ben: As a writer, I’m not too precious about my writing. In fact, I love it when actors feel confident enough to improvise within my work. I usually allow them to add a little something extra somewhere. It shows me they love their character enough to want to live more in their shoes.
Brent: What’s your relationship between writing and directing?
Ben: Since I direct my work, so it’s almost as if the director and the writer within me manage to ensure that the essence of a scene comes through. I’d say I’ve had equal experience in theatre and film as an actor/director. One thing I’ll say is that actors usually respect the text more when on stage. Theatre is almost like a temple where the text is the Bible and the Playwright is the Holy Ghost of the Trinity.
Brent: That’s quite an analogy! How is movie acting different?
Ben: Actors on a film set are usually less concerned about the words. It’s more about the journey. They also tend to memorize on the spot because they’ll be walking into a space they’ve probably never been to. This allows them to connect the journey to a set they can see. Although actors on stage also have their props, they have to create most of the world around them, much like green screen acting.
Brent: Interesting. When I’ve talked with some screen actors, like Audrey Rapoport and Jeremy Davidson, they also referenced the disconnected scenes in movie making. Often they are shooting the scenes out of order, so they are not building emotionally and psychologically as they would on stage. But I digress. You mentioned props. Tell me how props can help with memorization.
Ben: Before moving to New York, I directed Angels in America, and I remember one of the actors once complained about props after stumbling on a line. She had a scene where a telephone was used, but it was a “stand-in” phone until we found the proper one. I don’t think she knew it because she never expressed it, but there was a part of her that sensed the danger of attaching to that phone, its texture, its curves. When she finally had to hold the real thing, her senses would be altered, her lines would feel out of her grasp.
Brent: That’s a very powerful connection. I’ve heard actors also talk about how clothing or a wig has also been critical to helping them internalize their lines. On a related note, has an actor ever struggled with a line and asked you to change it?
Ben: My written work is usually pretty grounded so I’ve never felt the need to change my work upon an actor’s request. I have however seen an actor struggle with a word or two. Like I said, sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. When it does, I’ll ask my actor why the character is using that particular word. I’ll think twice before I answer if they don’t. I’m also an actor. I know everyone has a different approach. As a director, I would usually ask, “Is the scene escalating?” or “Is it sequential?” If so, what are keywords or phrases that trigger what unfolds?
Brent: Some playwrights—like Rinne Groff—and composers—like Peter Alexander—I’ve spoken with have mentioned that build in intensity. For example, does a phrase like “truly, madly, deeply” convey the right escalation, or should the writer arrange the words alphabetically to “deeply, madly, truly” to help the actor remember the words better? Tell me next about how actual physical movement can help cement an actor’s lines.
Ben: Another example from the Angels in America production was a scene where Joe and Harper are having an argument about Roy’s offer for him to move to Washington. For some reason, I always saw Harper as unfinished. Joe even complains about her work never being done at the apartment. I decided I wanted her to start folding clothes as soon as Joe entered. This isn’t a difficult scene in terms of dialogue, but often arguments fall out of sequence because we step out of them looking at the issue as a whole. It’s necessary work, yes. But when playing, it’s the here and now. The simple choice of creating the scene around a household chore allowed the actors to become more acquainted with the space and more confident with their words.
Brent: Fascinating! Thank you, Ben. I appreciate your sharing your experiences with my blog readers. I wish you continuing success here in New York as theater roars back to life.
Ben: My pleasure. Thank you!