On stage at Eastern Florida State College in Cocoa? 'Red,' a Tony Award-winning play

Nick Martin and Laszlo Almonte settle into two seats in the Simpkins Fine Arts Center at Eastern Florida State College in Cocoa.

In front of them, a 64-square-foot canvas, painted a splotchy red and mounted on an easel, dominates the stage. Paint splatters stain a large drop cloth draped on the floor. Brushes and paints are scattered about.

It is a chaotic, but inanimate scene.

Martin and Almonte, both EFSC theatre arts students, will bring that set to life for three performances next week in an ambitious independent studies project. They will produce, direct and perform the only two acting roles in “Red,” which won the Tony for best play when it was produced on Broadway in 2010.

The play is based on Mark Rothko, an abstract expressionist painter, and his struggles with producing a mural for the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant in New York City in the late 1950s.

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“I know I’ll be doing shows for fun,” Martin said of his theatrical aspirations. “But at a serious college level, I needed a swan song in theatre.” Producing “Red” at EFSC gave him the chance. “Working the technology, stage managing, building sets, costuming and what not. I really decided I wanted to do all of it.”

But Martin also saw the value of collaborating and learning from other students, who come from other backgrounds.

The students

Martin is from Chicago. This fall he will move to Florida International University to study hospitality management. His ambition is to be a cruise director.

Almonte, who plans to pursue an acting career, graduated from a high school in St. Cloud, and was accepted to a Pittsburg theatre conservatory. But he decided to delay that, save money and spend his first two years at EFSC.

This year, Almonte and Martin were dominate forces in two EFSC productions – “Dining Room” and “The Busy Body,” both on the Simpkins Center stage.

“Last fall was my first year here, and Nick was one of the first persons who came to me,” Almonte said. “He handed me the ‘Dining Room’ script and explained it to me and made me feel more secure.”

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Martin said they had “parts in which we would go mano-a-mano and it’s just me and him, in head-to-head battle. Those are some of the most entertaining, invigorating moments.”

Even off stage, they’re “very stubborn, very passionate people and we butt heads a lot,” Martin said.

“But it comes out better in the end because of that,” Almonte inserted. “We’ll battle through to a much better idea.”

So with that history, Martin asked Almonte whether he would partner with him on “Red,” a special studies project. He said yes immediately.

The play

Of course, they needed a script.

“We ravaged through all these two-man shows looking for something that would give audiences something nice to chew on,” Almonte said.

They settled on “Red,” which was written by John Logan, and they came up with about $500 for the production rights for three performances.

More collaboration came when Elena Brace, an EFSC dual-enrollment theatre student from Satellite High, signed on as stage manager. “I was entranced by their vision of this as a student-run show,” she said. And Jacob Sawyer, a fellow theatre student who just graduated from EFSC, drops by regularly to give an outside perspective.

To properly reflect the world of art, they had to do some studying.

“You have to actually understand Rothko and his paintings,” Martin said. “You have to understand Matisse, Pollock, this all-star cast of painters that are mentioned in the show. And when you’re talking about black, it’s not just a color. It’s a feeling, an emotion, a tool.”

Then, there is the actual act of painting, which was new to them. On stage they’ll be mixing paints, and they have to paint an 8-foot-by-8-foot canvas in three minutes.

The professor’s perspective

Jeanine Henry, EFSC’s assistant professor of theatre, has taught the actors and directed them in stage productions, and she is confident the acting in “Red” “is going to be terrific.”

“Laszlo is a confident, experienced actor,” she said. “He is a leader, making bold choices and inspiring the other students. He is adept at making interesting character choices.

“Nick is an excellent project manager and event planner. He is an energetic actor who excels in larger-than-life roles. This play challenges him to be more naturalistic, which is good for him.”

But, she said, the independent studies project will give them much more than a stage to showcase their talents.

“This project is about taking initiative, following through, being committed and getting this job done when there isn’t someone else saying you have to show up. They have to figure it out themselves.

“I expect the play to be good,” Henry said, “but the life skills they are practicing are invaluable.”

Stover was formerly executive editor at FLORIDA TODAY.

The details

What: “Red”

When: 2:30 p.m. June 20 and 21 and 7:30 p.m. June 22

Where: Simpkins Fine Arts Auditorium at Eastern Florida State College, 1519 Clearlake Road, Cocoa

Cost: Admission is free.

Info: Call 321-632-1111 or visit easternflorida.edu.

Live theater

In this age of video, when virtually every performance has an infinite lifespan on YouTube or an on-demand streaming services, how do actors dedicate themselves to a medium where the performance expires as soon as it is performed?

What motivates them to come back to the same character, the same script over and over in a live theater?

I asked this of the two actors in "Red" and a couple of their student colleagues who are helping out with the project.

Laszlo Almonte: “Everyone in the audience is sharing this one capsulated performance that will never be the same and that is what makes it so beautiful. You can see on stage, the cogs turning in the people’s heads. The people in the audience and performers are sharing the experience.”

Nick Martin: “Nothing in the world that is more magical and truly transporting. During a show whenever one is here, the show is an organism. The actor and audience are co-dependent. We feed off the audience.”

Elena Brace, stage manager: “Every time you do it is different, it is such a collaborative effort between actors and the technicians.”

Jacob Sawyer, who just graduated and is lending his perspective at rehearsals: The difference between video and theatre is the difference between driving in a car and riding a road bike, he said. “In the theatre, you can feel the wind.”