Michael Mau Courts The Princess Bride As Westley!

Caitlyn Leonard and Michael Mau

Get your leap night on, Lambchops!  It is time to make a date to be silly on February 29 and gather Downtown at the Kentucky Theatre when Off Main Actors Group presents a reading of THE PRINCESS BRIDE - at 7pm.

Michael Mau will be reading the part of Westley. His last role was Freddy the owner of the Lapin Agile in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a fall Studio Players production. 

Mau tells me his character faces the typical woes of everyday life in the land of riches and abject poverty. "As the show opens Westley is the archetypal proletariat convinced that he must attain pecuniary riches to secure his place in society and support his love, middle-class landowner Buttercup. He is forced into piracy, which, other than revenge, treachery, and brutishness, seems to be the only option for any male not of the royal bloodline." 

Moreover, the thought plickens. "Westley returns to retrieve his love only to be caught in a jingoist plot set up by ambiguously homosexual Prince Humperdinck.  Westley's good looks, strength, skill, and intelligence help satirize the plight of the working poor as they attempt to overcome the constant roadblocks set up by the ruling class."

 

Ross Carter, Michael Mau and Darius Fatemi
(photos courtesy of Mark Cornelison)

"As he rides off with his love, Westley leaves the monarchy intact, and having handed off his pirate's mask, he will certainly return to his role as farmhand, only this time as a landowner himself, still under Humperdinck's rule."

The cult following of the show will provide some energy to the reading, and though he has never performed a character as well-known as Westley, Mau points out he is "not playing Westley so much as I am mimicking Carey Elwes playing Westley. There is also the challenge of remembering that this is an interpretation and not acting. Our blocking is limited, we are holding scripts, and we will be competing with an audience who may be saying our lines at the same time."

"Also, Westley is a 20-something blonde swashbuckler with a baby face. I am a 40-year-old father of two with salt and pepper hair and a beard (which I have been told I must shave). I'll have some work convincing an audience that I am Westley worthy," he says of his swash-struggle.

 

BIO
"I am a writer, teacher, father, runner, tinkerer, artist, craftsman, and snappy dresser. I began my writing career at the prestigious Green Valley News and Sun in Arizona but was soon tricked into teaching high school. As a slave to teenagers for fourteen years, I have coached cross country and track, led an award-winning speech and drama team, won some plaques, and lost a little bit of my soul. In 2013, I transferred to  an alternative school where I work with students who have been used, abused, and dumped on our doorstep. They’re misfits like me, and I love them.

My short fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Portland Review, Fifth Wednesday, Mount Hope, Firewords Quarterly, Punchnel's, Ferocious Quarterly, and other places. 'An Open Letter to America From a Public School Teacher,' originally published in McSweeney's, received national attention when it was picked up by several news outlets. My story 'Little Bird' was selected by Lily Hoang as the winner of the 2014 Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest. I received my MFA from the Bluegrass Writers Studio in central Kentucky."

 

Mau has worked previously with fellow cast members Ross Carter and Tommy Gatton. "I played a small role as a crazed gunman in Ross's play What Would Jesus Pack. Tommy starred in the play as the NRA spokesperson."

In succinct spirit of the script, Michael believes the best reason to see this show is simple: "True love. "

Lastly, does he have a 'secret talent?' 

As it turns out,Michael Mau is reluctant to reveal his hidden gift.  "If I told you my secret talents, they wouldn't be secret. Come to the show and I'll demonstrate one on stage!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now who could resist that, I ask?  See you at the show, lambsies!