Ritchie '10 enters family trade with major acting 'debut'
Matthew Varley
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Features
Two generations of Brown actors appeared in an acclaimed performance of "The Corn is Green" at the Williamstown Theater Festival this summer in Williamstown, Mass. Morgan Ritchie '10, the son of Broadway actress and "Grey's Anatomy" star Kate Burton '79, joined his mother onstage in what Ritchie described as his debut performance.
In the play, Burton starred as an Englishwoman named Miss Moffat who inherits a house in Wales and opens a school for boys working in the local mines. On the verge of disillusionment, she discovers a spark of intellect in Ritchie's character, Morgan Evans, and devotes herself to his education.
According to Ritchie, sharing the bill with his mom was comforting.
"I was very, very nervous about doing this ... I don't have a lot of formal training, and Williamstown is a pretty well-known regional theater" with "incredibly talented people," Ritchie said. "I would sort of get a little bit overwhelmed, but having her there was what could bring me back from the brink. She could calm me down."
Though Ritchie and Burton both appeared in the 1996 film "August" with Anthony Hopkins, as well as in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2004, Ritchie said "The Corn is Green" marked a turning point his relationship with his mother.
"This was the first time we played opposite each other and had to develop a relationship onstage," Ritchie said. "My mom and I are actually very different actors," he added, saying Burton's formal training leads to a consistent approach. "I'm everywhere," Ritchie said. "I'm all over the place and then I sort of pull it together."
Ritchie described "The Corn is Green," a 1938 play by Emlyn Williams, as a "lost classic" and "a whirlwind of action," with numerous entrances and exits, and "very few moments of great tension."
"It's a comedy in the sort of traditional sense of that it has a happy ending," Ritchie said. "But it is also a comedy in a modern sense ... even though there are many dramatic elements it's geared towards laughter," Ritchie said. He said his character is the least humorous in the cast, but the one that develops the most. "When he first comes onstage, (Morgan Evans) speaks very broken English with a very heavy Welsh accent ... which is a bizarre accent. My family's Welsh and still I think it's a crazy sounding accent," Ritchie said. Two years elapse over the course of the play, and Morgan "develops his ability to speak throughout the show," which culminates in a monologue in the third act.
In the play, Burton starred as an Englishwoman named Miss Moffat who inherits a house in Wales and opens a school for boys working in the local mines. On the verge of disillusionment, she discovers a spark of intellect in Ritchie's character, Morgan Evans, and devotes herself to his education.
According to Ritchie, sharing the bill with his mom was comforting.
"I was very, very nervous about doing this ... I don't have a lot of formal training, and Williamstown is a pretty well-known regional theater" with "incredibly talented people," Ritchie said. "I would sort of get a little bit overwhelmed, but having her there was what could bring me back from the brink. She could calm me down."
Though Ritchie and Burton both appeared in the 1996 film "August" with Anthony Hopkins, as well as in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2004, Ritchie said "The Corn is Green" marked a turning point his relationship with his mother.
"This was the first time we played opposite each other and had to develop a relationship onstage," Ritchie said. "My mom and I are actually very different actors," he added, saying Burton's formal training leads to a consistent approach. "I'm everywhere," Ritchie said. "I'm all over the place and then I sort of pull it together."
Ritchie described "The Corn is Green," a 1938 play by Emlyn Williams, as a "lost classic" and "a whirlwind of action," with numerous entrances and exits, and "very few moments of great tension."
"It's a comedy in the sort of traditional sense of that it has a happy ending," Ritchie said. "But it is also a comedy in a modern sense ... even though there are many dramatic elements it's geared towards laughter," Ritchie said. He said his character is the least humorous in the cast, but the one that develops the most. "When he first comes onstage, (Morgan Evans) speaks very broken English with a very heavy Welsh accent ... which is a bizarre accent. My family's Welsh and still I think it's a crazy sounding accent," Ritchie said. Two years elapse over the course of the play, and Morgan "develops his ability to speak throughout the show," which culminates in a monologue in the third act.