Photo Courtesy
of
Carleton King
Carleton King grew up in Brooklyn, had head shots as an infant and
was pushed toward the profession by his parents. Even so, he always knew he had
a knack and grew with the craft by studying acting and theater at St. Johns and
LIU. After a number of acting credits over the last decade in theater, film and
TV, King developed the web series Why not
Just Tell the Truth. With a few
thousand subscribers across the globe, King has decided to go Off Broadway to
gauge whether he should add to the 11 episodes already in the can. Either way,
coming clean is at the heart of his inspiration.
Carlton King : Honesty is a very deep rooted idea. Most people
hate to be lied to but sometimes we even lie to ourselves. This can leave you
in a lot of trouble when you’re in denial or being dishonest in interpersonal
relationships. So I wanted to explore some of those situations.
Rich Monetti: Taking a
look at some of the episodes, I see characters with some heavy weaponry and situations that go on beyond just lying to
your girlfriend.
CK: Yes, some of the characters allow certain situations to become
bigger than normal life and stem mostly from Tracey (Ana Araújo). Her father was a mafia boss, and her mother
comes from a Cuban crime family. That causes her to have this weird dichotomy
of a personality, but her friendship with Jason helps drive the plot. So anyone
who disrespects him has to worry about her coming after them.
RM: Jason is your
character. Tell me about him.
CK: He’s a good guy. He believes in love, marriage and making
things work. That can work to his detriment because he’ll try to make a bad
thing work when he probably just needs to let it go.
RM: I guess that
includes his marriage.
CK: I’ll just say it. Kathy (Charese Annel) is a bitch. He got his
heart broken in college by Janette (Margaret McDuffy and Inayah Burton). She
was the one that got away, and this left a lingering hole in his heart.
Unfortunately, he ends up filling it with the wrong person.
RM: Denial – if you
will?
CK. Yes…She is evil but hopefully people get to understand what
makes her the way she is.
RM: She sounds more
suited to Tony, the player
CK: He’s in denial in the sense that he doesn’t want a real
relationship or love.
RM: Why?
CK: All the characters have their face value and their underlying
value. In other words, the things that make them what they are. Tony (Patrick
Jackson) has all these women, and it’s so easy for him. But why does he chase
love like that? We just hope people can come to understand what makes a player
a player.
RM: How much does Jason
relate to your life?
CK: If you know my life, you really wouldn’t get the correlation.
But a lot of the situations were inspired by the feelings that these scenes are
based on. So if you follow the emotions then you get the idea where the
inspiration comes from.
RM: How much is New York
City a character?
CK: This play could take place anywhere, but it does come into
play in the background of the characters.
RM: How?
CK: Mariah (Janelle Stein) is a reformed hood girl from the
projects. That’s a very specific thing, because projects in other cities are
not the same. The ethnic mix in New York is also different. So the
intermingling in our melting point is inherently different and represents
itself in the characters.
RM: Are you using the
same actors from the series?
CK: Except for me, it’s a whole new cast?
RM: What was it like
converting from the web to a play?
CK: You don’t have the magic of editing and multiple takes. Then
we had to break things down to their basic level and rearrange to fit a more
natural order so they flow better.
RM: What will be the
impact of doing this live?
CK: There’s so many things that I put into the show – it wouldn’t
be the same if I tried to record it. The scenes had to be done right there in
front of an audience, because it’s more of an interactive thing…I’ll just say I
plan to raise a few eyes brows.
RM: What do you hope
people take away?
CK: The truth can be a very powerful thing that shouldn’t be lost
in translation, and hopefully people can have the courage to be honest in the
first place.
RM: Good luck. Nice
talking to you.
CK: Thank you.
The play ran on Feb 12 and 19 but the web series can be found on
youtube
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