John Cabrera

I Survived Theatre School

Intro: The Villages, doing drugs late in life, people named Dennis.
Let Me Run This By You: Do you have evidence of the benefits of letting go? Seeing what the nets bring in.
Interview: We talk to John Cabrera about transitioning from art to theatre, auditioning at Juilliard and TTS with the dramatic monologue du jour (Equus), the casting pool, mushroom mishaps, Merrily We Roll Along, The Lovers.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1 (00:00:08):

I'm Jen Bosworth from me this and I'm Gina Pulice. We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it. 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all. We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet? People with problems, visibly proud with my heart and my eyes.

Speaker 2 (00:00:35):

Well, speaking of old people, you've got a watch. Tell me about this. I looked it up and I'm like, what is even happening here? Okay. Do you know what The Villages are? The Villages is a retirement community in Florida. It's the largest retirement community, definitely in the United States, maybe in the world. I'm not sure. And it has 130,000 people live there. Oh, dictated. Well, it's not technically gated, but it's considered a gated community and they made a documentary. Apparently the guy who made it, it's very young. He's not on social media. I can't find him. Lawrence Oppenheimer or Lance, Lance Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer anyway, beautifully shot documentary, but also just fascinating. It Chronicles these three or four people, including a couple where the, the husband decided, I guess maybe later in life that he wanted to start using drugs because he wanted to expand his mind.

Speaker 2 (00:01:38):

And they never got, they never really drilled down on the drugs that he was using, but he got arrested for having marijuana and a $5 worth of cocaine. Oh, he was doing drugs. He was really doing drugs. And, but he was my favorite because his whole thing is he just wanted to get to a spiritual place quickly. That is amazing. And so there's these amazing shots of him. One of them, everybody drives golf carts everywhere. And one of these shots, he's just screaming, driving headlong into a sprinkler in his, uh, golf cart. Cause he wanted the feeling of the sprinkler on his face. Um, I love him already. I love him. He's amazing. Although it did make me think twice because I've always said if I live to be 90 or 95, I'm going to start doing heroin because you know, I'm going to go out anyway and I would never do it otherwise, but this is making me rethink it because it really took a toll on his wife.

Speaker 2 (00:02:37):

She was really, you know, she said he was always eccentric, but then he, he became downright unusual. He became William S Burroughs William S Burroughs. Yeah. By the end of the documentary, he had stopped doing the drugs. You imagine if he's dead, he becomes a recovering addict. Like he's, he's like 85 years old. Um, so that was one couple. And then there was a, uh, uh, Oh my God, there's this man. Of course his name is dentist. Every, every dentists out there as a ne'er do well, this guy didn't live in the villages. He lived in his van and he was hoping to snag a rich lady so that his whole thing was about, and there's this scene and it's just so poetic. He's lying to, I dunno how this, uh, cinematographer got in the van lying down on the makeshift bed in his van, looking up, no shirt on, looking up at the ceiling saying, you know, I just want a good looking gal. Who's he must have said it three times a good looking gal. Who's easy on the eyes who won't embarrass me

Speaker 3 (00:03:49):

God. And I'm like. Call of you. You live in a van down by the river, in the van.

Speaker 2 (00:03:54):

And you're saying that you need a woman. I mean, you don't even have this woman. You don't even know this woman and you're already criticizing her for embarrassing. You, he, he finally finds one of these women that he had known before and she knows the deal. She knows he just wants a place to live. And he starts saying, it seems to be going right. And then he starts saying, listen, you can either have comfort or freedom. And I just don't know if I can be, uh, I don't, I don't know who to be tied down.

Speaker 3 (00:04:26):

Oh God, go get back in your van and get the hell out of here.

Speaker 2 (00:04:29):

Is that us go drive that van off of a short pier? I mean, the world does not need another

Speaker 3 (00:04:36):

Dennis. No, no. Dennis, Dennis is a great movie. I think you would really like it. I'm going to watch it. I was, I was, I'm going to watch it last night. And then I thought, Oh, I better write. So I did write something, but, but, but I love the idea and I love the idea of, and that's great fodder for scripts, right? Of, of a guy who lives in the he's a drug addict who decides to become a drug user at 84 or whatever, and decide, and then decides not so much like after he has some run-ins with the law, probably

Speaker 2 (00:05:11):

Friends with the law, they even had video of him in court. And the judge saying he was actually such a really nice guy, but he got real obstreperous in the court. And the judge said, you are the rudest person I have ever had to deal with because he decided that he was going to represent himself and just kept saying $5 worth of cookie. And it's only $5 for cocaine. And the judge is like, I don't care how many dollars it's it's a crime, sir. Anyway, it's worth watching. It's called it's for people who don't know it's called not just like heaven, not far from ...