How has Mark-Paul Gosselaar made the transition to jump from to TV to theater?
NEW YORK — Mark-Paul Gosselaar is a self-professed theater novice and not afraid to admit it. Right now, he’s making his New York stage debut off-Broadway in “The Understudy” alongside theater veterans Julie White, a best-actress Tony Award winner for “The Little Dog Laughed,” and Justin Kirk, who appeared on Broadway and in the film version of “Love! Valour! Compassion!” The role required him to step outside his comfort zone and perform twice a day, feeding off the energy of the live audience, with 80 pages of dialogue to remember. “I had no idea about anything,” says Gosselaar. “I didn’t know the process or the terminology,” he says. “Everything has been taught to me by my director Scott Ellis and castmates.” Fittingly, Gosselaar plays Jake, a big movie star who’s also an understudy in a Broadway play. Kirk plays the understudy to Gosselaar, and White is the stage manager. The entire story takes place at a rehearsal and shows how a theater understudy is always waiting in the wings ho
