Meet Stuck Elevator's Perry Aliado and learn who his superhero alter ego is!
Name: Perry Aliado
Role: Understudy for Julius Ahn and Joseph Anthony Foronda
What are your preshow/postshow rituals?
One weird quirk I have is that while I wait offstage before my very first entrance in a show, I repeatedly make the sign of the cross, maybe about 10–15 times in a row in extremely quick succession. It's something I learned (and still do) from my Roman Catholic upbringing, but in theatre settings, I use this as sort of a good luck gesture for myself and for the performance overall.
What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?
Mitchell's Ice Cream Shop at 29th Street and San José Avenue, easily. And almost without fail, my selection is a mango and langka (Filipino jackfruit) double scoop in a waffle cone. I could really go for some ice cream now . . .
Stuck Elevator is told in part with songs titled "Men Meiyou Kai," "Atlantic City," and "Orange Beef." What is your favorite song and why?
Today, my favorite song is "Real"—it's short and simple, but to me it's packed with the love and hope Guāng has for his wife Míng as he implores her to hang on, on the other side of an ocean, while trying to reassure her that somehow he will make everything right. But most importantly, I just love listening to Julius Ahn sing this beautiful song.
If you were to battle it out with a monster, who would you be and what would be your super hero power?
I absolutely love math and numbers, so my alter ego super hero would be Pi Man. In battle, he would chant—recite the digits of pi while encircling his enemies like a zooming cyclone, leaving them to fall into a dazed, hypnotic trance. Pi Man's sidekick, Fibonacci Dude, would proceed to round up their monster enemies with his mathemagical Golden Fibonacci Spiral, helping to end the monsters' reign of terror and bring peace and Mathematics to all the Metropolis.
As a Bay Area dramaturg, casting director, and actor, you must be busy! Can you tell us a little more about your work as resident dramaturg of Custom Made Theatre Company?
My first experience doing dramaturgical work ever was on Custom Made Theatre Company's (CMTC's) 2010 production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, by Stephen Adly Guirgis. I was cast as Saint Peter, but I also felt this immense urge to break down the entire script and research (or "geek out on" as I prefer to call it) all of the historical and biblical references made in the play. As an aside, the play really spoke to me personally at that point in my life. Also, it just felt really nice to be a pseudo-academic again, which I hadn't experienced since I graduated from college. Since my time with Judas Isacriot, my artistic director, Brian Katz, has given me the freedom to "geek out" and do research on all of our subsequent CMTC productions, and allowed me to be the company's go-to guy for any and all things academic with our shows. It's a service to our actors and creative team, for sure, but for me it's also a stupendous outlet to channel and release any pent-up geekery that may be in my system.
Read Perry Aliado's full bio on the A.C.T. Stuck Elevator show page.
Role: Understudy for Julius Ahn and Joseph Anthony Foronda
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| Perry Aliado Stuck Elevator runs April 4–28. Learn more about the production and order tickets. |
One weird quirk I have is that while I wait offstage before my very first entrance in a show, I repeatedly make the sign of the cross, maybe about 10–15 times in a row in extremely quick succession. It's something I learned (and still do) from my Roman Catholic upbringing, but in theatre settings, I use this as sort of a good luck gesture for myself and for the performance overall.
What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?
Mitchell's Ice Cream Shop at 29th Street and San José Avenue, easily. And almost without fail, my selection is a mango and langka (Filipino jackfruit) double scoop in a waffle cone. I could really go for some ice cream now . . .
Stuck Elevator is told in part with songs titled "Men Meiyou Kai," "Atlantic City," and "Orange Beef." What is your favorite song and why?
Today, my favorite song is "Real"—it's short and simple, but to me it's packed with the love and hope Guāng has for his wife Míng as he implores her to hang on, on the other side of an ocean, while trying to reassure her that somehow he will make everything right. But most importantly, I just love listening to Julius Ahn sing this beautiful song.
If you were to battle it out with a monster, who would you be and what would be your super hero power?
I absolutely love math and numbers, so my alter ego super hero would be Pi Man. In battle, he would chant—recite the digits of pi while encircling his enemies like a zooming cyclone, leaving them to fall into a dazed, hypnotic trance. Pi Man's sidekick, Fibonacci Dude, would proceed to round up their monster enemies with his mathemagical Golden Fibonacci Spiral, helping to end the monsters' reign of terror and bring peace and Mathematics to all the Metropolis.
As a Bay Area dramaturg, casting director, and actor, you must be busy! Can you tell us a little more about your work as resident dramaturg of Custom Made Theatre Company?
My first experience doing dramaturgical work ever was on Custom Made Theatre Company's (CMTC's) 2010 production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, by Stephen Adly Guirgis. I was cast as Saint Peter, but I also felt this immense urge to break down the entire script and research (or "geek out on" as I prefer to call it) all of the historical and biblical references made in the play. As an aside, the play really spoke to me personally at that point in my life. Also, it just felt really nice to be a pseudo-academic again, which I hadn't experienced since I graduated from college. Since my time with Judas Isacriot, my artistic director, Brian Katz, has given me the freedom to "geek out" and do research on all of our subsequent CMTC productions, and allowed me to be the company's go-to guy for any and all things academic with our shows. It's a service to our actors and creative team, for sure, but for me it's also a stupendous outlet to channel and release any pent-up geekery that may be in my system.
Read Perry Aliado's full bio on the A.C.T. Stuck Elevator show page.
