Theater Latté Da rolls with 'double Reeds' for 'Stones in His Pockets'

It's surprising that Tom Reed and Reed Sigmund, two dynamic Twin Cities actors, have never worked together. But that is about to change.

Fresh off their recent roles as the Grinch at the Children's Theatre Company (Sigmund) and as colorful Leaf Coneybear in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" at Artistry (Reed), the two men play all 15 roles in Theater Latte Da's "Stones in His Pockets."

Sigmund has been a company member at CTC for over two decades, where he has played Tom Sawyer in "Huck Finn," and a really ugly Stepsister in "Cinderella." An alum of the Brave New Workshop sketch comedy troupe, Reed writes his own quirky comedies, including musical parodies of "Harry Potter" and "The Game of Thrones." He also has appeared in Netflix's "Lady Dynamite."

As they get to know each other in comedic "Stones," which previews Wednesday, they are becoming fast friends, as evidenced by their high-fives, and backslapping before a recent rehearsal at Minneapolis' Ritz Theater.

"Do you fall a lot, too?" Sigmund asked his co-star conspiratorially.

"I do. I like to fall," Reed giddily answered. "The trick is to just fall."

"It is shockingly easy — embrace gravity and just stop trying to stay upright," Reed added.

Friends at a low point

They will have at least one chance for a splat in "Stones," Marie Jones' Ireland-set comedy about a bucolic hamlet that gets turned upside down when a major Hollywood film production comes to town. Main characters Charlie (Reed) and Jake (Sigmund) are two friends who've been cast as extras. They help the film's muckety-mucks see the wisdom of pausing production on their project after a tragedy happens in the community.

"This play is really about a friendship that blossoms in hard circumstances," Lorca said, adding that Jake and Charlie begin their journey in the play in hopelessness and failure but end it with a sense of direction and dreaming.

"You really see the power of imagination, because once they start to dream, they can go places," Lorca added.

"Stones" also shows a typical Hollywood contradiction as a big production comes into town and pays locals to act in ways that outsiders think that locals should act.

"The film folks are coming to a place and extracting its value, its Irishness," Reed said.

"They take away some of the people's capacity for self-sufficiency," Sigmund added, "leaving sadness."

Lorca was quick to note that it's not all sadness or condemnation of the Hollywood types.

"They have their deadlines, too," she said. "Everybody is part of a giant machine."

Failing forward

"Marcela has told us to go wrong and strong," Sigmund said.

"To take risks and fail on our way to success," Reed added.

For Sigmund, one of the most fascinating switches he makes with his characters is to go from a domineering figure one moment to a meek supplicant the next.

The play also looks at the roles of extras in films. Playwright Jones wrote it based on personal experience, and both actors also have personal material to draw on.

Reed once got to a set and was mistaken for an extra. It was eye-opening.

"I was escorted to some room that had food and [ample] chairs and I was like, 'Oh, this is a different world,'" Reed said.

Sigmund did, in fact, play an extra in a film that he does not wish to name. His scene was shot in an abandoned store in a strip mall.

"There was a line of tape separating the extras from everyone else and there was one chair for every 10 people," Sigmund said. "There was also a guy who was like the fancy chef that you see at a high-end restaurant cutting the prime rib. He was over there. On our side, we had powdered doughnuts and orange water."

The emotions from both of their experiences will inform their "Stones" characters, the men said.

"This is a great challenge for all of us, but it's so much fun," Reed said.