Micah Stock
actor Micah Stock, known for his movie and TV roles in Kindred, Bonding, and Escape at Dannemora, is currently starring opposite Laurie Metcalf in Little Bear Ridge Road on Broadway (closing 12/21). Micah was nominated for a Tony award for his Broadway debut in 2014 and hasn’t slowed down since. bare mag’s photo shoot was in Micah’s Brooklyn ‘hood and he was game for wearing his own bright green frock, not to mention smoky eye liner that made his baby blues pop in a hot Kurt Cobain way. writer Gina Way caught up with him on a Monday off to talk Little Bear, favorite Brooklyn neighborhood spots, his dressing room cocktail bar, and about that cult episode of FX’s The English Teacher.
gina way: what has it been like to originate this role in Little Bear Ridge Road and evolve your performance, going from the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago to Broadway?
Micah Stock: It’s not an experience I’ve had before, being able to return to something. This is the same cast and production team from Steppenwolf so it just felt like an aged wine. It was fun to return to it and see how it could be different, and how it could get deeper, and we had that trust there already. It’s intense but it’s fun to play.
GW: how do you deal with the emotional intensity of doing this play 8 times a week?
MS: I won’t lie – there are days where it feels really hard, but I am inspired by Laurie (Metcalf) who is just so consistent. She’s our greatest stage actor. So, I think to myself, “You better buck the fuck up and show up here.” The play is very funny and there’s this intense stuff, and I just try to remind myself when I get offstage that I’m serving this character and this soul for this second (on stage) but it’s not me. I carry it for the time I’m on stage and then I let it go.
GW: how do you usually wind down post-show?
MS: In Chicago there was a bar right at the theater and we all had a drink pretty much every night after that show. Here in New York, since we have to travel, we don’t do that as much, but I built a little bar in my dressing room and at the end of the week we all gather around and have a little nip.
GW: do you have a name for your dressing room bar and what’s your post-show cocktail?
MS: We do have a name – it’s called “Timmy Too” named after a bar in Idaho that we all like called The Timmy. My friend even made a neon sign for it. I’ll either do bourbon on the rocks or when Meighan Gerachis (who plays the nurse who comes on at the end of the play) is slinging potions, she makes a great dirty martini for me.
GW: what’s your pre-show prep like?
MS: I have a social routine. I like to get to the theater early because I hate the feeling of being rushed. Technically we don’t have to be there until half hour, but I generally get there an hour and half before to make the rounds and visit everybody. Laurie does jigsaw puzzles in her dressing room, and we both do the Spelling Bee (word game) on the New York Times app every day. I make sure that I’ve at least gotten to the ‘Amazing’ level. I strive for ‘Genius’ ranking but I joke with the stage manager that I can’t go onstage unless I’ve got ‘Amazing.’ And I’m trying to break this superstitious habit, but I have a diet Dr. Pepper before every performance.
GW: do you have any favorite theater district eats?
MS: The meatloaf at Joe Allen with extra gravy. It’s so good. It’s seasonal and they don’t have it on the menu all the time. I’ve always wanted to start a Twitter feed or Threads thing that is just: “Does Joe Allen have the meatloaf today?”
GW: people watch TV a lot in Little Bear Ridge Road. what was your last binge watch?
MS: When I’m doing a show it’s so hard for me to watch anything substantive, so my girlfriend and I watch The Great British Baking Show.
GW: tell us about your work with The 52nd Street Project, where you act in plays written by kids.
MS: It’s a great organization in Hell’s Kitchen and I started volunteering there around 2015. It’s an afterschool program where kids that are 9 to 10 years old get mentoring and homework help and take all kinds of outings with an arts focus. They learn how to write plays, and then professional actors perform them. I recently played a little Italian boy named Little Mikey. I’ve done kitchen sink dramas where I was a doctor who was very sad, and a bumblebee who couldn’t get enough of tap dancing. It runs the gamut. It’s so fun and so gratifying.
GW: your guest spot on The English Teacher (Season 2, Episode 3) was a classic. Do people stop you on the street and say “80/20 gay-bi”?
MS: They do! More than anything I’ve ever done, that clip sort of took off. For whatever reason, it hit something in the zeitgeist. That episode, and the character Gil that Stephanie Koenig wrote, is such a perfect episode of television. It’s like a short play and can almost stand alone. I believe she’s the one who came up with 80/20 gay-bi, and that was in the script, but the set is very improvisational so there’s a real fun spirit.
GW: what’s your favorite movie of all time?
MS: Gosford Park. I love a British murder mystery. When I was a kid, I devoured Agatha Christie novels. And that film is so impeccably performed and so funny. You’d think that now that I know what happens (in the plot), that I wouldn’t be interested in rewatching it, but it’s the movie I make everyone watch. It’s so rich in detail and all these actors working at the top of their form. I could watch Maggie Smith in that film all day.
GW: what’s the best thing about having a New Year’s Eve birthday?
MS: I really like it because you don’t have to plan a party. You can just sort of ride the wave. And it very much appeals to my OCD, because I love that I turn a new age at the end of the year. It feels very ordered to me.
GW: how do you refuel, rest, or treat yourself on a Monday off?
MS: I always try to take my dog Banana on a long walk. If I’m able to, my girlfriend and I have a place in upstate New York near Woodstock and it’s really regenerative to go there on a Sunday night. I haven’t been able to get out there much – but finding some nature outside is important. We’re skiers, so the minute Little Bear closes, we’re gonna hit all the slopes upstate. Skiing is the best sport – you zoom, zoom, zoom down a hill and then you drink a beer.
GW: is there a dream part or play you would love to do? and who would love to work with someday?
MS: I want to do new plays. I’m not the kind of person who wants to play Hamlet or Willy Loman. It’s just never appealed to me to do something that people have a preconceived notion about. I would love to work with the filmmaker, Kelly Reichardt. Her work is so restrained and so full at the same time.
GW: how would you describe your personal style? you rocked your own fab green frock for BARE, which reminded me of the fetching summer dress that Will Brill chose for his BARE MAG shoot.
MS: I’ve always wanted to play with (feminine style) but I’m a big guy and it’s hard to find a dress that I feel good in. It can feel like a costume, so when I find one that feels good, it’s so comfortable and fun. I can’t claim to be the same kind of dress wizard that Will is – he looks fantastic. I’ve always felt pretty drawn to masculine and feminine qualities within myself and so I always love when someone wants to play in that way and there’s no judgement. I knew right away that (photographer) Tina (Turnbow) was just someone I was going to say yes to, so it was fun.
GW: you live in Brooklyn. what are your favorite neighborhood spots?
MS: I’ve lived here so long, and it’s all going to be food. Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights, a Hungarian place that’s absolutely delicious. I can say unequivocally that they make the best tuna melt I’ve ever had. I love our birria truck down the street – I don’t even know the name of it. Birria is like a beef broth but onion-y and garlic-y and savory and delicious. They have quesabirria, which is really the way to go.
GW: do you have a skincare routine? any grooming essentials?
MS: Do I have a skincare routine? (Laughs hysterically.) Nope. I like the idea of it but I’m really bad at it. I wash my face when I take a shower. I use Everyday Oil on my beard. I like that stuff because you use it on your skin too.
GW: what are a couple of important items in your dressing room, besides your bar of course?
MS: I got to paint my dressing room so it’s a deep, soothing green. I wanted something that felt like a respite. And I have my napping couch that’s a yellow corduroy that can convert into my cot. I have drawings from our playwright Sam’s daughter Frances on my door. She drew me a picture of a cat when we did the play at Steppenwolf that I held onto in my script and then she drew another picture of me looking at a computer on the couch. She just turned eight, and it’s so amazing to see how much she’s evolved as an artist within this year.
GW: what are your Bare Essentials?
MS:
· Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on a classic deli roll
· Trees
· My girlfriend
· The way my dog smells
· Whiskey - bourbon – Bulleit Bourbon specifically