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By Brian Robin

Actor Hits the Bulls-Eye

The target was so close that Zachary Prince could almost see it every time he drove from his parents’ Laguna Hills home to Los Angeles, where he was playing Josh in A Transparent Musical at the Mark Taper Forum during the summer of 2022.

“Well, I’m close, but I’m still not there,” he thought, mindful of his target—South Coast Repertory.

The Orange County native once played the center of a three-headed Queen of Hearts in an SCR Youth Conservatory production of Alice in Wonderland. Years later he watched SCR’s 2014 production of The Tempest in awe with his mother, retired choreographer Ellen Prince. Now, after a career that has included five Broadway productions and the lead in the first national tour of Jersey Boys, Prince has hit his bulls-eye, performing at South Coast Repertory in the world premiere of Joan by Daniel Goldstein, directed by David Ivers, Oct. 27-Nov. 24 on the Julianne Argyros Stage.

Prince now plays numerous roles in Joan. It’s the culmination of a journey that began when Prince was in grade school in Laguna Hills, segued to University High in Irvine, traversed cross country to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, then to New York, where Prince forged a career that featured Broadway and the role of Frankie Valli in that Jersey Boys tour.

But it all began at SCR, where Prince spent two years in the Youth Conservatory’s summer program, giving him his first taste of making theatre. The one thing he remembers about the experience is the freedom to experiment, to “find one’s authentic self,” as he described it.

“I remember distinctly the black box theatre where we had several of our classes and there was so much magic to that for me as a kid,” he said.

Prince bounced around youth theatre groups from SCR to Laguna Playhouse to University High, all the while keeping an eye on what was going on at his original alma mater. Even after he moved to New York and found himself as a standby to Jim Parsons in Mother Play on Broadway, Prince always cast one eye west.

“I’ve had my eye on SCR as an adult actor living in New York. I’ve always been curious if there would be an opportunity to come back and work there as an adult,” he said. “When I was visiting and saw The Tempest with my mother, I was so blown away by the quality of the production. I remember thinking, ‘I have to work here.’ … This has been on my radar for a really long time.”

Prince finally made that connection through Goldstein. The two met years ago, when he did a reading of Goldstein’s Unknown Soldier at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. They were on a charity committee together. Then two months ago, Goldstein called Prince with the open-ended question: “What are you doing the next few months? We need an actor like you.”

There is a serendipitous element to Prince’s return to Orange County and his work in Joan that carries over from his standby role in Mother Play. First, Prince credits his regional theatre work—which included stops at the Taper, Kansas City Rep, Portland Center Stage and Bay Street Theatre, among others—with building his skills, confidence and perspective. Prince said every time he performs at a regional theatre, he returns to New York a better actor.

Second, Mother Play taught Prince a valuable lesson that applies to Joan.

“I learned a lot about how a celebrity navigates work by watching Jessica Lange through that process,” he said. “How generous a person can be without giving too much of themselves. How much they have to guard their own work and what’s sacred and how much they share. Jessica was great about that. She was kind and generous, but always focused on her work.

“In many ways, Joan Rivers embodied that same kind of work ethic and that same devotion to work. ... I think there’s a real connection between watching someone like Jessica and learning how similar Joan was in so many ways.”

Prince took that lesson, absorbed it, then added it to the considerable tool kit he’s using to play multiple characters in Joan, from Melissa Rivers’ boyfriend to a producer to a talk-show host.

And it’s a testament to Prince’s acting skills and Goldstein’s script that every one of those characters brings the audience key elements to understanding the breadth, depth and pioneering scale of Joan Rivers’ life.

“I think in may ways, I represent literally, in one way, the audience that watches, knows and loves Joan Rivers,” Prince said. “I also represent the obstacles and situations she bumps into throughout her life and career. Some of those are funny, some serious. As an actor, it’s a blast. Every character is different. My work has been trying to figure out who all these different people are and how to make them different to serve that particular moment in Joan’s journey.

“That entails different dialects, different voices and different mannerisms. As a character actor, it’s a really great challenge.”

It’s a challenge Prince wanted for a long time. Welcome home.

About the author

South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory is a Tony Award-winning theatre is known for producing classics, contemporary hits and world premieres, for having the largest new-play development program in the nation and for advancing the art of theatre in service to the community. 

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