For this Wicker Park resident, acting is personal

Michael Wagman always tries to find the personal in the characters he portrays.

But for his latest role as the conniving Dimitris Kokkinakis in Strangeloop Theatre’s Mitera, the Wicker Park actor has struggled to make that connection.

“One of my biggest challenges has been playing someone who thinks so little of the people around him that he literally gives them and their views no credence,” Wagman said. “I’ve always tried to keep an open mind, so playing someone who is so resolutely closed-minded has forced me to find those areas of myself – those few relationships where I became closed-minded – and exploit them to understand this character.”

Mitera tells the story of the Sheridan sisters who discover their mother, upon her death, has left their entire inheritance contingent on the youngest sister marrying within a year. If she fails to do so everything goes to Dimitris, their oldest male cousin in Greece.

To find his way into Dimitris, Wagman looked to his own European heritage on his father’s side. His paternal great-grandparents, Samuel Wagman and Frances Eisenstein, were Jewish immigrants from Rumania and the Ukraine, respectively, that settled in New York. With them came the same sort of clarity of right and wrong that Dimitris has, which Wagman has also seen in his grandfather and father.

“They always had a strong sense of what they felt was right. And if they were right other people were clearly wrong,” Wagman said. “My grandpa would never hesitate to offer life advice, whether it was asked for or not, to a total stranger, but he always meant it well. To him what was right for him was right for everybody. He had lived a long, happy life. Why shouldn't he share the knowledge and tricks that had made it possible?

“I suppose it’s that lack of doubt, that lack of self-reflection that I see in Dimitris too,” he added.

What is difficult about the character, however, is also what Wagman has enjoyed about playing the role.

“He’s such a sad character,” Wagman said. “He is that kind of person whom the future will leave behind. Dimitris is doomed to be on the wrong side of history. And yet he sees himself as a loving, responsible man carrying on the family traditions exactly as the patriarchs before him did.”

In addition to acting, Wagman can also be found around town doing improv. He’s also a playwright and is working on a new script tentatively titled The Witch of the Western Woods – a supernatural thriller set in 1650’s Sudbury, Massachusetts.

When not working, Wagman enjoys all that Wicker Park has to offer, including the diversity of restaurants and, of course, the theaters.

“I love how alive it feels,” he said. “It makes for great people watching. The neighborhood is so full of young people and hipsters with dogs and babies that there’s plenty of cuteness and culture to go around.”

See Wagman on stage in Strangeloop Theatre's production of Mitera, running on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. April 7 through May 25 at The North Mansion at Berger Park in Chicago. More information is available at strangelooptheatre.org.