‘Follow your heart’: Marion actor takes his first cue at 54

MARION — Growing up in the New Hollywood era of the 1960s, Marion’s Paul Kandarian was a film fanatic.

When he wasn’t at the theater checking out the latest show, he was rewatching the reels of his father’s old movie collection at home, enthralling himself into new and exciting adventures with each and every one.

But he wasn’t just interested in enjoying a good story from his favorite actors like John Wayne and James Cagney, he wanted to know why they were all so fun to watch. 

Studying each scene, analyzing all the action, it became his dream to invoke the same emotions he felt while watching them to an audience of his own. 

“That’s the only thing I ever wanted to do,” he said. “But I thought at the time it was just this crazy dream — it’s never going to happen.”

Up until the age of 54, Kandarian kept to the theater seat. But when he booked his first show as the lead in the play “Later Life” by A.R. Gurney at the Marion Arts Center, the spotlight finally shown upon him. 

And there was no way he was leaving its warmth. 

“As soon as I stepped out on stage, and the butterflies went away, it was like this is what I should have been doing my whole life,” he said. “The immediacy, the electricity, the energy of live performance is ridiculous and it’s great.”

That was 17 years ago. Now a full-time actor, Kandarian, 71, is preparing to return to what has become the familiar Wilbur Theatre in Boston to perform in “A NightMARE with Casey Sherman” by true crime author, producer and playwright Casey Sherman as notorious mob boss Mickey Cohen, who ran the Los Angeles underworld in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The three-act stage play will debut on Wednesday, March 26 and marks the third play of Sherman’s that Kandarian has participated in. 

“Paul Kandarian is a true force,” Sherman said. “In the role of Mickey Cohen, Kandarian will show how the gangster set the stage for one of the most sensational murders in Hollywood history; the fatal Lana Turner-Johnny Stompanato affair.”

Sherman added, ”I’m very honored to work with him on my new show, which will be the ultimate campfire ghost story experience and a white knuckle ride for the audience.”    

Since his start, Kandarian has wondered to himself why he had waited so long.

“It looks like magic up there,” he said of watching the actors on the Marion stage. “I would see people come on stage, walking by us, and I would get goosebumps.”

Kandarian has explored all sorts of roles since his first, which he says he has to thank Wendy Bidstrup for, as she was the executive director at the Marion Arts Center at the time who encouraged him to stop by for an audition.

He has done several shows at theaters, movies, commercials and even instructional videos — all without a single acting class as he’s a big advocate for “learning by doing.” He highlighted the differences in acting needed for the roles, noting how in film the smallest details can be picked up by a camera but in theater his movements need to be bigger for the audience.

Kandarian said, “I respect the power and the obligation of a storyteller in all forms,” and he’s been a part of that storytelling long before he took the stage. 

He spent 15 years working as a reporter for the Taunton Gazette before he began freelancing. Another of his adventures he did lesson-free — never attending journalism school and dropping out of what is now UMass Dartmouth before completing his degree in psychology. Not a fan of sitting behind a desk, he opted to leave the paper for travel writing and reported from all over the world.

He also worked on several projects with Richard Saul Wurman, the creator of TED Talks, and hopes to turn a show he wrote with his son about drug addiction into a Talk.

Kandarian said his son was an army veteran who struggled with addiction to heroin when he returned, but he  has since recovered and become a high school guidance counselor. 

His story was told a few times on stage by Kandrian and a fellow actor just before the Covid Pandemic and he hopes to continue to share the inspirational story with more people.

Kandarian said he’s had lots of different “sidebars” in his life and believes it helps inform the person he continues to become, noting people are always evolving into the person they are meant to be. 

For him, even with all the experiences he had, something had always been missing and that was acting. 

He said he realized, “It’s not a life and death situation, but we all get inside of our own heads and we put limitations on ourselves that might not be there.”

“Don’t wait on the dream,” he added. “Just listen to your own voice — follow your heart. … It’ll fulfill you in a way that you’d never imagine.”

Kandarian said, “It’s been a great ride and it ain’t over yet.”

Tickets are on sale now for Kandarian’s upcoming Boston show and can be purchased through the Wilbur Theatre box office: https://thewilbur.com/artist/casey-sherman/

All proceeds for the show will go to support the Peter Frates Family Foundation petefrates.com.

[Editor’s Note: The reporting of this story was contributed to by Erez Ben-Akiva.]