'Superstars' share experiences with students

Cape High theater students are a generation removed from the runaway success of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar,” but a visit by two of the film version's actors Nov. 18 created a new buzz for the production.

Senior theater student Aaron Latta-Morisette said he grew up listening to the record when his mom played it.

“But I'll listen more closely to it now,” he said, after spending a class period with Bob Bingham and Kurt Yaghjian, actors who played high priests Caiaphas and Annas in the 1973 movie.

Bingham's resounding bass and Yaghjian's sharp tenor brought to life their characters' treachery.

Junior Brooke Sposato said she watched the 1973 film for the first time a day before their visit. Hearing the two actors speak to the master acting class was inspiring, she said.

“They gave good advice on not to get discouraged in the acting business. It's brutal,” she said. “I like how they said everything happens for a reason.”

For Bingham, it's particularly appropriate. As a college student in the early 1970s, he dropped out of college and landed a job with a Seattle production of “Hair.” A friend suggested he try out for “Jesus Christ Superstar” and he got the role of Caiaphas. “I never really paid my dues,” he told the students.

“I fell into it, you can say.”

Years of singing in choirs gave him the vocal training for the deep bass role of Caiaphas, he said. Back then, he said, many actors learned their trade by doing. “We got our training on the stage,” he said.

During the filming of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in Israel, he said, he didn't even know what it meant to take a mark.

“They must've shot the scaffolding scene a dozen times until it was right,” he said, referring to a scene where high priests watched from a scaffold perch as Jesus and his followers rode into Jerusalem.

After the role of Caiaphas, Bingham said he dropped out of the acting business as quickly as he dropped in. He continued to live in New York, but he worked for a zipper factory.

In contrast, Yaghjian continued performing after his role of Annas. He earned a role in the movie “Hair” singing alongside actress Nell Carter in the song “Ain't Got No.”

A son of musicians, Yaghjian said, he may have been bound for a life of performing, but he got some of his biggest roles by being in the right place at the right time.

Still, he said, he had his fair share of rejections. He told students if they want to perform, they should find a way.

“You may not know what you want to do, but things will open up if you put yourself in the right environment,” he said.

And he told students to stop spending so much time staring at their phones and look up at what's going on around them.

“Through observation you will receive inspiration. You have to find that inspiration,” he said.

Cape Henlopen Theater Director Martha Pfeiffer met the actors after attending the 42nd anniversary of the film in New York City.

“I've had a massive crush on these two for years,” she said. “Meeting them was a huge event in my life.”

They all kept in touch, and, Pfeiffer said, she was thrilled when they accepted her invitation to lead a workshop at Cape High. “This is unbelievable for me,” she said.

Her students were similarly engrossed in everything the actors shared. Listening to the two talk about their experience in film and theater was an inspiration for Aaron.

“I love talking to people in the industry,” said Aaron, who recently found out he has been accepted to the New York Film Academy.

Wherever he ends up, he said, acting will be part of it.

“I have no doubt that I want to do it,” he said.