What it feels like to perform on-stage

Culetti starred as Sky Masterson in the Southeast production of Guys and Dolls.

It was one of my highlight shows here at Southeast. At first when they told me I was going to play Sky Masterson, I didn't know how to handle it. Sky Masterson is really played seriously so you don't get to see a real person. The problem you have with that, in my opinion, is that you've got Masterson and Sarah Brown surrounded by funny characters. In going about this role, I really pulled the humor out of it. I think it was a success.

Being a comedic actor, I find it easy to pull the humor out of dramatic charactors. Not that this was a comedy, but there's humor there. Then, that really gets to the audience and makes the character more real. You know he gets sad, he gets mad, he gets frustrated. I wouldn't have wanted to play it as the slick, superhero norm you typically see Sky Masterson played.

It was big hit, the show. I hope it continues and think it will. We're hoping to pull out some big productions because of this show. It's taking another step up each year.

The challenge for me in this production was me being nervous singing. I hadn't sung in a musical for a long time. Sky Masterson has a couple of solos. The first thing I had to get over was actually the nervousness of singing in front of my peers at rehearsals. Every rehearsal would get better. And I finally got to the point where I felt really good with it, the singing.

In rehearsals, you feel really comfortable and you're positive about what you're going to do. You're confident. But when you get an audience in there, it's different. You can act like there's an audience out there during rehearsals, but there's really not. It's the energy that the audience gives off that really connects with you if you make that connection.

I never really get to stop and look at the audience, to see what's going on. But I'm aware that they're there. It's, It's really, I want to say, exciting. It's a whole mixture of things; you're nervous, you're excited, you want to make the audience laugh, you really want to connect to them. Right before you go before them, you're worked up, but in a good way. You get hyped and you get excited because you're out there and doing this with other people. You know, the way I see it, you can't be scared. You can't be nervous or anything like that, because stage fright kicks in. Stage fright, I think, is just people uncomfortable with themselves onstage.

In theatre, when you're in front of an audience-especially a sold-out audience-you just have to have that extra confidence and know that, "I'm going to go out here and I'm going to do this." You just can't go out there and feel that you're going to be stupid or that that's not cool. You really have to believe that what you're doing onstage the audience isn't judging you. They're being entertained by you. They're connecting with you. They're admiring you. They're not saying, "Well, I can't believe Nick Cutelli is doing that."

When I get out there onstage, I will say that at first I'm a little nervous. But once you hit that one point...I don't know how to explain it. It's when you deliver that line or do something and you can feel the audience. They're laughing or they feel with you. From then on, I'm on cruise control. From there, you feel comfortable onstage. You're aware of the audience and you know they're aware of you. You know that they're watching you. Everything you do on stage, they're paying attention. It's a really cool feeling to know that everyone is concentrating on you. It makes you feel...It just gives you a power. You feel really strong onstage. Then you feel comfortable. And you can experiment with your character and try new things with each show. The character changes and develops.

Once you get that one connection with the audience, you can really work together. It gives you more energy, more connection to the audience. I guess it's about attention, feeding off one another.

When they (the audience) stand and applaud, it's one of the best feelings in the world. That's one of the reasons I love live performances. Being in front of all those people, it's just a wonderful thing. There's no way to explain it. It's just a wonderful feeling when you get out there and make that connection.

You really just gotta let yourself go and trust yourself. If you do that, then you're really going to go someplace and open yourself up to something new and exciting.