Veteran actor makes KC debut in ‘Glengarry’

Victor Raider-Wexler landed a doozy for his first stage role in Kansas City — Shelly “the Machine” Levene, the tragic figure at the center of David Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Raider-Wexler, a veteran of Broadway, television and film, made his local debut in the Kansas City Actors Theatre production of “Glengarry,” which continues through Aug. 16 at H&R Block City Stage in the Union Station.  (See below for details).

The 65-year-old Jewish actor moved to the Kansas City area a couple of years ago with his now-ex-wife, Dr. Micaela Wexler, and their two teenage daughters, when she began a residency in psychiatry at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Since then, he’s regularly flown back and forth to California, keeping his hand in the voice-acting business that’s been his bread and butter for many years. It was his mellifluous baritone that pronounced General Motors “the mark of excellence” for many years on your television.

He did provide the voice of Abraham, the patriarch, in the Paul Mesner Puppets skit that opened the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy Civic Service Award celebration this year.

But Shelly Levene in “Glengarry” is a true acting challenge, from achieving the rapid-fire, stop-and-start, profanity-punctuated pacing that gave rise to the adjective “Mametian” to humanizing Levene, an aging salesman struggling to survive in a cutthroat Chicago real estate office during a recession.

By Kansas City standards, this is a big deal for our theater company,” said John Rensenhouse, a veteran of local stages who directs “Glengarry” and who also has a small role in the second act.

“It has been amazing to work with Victor,” said Rensenhouse. “(As) someone of that maturity in the field of acting, he has brought so much into the process that you can’t buy. I could never imagine telling him to do certain things. He would continually surprise me with new angles on the character that I hadn’t seen or noticed. That comes from someone who is skilled at his craft and able to look at the character from all different angles in a richly human way.”

Comedy, tragedy
Victor Raider-Wexler was born in Toledo, Ohio, and recalls his first acting thrill came from being cast as Scrooge in the fifth-grade production of “A Christmas Carol.” He followed that up at Toledo University, where he earned a degree before lighting out for New York, where he “starved … in a cold-water flat” while scrounging for acting gigs.

He has a great story of finagling his way into Actors Equity. Then for much of the 1960s and ’70s, Raider-Wexler worked in dinner theaters across the country, including two separate, year-long stints as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Meanwhile, he kept his home in Brooklyn.

“By 1979, I said to myself ‘I’m getting lost in musicals and Neil Simon comedies; the light stuff. I’m losing my roots. I was trained in Shakespeare. I need to get back to serious plays,’ ” Raider-Wexler said. “The Milwaukee Rep … asked me to move to the city and become a member of their company; I refused.”

Not only did dinner theater pay better, but there were romantic complications, Raider-Wexler said. Eventually, he became a semi-regular in Milwaukee, which is where he began doing voice work in radio and television commercials.

After reestablishing himself as a serious actor, Raider-Wexler said, “I started getting work in New York. Shortly after that was the most romantic time in my career: I became the voice of GM, I got a Broadway show and a soap opera — all at the same time! … I remember thinking, ‘I am a part of the theater community. I’m not somebody trying to be, who’s gotten a couple of parts.’ ”

The soap opera was “All My Children,” and his Broadway appearances include “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

But Raider-Wexler is probably best known for his work on television. The “Glengarry” playbill quips that, during his years in California, “he appeared in every sitcom ever made.”
He made four guest appearances on “Seinfeld” and nine or more on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” to name two of the most popular series. In “Seinfeld,” he played a surgeon into whose patient Kramer drops the title object in “The Junior Mint” episode. In “Raymond,” he played a recurring lodge buddy of Ray’s father, Frank.

Raider-Wexler had gone out to California with the play “Six Degrees of Separation” and stayed for a decade. His dramatic TV credits include “ER,” “NYPD Blue” and “Boston Legal.” He even had a small role as a landlord in the 2006 film “The Pursuit of Happyness,” starring Will Smith.

‘The hardest part’
For now, Raider-Wexler is happy to sink his teeth into the meaty role of Shelly Levene in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He said he’d been seeking out parts in the local theater scene all the while, but only hit pay dirt when he ran into Rensenhouse, an acquaintance since his days in Milwaukee.

“When we decided to do the play, I immediately thought of him,” Rensenhouse said. “I knew he was anxious to do something in Kansas City.”

Raider-Wexler said he’s been enjoying himself during rehearsals and preview shows.

“I have immense respect for the (other) actors,” Raider-Wexler said. “I’m thrilled by the level of talent artistically, the knowledge of method in creating a role, the background of theater. They have made me so at ease and … welcome.”

“I’m in my first play in Kansas City; it’s Mamet; and it’s the hardest part I’ve ever done.”

What’s with the hyphenated name?

Victor Raider-Wexler explains that Raider was his maternal grandfather’s last name, and that his mother gave him both her maiden and married surnames because he was the only male child of that generation to carry it on.

“He was an immigrant, and there was a dispute as to the proper spelling of Raider between him and his brothers, and it became quite intense,” Raider-Wexler said.

Mamet play on Block Stage at Union Station

The Kansas City Actors Theatre presents “Glengarry Glen Ross” today through Aug. 16 at H&R Block City Stage in the Union Station. Except for the 2 p.m. matinee, Sunday, Aug. 9, show times are at 7:30 p.m. There are no shows Monday or Tuesday of next week. There will be a post-show discussions with the director and cast after the performances on Sunday, Aug. 9 and Thursday, Aug. 14.
The play contains strong adult language.
Tickets are available at www.kcactors.org or by calling the Central Ticket Office, (816) 235-6222, or at the door.

Playwright David Mamet: Prolific, profane and Jewish

David Mamet (b. Nov. 30, 1947, in Chicago) is a playwright, author, essayist, screenwriter and film director, among other things.
According to Wikipedia, “His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for their exploration of masculinity.”
Mamet has written often on Jewish subjects and employed Jewish characters, both in his fiction and non-fiction.
As a counterpoint to “Glengarry Glen Ross,” with its all-male cast, the Kansas City Actor’s Theatre will present “Boston Marriage,” a relatively little-known Mamet comedy with an all-female cast, as its next production sometime early next year.
Some of Mamet’s notable works include the following:

Plays
• “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” (1974)
• “American Buffalo” (1975)
• “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1984)
• “Speed-the-Plow” (1988)
• “Oleanna” (1992)
• “The Old Neighborhood” (1997)
• “Boston Marriage” (1999)
• “Faustus” (2004)

Screenplays
• “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1981)
• “The Verdict” (1982)
• “House of Games” (1987)
• “The Untouchables” (1987)
• “Homicide” (1991)
• “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992)
• “Hoffa” (1992)
• “Oleanna” (1994)
• “The Spanish Prisoner” (1997)
• “Wag the Dog” (1997)
• “Ronin” (1998)
• “The Winslow Boy” (1999)
• “Hannibal” (2001)
• “Redbelt” (2008)

Television
• “The Unit” writer, executive producer, 66 episodes 2006-2009; director of four episodes)

Novels
• “The Village” (1994)
• “The Old Religion” (1997)

Non-fiction
• “Writing in Restaurants” (1987)
• “The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred and the Jews” (2006)

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