STEVEN PASQUALE

Stand-up would be my worst nightmare.

I didn't realize what a love affair I would have with big city life until I got to New York City. In a place like New York, granted it's utterly unique, you can get and have and do anything you want at any time of any day. It's bursting with culture and the cream of the crop in all walks of life. That sort of energy really excites me.

With every year that passes, the easier I cry. The wind blows and I find myself moved by something.

My parents retired to New York City, and my brother and both of my sisters ended up in New York City. We are all New York City transplants from Pennsylvania.

So somehow we've got to get back to making stuff for people that are not necessarily interested in seeing the common Broadway fare.

If I had maintained my athletic fantasy, I probably would have ended up as a fat football coach somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I'm really glad I'm starring in a Broadway musical instead.

I'm not into dragon chasing - trying to become Bradley Cooper. I want to be a New York actor. I want to plant a flag in this community.

Television is a completely 1,000 percent different skill set than being on stage.

My career is weird because it's not like I'm a Liev Schreiber or a Philip Seymour Hoffman, incredibly well-respected theater actors who dabble in TV or film.

I'm not one of those actors who wants to live in some kind of dark character and wants to live in the darkness so much that no one around me has any fun.

Television is a completely 1,000 percent different skill set than being on stage.

I didn't realize what a love affair I would have with big city life until I got to New York City. In a place like New York, granted it's utterly unique, you can get and have and do anything you want at any time of any day. It's bursting with culture and the cream of the crop in all walks of life. That sort of energy really excites me.

My career is weird because it's not like I'm a Liev Schreiber or a Philip Seymour Hoffman, incredibly well-respected theater actors who dabble in TV or film.

With every year that passes, the easier I cry. The wind blows and I find myself moved by something.

I love TV and film and will happily work there if it's good. But I want the ability to choose between things, to have options.

My parents retired to New York City, and my brother and both of my sisters ended up in New York City. We are all New York City transplants from Pennsylvania.

So somehow we've got to get back to making stuff for people that are not necessarily interested in seeing the common Broadway fare.

I just respond to the stories I'm being asked to tell.

I'm not one of those actors who wants to live in some kind of dark character and wants to live in the darkness so much that no one around me has any fun.

But professionally I've never felt as strongly about a project, with the exception of 'The Bridges of Madison County', as 'The Light in the Piazza'.

If I had maintained my athletic fantasy, I probably would have ended up as a fat football coach somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I'm really glad I'm starring in a Broadway musical instead.

The majority of great work that's being done in the theater is happening Off Broadway, where you can't make a living.

I'm not into dragon chasing - trying to become Bradley Cooper. I want to be a New York actor. I want to plant a flag in this community.

Stand-up would be my worst nightmare.

Theres a fine line between playing a dim-witted character and playing a cartoon.