Any actor taking on Sherlock Holmes has a big hat to fill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nerve-wracking to play such an iconic character,\u201d said Richard Nguyen Sloniker, who\u2019s donning the deerstalker in Ken Ludwig\u2019s \u201cBaskerville,\u201d opening at Village Theatre in Issaquah on Jan. 23 (previews begin Jan. 20). \u201cEverybody has such a clear idea of who he is in their mind from different forms of media. So it’s a little scary stepping into that role, because there are huge fans and you don’t want to disappoint them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, iconic characters have become something of a calling card for the longtime Seattle actor. He\u2019s played perspicacious sleuth Hercule Poirot<\/a> and dryly poised valet Jeeves<\/a> multiple times at Taproot Theatre. He recurred as a dashing romantic lead in the world of Jane Austen as Mr. Darcy in \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d<\/a> and Colonel Brandon in \u201cSense and Sensibility.\u201d At Village Theatre, he\u2019s livened a series of roles with his urbane charm, often laced with something else, like a vengeful streak in \u201cDial M for Murder.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In \u201cBaskerville,\u201d the tone is downright madcap, with Sloniker playing Holmes, Avery Clark playing Dr. Watson and three other actors handling nearly 40 additional characters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really intimidating being with such funny actors like Calder (Jameson Shilling) and Mark Emerson and Jonelle Jordan,\u201d Sloniker said. \u201cOh my gosh, they\u2019re so funny. It is intimidating, but it\u2019s a team sport. We\u2019re playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n Sloniker\u2019s comic ability was not frequently on display when he began establishing a name for himself in 2010 as the co-founder of fringe company Azeotrope. But comedy has always been in his wheelhouse, said Desdemona Chiang<\/a>, Azeotrope\u2019s other half.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s always been really funny,\u201d Chiang said. \u201cHe’s incredibly handsome, and so back then, I think that kind of got in the way of him doing comedy. For a while, he (would say), \u2018I\u2019m really funny, I swear to god,\u2019 but they would always cast (him) in these serious, dramatic roles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sloniker and Chiang met as graduate students at the University of Washington School of Drama, and though they didn\u2019t work together much in school, they clicked early on, Chiang said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go to class, and then you sit in the circle, and there’s one other Asian person in the room, and you make eye contact across the room and go, \u2018I see you,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like finding a kind of sibling in the program, and we found out that we just had a lot in common. Artistically, we were really interested in work that was gritty. We were really interested in work that was left of center a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Focusing on stories of marginalized people, Azeotrope hit the ground running with poetic, hard-edged plays like Adam Rapp\u2019s \u201cRed Light Winter,\u201d<\/a> Joshua Rollins’ \u201c25 Saints\u201d<\/a> and Stephen Adly Guirgis\u2019 \u201cJesus Hopped the \u2018A\u2019 Train,\u201d<\/a> each offering a showcase for Chiang\u2019s emotionally forthright direction and Sloniker\u2019s skill for playing desperate or pathetic characters.<\/p>\n Though the pair\u2019s careers have diverged, with Chiang an in-demand director nationally and locally (next up: \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d<\/a> at Union Arts Center in February) and Sloniker carving out his new niche, both say Azeotrope isn\u2019t over, despite not having produced a show since 2017\u2019s staging of Robert Schenkkan\u2019s \u201cBuilding the Wall.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Headlines, puzzles and death notices from the Valley delivered to your inbox 7 a.m. daily.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe’re still Azeotrope,\u201d Sloniker said. \u201cWe still have plans and schemes for the future. Our schedules have not been as congruent as they once were, but we do intend to produce more, maybe moving to not just theater, but film as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Onstage, Sloniker said his work has been impacted by his ongoing collaboration with Taproot Theatre, where he\u2019s performed in numerous shows over the past decade. Producing Artistic Director Karen Lund saw Sloniker\u2019s performance in \u201cJesus Hopped the \u2018A\u2019 Train\u201d in 2012, the catalyst for a long, transformational relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI really love that theater,\u201d Sloniker said. \u201cI think working in that theater has changed me in a way. Karen and Taproot choose plays of hope, and that has made me rethink how I want to perform. There\u2019s something specific about Taproot and their mission that awoke something in me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n The evolution of Sloniker\u2019s career is a natural one, Chiang said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s that ’50s screwball comedy leading man: He’s that guy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took like, 10 or 15 years for him to age into that role, but I think that’s kind of where he lives. He has classical good looks and also incredible timing and a very live spirit onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n Shilling has seen that up close many times, with the first time in 2019 after co-starring with Sloniker in Taproot\u2019s \u201cThe Bishop\u2019s Wife.\u201d More recently, his frenetically eccentric Wooster has been the odd-couple compatriot to Sloniker\u2019s Jeeves in several Taproot shows. And in \u201cBaskerville,\u201d he takes on half a dozen characters swirling around Sloniker\u2019s Holmes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever I’m onstage with Richard, I always feel like he’s very connected and very present,\u201d Shilling said. \u201cGetting to do something like \u2018Sense and Sensibility\u2019 with him here at Village, where he played a couple of big, broad, elaborate, kind of wackier characters, compared to playing Jeeves, the ultimate stoic, less-is-more character \u2014 it’s pretty spectacular to see that kind of range.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s a treasure of our theatrical community here in Seattle,\u201d Shilling continued, \u201cand I’m so grateful to have gotten the opportunities to work with him and act alongside him.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for Sloniker? He has already expanded his career beyond the stage, working as a voice-over and motion-capture artist for video games, including the popular Destiny series. He plans to continue to expand his artistic palette, revisiting some short stories he\u2019s written to add vocal performance and narration. In the theater, he\u2019d like to reprise Poirot, perhaps in \u201cMurder on the Orient Express,\u201d and return to Shakespeare performance after a while away. But ultimately, he\u2019s open to what the future brings.<\/p>\n \u201cI really want to follow a director with a clear vision, with a clear story to tell,\u201d Sloniker said. \u201cIf I could just continue working with artists I admire, I\u2019d count myself an extremely fortunate actor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Any actor taking on Sherlock Holmes has a big hat to fill.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s nerve-wracking to play such an iconic character,\u201d said Richard Nguyen Sloniker, who\u2019s donning the deerstalker in Ken Ludwig\u2019s \u201cBaskerville,\u201d opening at Village Theatre in Issaquah on Jan. 23 (previews begin Jan. 20). \u201cEverybody has such a clear idea of who he is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2076437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2237949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Seattle-Jazz-Fellowships-Monday-night-jazz-jam-draws-all-ages-crowd.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2237950,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237949\/revisions\/2237950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2076437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}