Two days after the closing of “Yank!” at Diversionary Theatre, Tom Zohar kneels by the theater's near-empty stage, gazing at a final costume piece he's come to retrieve – his well-used tap shoes.
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
Things are looking up for local actor Tom Zohar, who next appears on stage at Lamb's Players Theatre.
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The young actor looks so wistful that “Taps” might be an apt accompaniment for this last farewell to the show – a musical that, Zohar says, “grabbed hold of me probably more than anything I've done yet, ever.”
Fitting, too, because “Yank!” is a wartime story, the tale of a soldier named Stu (Zohar) who finds true love – and pays the price – in the U.S. Army of the 1940s, a time long before “don't ask, don't tell.”
The lead role in this big-cast, season-opening show was a major step forward for Zohar, a busy local actor who had not done a single musical on the professional level before taking on the demanding part.
“It was something that really took over my life for three months, maybe more,” Zohar says. “So letting go of it, there's a void still.”
THEATER PERFORMER: Tom Zohar
NOTABLE ROLES: Young Reuven in “The Chosen,” North Coast Rep; Warren in “This Is Our Youth,” New Village Arts; Stu in “Yank!” Diversionary Theatre.
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES: Cast member, regional premiere of “The Light in the Piazza,” Lamb's Players Theatre.
WEB SITE: facebook.com/ people/ Tom_Zohar/ 695579500
KEY QUOTE: “Growing up, I remember moments in my life when I thought, 'Acting looks interesting.' But I always thought: 'No one really does that.'”
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Still, that feeling “will definitely go away” shortly as he begins rehearsals at Lamb's Players Theatre for “The Light in the Piazza,” the regional premiere of the acclaimed Broadway musical by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel. (The original production was directed by Barlett Sher, the recent Tony-winner for “South Pacific” who got his theatrical start in San Diego.)
Zohar has become a familiar face on the stages of such companies as Diversionary, Moonlight Productions and New Village Arts Theatre, where he's an ensemble member. But he only started acting some six years ago, after moving on from earlier pursuits in animation and music.
Born in Israel, Zohar moved to San Diego eight years ago at age 16 with his family. He didn't graduate from high school (“I'm not proud of it and I'm not not proud of it – it's just a fact,” he says), instead taking classes at Palomar College.
On a whim he auditioned for a student play called “Mr. Henry's Last Class” – a piece about terrorism – and was hooked.
“I found out that theater people are insane,” he recalls. “And I thought, that's great. They're so much fun.”
Other college productions followed, including the lead role in “The Who's Tommy.”
No one who has seen Zohar onstage can miss his own sometimes antic sense of energy, a trait he says flows naturally from his personality. The neurotics he often portrays have earned him comparisons to Woody Allen, Zohar says, but there's also a bit of early Dustin Hoffman in his offbeat timing and shambling, boyish appeal.
“I'm really tightly wound,” Zohar says with a rueful smile. “And I'm loud – inappropriately so. And I don't have a filter. And I've gotten a lot of parts that luckily work well with that, and some parts that don't.
“I'm still learning – trying to train myself to calm the hell down.”
Zohar's professional debut came in 2004 with North Coast Repertory Theatre's “The Chosen,” playing the prominent role of Young Reuven.
The director was NCRT artistic director David Ellenstein, whom Zohar calls “amazing. He's so meticulous and professional and helpful. I think I was at the right place at the right time; it was the best thing that could have happened. It taught me so much.”
At New Village Arts earlier this year, he memorably portrayed the troubled teen Warren in Kenneth Lonergan's 1980s-set “This Is Our Youth,” playing opposite Rachael Van Wormer, another rising local performer who has become one of Zohar's closest friends.
Later this year his playwriting will also be showcased in the NVA holiday show “Off the Ground,” a reprise of a work that Zohar and Amy Chini first penned for the theater in 2007.
Like plenty of other promising local talents, Zohar has had to begin considering whether he wants to commit to a long-term career in San Diego, or look farther afield. But for Zohar, for now, the town's stages are more than just a staging area.
“I've had people say, 'You should go to L.A., you should go to New York,' ” Zohar says. “(But) I'm having such a good time in San Diego, and I feel as though I just moved here.
“I'm sure eventually I'm going to get restless and want to move somewhere else. But it would be insane for me to do it right now.”
James Hebert: (619) 293-2040; jim.hebert@uniontrib.com
