Claybourne Elder
Age: 26
Hometown: Springville, Utah
Currently: Making his New York stage debut as Hollis Bessemer, a wealthy dreamer who gets involved with architect Addison Mizner Alexander Gemignani and his rake of a brother, Wilson Michael Cerveris, in the off-Broadway premiere Stephen Sondheim’s darkly vaudevillian musical Road Show.
Green Thumb: The youngest of eight (one sister and six brothers, spread out so that the young actor is already a great-uncle), Elder, who goes by “Clay,” was the sole sibling with stage aspirations. “I popped out last, the only one with the performer gene,” he says. It took rejection in another field, however, before Elder turned to the spotlight. The son of a schoolteacher mom and carpenter dad, he decided at age 11 to study botany. “I started calling around to get an ‘internship,’ as I called it, taking care of plants! I couldn’t find anyone who would let me—surprise, surprise—so I decided the second best thing was to do plays.” Elder used the same phone-search tactics to track down local theaters and auditions, eventually landing a role in a community production of On Golden Pond. “All the way through high school, I would ride my moped to and from the theater after school.”
Leaving the Nest: While developing his acting and singing skills, Elder also kept orchestral music in the mix. “I started playing violin at a really young age, so it was always orchestra,” he says. “I was even the concert master for a couple of years [in high school].” He took a break from performing at 16 when selected for a study-abroad program, heading to France for six months. “It was fantastic,” he says now, “but it was almost unbearable when I went back home, not because I didn’t love my [parents], but because I had tasted living my life.” After graduation, he followed his high school sweetheart to Southern Utah University’s acting program while tackling small roles with the Utah Shakespearean Festival over the summer. But after a year, Elder got stir-crazy. “I had broken up with my girlfriend and decided it just wasn’t the right place for me.” Soon, he took off for parts unknown.
Globetrotter: Through a friend, Elder found a gig working abroad in underdeveloped communities. “I spent a year in Moscow and in a fishing village in China teaching English,” he recalls. The trip refocused his own academic ambitions, leading to two years in Brigham Young University’s musical theater program and then a degree in dramaturgy and directing from the University of Utah. Along the way, he played Tony in a regional theater production of West Side Story. Next up? A backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. Elder laughs when asked about all the bouncing around. “I can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes at a time, or maybe even five minutes. It gives my mother a heart attack!” Regardless, he points out that both parents were “really supportive, because they always knew I was going to land on my feet.” And he did, scoring a role and his Equity card in the Tuacahn Theater of Utah's 42nd Street.
The Good Samaritan: Elder was soon on the move again, pulling into New York with all his belongings on Halloween night. “I hadn’t slept, and I was driving a U-Haul through the East Village going, ‘Where did I move?!’” Elder eventually settled in Queens with his “huge” English Labrador, Brody before barreling blindly onto the acting scene. “How auditions work, how Equity works—figuring that stuff out took a year, just learning.” Elder rewarded himself one night with a standing-room spot at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. After the curtain fell, he was approached by a seated theatergoer, who handed him $150 cash. “He said, ‘You were standing there enjoying the show more than most people who were sitting. Go buy yourself a ticket to Sweeney Todd.’ I was so dumbfounded I barely said thank you!” Elder, who never learned the Samaritan’s name, followed orders, heading immediately to catch Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris in Sweeney. “I had never seen anything like it,” he recalls. “I was just blown away.”
On the Road Again: Two years later, the young actor finds himself sharing a stage at the Public with Sweeney stars Cerveris and Alex Gemignani, guided by its Tony-winning director, John Doyle, and performing new songs by Sondheim. Amazingly, he landed the juicy role of Gemignani’s young lover and business partner through an open call, with no agent. “Everything that could go wrong went wrong,” he says of audition day. “I couldn’t find the Public, so I was late. The casting director couldn’t find my headshot. I was like, ‘Well, screw that!’ I was thrilled and totally surprised when they called me back.” His debut production has been a dream come true: “I never felt like the ‘new kid’ in the show because John Doyle treats everyone the same.” He does cop to feeling starstruck by you-know-who, however. “The first day he was at rehearsal, I walked past him three times going, ‘Is that Sondheim? Having coffee?!’ He delivered a new, handwritten song for Alex and Michael one day at rehearsal, and I was like, ‘Can I just touch that?’”
