Adam Arkin Onstage -- Unassuming Actor Makes Seattle Debut At The Repertory; Wish List Includes More Roles Here

If you have not seen actor Adam Arkin in his hit TV doc-o-drama, "Chicago Hope," you may well be familiar from other sightings.

Say, as Adam, a crazed chef who appeared on intermittent episodes of TV's "Northern Exposure."

Or maybe you've spotted this unassuming celebrity around Seattle hanging with his young daughter, Molly. Or at the Broadway Market, lending his help at a benefit for the Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival. Or out in the San Juan Islands, drinking in the scenery and pursuing his love of amateur photography.

This weekend, if you are one of the lucky few hundred to hold a ticket, you can take in Arkin's Seattle stage debut. In the sold-out Seattle Repertory Theatre workshop of the new Wendy Wasserstein play "An American Daughter," he portrays the college professor husband of a woman nominated for a top U.S. cabinet position. His co-star is multiple-Oscar-winning super-actress Meryl Streep.

So what gives? Is Arkin a true citizen of our fair city?

The answer is, not quite. He just travels to Seattle often to visit friends and dote on 9-year-old Molly, a budding actress who lives here with Arkin's wife.

But mention Seattle and you get the strong impression that if Arkin didn't have to clock in such long hours on the "Chicago Hope" set, he'd clean out his Hollywood apartment and move up in a hot minute.

"I love Seattle," the salt and pepper-haired, sleepy-eyed actor confirms, over a late breakfast in a Mercer Street coffee shop. "I loved it the first time I came up in the 1980s, when I was shooting the TV series `A Year in the Life' up here.

Loves Seattle climate

"It wasn't just the city itself. I don't mean to sound metaphysical, but the vibration of the whole area appealed to me. Even in the airport, there was a freshness, a cleanliness, an openness I just loved. And I love the climate."

Come again?

"I find constant Southern California haze and sunshine and smog a lot more daunting than gray days. I'm kind of a moody guy, and if I'm in a funk I don't want to walk out into weather that's sunny and bright and wonderful all the time."

The impression Arkin gives during a chatty interview is not that of a method brooder but of a pleasant, thoughtful guy with a bone-dry sense of humor and a real dedication to his craft. And an attractive sense of humility that allows him to praise his famous father's talent above his own, and swear, "I've gotten genuinely excited and felt like I had something to learn on every job I've ever done, including an episode of `The Love Boat.' "

Having as a dad the much-esteemed actor Alan Arkin (an Oscar nominee for his performances in "Wait Until Dark" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter") gave 40-year-old Adam, the eldest of four Arkin sons, an early appreciation of his craft. Though his parents separated when he was young, Arkin maintained a closeness to his father that continues to inspire him.

"My dad has a real love of what it is art can do, but not an ounce of interest in self-promotion," he explains. "It's part of what is great about him, but it also affects how he's perceived as an actor. He wants only to serve the work, to disappear completely in a character."

The younger Arkin has made his peace with tooting his own horn in public, but he does it gently. He got his own professional start at age 14 in the film comedy "Made for Each Other," then worked steadily from his late teens to the present.

"My dad was always very encouraging, but never pushed," Arkin recalls. "And I don't think I've done a theater production on either coast he hasn't come out to see me in. Even when I told him, please don't come to this one!"

A show he definitely wanted Adam senior to watch was "I Hate Hamlet," the Broadway comedy by Paul Rudd that snagged Arkin a 1991 Tony Award nomination. While battling star Nicol Williamson grabbed most of the press attention during the run, Arkin quietly savored his success in a supporting part.

"Up to that point I had been a kind of jobber as an actor, and all my work had been in TV," he notes. "Suddenly I felt like I had a right to be working in that Broadway arena. And it was meaningful to me that my Broadway debut was nominated in the same `featured actor' category that my father was nominated in, when he made his Broadway debut in `Enter Laughing.' What are the odds of that happening?"

Arkin garnered further praise for his work Off Broadway in "Sight Unseen" and "Four Dogs and a Bone," and in a hit revival of "Guys and Dolls." But he gets recognized on the street as the emotionally bound-in, hotshot neurosurgeon Aaron Shutt from "Chicago Hope."

Arkin takes pride in the show, which has prospered since CBS moved it out of a kamikaze time slot opposite the more wildly successful medical series, "E.R." And it has recovered from the loss of its restless original star, Mandy Pantikin, thanks partly to the increased attention to Dr. Shutt.

But Arkin states firmly that "Chicago Hope" isn't "my whole life." And he foresees a time soon when he'll appear in fewer episodes, direct others (he recently made his directorial debut on the series), and pursue more outside projects.

Enjoys Seattle stage

His wish list includes other stage roles in Seattle. In fact, he made sure his agents let Seattle Rep artistic director Daniel Sullivan know he was available for short assignments.

That led to his involvement in Sullivan's whirlwind lab production of "An American Daughter," running this weekend only. With constant rewrites coming from Wasserstein, and Streep drawing added press scrutiny to the workshop effort, this is not exactly a stress-free gig. Nor will it necessarily lead to Arkin's being cast in the expected New York production of the play, at Lincoln Center Theatre.

But the actor seems unruffled by all that, and happy "to work on something that isn't result-oriented. On a TV show you can't ask too many questions - you just gotta do it, fast. But this is very much a work in progress. We've all been encouraged to find out what the play inside the play is, and help flesh it out."

As for acting with the celebrated Streep, he is again self-effacing. "Sure there's an intimidation factor, but I have a strong survivalist instinct. And Meryl is quite a remarkable person.

"Apart from having the kind of talent that legends are made of, she obviously works very hard to stay in touch with basic, human, generous qualities in the face of being a star. And she makes other people around her look good. That's something all great actors do."