Special Reports

4 Wedding Stories With the Cast of Engagements

The Second Stage Uptown cast members share their best wedding anecdotes.

Omar Maskati, Jennifer Kim, Ana Nogueira, Brooke Weisman, and Michael Stahl-David in Lucy Teitler's Engagements, directed by Kimberly Senior at Second Stage Uptown's McGinn/Cazale Theatre.
Omar Maskati, Jennifer Kim, Ana Nogueira, Brooke Weisman, and Michael Stahl-David make up the cast of Lucy Teitler's Engagements, directed by Kimberly Senior at Second Stage Uptown's McGinn/Cazale Theatre.
(© Joan Marcus)

Lucy Teitler's new play Engagements, directed by Kimberly Senior at Second Stage Uptown's McGinn/Cazale Theatre, features a quintet of actors forced to navigate a particularly rocky engagement party season. Lauren (played by Ana Nogueira) ignites the tensions when she drunkenly takes it upon herself to prevent her best friend, Allison (Jennifer Kim), from marrying the straitlaced Mark (Michael Stahl-David). The event sends the summer into disarray, taking with it Lauren's cousin Catherine (Brooke Weisman) and her beau, Ryan (Omar Maskati).

In the spirit of wedding season, we decided to ask the cast about their own nuptial affinities and antipathies. Find out who likes to break it down, who likes a good cry, and who had trouble keeping it together during an unintentionally kinky church ceremony.


Ana Nogueira — Lauren

(photo provided by Polk & Co.)

1. If you felt your best friend was marrying the wrong person, would you tell them?
No way! They will probably get married anyway and then you are the one that's going get booted out.

2. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
If the people are truly in love and have written great vows then the ceremony is actually my favorite. Otherwise, the dancing for sure.

3. What is your least favorite part of a wedding?
The food at a wedding is never as good as you want it to be. Except at my wedding. Our food was amazing.

4. What is the craziest thing you've ever witnessed at a wedding or engagement party?
I was at a Catholic wedding and the priest started going on and on about "erotic love." My friends and I got such an extreme case of the giggles, but we had to be quiet because we were in a church. We were all just sitting side by side, shoulders shaking up and down with tears streaming down our faces.


Omar Maskati — Ryan

(photo provided by Polk & Co.)

1. If you felt your best friend was marrying the wrong person, would you tell them?
I'd like to think I would! But maybe not. It might be tough to interfere with my friend's happiness, because what do I know? So I don't know. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

2. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
I mean, the actual getting married part is always great…but I'd probably have to say food. And dancing. The getting married part is top-3 though, for sure. Oh, and bubbles! When there are bubbles, that's awesome. But the getting married stuff — always good. Top-5 for sure.

3. What is your least favorite part of a wedding?
At the reception, when the table I'm sitting at is right near the speakers. I like being able to hear.

4. What is the craziest thing you've ever witnessed at a wedding or engagement party?
The wedding DJ who just snacked on a bucket of sourdough pretzels the entire reception. That was both crazy and impressive. He made quite a dent in that bucket.


Brooke Weisman — Catherine

(photo provided by Polk & Co.)

1. If you felt your best friend was marrying the wrong person, would you tell them?
I don't think that I would. It's such a tricky position for a best friend to be in. You want to be able to trust that this person your best friend loves will give them everything they need. Navigating whether you're just being overprotective of your bestie or if there is really something wrong with their significant other. But I maintain that I would keep quiet unless I found out that he/she was cheating or the center of a drug ring or something crazy like that.

2. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
I have to admit, I haven't been to very many weddings, but I think it's about two-thirds through the reception when the heels start coming off, the ties get loosened, and the real dancing begins. Usually they start whipping out the oldies.

3. What is your least favorite part of a wedding?
Probably after the dinner has happened and nobody knows whether it's kosher to start dancing. You're suddenly transported to a middle school dance and everyone is just standing around the border. Everyone wants the person on the other side of the dance floor to be the one to dance first. It's like a giant game of dance chicken.

4. What is the craziest thing you've ever witnessed at a wedding or engagement party?
I don't know! I've really only been to like three weddings and they've all been mild. But I polled some of my more seasoned wedding goers and apparently the bridal party did a choreographed dance to Rihanna's "Work." Just picture for a second a lot of Floridians twerking to Rihanna.


Jennifer Kim — Allison

(photo provided by Polk & Co.)

1. If you felt your best friend was marrying the wrong person, would you tell them?
Oh, I don't think I could say anything. I know someone who did that and she lost her friend. Also, if the person is making my friend happy, that's all that matters. I'd say something if the person was cheating or a physical harm to my friend. Luckily I haven't had to deal with this.

2. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
Definitely the dancing! Always the dancing!

3. What is your least favorite part of a wedding?
An abnormally long ceremony. People these days keep it short and sweet. I love the tradition of a ceremony, so this is only if it's too long. One wedding many years ago involved a baptism, a full sermon, and then the wedding ceremony. It went on for hours.

4. What is the craziest thing you've ever witnessed at a wedding or engagement party?
The father of the groom was watching an episode of The Newsroom during the engagement party. Thought that was kind of funny.


Michael Stahl-David — Mark

(photo provided by Polk & Co.)

1. If you felt your best friend was marrying the wrong person, would you tell them?
I wouldn't tell them because I'd doubt my ability to change their mind. And nobody likes the person who says, "I told you so." However, if I knew they were cheating on my friend, it would be a different story. I'd go all private eye, get proof, then leak it to The Post and hope for one of those awesome tacky pun headlines. (In this scenario my best friend is famous because duh.)

2. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
I've been invited to few weddings. I like the vows because I like crying.

3. What is your least favorite part of a wedding?
I always go to a wedding half-expecting to meet my own future wife there, or at least some hot bridesmaid feeling anxious and intoxicated and interested in making out, but so far no luck.

4. What is the craziest thing you've ever witnessed at a wedding or engagement party?
My brother got married in Japan, to a Japanese woman, in a traditional ceremony in a temple. The ceremony was very elaborate, and involved a lot chanting in Japanese and bowing. My family and I had no idea what was going on and were doing our best to mimic our Japanese in-laws and "fake it till we make it." At one point we were poured sake in square wooden bowls. My Mom started to drink it, causing the bride's Mom to shake her head urgently. Then my mom dipped her fingers in it whispering to me, "You're supposed to wash your hands with it." Of course you weren't. We all started cracking up.

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Engagements

Closed: August 20, 2016