Texas-born actor takes the stage in encore production
The runtime for “Come From Away” is one hour and 42 minutes with no intermission. The pacing is relentless, the tension kept so tight that not a single movement or line of dialogue goes to waste.
And every bit of it is on purpose. Based on the real-life events that occurred in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the show’s length reflects the exact number of minutes between the hit on the first tower and the second, that small span of minutes when everything changed.
“It’s the most intentional show I’ve ever been in,” said Richard Chaz Gomez, who plays the roles of Kevin T. and Garth in the touring company of Come From Away. “On the set, there are two living trees cut into the shape of the towers. It’s a small detail, and I don’t think many people will know, but you can feel the intentionality behind the entire show.”
The deliberate attention to detail in Come From Away honors the people of Gander, Newfoundland, who stepped up to help over 6,500 refugees rerouted to the tiny town when the United States grounded all air traffic in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Thirty-eight passenger jets landed in Gander, and the locals came to their aid, no questions asked.
As with most of the actors in Come From Away, Gomez has the opportunity to play two characters: Garth, one of the Gander townfolk, as well as Kevin T., who is based on Austinite Kevin Tuerff, a passenger aboard one of the re-routed planes.
Tuerff and his partner (also named Kevin) were traveling back to Texas, where Tuerff was CEO and co-founder of Enviromedia, an environmentally- and socially-conscious marketing firm.
Tuerff was so inspired by the compassion and kindness he experienced in Newfoundland that the following year on the incident’s anniversary — and every year since — he has sent his employees out onto the streets of Austin in pairs, armed with $100 and instructions to do good deeds for strangers. Today, that initiative has become the Pay-It-Forward 9/11 foundation, which encourages people everywhere to remember the generosity of the people of Newfoundland by doing three good deeds on Sept. 11.
As a fellow gay man and a fellow Texan, Gomez admitted excitement for the opportunity to portray Kevin T. on stage, but he also wanted to highlight the universality in Come From Away that enables all of the actors to bring their own experiences to the show.
“We’re not trying to emulate these people,” Gomez said. “We’re bringing our versions of ourselves to the show. ...It is a story about people. So you can recast the show a million times, and you’ll get a varied show. That is the beauty of this show. Their story started it. Their interviews and experiences started it. Every line is from something a real person said in an interview, but it’s more about their story, and how they came together to help people who needed them.”
One of Gomez’s favorite scenes in Come From Away centers around the Bible that Garth interacts with when trying to persuade a Nigerian couple to leave the plane and board the bus to a welcome center.
“There’s a language barrier, and it’s such a classic moment of just not understanding,” Gomez said. Seeing the bus drivers’ uniforms, the couple believes them to be soldiers, and because they don’t speak English, they don’t understand what’s going on. Garth shows them the Bible, figuring the numbers of the verses are the same no matter the language, and that’s what convinces them to leave the plane.
The touring cast of Come From Away, a musical about the community of Gander, Newfoundland, who helped grounded refugees after 9/11.
Richard Chaz Gomez plays Kevin Tuerff and Garth in Come From Away.
BROADWAY FROM PG.1B
The universality of compassion is something Gomez hopes audiences will take home with them after seeing Come From Away.
“I want people to look at this show and remember that
we
are these people,” Gomez said. “I’m a Texas boy. I was born and raised in Houston. I was a theater teacher in Dallas. I love Texas, but I also get annoyed with Texas. For a state that is so good about being neighbors, we forget sometimes that it’s about people first. I remember during Katrina and how we took care of people. We used to take people in. I just want — especially as a Texan, as a child of an immigrant from Cuba, and the son of strong working parents — I want the audience to look at this play and hopefully just look in the mirror and see that maybe we need to be a little more curious and more caring for the different people who come into Texas every month. I want audiences to not forget that we are capable of doing that in a Texas way.”
Come From Away can serve as a reminder to audiences that we are not alone in this world, and that our connection to one another is what will help us weather even the most difficult tragedies.
“We need theater because we need people to go on stage and tell stories that other people can learn from,” Gomez said. “We need theater because you as an audience member can have a moment of enlightenment, of joy, of forgiveness, of healing, or of peace, a moment of laughter and ecstasy in the purest form, and to walk out a little different from when you walked in.”
Gomez hopes that audience members will take in the show’s message and let it work through them, as it has for Kevin T. and Garth and all of the other real people who affected each other’s lives after the tragedy of 9/11.
“I fear we don’t sit with things these days.” Gomez said. “We watch it, and we move on. But I want us to take these things with us. Theater challenges us to do that. It allows us to sit and literally see somebody put their heart on stage and bare it all. I want nothing but a mirror on that stage. So people can see themselves and say, ‘Oh, I’m not alone. There’s a gay man on that stage and he’s not a joke or a caricature. He’s a real person, and he’s like me.’ I’m a gay Cuban man from Houston Texas who wants to someday have a family and who just loves anything that breathes.”
Come From Away returns to Austin as an encore performance on Jan. 4 - 5, 2025, at Bass Concert Hall. Show times are Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $35 and are available at texasperformingarts.
org and
BroadwayinAustin.com, by phone at (512) 4771444, or from the Texas Performing Arts ticket office at Bass Concert Hall.
