'Idol' Vet Ace Young Brings His Truth to Controversial, Off-Bway's 'Vatican Falls'

If you're an "American Idol" fan you might remember Ace Young; initially introduced by his legal first name, Brett, Ace corrected the judges and spent the next 10 weeks on the show under his preferred name before being eliminated.

TV and stage work followed, along with singles like "Scattered" (which hit the Top 50) and "Addicted." He collaborated with fellow "American Idol" alum Chris Daughtry on Daughtry's debut single "It's Not Over," gaining more recognition as a songwriter, and in 2008 he released a self-titled album.

Young made his mark on Broadway as well, starring as Kenickie in "Grease" (and later taking a different part in a touring production of the play). Other stage roles followed, including that of Berger in a revival of "Hair" on Broadway and the title character in a touring production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Raincoat."

Now Young – who currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee – is back in New York, starring in the off-Broadway production of Frank J. Avella's play "Vatican Falls," about a group of pedophile priest survivors seeking healing and justice. (Full disclosure: Avella is also a contributor for EDGE Media Network). Needless to say, the play is controversial, but even as it humanizes predators and their quarry alike, it refuses to back down from the tough, central questions of the church betrayals of trust and the responsibilities toward its own parishioners that it has yet to adequately fulfill.

EDGE caught up with Ace Young, finding him to be vibrant, effervescent, and willing to discuss the play's finer points.

EDGE: Can I ask about your name, Ace? Was that a childhood nickname?

Ace Young: I got it from my great-grandfather, Asa Thomason. He was a pianist, and he would go to a local pub and play piano for beer. They'd give him beer until he couldn't play the piano anymore, and then they would tell him to hobble home. He was a great, lively musician that loved the room and loved the people. and he was always called "Ace."

I literally was "Ace" forever. When I went into school, and the paper said [my name was] Asa, all the teachers that came in just to run a class for a day, if they were a sub, they would call for "Assa," or "Asia." I wouldn't answer. Then they would say, "Is he even here?" and then one of my buddies would be like, "Yeah." "Well, Mr. Young, why don't you answer?" "You haven't fucking said it right!" And then they'd send me to the office!

EDGE: You're from Boulder...

Ace Young: I was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, and I'm the fifth son [out of five]. I was very spoiled. I didn't know that growing up. I thought everybody went outside and enjoyed the outside world, so I was very, very shell shocked when I moved at the age of 19 [or] 20 to LA to realize that not everybody goes out like I do. Not everybody does the full-body activities.

I've made sure to keep my full-body usage into my 40s, now, because [life] is a better game than any 3D video game I've ever been a part of. I love being present, being here, and being in the now. That's the true blessing we get if we keep our health right; we get to do that every day.

EDGE: You're probably better known as a singer than as an actor, but you've been on stage quite a lot – you've had touring productions, as well as having roles on TV. What's taken you into the acting arena – do you see acting and singing as different approaches to the same creative impulse?

Ace Young: Very good question, and everybody sees it differently. Truthfully, everybody that could be a singer might not be an actor. Some actors don't want to sing. They don't see the vulnerability, or the expression, as something that's true to them.

[When] I was a kid I used to perform at the local mall. I wrote my own songs, and I would get paid $30 for a 30-minute set. They would put me in the middle of the food court, and I would get up and start singing and entertaining everybody. What I found instantly was that people listened to the songs that I wrote more than the songs that were covers.

In realizing that the songs that I wrote were resonating more, I realized [when I was] singing covers I had to make them true to me. I wasn't acting them; I was actually living their story as I was saying their words like it was my own soul. The minute I put that into action, people paid attention to everything – and I could have more fun. I could be more vulnerable. I could miss a note or miss a dance move, and it wasn't a big deal. It was fun. And the fact that I wasn't perfect allowed people to let go of their imperfections and celebrate the moment with me, so I felt like at the age of 11 I was already acting, because I would go from a love song to a hate song to an insecure song. If you're able to go with me emotionally, I'm jumping into character and doing those monologues, so to speak.

EDGE: Did your talents as a singer and songwriter tie well into the role of Riccardo (in "Vatican Falls"), given that throughout the play that character is writing a song?

Ace Young: Yeah. He's finding his voice again. He is the altar boy that had an angelic childhood voice. He falls in love with an adult figure in Father David, and it's his first true relationship – it's his first true romance. Riccardo has no father; he's the older brother; he has an alcoholic mother. [Father David] is the first person that talks to him like he's a young man, not a dumb kid. I have the freedom as Riccardo [in flashbacks], as a 13-year-old, to ask questions, and I'm genuinely interested. This is the first guy to actually tell me [answers], instead of going, "Oh, just look it up, dummy." We're discussing things.

EDGE: That's a crucial point: The relationship between Riccardo and Father David is definitely one of a survivor and an abuser, but there's so much more going on.

Ace Young: Yeah, I mean, Father David has become not only my character's first relationship as a young teen; he's only a teenager himself. He's only maybe four years older. He is going through his own trauma, as well. You naturally think that he's a predator, but he's just trying to find his place to fit in, as well. Everybody is going through their own thing.

The physicality obviously gets to a different place. I think that what [Riccardo] didn't appreciate is that he didn't have the choice. He didn't choose to step forward into that part of life. He was kind of nursed into it, because Father David had already gone through his trauma, and now they were in what Father David would see as a healthy relationship [due his own abuse history].

In that moment, Ricardo loses his ability to sing freely. So, you meet Ricardo in the very beginning of the play as a 40-year-old. He's sitting down and writing simple poems, and as he's writing the poems he's falling in love with Claudia. His poems get more and more in depth. He finds meaning again, in the words. He starts to find his voice. In the second act of the play, you get to finally hear one moment where he starts singing, and it's the wavering Riccardo who doesn't really have a stance yet.

Frank J Avella wrote the poem, and he gave it to me and said, "Do whatever you want with it." I came up with a chord progression, I came up with the melody, and we literally came up with this moment where I hit the bridge, and I let my inner animal roar. I let it finally out for the first time since I was 13, and I realize how powerful I truly am now, where my animal comes out – the one that speaks before words, the one that doesn't have to pick the words in a language, because it's in my eyes. It's in my heart. It's resonating from my bones. I get to scream this new power, this new love, and I find my voice because of Claudia..

EDGE: This play's themes and subject matter may be triggering to some, and uncomfortable for many people. Are you fine tuning your performance with that in mind?

Ace Young: I'm trying to just be completely, 100% unveiled and honest. I work very hard to keep my body at a physical level where I can endure quite a bit, and I've been through a lot more than people know. With those things in mind, I want to protect the people that are going to [consider] suicide like I did twice in my life. I want to protect them from that day. Help them find their purpose in their life, so they never have to go through the days I've already been through.

I am the soldier that is just allowing my body to go through the real feelings of everything, the first-time experiences as a 13-year-old. You're gonna hear it in my voice. You're gonna hear the actual love that I have for Father David in my 17-year-old; you're going to hear how much I love that my brother is talking to me for the first time about girls. But then you're also going to hear the fear that I have. You're going to hear my 40-year-old going through the exact same things. I just have to be honest. I have to let the hurt, hurt. I have to let the strength be strong. With all of the different ages that I'm playing. I am taking an emotional beating in front of you, for you, so you don't have to do it.

The reason I took that job was for Frank. Frank J. Avella wrote an incredible play in 2006. He has been fighting to get this thing on the stage since then. It's been shut down seven times because the theaters that were involved were afraid they would lose their church following. This is something that Frank has actually gone through. I am the soldier that lets everybody in the room go through the emotional trauma and strength building that Frank went through. And I'm the one speaking it so that it's real, so that it really happened.

I told Frank when I read the script, "I'm not a reader. I am a person that likes to play with my hands in the mud. I want to give people hugs. I want to eat food. I want to be outside. I want to be out and about." When I read the script, it took me four days to be able to voice one of the four scenes I had auditioned with, because I couldn't say it without sobbing.

I knew it was right for me, because I am strong enough to do it. But I knew that Frank deserves the story to come out.

EDGE How did you find your way to this role?:

Ace Young: I didn't audition just like everybody else. I sent it in from Nashville. I bought my plane ticket to come out and do the next call back. Frank didn't even know me from "American Idol" or anything else I've done. He saw me as a guy that walked in and played the character the way that he wanted to have it played, and he and Carlotta gave me the part. I told him, "You're not going to pay me for this. I need this more than you know, so that I can face my own shit and let go of my baggage. So I can help people and let them know it's okay to realize their true inner beauty and turn their light back on and find their true purpose. I'll do it four weeks for free, because this show needs to happen."

EDGE: People who are strongly committed to the Catholic church, or to any church, might find this a tough play. Is that a conflict for you?

Ace Young: I wholeheartedly understand the discomfort that a heavy churchgoer would feel. My parents didn't go to the same church. My brothers were all baptized within the Mormon church, and they went with my mom. And my dad went to a Catholic church. As a child, I knew my mom needed my support, so I went to the Mormon church, and I only went to support her. I spent three and a half hours at that church every Sunday, when I wanted to be outside kicking a soccer ball or throwing a football – and then I would say another hour and a half while she taught the choir. I did that for 16 years. When I was seven years old, I was [at the age] to get baptized by the church. All my friends are doing it. They're not even questioning it. All my brothers have been baptized, but they're no longer going to the church. So, I'm at a crossroads. If they're not going to come [to church any more], why would I do that? So, at the age of at the age of seven, I naturally hit this moment where I thought, "Man, I've gotta beat the system. How can I get to the Celestial Kingdom and make my mom proud without having to get baptized?"

Well, you're free of sin until you're eight years old, so at the age of seven I thought about suicide because of the church belief system, because that would get me to the highest kingdom for eternity. And I thought, "How would I do it? Who would be there? Who would even care? Am I even worthy?" Then I hit age eight, and I hadn't done it, and then I felt the shame of not doing it. And [I felt] the resentment of myself, that I wasn't strong enough to take my own life. And I carried that, and I went to church, still supporting my mom.

Every time I went to church, I walked in and it was like, "You ready to get baptized?" It happened until I was 16, every Sunday, but I did it for my mom – so she wouldn't argue with my dad. When I was 16 the bishop pulled me aside and he said, "Hey, after the sacrament meeting, you can't go to the class with all your friends that you grew up with, that you became an Eagle Scout with, that you've done these church sports with, because you don't hold the priesthood unless you're baptized, so how about we get this baptism in order?" And I reached my hand out. I said, "Thanks for 16 years. I'm fucking done." And he looked at me like I just took a shit on a desk. He didn't know how to respond.

[Later on,] I started studying Catholicism, and I started studying other religions. What I loved about Catholicism was that they were done in 45 minutes. That was nice. I didn't have to sit through four hours, I enjoyed it!

EDGE: It sounds like you approach your life with a very open attitude. Is that how you also approach acting, singing, and songwriting?

Ace Young: Most definitely. I'm probably the first singer-songwriter that cares nothing care about who owns the rights, or how much they own on each song. I would be so excited if someone stole my entire album and played it every day all over the world, and I didn't get a penny, if it helps them get through what they're working through. That's what I'm here for. I'm here for the art. I'm not here for the money.

I worked very hard with my wife so that we can buy a fixer-upper in Nashville for cash. Seven years ago, doing "Joseph [and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"] on the road. We did 328 shows, and then we bought a house for under 150 grand. And it's ours! I finally have a place that I can go, and I have enough money for food. It's time to do the things that matter, and art is our true way to see history. If you look at the [materials] they had to make the art, that's what they had. The cavemen had the clay; they made it on the wall so wouldn't get rained on. That's still there today. We have sculptures all over, but it's time for new ones. I go into temples now, and I see all these white faces and sculptures, and I watch one thousand people walk in that are all different ethnicities, taking pictures of it, but there's not one face that looks like them. That's a problem.

These things need to adapt. We're not blessing the stories of yesterday anymore. We need to have new things, new characters, just like "Hamilton" did "the story of then with the faces of now" – that was their elevator pitch. You're watching things that don't line up as far as the visuals you're getting. Maybe these stories don't need to be told anymore. Maybe we need to tell the next ones.

"Vatican Falls" is now in its world premiere run at The Tank in New York City through November 2o.. For tickets and more information, follow this link.