Meet the Two Rising Stars of THE SAVIORS, Ivan Howe & Julius Rinzel

When a lost young man takes shelter in their church, two altar boys desperately cling to each other as their changing faiths, lives, and bodies threaten to tear them apart. That’s the story behind Bubba Weiler’s acclaimed new play, The Saviors, which is now running at Atlantic Theater Company through Saturday, August 15 at the Linda Gross Theater. 

Two of the show’s stars are Ivan Howe and Julius Rinzel, who play Michael and Paul, both making their Atlantic Theater Company debuts. 

“We had a month of rehearsal. We got right into staging. We did like two days of reading and then we staged it in a week,” sad Julius. “We were able to focus on the characters and we had a lot of questions about how everyone felt. There were a lot of rewrites for specific scenes. It was kinda like workshopping it as we were doing it.”

“Even with such heavy material, we managed to keep it really light. I honestly think that when you’re rehearsing something this intense, you need to be in a light environment,” explained Ivan. “It would be really hard to find that other place- it’s been really helpful to be in such a fun room.”

Ivan Howe was previously seen as Edgar in Netflix’s “Eric,” Ivan has also enjoyed being on stage in upstate New York and Connecticut, playing Oliver on the mainstage at the Sharon Playhouse, Peter Pan, a young Josh Baskin in Big, and Michael in Elf. When he’s not onstage, Ivan can be found on tennis or squash courts, camping in the Catskills, running or biking on winding country roads, practicing his latest magic trick on anyone willing to watch, exploring science and nature, or practicing bass or piano. His dream is to learn every language, or at least around ten. He thanks his parents and siblings for cheering him on at age six when he sang Coldplay for a school talent show and for being in the audience ever since.