Category: Theater Interviews
Theater Thursday: I Am Camera (The Neo-Futurists)
Thursday, February 4
I Am Camera
directed and devised by Greg Allen
The Neo-Futurists, 5153 N. Ashland, Chicago
Come see Neo-Futurist Founder Greg Allen‘s new show I Am Camera. After the performance mingle with the cast and crew during which you will be supplied with plentiful amounts of beer from local brewer Metropolitan Brewing while simultaneously being fed different style pizzas from Apart Pizza.
Show begins at 8 p.m.
Event begins immediately following the performance (around 9:30 p.m.)
TICKETS ONLY $20
For reservations call 773.275.5255 and mention “Theater Thursdays,” or order online at www.neofuturists.org.
Audiences get a littler taste of *The Ring Cycle*
Audiences Get a Little Taste of The Ring Cycle
by Paige Listerud
Time races mercilessly toward their February 13 opening, but both Joanie Schultz and Blake Montgomery looked as cool as cucumbers during an open rehearsal of The Ring Cycle — their 6 hour-long theatrical adaptation of the Wagnerian classic The Ring of the Nibelung. Someone wondered just what was Richard Wagner on when he wrote his Teutonic masterpiece and we, in our turn, could ask the same of The Building Stage’s co-directors. But since, quite obviously, Schultz and Montgomery have made no small plans, one must simply wait with bated breath for the finished product—bound to be either a theatrical extravaganza or a fiasco of epic proportions.
Open rehearsal baited us with only two scenes; one in which Rhinemaidens on aerial silks toy with the affections/lusts of Alberich the dwarf and another in which Wotan must come to terms with a colossal misstep–promising his sister-in-law, Freia, Goddess of Love, as payment to the Giants for building the fortress Valhalla. No doubt, part of this production’s fun will be its traffic in the most basic emotions—whether it’s an ugly guy getting spurned by unfeeling hotties or a frustrated wife’s attempts to rein in her not so bright, king-of-the-gods husband. Since we weren’t treated to any samples of the compositions by Kevin O’Donnell that are slated to accompany the action with a 4-piece rock band, it’s impossible to know just how much more visceral this show will get. It’s difficult not to over-anticipate pyrotechnic effects, ala KISS. Still, one must patiently restrain oneself.
The most difficult aspect may be drawing in an audience willing to stay for 6 hours, even if the directors have culled the show down from 16 hours of full-scale opera. Joanie Schulz, who recently received the 2009 Denham Fellowship Award, conspired with Montgomery two years ago to stage the production and has been working on the script since September. “I think the experience would not be so different from taking a weekend day to watch your favorite TV series on a DVD set,” she says. “And having sat through all of it in rehearsal, I have to say there is something gratifying about spending all day in a different world. Plus, it’s the middle of winter and there will be food and blankets and hot cocoa. I’ll certainly make sure everyone gets a blanket.”
As for the potential over-the-top nature of the production, “Obviously, the language is very heightened. There’s a lot of alliteration. You get used to it. But as far as the theater experience being too heightened, I watched reruns of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and the emotions of that show are high melodrama. So I think most people are quite used to that. In theater you can worry whether that’s too much, too big, too far out. But on the other hand, we are going for a theatrical experience and consciously using very theatrical techniques to tell a story. Besides the aerial silks, we’ll be using shadow puppets and other kinds of puppetry. Essentially, we’ll be using very old theatrical effects—things theaters were using long before Mary Zimmerman.”
Some of the more athletic performers, Rhinemaidens Lindsey Dorcus and Sarah Scanlon, meet the added difficulty of saying their lines while shifting themselves in various poses suspended 10 feet above ground. “We really intend to bring the sexy,” says Scanlon. “The stakes have to be high in our scene with Alberich. We’re stomping on his manhood. And from that he’s led to foreswear love and forge the Ring of the Nibelung—because that’s what sets up the rest of the action.”
“It’s really a lot of fun,” says Dorcus, “in that we’re seductive but also very childlike. We do not really comprehend the ramifications of what we’re doing. It’s all a game. We flirt and then reject him when we’re supposed to be guarding the gold. It’s also nice being otherworldly. There’s a certain freedom in not being human.”
That feeling seems common throughout the cast. Darci Nalepa, recently seen in Circle Theatre’s A Perfect Wedding, takes on a gender-bending role of the trickster Loge. “But more than playing a male, I’m playing an element, since my character is the embodiment of fire.” There is something rather superhero about the clan at Valhalla. Cast members further hint that there may be something tribal in the costuming, although none have actually seen anything from the costumes department. “That’s not because they’re keeping it secret. It’s that they’re as overwhelmed as we are.”
Indeed. Time speeds on. Updating an ancient myth for contemporary consumption demands maintaining a balance between making it accessible and keeping it eternal. (and keeping it in budget?) We’ll see how The Building Stage fares in its awesome adventure. Stay tuned.
Additional links:
Sketchfest comes to Chicago: do not miss it!
by Ian Epstein
Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival:
- Lasts only 8 days
- erupts with nearly 150 performers
- consists of nearly 100 troupes
- is calling your name
“We’re creating comedy,” says Brian Posen, the founder and Executive Producer of the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival. With a head full of curly hair, Posen wears a neatly trimmed beard, a spotless labcoat and a pair of white angel wings, swaying slightly. He’s standing on a stage in a cloud of fog. Black horn-rimmed glasses frame his face, giving him the distinguished air you’d expect from a mad, comedic scientist. A fellow actor, also clad in a labcoat, holds up the machine emitting all this fog. This is Bri-Ko, one of the sketch comedy troupes participating in the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival. It’s 4:30pm on Thursday, January 7th, and they’re putting the finishing tech touches on their show. In three and a half hours the curtain rises simultaneously on three stages to kick off the 9th Annual Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, or SketchFest for short. And Bri-Ko is one of the troupes that Executive Producer and Founder Brian Posen himself will perform in.
Sketch Comedy – a history course
Hundreds of years ago and late at night, a writer fumbling over a desk with a dim lamp couldn’t think up the right word for an elusive thought. Blindly, the writer scratches down a word on the page — a word that is not English at all — that is, in fact, Dutch.
That elusive idea that the writer wrestled with? Lost to history. It definitely wasn’t a perfect drawing or a final draft, “what the Dutch Painters call a schytz” or a “hasty piece.” No, this was something else . An idea too flighty for familiarity. It needed to be lean and light like a single shriek of laughter. The “first schetse of a comedy,” perhaps. From its first uses in English, a sketch is something intimately connected with the person who created it. It is practically incapable of life outside of that person. And from its first instance, a sketch has always been about the ability to get across a lot of ideas using a combination of speed and variety – it’s a quick bit of ingenuity or an outline traced in midair.
What is sketch comedy?
Is it improv? In a word: no. Sketch Comedy involves reams of paper full of words and tons of ideas put forward in these things that you might call scripts. You’d be mistaken, though, since these scripts, animated by the writers who wrote them and appreciated by the audience that views them, become what they call sketchs.
Sketches of what, though? Of movies? Sometimes. A TV mini-series? A full on farce à la Moliere with costumes? A song cycle or an extended piece of silent, physical comedy? Commedia dell’arte for the new decade? A made for TV movie performed live with two people playing ten roles? Are these sketches just blueprints for knock knock jokes? Does each maybe contain some shard or kernel from the source of all knock knock jokes ever?
The sketches, Posen explains, differ as widely as the troupes that perform them. He continues, adding that sketch is the comedic form that is all the rage in the comedy scene these days. Talking quickly, he runs through history, stopping here and there to point out trends in American comedy with insight and nonchalance. The 80s were all about stand up, he observes, and the 90s saw the rise of improvisation as the ruling form well into the recently closed out naughts, where the sketch takes off around the time as SketchFest’s 2001 inaugural year.
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SketchFest comes to Chicago
Back in 2001, Posen, working as a producer, booked a stage at Theatre Building Chicago to put up a musical by the Chicago writing duo Philip LaZebnik and Kingsley Day . The musical was an ambitious production called Aztec Human Sacrifice. But the bottom fell out and Posen was left with a reserved stage at Theatre Building Chicago. There were no other takers for the stage and nothing was waiting in the wings. So Posen hopped on the phone and sent emails to his sketch comedy friends and about a month later the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival met with huge success. Posen possesses that rare, inspiring combination of an actor’s energy, a comedian’s wit, a teacher’s patience, and an off-hand eloquence that allows him to talk about the traditions of comedy and connect them to complex theories about how theater should work, theories that an academic might trace back to Brecht or far beyond.
Over its elongating history (who knows what’s in store for next year’s 10 year anniversary…), there have been a variety of trends in what SketchFest emphasizes. 2010 marks an explosion of kid-centric sketch offerings for groups of kids and by groups of kids spilling across the stages by day.
But be sure not to go to a late night show expecting family-friendly content. Posen warns that sketch, a theatrical form that draws its energy from aggression and hostility before turning it into satirical gold, is largely rated R or PG (depending upon the parent or the rating organization).
In a lot of ways, SketchFest resembles a professional conference — where comedy is the currency of choice and the CEOs appear in clown noses or costumes. Posen and the SketchFest staff bring together a select panel of performance professionals (only half of the groups that apply make the cut) who gather to discuss and workshop the finer points of their craft. And a huge part of sketch comedy’s beauty is that the craft is so self-effacing — the better its done, the harder you laugh. You don’t marvel at the delivery of a particularly difficult line so much as you crumple to the floor crying hysterically. The countless hours spent slaving over the placement of punchlines in a script or perfecting what is too often perceived as the innate mystery of comic timing fall by the wayside; comedy’s most audible byproduct isn’t applause, it’s laughter.
Chicago Theater Blog Recommends
(Don’t be afraid to read about the groups or check out the schedule. Take a look at the Kids friendly offerings! And remember — they all passed the preliminary inspections so any group is a safe bet!)
| Kanellis & Armstrong 1/8/10 @ 9pm 1/9/10 @ 9pm Hard Left Productions Bri-Ko The Cupid Players Animosity Pierre |
In Yo Face 1/15/10 @ 8pm 1/16/10 @ 8pm Rabbit Rabbit BriTANick The Backrow |
Arthur Miller Project
The Arthur Miller Project – An Exploration
by Paige Listerud
In fall, at the start of the 2009-2010 Season, it became quite apparent that the Chicago theater community was responding to the economic crisis and the shifting political tone of Washington with works that depicted hardship, deprivation, and introspection over the meaning of American identity.
Profiles Theatre produced Neil LaBute’s response to 9/11, The Mercy Seat; Eclipse Theatre brought back the political corruption of the Grant Administration with Romulus Linney’s Democracy; Brain Surgeon Theatre reconstructed a cramped Depression Era tenement with their world premiere 1512 West Studebaker Place; Northlight Theatre will take their turn at the Clifford Odets’ classic Awake and Sing this January; eta Creative Arts Foundation examined the American Dream through African American eyes with Sam Kelley’s Pill Hill; while These Shining Lives, produced by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and The Artistic Home’s production of Lillian Hellman’s Days To Come touched on the dynamics of American labor.
Into the mix, it seemed striking that not just one or two, but seven productions of Arthur Miller’s work emerged on the roster for the 2009-2010-theater season. In a world-class theater city like Chicago, one is accustomed to seeing plenty of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, and even a production of The Crucible each season. But this time, it was clear that something was in the air. True, almost half of the productions are from Eclipse Theatre’s seasonal selection; but to see so much attention by individual theaters devoted to the playwright known for his piercing examination of the American mythos signaled both a return to basics and an interrogation into who we are and where we are going.
Here at ChicagoTheaterBlog, we took this as an excellent opportunity to create dialog about Miller’s work; to ask what still remains vital and provocative about the issues his plays bring up. And, of course, to get more people out to the theater, talking about theater and participating with their theater community. To this end, we’ve embarked on our first videotaped interview, with more to come. Our goal is to interview directors, actors, and scholars regarding the Arthur Miller productions of this season and to give you a chance to respond to our findings. We hope that our coverage of Miller’s works through our “Arthur Miller Project” will prompt you to engage in the exciting exchange that live theater can bring and is so accessible to us in this great city.
Arthur Miller Plays in the Chicago 2009-2010 Theater Season
Aug 31 All My Sons at Timeline Theatre (our review)
Oct 6 Death of a Salesman at Raven Theatre (our review)
Mar 25 Resurrection Blues at Eclipse Theatre
Mar 27 The Crucible produced by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (at Raven Theatre)
July 8 After the Fall at Eclipse Theatre
July 24 Incident At Vichy at Redtwist Theatre
Sept 2 A Memory of Two Mondays at Eclipse Theatre
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Raven Theatre’s artistic director Michael Menendian, talks with Paige Listerud regarding their critically successful production of Death of a Salesman
Addams Family: An Interview with Wednesday and Lucas
An Interview with Wednesday and Lucas
(From Addams Family – the Musical)
By Timothy McGuire
From left to right – Wesley Taylor (playing ‘Lucas’ in Addams Family) and Krysta Rodriguez (playing ‘Wednesday’)
It was fun as a fan as well as a reviewer to see how excited both Krysta Rodriguez and Wesley Taylor are to be a part of the new Addams Family Musical. The two played off each other like old friends with inside looks and slight teasing to go along with their praise of one another. Relaxed and enjoying the moment, both Krysta and Wesley expressed how much of a thrill it has been to be a part of creating an original Broadway production.
Krysta is playing The Addams Family character ‘Wednesday’, but this is not the Wednesday Addams that TV-viewers are familiar with: Wednesday is all grown up now. She is at the difficult age of eighteen where childhood and adulthood tear at you from opposite directions. As Krysta puts it, “Wednesday is torn between her bizarre family’s norms that she grew up with and her new feelings that are more in line with regular people outside of the Addams family.” She is getting softer, not mushy, and she expresses this in the beginning of the show through her song “Pulled (in the wrong direction). “
After Wednesday’s song we meet Lucas Beineke (Wesley Taylor), the boy from school that Wednesday is dating, and this introduces the storyline of the musical. When Lucas Beineke’s parents (your average American Mom and Dad) meet the spooky outrageous Addams family when they get together for dinner at the Addams’ mansion, madness ensues.
Wesley Taylor will be originating a brand new character in his role as Lucas. Wesley auditioned multiple times for the original role of Lucas, without being cast. So when he was not asked to be a part of the first public reading, he assumed that he did not get the part. Something changed after his performance in the successful Broadway production of Rock of Ages. He was again asked to audition and this time he got the part. Telling that story, Wesley admits that he was rather frustrated, and did not understand why he had to read again when they were going to go another way – but in the end it just made his getting the part that much sweeter. With a smile stretching across his face, Wesley acknowledges how lucky he is to encounter the challenges and rollercoaster processes of creating a brand new role within a brand new musical.
Both Wesley and Krysta tell a story, literally interchanging sentences and checking with each other for confirmation, about a day in rehearsal when the show’s composer and lyricist, Andrew Lippa, called Wesley over to his piano and played a song he was currently working on. They started playing a duet together, and Wesley tells me that he was so excited and knew this show was going to be a big original hit. “They were both totally freaking out” interjects Wednesday.
Krysta and Wesley have said that they have had no choice but to become good friends, which is understandable when you work with someone all day everyday. They have been enjoying their free time together in Chicago, eating a lot as both of them will admit. Actually the topic of food brought some big smiles and elbow pokes from both Krysta and Wesley which made me ask where they have been dining out. It appears our good old Chicago style hotdogs are on top of their list.
Go see The Addams Family. (★★★ – our review here)
Left to right: Krysta Rodriguez, playing Wednesday, and Bebe Neuwirth (Mortisha)
Left to right: Wesley Taylor (Lucas Beineke), Carolee Carmello (Mrs. Beineke) and Nathan Lane (Gomez Addams).
David Pittsinger wows the crowd at Gibson’s Steakhouse
Big talent represents “South Pacific” at Gibson’s
By: Timothy McGuire
I recently had the opportunity to attend a media luncheon for the upcoming touring performance of Lincoln Center Theater’s production of South Pacific. Broadway’s successful tony award winning musical will be playing at the Rosemont Theatre for a limited one-week engagement November 24 – 29, 2009. (ticket info)
The passion and excitement for this specific production was evident in the enthusiasm expressed by the people involved in bringing this production from New York to Chicago. They sincerely believe that this is an extraordinary show offering the audience the rare opportunity to experience a performance done in the spectacular old Broadway fashion, featuring a huge full orchestra unlike anything seen in current Broadway productions today. The touring show of South Pacific promises to be a near replica of the prize-winning musical that started in New York.
The most impressive endorsement for this production was the opportunity to hear the astonishingly powerful and elegant voice of David Pittsinger, who will be playing Emile. The impact of Pittsinger’s romantically forceful bass-baritone voice just a few feet away brought the small audience at Gibson’s Steakhouse to emotional heights, and one can only imagine the magnificence of hearing the full production of his songs produced on Rosemont Theatre’s spacious stage.
David Pittsinger also was a terrific speaker, appearing genuine in his belief in the significance and relevance of South Pacific to today’s audience. Pittsinger is the living embodiment of his character Emile. His wife is born of minority decent and he has interracial children (who he is bursting with pride to talk about.) His belief in love, unification and racial equality is evident in his actions and his loved ones around him.
The original role of Emile de Becque was written for an opera singer, and David Pittsinger is a talented, internationally acclaimed opera performer working with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (most recently portrayed Angelotti in “Tosca”at the Metropolitan Opera) and living and working most of the year in France. The advantage that Pittsinger is also a world-class actor increases the quality of his role and greatly supports the well-written book that goes along with the classically entertaining music in South Pacific. With themes of war and racial conflict, along with the joyous uplifting story and cleverly catchy songs, this year is a fantastic time to enjoy Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
Addams Family – an interview with Lurch (Zachary James)
Talking With Lurch (Zachary James)
by Timothy McGuire
One could easily make the assumption that Zachary James will be playing quite possibly the most intriguing Lurch ever written, with a musical surprise coming from the man Charles Addams described as a “towering mute.”
This extremely tall (possibly 12 feet?) handsome, bald man has his character Lurch’s physical demeanor down pat – when he demonstrated how Lurch stands hunched over with his arms locked straight holding a serving tray at his knees, he had me sold. In addition to this, James just happens to be a talented and accomplished opera singer as well as proven acting ability to go along with his powerful voice
James gave credit to producer Stuart Oken saying,
“Stuart took the time to look at each individual.”
James said that the talent in all aspects of this production, on stage and off stage, is what will make Addams Family a great musical.
Admitting to being nervous at first knowing he’d be working with Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia) and Nathan Lane (Gomez), James’ admission that, as a kid, he had watched the movie “Bird On a Wire” over a dozen times proved how he could be slightly intimidated to work with Lane.
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But Zachary James is a rising star on his own right. After his role in Broadway’s South Pacific he had a desire to sing more and perform the kind of songs that he wanted to sing. In South Pacific he felt that he was out there singing for five minutes and spent the rest of the time in the dressing room while others performed. He wanted to be on stage singing! With a recent break up motivating his personal story line, Zachary James has created and self-directs his own small New York opera company, which strives to make opera more available and affordable to the public, providing a uniquely powerful experience by performing in smaller intimate settings.
Even with his grueling rehearsal schedule he found time to hold a one night performance of his latest one man opera (Imbecil D’Amour) last Saturday at Gorilla Tango Theatre, giving people a chance to hear a renowned opera singer perform just a couple feet away from them for just $10. His passion drives his performances, and his talent backs him up.
If you see a tall, lean and lanky, bald giant walking on the streets of Chicago, don’t be alarmed, it’s just Lurch in the new Addams Family – The Musical.
Updates: Steppenwolf’s “Superior Donuts” on Broadway
Tracy Letts’ most recent play, Superior Donuts, just opened on Broadway with the same Steppenwolf cast. After receiving moderate to warm reviews here in Chicago, the NYC reviews so far appear mixed.
The NY Post gives Superior Donuts a very positive review – 3.5 stars:
After Superior Donuts, Tracy Letts‘ follow-up to August: Osage County, premiered in Chicago last year, the play was deemed entertaining but minor.
Either this Steppenwolf production has been drastically reworked on its way to New York, or we live in a cynical world where a show as tender and honest, as beautifully written, acted and directed as this one can be blithely dismissed.
While the New York Times produces a review that is so-so:
Mr. Letts has mothballed his angst and tossed the deadly weapons in the back drawer. Superior Donuts, a gentle comedy that unfolds like an extended episode of a 1970s sitcom, is a warm bath of a play that will leave Broadway audiences with satisfied smiles rather than rattled nerves.
Superior Donuts may be familiar and unchallenging, but it’s also comfortable — and no, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Below, Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones interviews playwright Tracy Letts (“August: Osage County“) and lead actor Michael McKean (“Laverne and Shirley“, “Saturday Night Live“, “This is Spinal Tap“) about Superior Donuts, Letts’ new play premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater. Letts’ 2007 play August: Osage County won the Pultizer Prize and Tony Award in 2008.
Interview with Elizabeth Ledo (now starring in Goodman’s “Boleros”)
Elizabeth Ledo, currently playing the lead in The Goodman’s acclaimed Boleros for the Disenchanted.
Barry Eitel: Recently, I chatted with Chicago actress Elizabeth Ledo, one of the stars of the Goodman’s production of Boleros for the Disenchanted (our 4-star review here) where she plays both a young girl in 1953 Puerto Rico and a caretaker in 1992 Alabama. The two of us talked about her experience with the two roles, her Latina heritage, and why she chooses to work in Chicago.
You face an interesting acting challenge in “Boleros,” playing a character we see about 50 years later and played by another actress. Did you and Sandra Marquez collaborate at all on the characterization of Flora? How?
Not in an outwardly way. I think mostly through observation. There were things that I noticed her do in the second act and I said, ‘I like that, where can I find the genesis for that in my own portrayal.” We never sat down around a cup of coffee and talked about it specifically. There are things that are echoed in the script that we tried to serve up in both acts. Flora repeats certain lines in each act; we would try to serve those up. We worked with Henry a lot over Flora’s and her mother’s similar relation with the flowers, for example. Most of it, though, was just through observation or from the script
Did the cast work closely with the playwright, Jose Rivera?
He was there for the second week of rehearsals and for previews. For the most part, because the play is very biographical, I would say Jose was a great resource. We were able to ask questions about his family and experiences, he was very open. He observed, was around rehearsals as a resource, but he didn’t really impose ever. He was very gracious and let us find our own way with the characters. So yes, he more there as resource than an imposing figure, rarely did he do anything unsolicited.
Now do you come from a Hispanic background?
My father was born in Havana, Cuba, and came over to the US in 1962 at the age of 14. Growing up, it was very important to keep that side of the culture alive and present. The Cuban way of life and the energy of that people was a big part of my family life.
Jose’s script is steeped in traditional Puerto Rican culture and beliefs about family, gender, work, America, etc. Did you pull inspiration from your own upbringing for the role of Flora?
Young Flora has a lot of similarities to my own grandmother. At the time of the first act, 1953, my grandmother was only two years older than Flora, on a different island, of course, but similar culture. My abuela came from very male-dominated society—respecting her parents, virgin on her wedding night, very pious. My grandmother just died in April, and this role was a very important part of my grieving process. I found it was a celebration of her. Flora and my grandmother, though, are very similar. I didn’t need to impose anything.
You switch in the second act to a different character—Eve, a caretaker. What was your experience like switching between two characters?
I’ve done that before in a few shows. Usually, though the multiple characters live in the same world and culture, but this show’s special in that the time periods are so different. It actually made it a lot easier; there was heavy stuff in the beginning, I could decompress over intermission, and come out in the second act in a time period that I’m very familiar with. I know the nineties, I grew up then. Henry and I talked quite a bit about Eve’s backstory, we came up that she was in the Peace Corps, for example. Eve alludes that she was born in Spain and she has a very European sense about her. Eve’s earthy, I’m earthy, I could throw in a lot of myself into the character. She has great compassion and great integrity, I think. I was able to fold in a relaxed air to her and a playfulness and a generosity.
Is there one that you personally connect to more?
I connected to both Eve and Flora very well. There was less social, vocal, and physical constraints with Eve because I can be my own resource. I know what it feels like to wear denim. Emotionally, though, both of these women were easy to tap into.
The show is remarkably funny, even though the play covers some heavy issues. How did you and the rest of the cast find the rhythm to balance both of those aspects of the script?
You have to. It’s survival in some ways. When you’re doing a show with heavy themes you need a release. We need it as much as the audience. When those funny moments come up it’s like an oasis in the desert, we need those moments to continue. The hardest scenes for us to nail down were the first two scenes. The play starts with a girl coming on crying, and you really have to serve up the comedy within the first 5-6 lines or else everything is dragged down. And then in scene 2, Flora gets validation that her fiancé is cheating. We really had to serve that up, you need those things, you got to let people laugh in the play. You got to get in the script and find the humor. We know it’s difficult, we know it’s sad and scary, so you must find the human side of the characters. Flora’s so innocent and earnest, and we were able to pull out humor in that. A lot of time we were desperate to find it for ourselves, because we really needed it with all of the heavier themes at work in the play.
This is your Goodman debut, but you are a well-established Chicago actress. What’s your favorite thing about acting in Chicago?
I love the audiences and I love the artists. The community is supportive and is always taking risks. It’s also nice being able to work where I live. The audiences are great. They’re smart, supportive, and a large amount of them are into something different and like it when artists go ahead and take risks. This says so much about them. Chicago artists are some of the most talented and human artists around. I can say that, and people from New York and LA comment on that as well. The artists have so much sensitivity and compassion for their work.
You also have a lot of experience in regional theatres across the country. Is acting in Chicago special for you?
I love working in regional theatre. But I always prefer to be home and be working. I’ve done a dozen productions with Milwaukee Rep, I love it, but if I have the opportunity to work at home I love to do that, I can be here at home with friends and artists I know really well.
What do you have up next?
Next I go up to do Christmas Carol at Milwaukee Rep. This will be my, oh gosh, eighth time. Its fun, I get reunited with the old gang. And then I’ll be working at the Court in the late winter.
View full Goodman production Album
(i.e., not just pics of Ms. Ledo)
