Tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved with theatre.
Most of my life, I was destined to be a writer. I had a gift for it and a passion for it. I still do. While I did a little acting in middle school (I was a crow in a touring production of Hansel and Gretel), it was high school when the theatre bug really bit me. I don’t know how it happened, maybe because there were more theatre women at our school than theatre men but I was cast in every single musical our drama department put up; from a taxi cab driver in Kiss Me Kate, ensemble in Anything Goes and Meet Me in St. Louis, to my favorite role, a cowboy in Crazy for You. I didn’t do anything backstage during high school and while I enjoyed being on-stage, I knew that it just wasn’t for me. In college I discovered some of my actor-isms–I tend to talk too fast at times, and I gesture with my left arm while my right arm remains limp. Overall, I am just too uncomfortably stiff on-stage. But I still did a little acting in college: I was in the ensemble for Lysistrata and got to play a zombie in new work. Stage Management didn’t cross my path until about my junior year when I was asked to serve as ASM for my friend Earl’s one-act adaptation of Rent. I had no idea that this show existed until this moment, nor did I have any idea what an ASM did—still don’t recall what I actually did on the show if anything. I just knew that I liked it and wanted to gain more experience. The rest is history, I guess.
Why did you want to be a part of the Artistic Committee at Kansas City Actors Theatre?
I just felt that my voice would provide a different perspective that would really serve KCAT. It’s great to have technical voices on the committee who can shed light on the backstage aspect of a certain production in addition to the on-stage. Also, I wanted to support KCAT in a different way other than just stage managing
What shows have you done for the company?
The Gin Game: Assistant Stage Manager
At Home at the Zoo: Stage Manager
The Island: Stage Manager
I’m Not Rappaport: Stage Manager
What is your favorite role/show you’ve worked on? Why?
That is a tough one because there have been so many wonderful experiences but if I have to nail it down to one, it would have to be A Bucket of Blood at The Living Room Theatre. It was my very first time working at TLR and it didn’t take long for it to feel like home. A Bucket of Blood was based on a 1951 Roger Corman film that two just amazing local artists, Cody Wyoming and Kimmie Queen decided needed to be a play. It was a large ensemble piece with a band and I lost my ASM at first rehearsal so I was pretty much on my own. Working on this show really got me in touch with the idea that while, yes, as much as you can, the process of mounting a show should be professional but it also needs to be fun and A Bucket of Blood was FUN. Let’s be honest: theatre is overwhelming stressful and, at times, underwhelming paid. If we’re not, at the very least, having a good time doing it then what’s the point?
When you are not onstage what do you enjoy doing?
I am trying to read more. It’s funny because everyone around me talking about Game of Thrones but they’re talking about the show, meanwhile I am reading the books. I am about three hundred fifty pages into the first book and I love it!! Also, I am learning piano, learning to read music, and writing a play—I am really trying to get back to my writing roots.
What else would you like the Kansas City community to know about you?
Thank you Kansas City. It’s remarkable how welcoming of a community this is. I wouldn’t be where I am if I hadn’t been embraced so tightly and so quickly here.
Above photo by Brian Paulette
Kansas City Actors Theatre opens its 12th Season with I’m Not Rappaport by Herb Gardner on August 13th and follows that up with Tennessee Williams’s, masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire in September.
You can purchase tickets by calling Central Ticket Office at 816.235.6222 or going online at www.kcactors.org/shows/im-not-rappaport
I’m Not Rappaport
by Herb Gardner
Directed by Dennis D. Hennessy
August 10-28, 2016
H&R Block City Stage in historic Union Station
A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Sidonie Garrett
September 7 -25, 2016
H&R Block City Stage in historic Union Station
