Helen Hayes Awards – the overture

Next Monday, April 16th, Washington’s theatre community will gather for the Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony. Broadway star Jason Kravits will host a Nick Olcott-written, Daniel MacLean Wagner-designed, and Karma Camp-directed extravaganza, in which Sir Derek Jacobi, and Marvin Hamlisch, among others, will help to honor Washington’s extraordinary artists.

Who are these great artists? On the eve of the awards, DCTheatreReviews.com decided to ask the Helen Hayes nominees what makes them tick — what their productions meant to them, what other shows they saw and liked, and where they are now. Linda Levy Grossman and Judith Keyserling of The Helen Hayes Awards took time from their preparations to send out our survey. We received responses from across the country. Some are funny. Some are very personal and enlightening.

Ladies and gentlemen, the responding 2006 Helen Hayes nominees:

Christine Andreas (Margaret) Lead Actress, Non-Resident Musical

The Light in the Piazza

Produced by The Kennedy Center

Margaret Johnson, a buttoned-up matron from Winston-Salem, NC, travels to Florence in 1953 with her beautiful but mentally fragile daughter Clara. When Clara falls in love (true love!) with Fabrizio, Margaret is forced to look love in the face..her love of Clara, her love of her husband, ultimately…whether she believes in love at all.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Well…I also had the choice to ‘let go’ of my 19 year old mentally challenged son, Mac, this year. Four days after placing him in his own group home 15 min. from my house, I was offered this role! So, I understand on many levels the need to ‘protect’ and ‘live’ your child’s life and call it love…and I also understand how every human being is challenged in some way, yet we still, by nature, yearn to find our own unique place in the world. I’m able to appreciate the fact that love in any form will help us integrate and ‘discover’ ourselves and our gifts no matter what our challenge…

I have watched this happen with my son as he enters his own life and I watch it every nite onstage as Clara embraces the ‘Light’ in the Piazza.

Glenn Seven Allen (Cliff) Lead Actor, Resident Musical

Cabaret

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

I’m like Cliff in that I’m a very curious person and I’ve often felt like an outsider. Also, I feel that I’m very eager-to-please which is another key component to playing Cliff. I wish I didn’t have these things in common with him, but they make me who I am (for better or for worse).

Cabaret was the first musical I performed in at INTERLOCHEN when I had no ambition to be a singer or actor. I was more interested in basketball. I was in the chorus and immediately jealous of the actor playing Cliff-I’ve always wanted to play the role-never the Emcee.

What was the best production you saw this year, besides your own?

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a lot of theatre or really good theatre this year. I have two small children and it is a bit cost prohibitive to go to a show and pay for a sitter in NYC. I watch a lot of DVD’s with my wife at home.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Currently, I’ve been performing in a lot of concerts and looking for the next big job. I just played Curley in a concert of Oklahoma in NYC and had the time of my life!!! Great, fun part with amazing music that I could sing for days.

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

Produced by Studio Theatre Secondstage

How much of the real you is in the character?

I was a bit of a wild child in high school, so I had a lot of erratic teenage angst memories to draw on. And some would say that the comic book version of Van’s Sister was a dominant girl in her childhood. I think the same could definitely be said for me, even now. But no, I’ve never set anything, or anyone, for that matter, on fire.

What was the best production you saw this year, besides your own?

Faust. Even though they are up for the same exact award as we are, I have to say Faust was an amazing work of art.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’ll be participating in the 48HR Film Festival, I recently shot an episode for an online series called Buddy Jackson that will be viewable online soon, and I’m working on film projects with Chop Shop Studios.

The Dybbuk and Frankenstein

Resident Production The Dybbuk and Frankenstein

Both produced by Synetic Theater

So much of Synetic’s work depends on an assumed understanding of the subject matter since the stories are ones we’ve all heard to some degree before. What this does for visual aspects is that it frees the designers to make more abstract choices. For instance, in Frankenstein, we worked with the concept of the electric charge in the bolt of lightning that brings the Creature to life. Both the set and the lighting used this idea to create images that visualized the concept of currents moving through the air, through objects, through the body. There were all sorts of crazy interlocking lines, like electricity tone out of control, much in the way that the creature loses control.

How much of the real you is in the play?

an interesting question to ask a designer. I find that most of my designs exhibit an interest in color that winds its way into my personal life – my clothing choices, how I cook, the colors of the walls in my house (all of which are bold). I find that when I’m working on a very colorful show, I wear more colorful clothes (especially my socks), I’ll put dried cranberries into anything I cook, just to give it some splash. And when the productions are less colorful, the clothes and cooking follow suit just as equally: black socks, plain ol’ red sauce.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Top 3 in no particular order: The Bluest Eye at Theater Alliance, Enemy of the People at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and A Prayer for Owen Meany at Round House.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

This spring: Animal Farm with Synetic, She Stoops to Comedy and Dead Man’s Cell Phone at Woolly and The New Kid at Imagination Stage.

Caroline, or Change

Produced by Studio Theatre

How much of the real you is in the play?

Like so many others in our great city, I always try to give 110 percent and you are always seeing ‘the real me’ when I perform. My heart and soul are in musical theater and cabaret.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I loved Shenandoah at Ford’s and Light in the Piazza at The Kennedy Center.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I can be seen (or at least heard) accompanying the Capitol Steps in various venues locally and around the country. I have been with this brilliant political satire troupe for 14 years. I will also be musically directing and often accompanying Judy Simmons in a Sondheim concert ‘Sondheim Tonight’ at the arts club at the Everyman Theater in the middle of April for various dates.

Assassins Produced by Signature Theatre

I played Sam Byck, who tried and failed to kill Richard Nixon by flying a plane into the White House.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Wow, Is this some kind of entrapment: What do you say when asked how much you have in common with a guy who tried to kill the President?

Quite a bit, actually. Remember (director) Joe Calarco’s uncomfortable vision was to suggest that the assassins and the audience were not that far apart. On our first day of rehearsal, he screened the film ‘Network’ with its memorable line “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” We’ve all felt that way, and I’m no different. I also think the times are somewhat similar to the mid’70’s when ‘Network’ came out, where a lot of us feel like the government has gotten away from us and that our voices don’t really matter.

On a more personal level, there are some weird parallels between Byck and myself. We’re both Jews from Philadelphia, for one. There was a gravelly, smoky, nostalgic, romantic, bitter voice in my head from Sam Byck from the very beginning, and I think that came from the world I grew up in. Byck gets to speak for the audience and there have been times in my life when I’ve felt loss and despair – although thankfully not to the degree Byck did. But those feelings certainly gave me a starting point.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I missed a lot of shows I wanted to see last year because I was working. I never got to see Fat Pig and Frozen at Studio or Faust at Synetic, and I really wish I had. I did get to see a few wonderful plays, though, among them:

– Frankie and Johnny at the Clare de Lune at Quotidian Wonderfully, shockingly intimate

– 3/4 Mass for St. Vivian at Theater Alliance – A heartbreaking, funny and realistic look at growing up by a woman who is too young to be that freakin’ good.

– My Fair Lady at Signature. I just fell in love with the show all over again, and I particularly enjoyed Andrew Long’s reinvention of Henry Higgins.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’m on hiatus until summer. But I will be in a Capitol Fringe show for Journeymen Theatre based on Grimm’s fairy tales. And I’ve just signed on to do Quartets, a new play at Charter Theatre in the Fall.

The Light in the Piazza The Kennedy Center

It has been a joy to be a part of such a unique piece of musical theater. The production won 6 Tony awards and ran for a year and a half on Broadway. I was lucky enough to be in that original cast and have been on the road, touring with the production for the past 8 months. All of our original artistic team was involved with the tour. Every night as I walk out onto the set and hear the harp play the first plaintive notes of the score, I am struck with how incredibly lucky I am to be doing what I love, in a play that I love!

How much of the real you is in the character?

In every character I play, I try to find what we have in common. In some cases, there is very little, however in the case of Fabrizio Naccarelli, I found a kindred soul. I, like Fabrizio, have a very strong connection with my family and draw my strength from their support. Also, like Fabrizio, I have a tendency to fall in love very fast and very hard, so I immediately understood how Fabrizio could fall so fast for Clara. Fabrizio is a boy who becomes man during the course of the play and I try to infuse that journey with as much honesty, humor and joy as I can. Something I try t do with my own life. Some of the challenges with creating Fabrizio were simply technical. I had to learn to speak and sing Italian and with the Italian accent. That took about a month of practice with an Italian dialect coach before I felt totally comfortable. Also, the music that Fabrizio sings stretches my vocal range from literally the lowest note I can sing to the highest. So I really had to get my vocal chops in great shape. I have to say, of all the roles I’ve done, Fabrizio is my favorite. He challenges me every night to be at the top of my game.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Since I have been doing 8 shows a week for the past 2 years, it has been very difficult to see very much theater. However I did get to see Grey Gardens and thought Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson gave terrific performances. Being on the road, I haven’t been able to see much this year

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Until July 22, 2007, you can see me playing Fabrizio Naccarelli in the national tour of The Light in the Piazza all over the country

Ciao!

3 Mo’ Divas

Produced by Arena Stage

3 Mo’ Divas is a theatrically staged concert centered on the concept of the vocal versatility of classically trained women.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Jersey Boys

What’s our next chance to see your work?

3 Mo’ Divas will begin a North American tour in Oct, 2007.

Noises Off

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

How could there not be something of every actor in the role they play! In this case, the idea of a working actor struggling to come to grips with a character is the bread and butter of all actors. I was once told that Farce must be played absolutely for real then at the very last moment of rehearsal, the actor should reach around to the back of his/her head and loosen a screw back there to allow reality and absurdity to flow together. Good advice, I think!!

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Next up for me is the 2nd season of the TV series ‘Brotherhood’ on Showtime that will begin shooting in April. Am also doing a Kevin Spacey film shooting in Boston. It’s based on the book ‘Bringing Down the House’ about MIT students creating a code for the Black Jack table in Las Vegas.

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

Produced by Studio Theatre Secondstage

The production was directed by Keith Alan Baker and included some excellent young DC actors, including Lauren Wiliams and James Gardiner. It was a fun show for all of us to perform because it allowed us to let out our inner high schoolers for awhile.

How much of the real you is in the character?

One of the reasons I enjoyed playing Van so much was because he was such a stretch from the real me and from many of the typical characters I play. However, while it would seem like Van is very different from the Evan Casey everyone sees, there is much of ‘the real me’ in Van: the silliness, the philosophizing, the advice-giving, while Van does all of these things with a zany, stoner quality al his own, they are very much a part of me too. While the outward visual appearance of Van and the way he conducts himself is far different from me, the lovable, friendly, intellectual, fun parts of Van are much a part of who I am.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Signature’s Assassins. Not only was it well-acted and well-sung by some of the finest musical theatre performers in town, but the ever-impressive Joe Calarco took an already outstanding work and gave it new vision, concept, and design that made the show even more potent for audiences.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I am currently performing in Meet Joe Doe at Ford’s Theatre and, after that, my next project will be OlneyTheatre’s Fiddler on the Roof in the winter of 2007.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Produced by Longacre Lea

This cast and director have collaborated a few times before and it was great to have us all together again.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Hmmm…good question…maybe more than I thought.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The Beaux’ Stratagem at Shakespeare Theatre

What’s our next chance to see your work?

The Flu Season with Catalyst Theater. It runs May 5th – June 2nd.

She Loves Me

Produced by Arena Stage

She Loves Me was an auspicious event for me. Kyle Donnelly made the experience with her beautifully rendered concept and compelled me to do a performance I never had imagined or planned before we got into the workings of the character and story. Sometimes it’s more difficult to do less, perform less in the service of a character’s humanity and this is precisely what Kyle was able to achieve with me, although I don’t think she got the opportunity to see it opening night! It took a little longer than that for me to really grasp it. I can only hope she was pleased because I was so in agreement with her about her approach. She deserves the credit for what success there way of my portrayal. To be onstage in the show was a sensational experience.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Ladislav Sipos has a warm and caring nature. I would like to think we have that in common.

What was the best production you saw this year, besides your own?

I was pretty blown away by Company on Broadway.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I just received a call saying I’m being called back next month for the national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone.. keep a good thought! That possibility aside, I have an opportunity to direct The Full Monty again this summer. (I directed it in Chicago a year or so ago) and Meet Me in St. Louis in Chicago this Fall.

The Beaux’ Stratagem

Produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company

How much of the real you is in the character?

Once I had all the practical, nuts-and-bolts stuff under my belt (e.g. text, dialect, blocking business, costume constraints), and I began to relax and get a feel for playing the piece with an audience, more and more of Cherry was the real me. I’d venture to say that an actor’s ability to be herself (under circumstances she may never have encountered in real life) determines the audience’s ability to truly relate to her character. I guess when I say ‘be herself’, rather than displaying the collection of her own personality traits, I really mean simply being authentically human.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Just as the Helen Hayes Awards committee refrains from using the word ‘best’ I hesitate to pick one of the many plays I saw in 2006 as the tippy-top of the heap. Round House’s Retreat from Moscow stands out in my mind as having had a profound impact on me. The script had a very bald honesty and the performances were brave and very clear.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’ll play Lavinia in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Titus Andronicus which is (if I may say, BRILLIANTLY) directed by Gale Edwards.

Monty Python’s Spamalot

Presented by The National Theatre

How much of the real you is in the character?

There’s actually quite a bit. One of the things Mike Nichols told us is that he wanted us to bring as much of ourselves to the character as possible.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh. I’m a big fan of his work and it was great to see the show at the Atlantic, before it moved to Broadway.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Well, that would be Hartford. I’m still with the production and will be until the Fall.

Cabaret

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

There is no real me in an anti-semitic prostitute!!! But I understand that she was being an opportunist for her own survival.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Measure for Measure at the Folger

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I have a small role in The Witches of Eastwick at Signature Theatre opening in June and will play Golda in Fiddler on the Roof at Olney Theatre Center in November. I am so lucky because I play across from the fabulous Rick Foucheux.

Faust Frankenstein Both produced by Synetic Theater

Faust: How are you to get what you want? In Goethe’s classic tale of Faust, a man sells his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. In an imaginative and bold adaptation, Synetic presents its signature with an agant-garde and punk edge.

Frankenstein: In an era where scientific exploration and advancement have, more than ever, become controversial issues of morality and responsibility, there is no story more timely or relevant than Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a true pillar of gothic horror which arises not only from shocks and thrills but from the probing ethical questions it raises on the dangers of discovery and the mysteries of life itself. Frankenstein is a new play developed by Paata Tsikurishvili and company member Nathan Weinberger, which strove to be as faithful as possible to Shelley’s original novel. The tale of Frankenstein – a story of passionate brilliance, daring and ambition pushed to horrifically devastating heights, as science violently clashes with the supernatural.

How much of the real you is in the characters?

That is difficult to say. On stage I get to live out the lives of other people. I am allowed to explore and make choices that in my normal life I never would or just can’t. Further I am afforded the opportunity to assume the identity of people that in times both past and present, I longed to be, even if just for a split second. It really is the ultimate thrill to step into someone else’s shoes for a little while and for me it starts hours before the show.

Synetic is a movement based theater company and, as is encouraged, the majority of the cast uses the call time to warm up their bodies before getting into costume and make-up. I use this time of relatively quiet solitude to start my character shift, putting on the make-up and costume, making sure that I look the part. I suppose it is superfluous, not so much the need to have make-up, hair and costume exact, but the act of preparing oneself is like donning armor or battle gear. All this is to induce the feeling and emotional state required to accurately portray a part.

Ultimately, I am always there, sort of omnipresent. I put my character face, tone and demeanor forward but in the background I am there counting the music/steps, attempting new character choices, injecting director notes, and adapting to the events that make live theater so wonderful, the roller coaster ride of prop drama, costume malfunctions, physical injuries, and stage/lighting issues. It is like a juggling act , adjusting to whatever that night will bring and it is a high. How quickly can you think on your feet with hundreds of people watching you.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

My favorite recent show would have to be Patty Lupone in Sweeney Todd in New York. I also really enjoyed Doubt at the National Theater, and the tour of Edward Scissorhands at the Kennedy Center. I also recently saw Washington Ballet perform Carmina Burana at the Kennedy Center and loved it.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I am in Synetic Theater’s reprise of Hamlet…the rest is silence in the Family Theater at the Kennedy Center May 31-June 17.

Cabaret

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

Well, it’s the first time I was ever in drag on stage. With a band in drag as well.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Assassins at Signature Theatre.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Araboolies at Imagination Stage, 1776 at Portait Gallery, Christmas Carol 1941 at Arena Stage

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Produced by Longacre Lea

How much of the real you is in the character?

Un, none? Everything? It was me there on stage fully invested in what I was doing, but I was trying to portray someone very unlike myself, so…difficult question.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Unfortunately, I don’t get to see much theater that I’m not in some way involved in. Gotta try to keep the checks rolling in. But I enjoyed The Countess at Stage Guild.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Currently at Washigton Stage Guild with Shaw’s Shorts. Next appearing with Longacre Lea’s 07 production, Hothouse by Harold Pinter, in which I’ll be playing Gibbs.

In the Continuum

Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

A two-woman show that tells the story of a woman in Zimbabwe and a woman in South Central Los Angeles on the weekend they discover they are HIV positive and pregnant.

How much of the real you is in the character?

I play several characters – the protagonist however is quite different from me – she has a very different mentality and value systems. However, there was a time when my value system did parallel hers more closely. She is also from a different background that me. How we do parallel is in who she remembers she used to be – her boldness and self determination that she once had as a teenage girl that she realizes she has lost. She is also extremely resourceful and refuses to take no for an answer which I think I have a bit of myself.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

This year, I am afraid I haven’t seen very much theater – other than student productions at my alma mata NYU grad acting where I was co-creating another play.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I have a lead role in a coming feature – The Visitor – Tom McCarthy’s (The Station Agent) second film opposite Richard Jenkins. I am also creating my next play which tells the story of Liberian female rebel fighters during Charles Taylor’s rule. I should be going to Liberia for research later this year. The play I have co-created at NYU grad acting – Sliding Into the Beast – that tells the story of child soldiers – is taking a life of its own beyond NYU (much like In the Continuum did) and is currently being considered by a number of off-Broadway houses

The Subject Was Roses

Presented by The Kennedy Center

(The play) is a story about a young man who comes home to his parents’ small apartment after WWII, and tries to resume life with them. He is a grown up now, and, therefore, realizes all the limitations and sufferings of his parents’ relationship. Eventually he leaves to move on at the end of the play, leaving his parents alone together with their ’empty’ life without him.

How much of the real you is in the character?

I don’t think there is a lot of me in this woman. She is a housewife. I have never been that. I have been in an unhappy marriage but that was a long time ago. I am in a very happy marriage now and have been for 18 years. I guess her devotion to her son I relate to. I am very devoted to my daughter and my son, and they come first over any career choice or other personal choices.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I would say my favorite production this year has to have been Stuff Happens at the Public Theatre, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Number two would be Awake and Sing directed by Bart Sher.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

The next thing you can see me in is a year from now. I will be doing a one-woman show playing Ann Landers, but you can see my direction of Fugue right now at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC, in June, my direction of The Butcher of Baraboo at Second Stage in NYC, and next fall my direction of the musical version of Vanities in Chicago, and then NYC…

Caroline, or Change

Produced by Studio Theatre

I am overjoyed about my Helen Hayes nomination! I had the pleasure of playing Emmie. This particular musical, beautifully written by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori, is definitely one of my favorite musicals, period. I was fortunate enough to witness the Broadway production, days before their closing. At the time, I was working on Little Shop of Horrors and had a Wednesday night off, so I rushed to get a ticket. Since both of our shows closed at the same time, it was my last chance. Boy was I lucky to have taken that chance. Watching the show, I was immediately drawn to the story, the music, the beauty, complexity and truthfulness of it all.

I couldn’t stop crying, because I couldn’t stop connecting and feeling like that story on stage was a part of me. I was sad because of the effects our history as African Americans has had on people like Caroline, who simply felt hopeless working for the Gellmans for a mere $30 a week, without her husband, with 4 kids to feed, 1 of whom got drafted to war in Vietnam. I was also joyful because of Caroline’s soulful, growing daughter, Emmie, who was determined to create change. As I watched Anika Noni Rose as Emmie, I couldn’t help but feel that I needed to be Emmie some day too. That Emmie Thibodeaux was telling my story. And luckily, last year Studio Theatre presented me with the opportunity. We had a wonderful cast, many of whom I miss dearly. I often wish we could do it again.

How much of the real you is in the character?

A substantial amount, I suppose. But then again, the story takes place in 1963 and I wasn’t even a thought back then. I’m also a born and raised New Yorker with parents directly from the island of Jamaica, as opposed to Lake Charles, LA. No matter. The damage slavery and racism has done to our culture is enough to cross the board, and the effects are still evident today. The mother/daughter relationship of Caroline and Emmie vs. my mother and me, are not so different. When you’re a teenager and you don’t understand why your mother is the way she is: seemling lazy or ‘comfortable’ in a time when we as African American people needed to stand up and fight back through non-violent methods, to progress forward, we needed to be proud of who we were and be happy to say it out loud. When your mother just doesn’t get that you are changing, that you urgently want things to change from the way they were, whether it’s in society or in the household. When your mother doesn’t see that you are a blossoming, smart, stong young woman, that you yourself are changing, lots of things can be said and plenty of feelings get hurt. In a way, Emmie’s conflicts with Caroline (played by Julie Nixon) and her misunderstandings of her mother are a huge part of my younger years. Like Emmie, love was tested between my mother and I. Yet Emmie said and did things I only wish I could have done. To be an integral part of a major turn in history, a budding part of the civil rights movement. I adore Emmie so much.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing any other productions in DC while working there. I still live in NY though I really wanted to see Assassins, Damn Yankees and others I heard were amazing productions. My hands were full doing the show and acting as Assistant Choreographer to Director Greg Ganakas, as well as Dance Captain..

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’m so said to admit that I will be unable to attend the Helen Hayes Awards because of a prior commitment to the Musical Workshop of Prairie (based on Little House on the Prairie.) I am working in the Ensemble of Prairie as a school girl/townsperson among a group of talented people, including Patrick Swayze and Melissa Gilbert. Hopefully Prairie will hit the off-Broadway scene sometime next Spring. Also, very soon you will be able to catch me as Chrysothemis in a production of (The Blood) Electra at the Classical Theatre of Harlem in NYC, running May thru June.

To be recognized by the Helen Hayes Award Committee is an absolute honor, one that I never imagined but am so grateful for. They’ve reminded me of how wonderful my experience was doing Caroline, or Change at the Studio Theatre.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye Produced by Theater Alliance

The Bluest Eye is about an African American community emerging from the tail end of the Great Depressions and how they effected and influenced the life of a little girl who changed them all.

How much of the real you is in the character?

I think that parts of me are a lot like Maureen; we are both outgoing and strong. Yet, I never experienced the public praise and adoration she received. She was the popular pretty girl in school and that was definitely never me.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I didn’t see many shows but I really enjoyed Jitney.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing! Anyone looking for a talented fun loving actress?

Faust

Produced by Synetic Theatre

The production was typical of Synetic, in some ways, in terms of the heavy reliance upon movement to tell the story, and it was atypical in that it was ultra-modern, almost punk in design, movement style and delivery.

How much of the real you is in the character?

That depends upon the moment. The part of Faust I most understood were his discovery of sensuality. I am a sensually based person (whether that be enjoying a wonderful meal, lying in the sunshine on a warm spring day or partaking of sexual pleasure. So as Faust awakened to his own sensuality, I think I was able to put more of myself into those moments.

Of course, I’ve also done horribly stupid things in my life that ultimately led me to learn a lot about myself and my values. This happens to Faust in the form of Gretchen, whom he leads along and then abandons. His remorse over this act of betrayal is something I have experienced, and I filtered the emotional remembrances of that into the character’s content.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Oh, that’s difficult! I have a couple of favorites. I really loved Washington National Opera’s Madama Butterfly. The production was riveting and emotionally powerful beyond any opera I’ve seen to date. I really loved Arena’s Gem of the Ocean. Not having seen this particular Wilson work before, I was thrilled about what it said. Synetic’s Macbeth, which I wasn’t part of, was also particularly thrilling.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

That really depends on the context. I’m the features editor at the Washington Blade, and I also write the paper’s weekly film column. So, you can see that work every week. However, for theater, I’m not so sure. I haven’t done a show since Faust and I don’t know that I want to.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Produced by Catalyst Theater Company

We mounted an uber-Brechtian, rip-roaring production of this parable-play based on the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, set in the vegetable trading market of 1930’s Chicago. Eight actors played about 35 different roles, and quite often actors played multiple roles within the same scene! In addition to playing about 6 different characters, I played jazz trumpet and piano, and sang an operatic area.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Haha..hardly any at all for this show! well, one of my characters was a grizzled old corporate type with the sole moniker of ‘Clark’..I hung the dialect of a crusty old curmudgeon from ‘New Hampsha’ on his, a voice I knew well having grown up in the Boston area. (In fact, for study I dug up an old cassette tape my parents used to play on road trips ‘up noath’ called “How to Spean N’Hampsha Like A Native!? A few of the other characters had bits and pieces of realism, but by and large it was not a ‘draw on your own life experiences’ type of challenge, as often, characters existed on stage for mere seconds, and then vanished.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Aargh, I don’t go to see as many shows as I should. Tough to squeeze everything in! That said, I enjoyed A Bright Room Called Day at Rorschach Theatre, as well as a new musical called The Onion Cellar put on at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston as a collaboration with the punk-cabaret band The Dresden Dolls.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’m in the apocryphal Edward III at Washington Shakespeare Company, directed by Joe Banno, playing the role, The Black Prince. I knew nothing about this guy (the Prince, not Joe) before we began, and he’s this big manly hero type (the Prince, not Joe – haha!) But seriously, it’s been a thrill and a challenge to take on this part (WSC is such a great haven for actors), and I think this play will surprise a lot of people. It’s not Hamlet certainly, but what is? And also this week I begin rehearsals with the wonderful Irish company Solas Nua for Owen McCafferty’s Scenes from the Big Picture – a hard-scrabble portrait of life in Belfast featuring a large ensemble case – I play a meat packer down on his luck – quite a shift from a 14th century prince. The breadth and diversity of acting opportunities in this town is truly inspiring!

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Produced by Catalyst Theater Company

The Feel Good Nazi Gangster Show of 2006

How much of the real you is in the character?

When you are playing numerous roles in a show like Ui, you have to work sometimes from the outside in. Finding little character ticks and vocal tricks help you differentiate one character from another. That being said, you always have some part of you fascinated by the evil men do, and while you can be playing a murderer or a crooked business man, you always have to remember that they don’t believe they are evil.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

A Bright Room Called Day at Rorschach.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

References to Salvadore Dali Make Me Hot by Jose Rivera at Rorschach. I will be putting down my villain mask to play The Moon.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Produced by Folger Theatre

It was set against a backdrop of 1930’s Hollywood, and drew heavily on the cinematic styles of the period. Also, the theatre caught fire the morning tech was supposed to begin, and everything got pushed back a week – despite the scheduling issues this caused, the entire company really pulled together to overcome such a large obstacle.

How much of the real you is in the play?

Well, since I’m a designer, and not an actor, I’d have to say that it was all the real me!

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

There are too many to name.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I will be lighting the Savoyards’ production of Merry Widow, and I will be doing sound design for Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead at the Studio Theatre. I will also be doing sound for An American Daughter at Montgomery College, Rockville, MD

Hamlet

Produced by Rep Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

All of the real me is in the character – but that’s always the case with Hamlet. He’s one of the most accommodating (and therefore inexhaustible) characters ever written. It’s impossible to add to him, so all you can do is give everything you already have to the part.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at Catalyst Theatre. I’m convinced that production could easily transfer to (say) Carter Baron without diminishing it one bit. McKenzie, McCormick, McCool, Weatherford, Price, Arias, Richards, Tweel and Gallu – now there’s a name for an ensemble company! I didn’t get to see a lot of theatre this year, but a friend of a friend got me seats for Coast of Utopia in NYC and I’d take UI over Utopia any day of the week.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I have no idea. I’m taking a break to try the New York grind. But if you’re ever in Inwood, Manhattan at 2 am, you can go to the Cloisters with a pair of binoculars and catch me on my roof freestyling with the pigeons. I also blog.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Produced by Round House Theatre

Helmed by the brilliant artistic director Blake Robison, Owen Meany tests audiences’ faith in the magnaminity of one very tiny man (the fantastic Outstanding Lead Actor nominee Matthew Detmer), exploring the bonds of friendship and asking each audience member, “What will you do with the time you have?”

How much of the real you is in the character?

I’m certainly as bubbly, and I do love to orchestrate family dinners, but Tabitha loves to lie, and I try to practice salya (truth saying), as much as humanly possible.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Measure for Measure blew me away. The wonderfully discordant costumes, makeup and music proved that a ‘play set in no time and in no place’ can really work beautifully.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

She Stoops to Comedy (also featuring fellow Outstanding Supporting Actress nominee Kate Eastwood Norris) at Woolly Mammoth. I play Alison Rose, who, like me, has a long history with musicals. And then I’m on to The Araboolies of Liberty Street at Imagination Stage. Hope to see you there!

Don Juan

Produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company

Don Juan was a glorious piece to work on. Director, Stephen Wadsworth, is a stellar collaborator and had a wonderfully lush vision. We built the whole show and were able there by to have control of the textures and pallet to a degree that is rare these days and makes this former painter extremely happy! The shop at the Shakespeare Theatre made it look better than new.

What was the best production you saw this year, other than your own?

Saw a production of Pillow Man in Seattle that was terrific: hilarious and bone chilling all at the same time. The performances of the four core characters were the highlight.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Don Juan was my first time working in DC. Had a great time! Next up for me are Man and Superman, directed by Jonathan Moscone at The California Shakespeare Festival and Heartbreak House, directed by Les Waters at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre…My season for Shaw.

Cabaret

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

As always, there are many facets of myself in the character, as that’s where it all starts. Certainly this piece allowed me to explore and discover our own response to living in such a wild, rather apocalyptic time.

What was the best production you saw this year, other than your own?

I didn’t get to see much, as I live in New York City, but I loved 9 Parts of Desire and the incredible work of Heather Raffo.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Come on out to Vegas! I’m starring in The Producers through August, and am very excited to return to Arena Stage next season to work with the fantastic J. Fred Shiffman in The Mystery of Irma Vep.

The Game of Love and Chance

Produced by Folger Theatre

This was an exciting departure from what I have usually done at the Folger. I tend to play complex, leaning toward evil, hoping for redemption kind of fellows. So this silly clown was a hoot.

How much of the real you is in the character?

I am a silly man. So there was a lot of me in Harlequin. But, I think every role has a lot of who you are in them. They can’t help it really. You can’t completely separate self from character, at least I don’t find it interesting to do that.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Boston Marriage. Kate Norris rocks.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I don’t have anything nailed down for the DC area. I’m playing Benedick at Shakespeare Santa Cruz this summer with the aforementioned rocking Kate Norris. Peace out.

9 Parts of Desire

Produced by Arena Stage

How much of the real you is in the character?

I play 9 characters. All of me is in this play and in all 9 characters. It is like sharing the stage with my family, my countries and my many emotions.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Pump Girl at the Traverse Theater, Edinburgh

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Currently at the Public Theater in NY – doing In Darfur – a new play be Winter Miller directed by Joanna Settle.

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

Produced by Studio Theatre Secondstage

This was a parody of the Peanut characters in their teens.

How much of the real you is in the character?

There is not much of the real me in the character I played.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Frozen made a big impression on me.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I will be appearing in Titus Andronicus at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Produced by Round House Theatre

This was an epic adaptation of John Irving’s celebrated novel – a theatrical examination of faith, politics, and friendship set in the turbulent era of 1950’s and 1960’s America.

How much of the real you is in the play?

As director, I’d like to believe that I helped coax 40-odd characters from our wonderful ensemble of artists. But mostly, I sat around and marveled at their versatility.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Don Juan at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. I’m disappointed that it did not receive more recognition from the HH judges. In my view, it achieved a rare synthesis of high style and truthfulness on stage. The acting, design and direction were top-notch. Stephen Wadsworth is a national treasure

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Crime and Punishment runs at Round House from April 4-29. It’s a bold new 90-minute adaptation featuring three actors in a modern, theatrical setting. And it’s a coming-out party for Aubrey Deeker! You won’t want to miss his powerful performance as the young murderer Raskolnikov.

The Persians

Produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company

I was indeed technically the sound designer, I was actually more appropriately credited as the composer and music director – there was almost constant music in the production, played live by 2 percussionists and a cellist with singing from the cast, etc. That being said, I do appreciate the nomination.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I live in Los Angeles – the best production I saw was out here – Water and Power by Richard Montoya and Culture Clash at the Mark Taper Forum

What’s our next chance to see your work?

In theatre, I’m not certain, especially if you live in DC, as most of my work is on the west coast, including my most recent chamber/music-theatre piece. In film, I’m music directing the Disney animated feature The Frog Princess (music by Randy Newman) to be released in late 2008.

3/4 of a Mass for St. Vivian

Produced by Theater Alliance

My play is about friendship, loss, memory, all those good old themes

How much of the real you is in the play?

The play is loosely based on my mother and godmother. So it is a very personal piece in that way.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I don’t live in DC! So I can’t really name the best production I saw. But the Theater Alliance’s production of Insurrection was really fantastic.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I’m in the process of re-working a play I wrote last summer called Banana Rat and looking forward to seeing it workshopped

The Light in the Piazza

Presented by The Kennedy Center

How much of the real you is in the character?

Clara is a very sweet, very pure soul. I felt like I was returning to a very young, innocent, and simple version of myself while playing her.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

While I was in London doing Showboat, I had a free night to see Sunday in the Park with George on the West End. It was spectacular. It is such a wonderful production. I’m so glad they’re bringing it to New York City.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I will be joining the workshop cast of The Molly McGuires, which will have a very short 3-show run in Wilkes-Barre, PA at the end of April. I will also be doing a few solo concerts in New York at the Metropolitan Room; Saturday, May 19th is my soonest concert.

Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis was an American premiere of an English play by Charlotte Jones, best known as the author of Humble Boy (which was produced two seasons ago by Washington Stage Guild). The play is a charming and somewhat loopy comedy about a dominatrix (Josie) who is turning 40 and ready to hang it all up. One of her clients decides to throw her a birthday party to cheer her up and invites a Chinese Elvis impersonator. The plot focuses on Josie’s relationship with her learning-disabled daughter, and a second twin daughter who turns up unexpectedly, apparently back from the dead.

In the Continuum. Two young black women, one American and one Zimbabwean, recount their separate stories of learning at the same time that they are pregnant and HIV positive. Each one plays a wide range of roles to depict her humorous and harrowing journey, trying to figure out how to deal with the devastating news without completely disrupting the flow of their lives. The play provides a very human and very powerful perspective on one of the great medical and social challenges of our time.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

You Are Here by Daniel MacIvor, Theater Alliance (October, 2006)

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I directed She Stoops to Comedy which is currently running at Woolly Mammoth.

3 Mo’ Divas Produced by Arena Stage

The production starts 3 female singers who sing in 7 styles of music, ranging from classical to R&B. The show has tremendous power, especially when you consider the singers’ ability to quickly change styles. There are wonderful dramatic shifts – comedic moments to deeply moving and poignant songs.

How much of the real you is in the play?

It’s all really me as I’ve studied several different styles of music.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I’m a classical music lover. A concert featuring Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Mozart’s 17th Piano concert and Haydn’s Symphony #94 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would be my favorites this year. I also saw Wicked which was wonderful!

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I am currently serving as Associate Conductor with The Color Purple National Tour.

Cabaret

Produced by Arena Stage

With the current political climate, I really wanted to have a dialogue with audiences about the way in which our civil rights are being diminished. We explored an iconic musical theater classic and demonstrated how relevant it continues to be.

What other productions did you enjoy last year besides your own?

Awake and Sing directed by Zelda Fichandler at Arena and Frozen at Studio Theatre.

Tell us what you are directing now and will be directing at Arena Stage next season?

I’m currently directing Mack and Mabel at the Shaw Festival in Canada, and next season I will direct two world premieres at Arena – The Women of Brewster Place (co-pro with the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta) and Christmas Carol 1941 by James Magruder.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Produced by Longacre Lea

A re-examination by Kathleen Akerly of the famed Stoppard play with 6 actors playing 20 plus roles. For me, this included Ophelia, Gertrude, Alfred, Horatio, et al. It has been a season of finding my inner female.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Boston Marriage at Actors’ Theatre of Washington was terrific.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

The Flu Season with Catalyst, Pangs of the Messiah with Theater J, and Caligula with Washington Shakespeare Company.

A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage

Produced by Round House Theatre

It is a bluegrass/country musical based on the Mark Twain short story of the same name. This was the first playwrighting collaboration between director/adaptor Aaron Posner and myself. This production surpassed all my expectations and I am honored to be nominated.

How much of the real you is in the play?

There is a ton of me in this music and play. I am from Nashville, so I think I come by the music pretty honestly. The playful spirit and the heart of the piece are mine but also are very in the flavor of Posner’s writing. Above all, we wanted this piece to have a true, smart and light heart. Can a heart be smart? At least if it rhymes.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I live in Philly and didn’t see much in DC this year. The best production I saw was a dance company called Ernio Greco l PC in a piece entitled ‘Hell’, incredible bodies, extreme expression in twisted athletic form, jarring perfection in design and an unforgettable nude piece to the first movement of Beethoven’s 5th (and no – it wasn’t cliché).

What’s our next chance to see your work?

The company I am part of in Philly, Pig Iron Theater Co., opened a new piece March 28th called Chekhov Lizardbrain and will be playing for 3 weeks.

Monty Python’s Spamalot

Presented by The National Theatre

The play was lovingly ripped off from the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’.

How much of the real you is in the character?

Sir Robin is conflict averse. So am I. Sir Robin is stagestruck. So am I. Sir Robin slew the Vicious Chicken of Bristol. I eat chicken. I could go on, but I think things are uncanny enough, here.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Since Spamalot was touring, unfortunately we were not able to take in any other DC theatre. But the Canadian Embassy is a great supporter of the theatre in DC. And I loved The Drowsy Chaperone which hails from Canada. So there’s a tangential connection

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I am currently starring in Gutenberg! The Musical!, a hilarious 2-man show about the inventor of the printing press. Off-Broadway at New York’s Actor’s Playhouse.

An Enemy of the People

Produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company

Directed by the esteemed native Norwegian director, Kjetil Bang-Hansen, it was a wonderful, passionate, intelligent and provocative production of Ibsen’s powerfully relevant social drama about a doctor who discovers deadly pollution in his town’s water system, blows the whistle on the dangers posed by the poison, and is destroyed by his brother, the major and his greedy, small-minded townspeople. I am extremely proud to have been in it.

How much of the real you is in the character?

As an avid reader of scientific materials, science being my first love, the passionate scientist in Dr. Stockmann was very close to me. As a committed political activist, his cause was also easy for me to connect to. The defense of scientific truth in the face of corporate interests could not be more relevant to today, and is an issue almost as obsessive to me in my daily life as it is to Ibsen in the play. Coming from a large family of intellectuals, the conflicts and arguments I grew up with prepared me well for Ibsen’s searing dialogue. Stockmanns stubborn intellect was, embarrassingly, a bit too close to my own character. And the painful struggle to find a balance between ideals and family concerns is an issue that almost everyone can connect to. One of the reasons the play is so powerfully relevant.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The best production I saw this year would have to be No Child, the amazing one woman show by Nilaja Son at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York. It is still running and if you haven’t seen it, run.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I am currently working on a recurring part as a U.S. Attorney on the HBO series The Wire, which shoots in Baltimore, and in May I will be doing a production of a new play be Ed Napier called The Writing on the Wall at HB Studio Theatre.

Love’s Labor Lost

Produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company

This production was set in the late 1960’s in India. The young lords were an American rock band and the Prince of Navarre was the equivalent of the Maharishi whom the Beatles visited in 1967. The music was all period rock & roll and Indian music, played live by the cast. The sonnets the Lords composed became rock & roll songs. It was great fun and a tremendous challenge.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

I did not see any other productions in DC this year.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Love’s Labor is being remounted at Carter-Barron this spring. I am also composing the music for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet which opens in June.

Measure for Measure

Produced by Folger Theatre

This production was brilliantly conceived by Aaron Posner. It is one of Shakespeare’s more difficult plays – one of the ‘problem plays’ because of its ambiguous characters and endings. The productions featured bunraku-styled puppets (also brilliantly conceived and built by Aaron Cromie) playing several of the comic characters. Most interesting and challenging to me was Posner’s decision to have the bulk of the Duke’s presence onstage in the guise of a puppet character. I played the Duke myself as a human character onstage at the beginning and the end of the play, when he is himself visible as the Duke. When he steps into disguise as the friar, I became a puppet operator and had to create the disguised character as such. It was a fascinating experience. Very difficult but fascinating.

How much of the real you is in the character?

A good amount. I think the Duke grapples with many issues that we all have t grapple with – which is the right thing to do? How would the best part of me react to this problem? The Duke loves his people but has become inert, unable to govern because of his own self-involvement. He doesn’t know how to relate anymore and is caught in a web of his own disconnectedness and loneliness. That I definitely know how to relate to.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The History Boys

What’s our next chance to see your work?

The Accomplices at The New Group in New York, performing now until May 5th. Following that: Eurydice at Second Stage in New York from May 30 to at least July 21st.

Frankenstein and Faust Produced by Synetic Theatre

How much of the real you is in the character?

Every character I play is the real me except as a magnification of certain latent parts of my personality.

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

Shadows, dream within a dream performed by Luna Morena, the Mexican puppetry company at Capitol Fringe 2006.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

Performing in Synetic’s Animal Farm. April 26-May 20 at Rosslyn Spectrum. And I am founding a new wing of Synetic Theater, The Black Series, a late night ‘absurdist’ performance series. Writing/directing an inaugural piece My Way Little Girl which runs April 26-May 19 at Rosslyn Spectrum.

Love’s Labor’s Lost

Produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company

How much of the real you is in the play?

I thought I couldn’t answer this as a Costume Designer, but I believe that even designers can reflect themselves in the characters they costume. I feel that the princess and her entourage are so much fun, stylish, savvy and playful – that I would love to think that they reflect a part of myself!

What was the best production you saw this year besides your own?

The touring production of Spamalot.

What’s our next chance to see your work?

I will be designing South Pacific for Lincoln Center Theater’s Beaumont Theater with an opening scheduled for April, 2008.