 What Most Excites You About This Production?
It is something special to engage in new work that tackles real folks dealing with real problems so beautifully.
What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face With This Role?
One of the biggest actor challenges of this play is dancing to the rhythm of the text. The words and the pacing are musical. Daniel gave us words that move, so we gotta dance baby! As I discover more about Angela and her rhythm, it has become easier to shake to her jig. She is a fast talker who isn’t afraid to share her opinion with a little tabasco on her tongue. She is quick, hyper fierce and a little rough.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
I have never been to a mortuary or even thought about going to one. A friend of mine worked in a morgue for a while. We engaged in many conversations about what his experience was like working with dead bodies, communication with the families of the deceased individual, and the culture of sanitation when working with a deceased corpse that may withhold essential evidence to a case. Youtube videos have also been helpful in understanding a sense of being in the space of a mortuary.
 What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Roles?
Helena in the play Eclipsedwritten by Danai Gurira. Helena has a monumental amount of strength and resilience even when others see nothing. Recently I played the speaking role of Her in the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s spoken word ballet Far but Closewritten by Daniel Beaty. As an actress/Poet it was a magical experience using text to collaborate with dancers. It was innovative, challenging, and a little out of body sharing emotion and the arch of a character with the dancers as well as the audience.
Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
I am a chocoholic.
One time I knocked half of my front tooth off in a basketball game. Thank god for good dentist!
I was a shy as a kid.
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
The audience will witness many characters in this play find forgiveness, acceptance, or peace in some way. I only hope they are moved to embrace the courage to practice one or all of the three with themselves or someone they love.
 What Most Excites You About This Production?
What most excites me about this production is the originality of the work, the complexity of the characters, and the realness of the issues they face. It’s very challenging to play a character who isn’t a character; she is such a sincere representation of an actual person. Stephanie is remarkable: she laughs in the face of a terrifying disease and her strength and courage is admirable.
 What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face With This Role?
The greatest challenge I’ve faced with this role is the obvious one: portraying (as accurately and respectfully as possible) a person with cancer. It’s been difficult for me to go to a place I’m terrified of going in real life. I want to give Stephanie the strength I’ve seen in people who have cancer and don’t let it affect their life negatively. I’m amazed at these people who keep going in spite of everything, people who survive and never give up.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
My fellow actors in the show have given me a great deal of research ideas. Jake gave me information about the Center for Disease Control and discussed epilepsy with me and how to not “act” it too much; Dan told me about a broadcast he heard on “This American Life” about a cancer survivor; Q told me about her young friend who is currently battling cancer, and Morgan especially, who is being so brave in regards to his recent loss. I greatly appreciate their help and hope I’m doing it justice.
 What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Roles?
Melibea/Isabelle/Hippolyta in The Illusion by Tony Kushner with Sound Theatre Company, Heidi in The Heidi Chronicles at Washington State University, Lucy in Dracula at WSU.
Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
I have a deep-seated desire to be on a BBC television series. As a British person. Even though I am not British.
 What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
Life is short. Keep going. Do something for yourself that you’ll be proud of. Don’t be afraid of anything.
What Most Excites You About This Production?
There were many reasons I was thrilled to b offered the role of Sylvia in this production. It's exhilarating when an actor is given the opportunity to work with a company/director they love and actors they enjoy and respect, on a riveting new play set in their hometown. Feels like a perfect storm in the best sense of that term.
 What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face With This Role?
Painting Sylvia's vulnerability with her confidence, her sensitivities with her edge, and her compassion with her survival instinct must be done with a narrow brush. Our natural tendency is to dislike someone if they've make choices that hurt others; The challenge is to expose the mentality and circumstances that informed those decisions. I'm fascinated with getting to the heart of what motivates people to do what they do, how easily one decision could have been a different one, and how the smallest choices we make every day end up shaping our lives in drastic and sometimes devastating ways.
 What Kind Of Research Are You Doing To Prepare?
Knowing your character means walking in her shoes, having a foundational grasp of her life and the life experiences that shaped her. For instance: What would it have been like to grow up at a Catholic orphanage in the early 40s? How did she fit in to the world as a single female janitor in the 50s? Having an understanding of the time, reading the books she read, and discovering what kind of person she must have been to rely on herself for all those years has informed my process immensely.
 What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Roles?
Prior to moving to Seattle I was an Artist in Residence with Insurrection Theater Company in Phoenix, AZ whose focus was alternative new works. Two of my favorite roles with them were Angela (Goth, Astrophysicist, Lesbian, Vampire) in VAMP and
Artemis (polygamist) in MAN ON DOG. Both characters were kind, smart, women with complicated secrets. I enjoy playing characters who aren't decidedly "good" or "bad". Black and White is boring, let's see some Gray in there!
 Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets - What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
This play's secrets are dark enough that even if we had things in common I certainly wouldn't admit to them. I will say that when I was in elementary school I convinced my younger brother Peter that he should jump off the roof of our 1 story house using a department store shopping bag as a parachute. He tried, it didn't work. I then emphatically explained that he hadn't held the bag open enough and should give it another go. Amazingly he did, but this time he hurt his ankle upon impact. I felt the sting of well deserved guilt and opted to make it up to him by attempting the inadequate parachute roof jump myself. It was an interesting moment in life, climbing the tree to the roof, walking across the roof, looking down, knowing it would hurt, knowing I deserved the intentionally inflicted pain. I jumped, the parachute bag was useless, it hurt. I remember my mother coming outside and seeing us writhing in pain on the lawn with the shopping bag conspicuously in view. I don't recall if she pieced it together.
 What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
My hope is that this play illustrates the light and dark that exists within all of us - without that recognition, you can never really choose love instead.
 What Most Excites You About This Production?
Everything, really. I thoroughly enjoy Dan’s plays. I am excited that he is a local playwright and that the play is set in Seattle. I have worked with Dan and Morgan on two previous productions and we
have a constructive method of working together which creates a positive energy.
What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face Designing This Production?
Building this set off site has been an enormous challenge. I’ve built it in segments because of space constraints and I have to dismantle it like a puzzle with many diagrams and instructions so hopefully it can be recreated at the Annex Theatre.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
My research was technical in nature. My idea for the set came to me almost instantly but I realized very soon that my ideas were not necessarily all feasible and had to be modified to be practical and to enable the play to run smoothly.
What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Productions You Have Designed For?
The first production I ever did, ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean’ got me passionately hooked on set design. Every one I have done subsequently has had its own challenge and I have enjoyed immensely. The Torch Bearers’ and ‘Timepieces’ were both sets that required some technical inventiveness and I was really happy with how they worked out. Each production has been special in its own way.
 Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
I should probably wait till after the set is installed before I reveal that.
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
Life has many layers. Our perception of things depends on how we are feeling physically or emotionally, what is happening around us and how we relate to those within our midst.
What Most Excites You About This Production?
Having the opportunity to debut new work is both brilliant and terrifying. It’s freeing because the vision for the play can go into any direction and it allows you to chip away at the piece until it’s what you want.
The terrifying aspect is that all of those decisions and choices are on you in the end. Though, it’s the good kind of terrifying that makes you excited to get out of bed and go to the theater to get to work.
What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face With
This Role?
As far as challenges go, I’m most excited about aging from a 23 year old college student to a 69 year old college professor in the same scene. I feel as though it’s something that is exciting and it reminds the audience of that they’re in live theater and, even there, anything can happen.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
I’ve been going through a lot of old photographs of the period, from the University of Washington libraries to migrant workers in Eastern Washington. Reading a great deal of Ovid, as well.
What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Roles?
Some of my favorite roles so far have been Charles / William from As You Like It at Seattle Shakespeare Company, Bernard in The Waves (directed by Sheila Daniels) and Jefe in El Paso Blue (directed by Aimée Bruneau) at Cornish College of the Arts.
Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
I cannot swim. I hope that you don’t use that against me.
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
The correct pronunciation of Ovid.
But seriously, a sense of what any one of us leaves behind. The fact that we leave things behind and those things can be all that are left of us when we’re no longer around. It makes me wonder what people will think of me, and who I was, when I’m not around to explain anymore and all they’re left with are the details.
 What Most Excites You About This Production?
The script. It’s like a good mystery book and each scene takes us
deeper and deeper into the story. I was totally hooked from the minute I started reading it all the way to the end. I particularly like the metaphor of what secrets and emotions we keep buried within ourselves and what must not stay buried – what refuses to be hidden, what must eventually surface and be exposed. I find the drive of the main character, Stephanie, who is a hard-core journalist and has terminal cancer, particularly compelling.
She is determined to uncover the mystery of what happened to the woman discovered in a wall. Throughout the play Stephanie
actively digs up the past even when she suspects the story will be painful,even when it seems to unbury uncomfortable feelings and emotions in her own life.
I am very excited about our phenomenal cast of actors: Elinor
Gunn, Erin Ison, Peter Cook, Jake Ynzunza, Qadriyyah Shabazz, Daniel Wood are all excellent. They are a dedicated and talented cast of local Seattle actors and I am honored to be working with them.
 What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face Directing This Production?
We want to do the play in an intimate space but in order to keep
up the suspense we have to move through several different places and periods (there’s even a little time travel in the play) in a very short space of time – so we will have to capture the audience’s imagination and take them to the places we need to go. The
emotions in this play are a full on super rollercoaster for the cast! They must stay committed to their characters throughout the play. The actors have been very brave with this and you will see them travel to some very dark places but they also take us back
into the light --there are a lot of places where the audience will get a good belly laugh. I think ultimately we are finding the best pacing for this show – like a good piece of music -- so it flows into one cohesive story without a lot of awkward pauses and breaks in the action.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
I’m not sure that it is research but my mother passed away this
summer from lung cancer. My mother was a wonderful and generous person and her death was pretty gruesome in the
end – I had to face so many painful things I have always been afraid of. I have been trying to recover emotionally but it is difficult because no one really cares what you go through when your mother dies. Some people send cards but they don’t want you to talk about it. They want you to move on – your personal tragedies are something you are expected to bury and not talk about because it is rude to burden people when you are unhappy. In
our culture we are expected to bury painful things both physically and emotionally. This has informed me so much about the rich subtext of this play and I think added some insight into what our main character is going through. Death is sad but it is also mysterious, in some ways, a wondrous transition.
 What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Productions You Have Directed?
It has been such a long time since I directed a full-length play. I did a beautifully creepy production of SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER by Tennessee Williams at the University of Utah and also a kick-ass production of MACBETH. I have mostly been a producer and writer. It is fun to get back to directing again.
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
First, I hope the audience will enjoy the mystery of the play as
much as I did – and stay with us moment by moment as this suspenseful story unfolds. Beyond that I am deeply moved and inspired by Stephanie’s journey toward discovery and hope even
as she moves closer to death. These characters are all challenged when it comes to how they perceive love and they pay a hard price in the end for trying to control it. It is very human to want to take love and put in a box. Love is an emotion that changes for us over time; it grows and transforms us. It is not something you can bury.
 What Most Excites You About This Production?
It is thrilling to be a part of bringing this production before
an audience for the first time. I think what is most exciting is the intensity of the play, and having the opportunity to work with such talented people.
What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face With This Role?
Joseph is a wild ride. It is one of the heavier roles I have had
the opportunity to play. He is a truly tragic character and at times, quite terrifying. The greatest challenge is to let go. Let him breath. Open the tap and get out of the way…
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
Beyond researching the references in the text, I did some work
with a physical therapist to understand how recovering from a fractured hip and walking with a cane would be. The majority of Joseph is internal though so, I actually found myself reading and listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen. This older weathered composer singing about love seemed to resonate with Joseph’s
character.
“Maybe there's a God above, And all I ever learned from love,
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you;…
Hallelujah”
 What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Roles?
My favorite role previous to this would be Charlie in The Foreigner (telling a story in gibberish for an entire scene is too much fun). After that would be George in Moon Over Buffalo, and playing myself at the end of Accomplice.
 Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
Secrets? I have no secrets… really,… really,… er,… yeah…
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production
I hope they find the play new, different, and bold. For Joseph, it is a tragedy. I hope the audience takes away a renewed appreciation for what they have, the importance of their relationships, and the fragility of this life.
 What Most Excites You About This Production?
I love working on an original production. There is something quite thrilling in the knowledge that I am the first designer to bring these characters to life. And I love doing plays set in Seattle – somehow it feels like home. And who wouldn’t be thrilled to design a
ghost!
What Is The Greatest Challenge You Face Designing This Production?
The juxtaposition of two different historical periods, and the need to figure out how to move smoothly between them. However, this is also an answer to the first question: the way the different times intertwine and inform each other is very exciting from a designer’s point of view.
 What Kind of Research Are You Doing to Prepare?
I do the historical research, as well as professional research to answer questions like, “What did a Native American college student look like in 1961?”, “What kind of lab coat does a medical
examiner wear?”,etc. At the same time, I get inspired walking the streets of Seattle, which gives me ideas about color palette, layering, and surface textures that are interesting and could
bring something out in the characters. And people-watching is always fun!
What Have Been Some of Your Favorite Previous Productions You Have Designed For?
I loved “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” at Arts West, “The Bells” at Strawberry Theatre Workshop, as well as “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (set in a post-apocalyptic Seattle), and“Translations” at the UW School of
Drama.
 Since This Play Is About Unearthing Secrets – What Secret About Yourself Would You be Willing to Share?
I’m afraid I have to do the “if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret” thing here.
What Do You Hope Audiences Take From This Production?
To me, this is a play about people who came very close to“having
it all”, and then it somehow slipped through their fingers. This is something anyone can relate to, because no matter how hard we try to break free of stereotypes, we are still conditioned to want certain things in life: marriage,children, a career, a certain amount of comfort and wealth; and we can’t help but feel inferior if any or some of those things don’t go according to plan. But the play brings to our attention the fact that life is precious no matter what, and that making peace with oneself is the most difficult and the most amazing thing we can do.
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