This week’s Take Ten finds actor KATIE DEBUYS waxing poetic over Lin, longing for quality time with Barack, Michelle, and Joe, and reveling in dreams of Brutus and Marc Antony. Catch her as Hermione in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale [1] at Folger Theatre [2] through April 22.
1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?
I distinctly remember watching the PBS recordings of Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods on VHS over and over and over again as a kid. Musicals were the gateway drug, but then I got bitten by the Shakespeare bug when I read Romeo and Juliet in junior high and it turned out I couldn’t really sing, so here I am!
2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?
I was in a production of Fame the summer after seventh grade. I played a chorus member. The next summer I played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and I was ruined for the theatre. I was absolutely certain there was nothing I could possibly do with my life but be an actor.
3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?
Hamilton. Sue me, it’s freaking awesome. I saw it and seeing it was absolutely one of the best days of my life. On top of being a great work of art, it’s making people who didn’t know they love theater discover that they love it madly. It’s current and well-crafted and gorgeous and exciting and Lin is a national treasure and I love Hamilton and I will shout that from the rooftops.
4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?
I won’t name the restaurant because that would be mean, but for about two months I worked at a very popular DC restaurant that was just so freaking awful in every way. You’ve probably eaten there. Everyone who works there is miserable. I’m very lucky now to work at Cafe Saint-Ex when I’m not doing a play, and that is a job with great friends that I love very much.
5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?
My first entrance in Stupid Fucking Bird was a full speed run across the stage, down a staircase, and up the aisle. During the run at Portland Center Stage in Oregon, there was a night when I tripped on my shoelaces and fell flat on my face during said full speed run. Directly center stage. The show went on, but . . . Yeah, that was embarrassing. And I have a scar from how bad the scrape was.
6) What are you enjoying most about working on The Winter's Tale [1] at Folger Theatre [2]?
The deep collaboration we had as a team throughout the rehearsal process (and still have in performance!) was inspiring on a whole new level for me. I’m also truly challenged by this role of Hermione, and it feels amazing to explore each brand new, difficult, exciting, frustrating, rewarding moment in performance.
7) Other than your significant other, who’s your dream date (living or dead) and why?
Is it lame if I say I just want to hang out with Barack and Michelle? Because I just want to hang out with Barack and Michelle. And Joe. Joe too. I MISS THEM SO MUCH!
8) What is your dream role/job?
Hermione in The Winter’s Tale was a dream for a long time. I’d love to play either Brutus or Marc Antony in Julius Caesar. Ideally, both at some point.
9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?
The 1898 Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull directed by Stanislavsky.
10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?
To the eight-year-old, I’d say: keep having fun! The skills you’re learning doing theatre are applicable to just about anything you’ll do in life! You’re eight! You do you!
To a graduating MFA, I’d say: it’s important to self-define success. Get specific about what you want to do, try to do it, and allow yourself to feel successful when you do. If we’re all waiting around to be famous, nobody gets to feel successful. I just want to make plays that tell stories of value in collaboration with people I love and respect. Right now, I’m lucky enough to be doing that, so I get to feel successful.
KATIE DEBUYS - Folger Theatre: Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Gaming Table; Theater J: The How and the Why; Round House Theatre: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Night Alive, Fool for Love, Seminar (Helen Hayes nomination); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play, Stupid F***ing Bird (world premiere and re-mount); Shakespeare Theatre Company: Measure for Measure; Imagination Stage: Aladdin’s Luck; Regional: Portland Center Stage; Syracuse Stage: Stupid F***ing Bird; Indiana Repertory Theatre: The Giver; Capital T Theatre: Bug (B. Iden Payne Award, Best Actress), Killer Joe; Texas Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar.
Links:
[1] https://www.folger.edu/events/the-winters-tale
[2] https://www.folger.edu/
