Laurie Metcalf (#317) - April, 2011

ATW - Downstage Center

Laurie Metcalf talks about her role in Sharr White's play "The Other Place" at MCC Theater, and the challenge of playing someone whose mental faculties are diminishing in a non-linear play, requiring her to constantly leap between varying states of mind. She also talks about her embrace of theatre during her college years at Illinois State University, where she first studied German, then anthropology, before settling on theatre; being one of the original company members of the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre and her satisfaction with her day job during those early years; her Chicago breakout role in "The Glass Menagerie" and how that production fit with the company's reputation for "rock and roll theatre"; her participation in both the Chicago and New York productions of Lanford Wilson's "Balm in Gilead", and how she is still approached on the street by people recalling that show 25 years later; her regular returns to the Steppenwolf stage throughout her television run on "Roseanne" and other TV and film work; her opportunities to play Kate Keller in "All My Sons" twice -- both at London's National Theatre and Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse; how The New Group's production of "A Lie of the Mind" "saved" her after the brief run of "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and the failure of its companion piece, "Broadway Bound", to open; her affinity for the play "Voice Lessons", which she'll be returning to for a third time; and the appeal of Steppenwolf's "Detroit", scheduled for Broadway in the fall. Original air date - April 27, 2011.