The Little Theatre of Alexandria

What do you find appealing about your character and this show? Shirley Jackson, the author of the Haunting of Hill House, is one of the most brilliant of American horror writers.   As a female author writing in the 1950s, she was a trendsetter and I feel honored to appear in the play based on her book.    The most interesting thing about this play is the psychological underpinning – are the ghosts that haunt us coming from outside, or from within ourselves? What have you learned about yourself in playing the role of “Mrs. Montague___”? I love playing Mrs. Montague, who is the domineering wife of Dr. Montague, the “doctor of the paranormal” in the play.    Mrs. Montague is a fan of the spiritualism movement, and she believes that we must save the “loving spirits” who haunt the house.     As you will see, she is a comic figure but she is desperate for Dr. Montague to respect her for her methods to call up the spirits.   I learned how to ac...

What do you find appealing about your character and this show? It is so much fun to play Arthur Parker, a character who is so full of himself and who is so oblivious to being mocked by those around him. Arthur also provides a little comic relief from the horrors of Hill House. Working with this spectacular cast and crew has been a blast.   Everyone works so hard but we all have fun doing it.   Our director, Maggie Mumford, has given us so much liberty to explore and her joy in the process provides us all with a wonderful environment in which to work. What have you learned about yourself in playing the role of “Arthur Parker”? I have confirmed how much I love doing comedic roles. I see humor in almost everything and having the outlet to play with the humor is fun and liberating. What do you want the audience to experience/take away from this show? I hope they will pause and listen a bit more intently when they hear the wind howling, a branch tapping on a window, ...

What do you find appealing about your character and this show? I think this show and the novel it is based on is a really great example of the “ideal” scary story. A   lot of movies and tv shows now tend to lean too heavily on CGI and special effects to make things scary, but true horror is psychological and in the unseen (or the imagined). This play does a wonderful job of balancing that true psychological terror with real emotion and characters you come to sympathize with and care about. My character, Eleanor, is a very complicated person (to say the least). She comes to Hill House trying to escape her old life and become more independent, which is what drew me to the character initially.  What have you learned about yourself in playing the role of “Eleanor Vance”? I feel like every time we run the show or I revisit my lines, I find some new layer to Eleanor and why she acts the way she does. She makes a lot of seemingly drastic decisions in the play (and in her ...