Spotlight on the Ingersolls: Vision, Persistence

SPOTLIGHT ON THE INGERSOLLS: VISION. PERSISTENCE.

It's hard to imagine actors with this much talent attributing their success to "perseverance" and "discipline." But that's exactly what Michael and Angela Ingersoll say when asked by Metropolis Insider. The husband and wife teamed up with actors Julie Burt and Steve O'Connell in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, Metropolis' opening production of the 2006/2007 season. This was the second time in these roles for the Ingersolls, both having performed in Love/Perfect at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. But to become such a successful husband - wife team, they had to become a husband and wife.

Six years ago at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, the company manager made the announcement he makes every year to his company of actors, a profession that is particularly known for its- closeness. "Nobody touch each other." Two weeks later Michael and Angela began dating. After a year together in Cincinnati and three in Memphis at Playhouse on the Square, they married "On a Monday," says Michael. "Cause it's the only dark day [known as dark days, theatres are traditionally only closed on Mondays]."

Michael: "One of the people we met in the theatre got ordained, to marry us. And yeah, we got married on a Monday so that we could-"

Angela: "So all our theatre friends could go. Our artistic friends built the set. When all of your friends are entertainers and party throwers, it's the best wedding ever."

Then there's the matter of career.

M: "Here we were in our 20's, and we wanted to take the next step professionally. We wanted to get in the union, so we took steps towards that."

Insider: "You did one film there [in Memphis]"

M: "Yeah, I did Walk the Line when I was down there. I got to see Joaquin Phoenix a lot. Oh man that's a great movie."

At which point it was time to make the leap to one of the biggest theatre markets in the country. Coming to Chicago "wasn't an easy decision," Michael says. "We had jobs in a resident company [in Memphis], we were always in leading roles, we were paid a living wage, the voice over market there helped us make our living totally from the industry. We were big fish in a small pond… We were doing pretty much what we wanted to do."

And they still are. Michael played the lead in tick, tick... Boom!, the hit musical from the creator of Rent, and was recently cast in the First National Tour of the Broadway hit Jersey Boys, opening December 1 in San Francisco. Angela played Nellie in South Pacific at Light Opera Works and was recently nominated for a JEFF Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Secret Garden at Porchlight Music Theatre. And as rehearsals of Love/Perfect give way to performances it becomes obvious why they get to do what they want. They have huge voices, tremendous talent and a ton of energy. Both of them. Put them with the equally talented Burt and O'Connell and this production takes-off.

In her book The Creative Habit, legendary New York Choreographer Twyla Tharp talks of getting up every morning at 5:30 a.m. to exercise and begin her days' work. She speaks of creativity and talent not as this elusive thing one is born with, but as something one develops through hard work. The Ingersolls are evidence of this. Though I could barely get them to acknowledge their talent, it's obvious they have plenty of it.

M: "We chose to totally start over, knowing that nobody would know us here. We didn't have an agent. You know, but as soon as we got here we got hooked up with Alan Chambers (Associate Artistic Director, Theatre Building Chicago). He had come down to Memphis, there's this huge audition conference every year."

A: "He was really instrumental."

M: "He got us into Josephine Tonight. They were small parts but we got to meet great people through that.

A: "What's gotten the ball rolling for us, in my opinion, has had a lot to do with Elizabeth."

M: "Elizabeth Geddes is our agent, and she is an amazing agent. And if you want to make a living in the business in Chicago, you have to have one. She's been fantastic."

Insider: "How long did it take you to fully make your living in the business in Chicago?"

A: "We haven't had a day job yet."

M: "It's literally a full-time obsession to make that happen. Most actors don't think of themselves as running a contracting business. Your goal is to get a contract. You are a contractor. So you have to be all your own departments of that business, in terms of making connections and self-promotion. We sent out headshots, mailings, letters-”

Insider: "What's the single biggest factor that's lead to your success?"

A: "Having a strong vision of what you want. A lot of artists and actors may be preoccupied with whatever might pop up in front of them. You're not necessarily progressing because you don't have your eye on the prize, you don't have a vision of what you want for yourself and therefore the perseverance to make each opportunity what you want it to be: Every opportunity is whatever you make it. And everyone you work with is as great as you will visualize them to be. So there's this self-obsession that you have and this collaborative cooperation that you have to have at the same time. And it's exhausting, but necessary. And very rewarding."

M: "It's perseverance and discipline. They're more important than anything else. They're more important than talent, they're more important than the way you look. I think they're more important than ability. I think we can all agree that there are some actors that are making incredible livings that may not be the best actors in the world. But they worked it. They worked the business. My bet is that Keanu Reeves worked the business."

A: "Yeah, you don't have to be the most talented or beautiful or the smartest. You have to do everything you can to make it happen for yourself."

M: "Which is not selling ourselves short or anything. Yes, [talent] must be a part of the puzzle, but it's only a part in a much larger puzzle."

A: "Because the business isn't fair."

M: "Right, I mean the discipline is just not to give up. The rejection is intense. All the time, it is constant. Constant."

A: "And it's necessary for the business to work. You have to accept the rejection. It's normal."

M: "But to not let that get in your head. To not let the rejection define you. To not let it cripple you, in terms of your effort. I think is the single most important thing. You have to keep doing it.”

Insider: "What's a good batting average?”

M: "It depends. If you're going to do theatre-Ok, if your goal-[stopping to think] Really it's money. You can work constantly if you're not worried about money. Because there's so much theatre in this city. Hundreds of companies. You can work if all you want is work. If you want to make a living? In Theatre? I think a good batting average is one out of fifteen."

Insider: "So what's your batting average since coming to Chicago?"

M: "It's a little better than that (laughing). I've probably gone on 15 or 20 [auditions], and I've gotten maybe five or six, and turned down the three that were not as good as the three that I accepted."

A: "I haven't gone on as many theatre auditions as you. I was a little pickier."

M: "I was happy to get-What?!" (Both laughing)

M: "But the biggest thing, you can't set rules for yourself. As soon as you say 'ok if I haven't done XYZ in two years, I'm done.' You can't do it. It doesn't work that way. You have to say, I will achieve this no matter what."

A: "The discoveries you make along the way of how you're going to get there-that's the exciting part. You just need to keep your vision alive."

M: "What you're selling is yourself. You have to be a product that someone wants to invest in. Part of the discipline is spending money to maintain your voice with voice lessons. It's going to the gym. It's going to bed early enough that you can get up early enough in the morning to go to your audition that you know you have a one in a hundred chance of getting. That's what I mean, I guess, with discipline."

Insider: "Michael, you just got cast in the National Tour of Jersey Boys."

M: "I start rehearsal in New York the day [Love/Perfect] closes. The coolest part, is the first national tour is a remount by the original Broadway creative team. So the director, who won the Tony, everybody, the musical director, reassembles to do this thing. So that's what's really exciting...

If there's anything else that's interesting, it's that we've really done this as a team. The way that we've leaned on each other, and supported each other through this because-In acting, or in any arts, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower. When it's great it's great, and when it's bad-cause what you’re selling is you, and when you get, you know, no no no no no, it's you they're saying no to. I think it's cool that, you know, Angie and I have done it together. That we met in the theatre. That we got married in the theatre."

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RSVP Magazine: She’s a Star

RSVP MAGAZINE: SHE'S A STAR

CENTERSTAGE

She's known her passion forever: the desire to be center stage, in the heat of the lights, acting and singing her heart out. "I remember being three years old, taking my clothes off and saying, 'Look, I'm Gypsy Rose Lee.'" While the stages have changed and the costumes have been a bit more complete, the passion of theatre and the drama of drama have stayed right in the heart of Groeschen (Ingersoll).

Angela Groeschen, in the few years that she has called Memphis home, has been actively thrilling the Memphis audiences through her work at Playhouse on the Square and their family of stages. Groeschen came to Memphis from Indianapolis, where she grew up as a child, Ithaca, New York, where she attended college, and New York City, where she waited tables and did the struggling actor's thing. There was the year back in the Midwest doing more regional theater before she and Michael Ingersoll, boyfriend and now her fiance, were both accepted by Playhouse on the Square to become part of the team. Groeschen spent a year as an intern before becoming a resident member of the company and more than a team player for all-that-is-Memphis-theater. She's a star.

When Groeschen speaks of her theater experiences, she speaks respectfully and in awe of the names who have guided her-too many to mention really, but one high school teacher, Dr. Carroll Stegall, is always at the forefront of her performances. "I still think of him as if he's in the audience." She wants to do her best for those who have guided her.

She's downright emotional when she speaks of her passion for theater and acting. "Doing Shakespeare is my favorite thing in the world," she notes. And, her language reverberates with someone in love with every aspect of theater: "I love listening to directors. I learn something in every play." And, as she has learned, she has thrilled Memphis audiences with memorable performances in a host of plays: Macbeth ("I thought I was way too young and didn't really expect to get the part." Others thought differently, thank goodness) Bat Boy: The Musical, Jekyll & Hyde, The Philadelphia Story, The Wizard Of Oz, and on and on. On the horizon, she'll take leading roles in Of Mice And Men, Man Of La Mancha, and Beauty & The Beast.

As for her future with soon-to-be husband, Michael Ingersoll: "We're researching theater in Chicago, a bigger market." The idea of her Midwestern family being able to see her on stage adds an incentive to get back to that part of the country. She also sees herself directing, if it is a bit later in life: "I always had a dream in the back of my head of having my own space."

Whatever she's doing in theater and wherever she's performing or directing, it's a good bet that Angela Groeschen will bring drama to life for audiences for a long time. And, we suspect there will be more than one or two rousing curtain calls for this dedicated artist.

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Know The Score: Music in Memphis

KNOW THE SCORE: MUSIC IN MEMPHIS

Excerpts from Martha Ellen Maxwell's interview with Angela Ingersoll, discussing her time at Playhouse on the Square

MEM: If you could, explain the difference between opera and musical theatre.

AI: I would say the heightened state is different. In a musical theatre play you’re going to base things in realism as much as you can while we’re speaking. Then, when something occurs to one of us that we need to explore more deeply, it’s time to turn to poetry. Therefore we’re in a heightened state as we’re exploring these more complex feelings when we sing. In an opera, everything is heightened that way. All the time. Every stake in the story, the way that we present every aspect of life, is heightened. Musical theatre takes the audience in and out more. The element of surprise in that is what I like, because we can be having a very realistic conversation, and suddenly one of us gets an idea that sends us into a rhapsody. All of the sudden you’re carried into all of these feelings and emotions coming from musical exploration. I really enjoy that about musical theatre. And then you come back, to the simplicity of going on with regular life. But all these things are inside of you!

MEM: You have been an outstanding performer for Playhouse on the Square. You’ve just finished Beauty and the Beast, which was wonderful. Isn’t this the first time it’s been shown in a regional theatre?

AI: Oh, yes. That’s absolutley one of the perks of working at Playhouse on the Square. It’s often a test market theatre for first run musicals when they’ve just come off Broadway or their National Tours. Playhouse is one of those theatres that gets the rights first to morph shows out of a multi-million dollar space and into a functional space that can speak to many communities across America.

MEM: Well, it was an amazing producion. I saw it in New York, and I was really impressed that you could do what you did on that stage. I am sure it was a challenge.

AI: Scott Ferguson, our director, had to be really creative!

MEM: You’ve starred in many musicals while you’ve been here. What were some of your favorites?

AI: Man of La Mancha was right before Beauty and the Beast, and it was pretty much night and day to go from the Spanish Inquistion prison to the Disney glamour.

MEM: You were Aldonza, and then to go to the sweet, innocent Beauty…

AI: Yes, and as Paul Seiz our Music Director says, they’re both tough girls. You know, Belle’s strong willed; has a strong sense of self. It’s funny how many similarities I found beween the characters, honeslty, getting to do them back to back. Jekyll and Hyde was also one of my favorites. Not a show that I liked before I was able to be a part of it. I was pretty prejudiced against it, honeslty. It was so poppy and popular, and I was a musical theatre snob about it. I think what I didn’t want to embrace was how melodramatic the story is. Once I embraced the melodrama, I found out how much audiences LOVE IT. And they love the high notes, and love the “spooky guy around the corner” sense of the whole thing. It was really one of the most rewarding shows I’ve done, personally, because I learned so much from the audience. I loved it.

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Man of La Mancha on NPR Station WKNO

MAN OF LA MANCHA ON NPR STATION WKNO

Live Lunch Broadcast: Host Kacky Walton interviews Angela Ingersoll on her award-nominated role as Aldonza in Man Of La Mancha, live from the stage of Playhouse on the Square. Topics include Cervantes, compliments, and corsets.

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Up Close with Wizard of Oz Star

UP CLOSE WITH WIZARD OF OZ STAR

FAMILY & FRIENDS MAGAZINE

She is one busy woman. It's one thing to say, "theater is your life," it's another to live, breathe and eat it 24/7 for three straight years. Playhouse on the Square resident company member, Angela Groeschen (Ingersoll), the star of Playhouse on the Square's immensely popular The Wizard Of Oz, is arguably the hardest working woman in Memphis today, and has no plans for letting up.

In an effort to talk to her about playing our community's "special friend," we had to interrupt her work on publicity for POTS's upcoming production of Picnic. That's right, when she's not onstage or in rehearsal, she spends her time doing publicity for the theater and/or teaching local Memphis children the art of acting. She and her fiance, Michael Ingersoll (another POTS resident company member) just have signed on for another year at Memphis' only professional resident theater and was more than willing to share her experience of playing that infamous girl with those ruby slippers.

F&F: It's great that you've decided to stay another year, but what made you decide to stay?

Ingersoll: It's wonderful having the security here that Michael and I have, plus we are just starting to get into voice-over work and commercials, which is helping to contribute to our financial security before we move on to Chicago or New York. Also, there are some shows on the upcoming season that are really going to "beef up" both of our resumes next year. Finally, we just really like it in Memphis. We know that we now have a home here that we can come back to anytime.

F&F: You and your fiance have played the leads in about 14 to 15 straight shows. That sounds exhausting.

Ingersoll: It's been such an educational experience and we've gotten to play such a variety of roles (most notably Bat Boy: The Musical and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change).

F&F: Let's talk about The Wizard Of Oz. I haven't seen it yet, so tell me, how similar is this production to the movie?

Ingersoll: No, it's not straight out of the movie. That was a big debate when we started working on this show. There is a certain desire to satisfy the audience's expectations, but you don't have to completely imitate the movie because it's already so ingrained in the head of American culture that people will fill in most of the blanks themselves. So we could depart and make some things rather unique. I know that our director, Shorey Walker (Grease and Peter Pan) updated a lot of the musical styles - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is now very "pop" sounding and the Winkies do this hip-hop dance a la a rock concert. It's very funny. The audience also is given green glasses to look through for when we get to Emerald City.

F&F: What's been the reaction from the audiences who love the movie so much and this version?

Ingersoll: Oh, they love it! People expecting the movie get enough of a pleasant "breath of fresh air," and enough traditional, comfortable moments. Shorey pulled from four different sources for this production (The Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version, the book, the movie, and a 1912 version of the play.) It's very interesting to watch. We'll be going along on stage in a scarecrow scene that is verbatim from the movie and then, all of a sudden, these crows enter the stage and start singing, which comes from the RSC version. We also do the "Jitterbug" number that was cut from the movie.

F&F: What kind of pressure is there on you to borrow from Judy Garland's performance?

Ingersoll: I had the same big challenge when I did The Philadelphia Story recently. The director of that production and I wanted to go down that road and definitely replicate that period, that style, that person (Katharine Hepburn), which some people loved and some people hated. It's a choice that we went with very strongly. With Dorothy, there's plenty of this character already built into my self consciousness that, although I'm certainly not aware of it happening, I'm sure aspects of Judy Garland's performance do come through to a certain extent (I've seen the movie hundreds of times). So, no, I've never made a conscious choice to imitate Judy Garland. In fact, I had to divert myself from the movie so that I could come up with my own take as much as possible.

I did a lot of study of the Jungian psychology of symbols and analysis. I had to get my head somewhere that was exciting for me and not copy the movie. The journey for myself as an actress every night doesn't feel like what I experience when I watch Judy Garland perform the same role. The feelings for her and my experiences onstage are totally different. I'm taking from the actors I'm on stage with every night, not what I expect them to be. For example, our Lion (Harry Culpepper) is not at all like Burt Lahr, in fact, he's very fey, very funny. One of the biggest challenges for me was that I wanted to make my relationships with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion very clear and distinct from each other. I'm very "buddy buddy" with the Scarecrow (Brian James Porter); I have a big, hard-core crush on the Tin Man (Michael Ingersoll); and I mother the Lion constantly.

F&F: Without forcing you to become too philosophical, why do you think this show has had such a profound effect on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community?

Ingersoll: Well, in my research for the show, I ran across some theories as to why gay people were so attracted to Judy Garland, particularly in The Wizard of Oz. I think many in the LGBT community can identify with that child who feels no one at home understands them and must forge out into the world to find their own identity. And once they get out into the world, realizing they can't use the tools they were given growing up, must now utilize new tools as they're discovered. Even the "home" everyone is looking for is simply the realization that you must be comfortable with yourself. So, this is what I think reverberates so strongly in this community.

F&F: Well said. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy theater schedule to talk to us. Now, Get back to work!

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Commercial Appeal Feature

COMMERCIAL APPEAL FEATURE

I’m Angela Groeschen, No. 621

Angela Groeschen (Ingersoll) doesn't want to talk. It's just before 9 on a Monday morning and she's in the first group about to go onstage. It is the third and last day of the auditions and she's pacing around the scene shop, oblivious to everyone else. And then, even in the din of performers practicing lines and lyrics, she suddenly stands out. Angela emits this piercing, unearthly yelp that rises and falls in a fashion at odds with this tiny (5-foot),young (26) actress in a vivacious raspberry dress.

What is that racket? Later she explains: "A siren. It's a good way to go through breaks in your vocal range." The siren helped her through the pre-audition jitters, which, she said, were enhanced from lack of sleep.

But the main thing, right now, minutes before going on, is to focus. Focus. Make the most of time, of opportunity and get through this. When she was a neophyte, she was acutely aware of everyone else in the warmup room. Urgently competitive actors like to intimidate by showing off great range or ability. It psyched her out then. "Now I just stay in a corner and ignore everybody. Everybody wishes they had a private space. I got up early and took a shower -- you go through the scales in the shower."

Nothing fazes her now. And then it's time.

Angela strides to center stage. "I'm Angela Groeschen, number six twenty one." She has been on this exact square-foot of real estate many times. She was here the night before performing the lead role in The Philadelphia Story. In the past year, she's been a wide-eyed Wendy in Peter Pan, a lunatic Lady Macbeth, a slutty Shelley in Bat Boy and a swinging Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime.

It helps to have a familiarity with the stage, although, as it is with any performance, there's never anything quite like what you're doing at this very moment. She jumps into the monologue. The volunteer in the front row starts the timer. The auditorium full of theater reps watch, listen and scribble. After the monologue, she segues into a tune. From the balcony, it all looks and sounds like it's going well. She finishes before her 90 seconds expire. "Thank you. I'm Angela Groeschen, number six twenty one."

There are a dozen or so actors associated with Playhouse on the Square in this morning's group. In a way, they're lucky to be getting this part of it over with early in the day. By 10 a.m., they'll have been on and off the stage. But if they've done well at all in their 90 seconds, it's far from over, because now they ache to get call-backs. And if they get any, there are more interviews and auditions. It's going to be a long day for Angela.

One part of her audition was risky, the bit of a bad actress acting badly. "If they didn't laugh, I'd fall flat on my face. But they did." She was pleased enough, but she wasn't really that worried. Angela has put in long hours on stage in a variety of roles and knows what works. "You want, in 90 seconds, to fulfill their expectations about you. You can show versatility later."

After the make-or-break flash audition, the next stomach-wrenching moment comes in the King Cotton Gayoso room -- better known this weekend as the call-back room -- at the French Quarter Suites. Neatly printed signs for all 84 theater reps are posted high on the walls. Under those signs are the call-back sheets with names and audition numbers of actors who have caught the interest of the company. That interest may be in a call-back, a dance call-back or simply noting that the resume is being kept. If it's just "resume kept," there is nothing for that actor at the moment, but the company is impressed enough to keep the info on file. If it's a dance call-back, the actor can go to the TheatreWorks building in the evening to learn and perform some choreographic routines. And if the "call-back" box is checked, the actor can sign up for an interview later that day, typically a 10-minute or so audition where he or she might do more prepared material or be asked to read from scripts. It could be anything. You just have to be ready.

Angela is No. 621. Michael A. Ingersoll is No. 622. Both are in the resident company at Playhouse. They have performed together in Macbeth, Peter Pan, Bat Boy and The Philadelphia Story. She'll be Dorothy and he the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz in March.

They met at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and came to Playhouse together. A company rep is chatting with them in a hallway of the French Quarter Suites. He looks at their resumes and asks, puzzled: "You've been in several shows together?" As one, in a moment that is beyond cute, they reply: "We're engaged." Ah, that explains it.

They read each other well. Not only do they share professional achievements, they are similar in abilities, goals and outlook. And both get plenty of call-backs. They go together around the room from posting to posting, looking up the details of various companies that have expressed interest and initialing call-back forms. "I've done really well today -- resume-keeps and call-backs by a lot of people I wanted," she says.

There's Bearcreek Farms Country Resort in her home state. She likes it, except for one thing: "Good pay but just resort shows." Angela's flair for Shakespeare won't get much workout in rural Indiana. Of course they want to find a place that will have both of them. "Would you do an international tour with me?" she teases Mike. He would.

Angela grew up in Indianapolis, knowing since age 5 what she wanted to do and supported by her blue-collar family. She attended performing arts junior and senior high schools and went to Ithaca College in New York, majoring in theater. And then straight out of college to the Big Apple. "It was a hard-knocks lesson. I was not having fun at all. I was not a good business person. If you're an actor, you have to sell yourself all the time. Do all the schmoozing."

It was not all dismal. In November 2000, critic David Mackler in oobr: the off-off-broadway review, wrote of a production of Othello: "Groeschen was a revelation as Desdemona -- her actions and speech were clear and direct, and every emotion showed. She was beautifully watchable."

But regional theater beckoned and Angela went to Cincinnati for a while. And then she came to Memphis for the UPTAs and almost missed an interview with Playhouse on the Square. Luck favored the lady that night and she and Michael ended up in the resident company at POTS. They'll be here for another year if they want. But in this business, it's always about opportunities and networking, so they've not missed participating in the UPTAs. Still, they're not really ready to leave their sweet deal in Memphis. "We've been learning the business of theater," Angela says. "So I'm leaning toward staying."

Angela's first call-back is fairly early, around noon. She meets Steve Bishop, an associate producer for Maryland-based Phoenix Productions. "Do you want me to do what I did this morning?" she asks. "Do your best 16 and then we'll go from there," says Bishop from his seat behind an electronic keyboard. "Great shoes." "Thank you."

"I'll give you a couple of bars going in ..."Angela belts one out: "If someone like you loved me, loved me ..." "Let's take it one more time," Bishop says, "and when we get to the high stuff, go to the middle of your voice." After giving it a second shot, they give her a script to study. She goes back in the hallway and reads, mouths some of the words and scrunches her face, trying different expressions.

She is up for this. Enthusiastic and focused. Still a bit nervous. Talks a mile a minute.

"They set the tone," Angela says of the reps. "It'll be different in different (call-back) rooms. These guys are simple and efficient. They have an exact picture in their head of what they want. You have to fit in the formula. I feel like I did do that successfully then."

Dance call-backs are at TheatreWorks, a huge, stark shoebox, black and gray and unforgivingly lit from above by 16 long fluorescent tubes. "I do not consider myself a good dancer," Angela says. "I am a good mover, like in Gypsy where I can strut and sing."

Choreographer Kiersten Mays is giving the actors a crash course. Some are doing the mover's routine, some are doing tap and the more confident actors essay the ballet/jazz combination. They learn the routines as well as they can in such a compressed time and then, in groups of six or seven, perform them twice for the reps. Angela decides to go for the mover's routine, a sassy number to the tune "Rockin' Robin" that lets her strut and sell herself and put that extra bit of indefinable presence out there during the "tweet-tweet-tweets." Just the way she planned. Mays calls out: "5-6-5-6-7-and ..." many, many times. Wave after wave of dancers come on, identify themselves by their numbers and then shuffle or chasse while working to keep smiling. The reps, meanwhile, make marks in their notebooks.

Twelve hours after the day's crop of actors gathered for the morning pre-audition briefing, a large number of them -- Angela and Michael included -- are swarming all over the French Quarter Inn. Their day is far from over.

Call-backs have been going on since late morning, but the crunch is now. Angela got 22 call-backs, Michael 25. Some reps see them together, and it is as much about conversation as it is about reading dialog and singing a few bars. The are asked about their Playhouse deal and if they'll consider separate offers. "We prioritize," Angela says diplomatically. And the two actors grill the reps about what kind of plays are offered, working conditions, salaries.

By day's end, actors and reps will be going over dozens of impressions in their heads. The bar at the French Quarter Inn, which gets busier as the evening goes on, will be host to some morose actors as well as happy ones. The company reps will pack up videotapes and resumes and 8-by-10 glossy publicity photos they'll take home and review, hoping to find the best fit for their new seasons.

Angela and Michael will have the luxury of writing notes to some theater companies declining their invitation for a call-back.

The UPTAs are over for another year. And that's show biz.

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Othello

OTHELLO

Expanded Arts, NYC

"Ingersoll was a revelation as Desdemona - her actions and speech were clear and direct, and every emotion showed. She was beautifully watchable. Desdemona, Othello says, came to love him 'for the dangers I had passed,' and he in his turn 'loved her that she did pity them.' They are so hot for each other that the charge is palpable. They're not shy about it either. Norman Douglas Cooley and Angela Ingersoll, as well as being attractive actors, were the basis for much of the success of this production. The play built to a remarkably potent and powerful strangulation scene. It was all the more shattering for the provocative use of nudity, which combined the intimacy of the marriage bed with the violence and fury of jealousy and doubt."
-OOBR (Off-Off Broadway Review)