Welcome to Building Character, TDF Stages’ ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles

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Just this morning, Patina Miller was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her starring role in Sister Act, the Broadway musical adaptation of the 1992 film about Deloris Von Cartier, an aspiring nightclub singer who goes into hiding in a convent after she sees her mob-boss boyfriend murder an informant. Hijinks and high notes ensue when Deloris brings her showbiz savvy to the church’s struggling choir.

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After playing her in England, Simone Kirby brings a title character to the Irish Rep

Late last year, Simone Kirby was in England performing the title role in Molly Sweeney, Brian Friel’s play about a blind woman who faces unexpected consequences after a surgeon restores her vision. When the production closed, she wanted more.

“We spent five weeks in rehearsals discovering these characters, and then it was over before I knew it,” she recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘God, I don’t feel like I’m done yet with this.’”

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In “Haunted,” the Oscar nominee finds the poetry in a failing marriage

Welcome to Building Character, TDF’s ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles

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The characters in Haunted might be everyday British folk, but they never speak like they are. Instead of “you seem upset,” they say, “there’s a kink in you.” Instead of “let’s not fight,” it’s “we promised we would not war.” These phrases lift Edna O’Brien’s play, now running at 59E59, a few inches above reality, injecting a tale of marital strife with something bigger than spats and reconciliations.

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Thirty years ago this summer, a wooden hut appeared in Leicester Square and changed the London theatre forever.

That tiny building, which officially opened on August 10, 1980, was London’s first half-price ticket booth, and it’s gone on to sell almost 11 million tickets to more than 1,200 shows.

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A London company presents plays via satellite

It sounds like a paradox: The National Theatre’s production of London Assurance is only playing in London, yet audiences can see it in New York, New Jersey, and beyond.

That’s because the show will be broadcast via satellite as part of the National’s
“NT Live” program.

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