Jayne Houdyshell
Age: 52. "I have no problem saying my age. I worked hard to get to it!"
Currently: Appearing on Broadway in Well as Ann Kron, Lisa Kron's complex mother who keeps interrupting her daughter's play. Houdyshell previously starred in the show during its Public Theater world premiere and engagement at San Francisco's Geary Theatre.
Hometown: Topeka, Kansas. "I knew from the time I was about 12 I wanted to be an actress," Houdyshell says. "I availed myself to any opportunity I could find to get onstage." After leaving the Sunflower State, Houdyshell attended Detroit's Academy of Dramatic Art and then headed to New York.
One Humiliating Story: Houdyshell arrived in Gotham in 1980 and found that casting directors were not exactly waiting to greet her. Like many aspiring actors, she got involved with a temp agency. Soon she was on the floor of Gimbel's Department Store demonstrating a hot new toy, the Rubik's Cube. "That thing, either you have a brain that figures it out or you don't," Houdyshell laughs. "I don't. I felt totally stupid. We also had to wear these horrible t-shirts with two Rubik's Cubes and the slogan ‘Once you get your hands on me, you'll never let go.' It was totally offensive."
4.5 Year Ride: Houdyshell was in fact working in NYC, in Charles Mee's True Love at the Zipper Theater, when Kron first saw her. "The person I was playing in the Mee play was kind of a sex-addict," she explains. "I had very graphic speeches. The character, needless to say, could not have been more different than Lisa's mother. Lisa watched the play and thought: ‘Well, I don't know if she is right for this part, but she can act!'" Kron decided to try Houdyshell out during a 2002 Baltimore workshop of Well and things progressed from there.
Meeting The Mother: Houdyshell initially resisted the urge to meet the woman she portrays, saying she didn't want to "do her the disservice of intimidating her" or "enter into a creepy actor relationship with her, using her for research." However, about a year into the developmental process, Houdyshell felt secure enough to reach out to Ann Kron with e-mails and phone calls. The two finally came face-to-face after the show opened at the Public Theater. "We were both scared to meet," the actress states. "Ann's worst fear was that she would sit in a darkened theater and find audience members laughing at her. That was not her experience. She felt like I did not send her up. She paid me the ultimate compliment after seeing the show: ‘Oh my, Jayne. I sat out there in the theater and watched you and thought, ‘Good heavens, even I want to be Ann Kron.'"
The Meta-ness Of It All: Well is like nothing before ever seen on Broadway, a meta-theatrical exploration that is part relationship play, part monologue, part other things. Sound a little confusing? Describing the piece is the "eternal challenge" associated with being in it, according to Houdyshell. "Talking about it in sound bites diminishes it. It's an extremely funny comedy, but at the same time it's a play of great depth. I can't imagine that it is everybody's cup of tea. I like being in pieces of theater that are not everybody's cup of tea. I enjoy being part of projects that challenge people and help them think outside the box. I think that Well certainly does that."
Being Well: "Feeling successful, for me, has always been about working on projects I love with people I respect and who respect me," she says. "If those things are in place, I feel really good about what I am doing. Being aligned with this play, I've always felt good. It has just been a big huge gift for me and continues to be. I am so excited to be on Broadway with it. It has drawn me out of obscurity!"
