Elisabeth Waterston

Hometown: "A small town in northwest Connecticut—less Greenwich and more boondocks."

Currently: Playing Miranda, the lovely and innocent daughter of Prospero the sorcerer Mandy Patinkin in Classic Stage Company's off-Broadway production of The Tempest.

Normal Life: Yes, she's one of "the" Waterstons: daughter of Law & Order star and stage great Sam, half-sister of James most recently seen off-Broadway in Buffalo Gal and older sis of Katherine now appearing in Kindness at Playwrights Horizons and Graham an aspiring filmmaker. But Elisabeth and her siblings did not have a glitzy upbringing. "We lived in the same house in the same small town my whole childhood," she says, adding that her dad is "a rock," just as fans imagine. "The only influence my father's career had on my day-to-day life was when his agents would call and I'd bring the cordless phone down to the barn so he could talk to them." The barn?! "Oh yeah, my parents are basically gentleman farmers now," she says with a laugh. "They've got cows, sheep, goats—a little of everything."

The Pull of the Stage: Low-key as their lives might be, the Waterston kids did pick up on the fact that a career in acting had its advantages. "When Dad got a job in an interesting place, he would take us out of school or we'd hit the road during school vacations," Elisabeth recalls. "We spent a few months in Bordeaux at one point; we went all around Russia when he was on tour in a play; we were in Hungary for a few months. I sort of equated what it meant to be an actor with the thrill of being out in the world." Backstage visits had their perks, as well: "One of my earliest memories is of being at the theater with Dad, and a costume designer made an elaborate outfit for my teddy bear with pockets and brass buttons. I thought, 'What could be wrong with this kind of work?'"

Classical Ingenue: Before committing to an acting career, Waterston followed her dad and brother to Yale, earning a degree in theater and painting. "Going straight into work [after high school] was never an option," she says, "partly because my parents never presented it as an option but also because I was a bookworm, and a well-rounded education was really important to me." A star of student-created productions, Elisabeth won oodles of roles in Chekhov and other classics, a trend that continued as she played Hero to her father's Leonato in the 2004 Central Park production of Much Ado About Nothing and now as Miranda in The Tempest. "I'm a little bit dumbfounded as to why I often get cast in classics," she says, "but I love them; it makes your job [as an actor] much easier when the play supports you all the way through."

Oh, Mandy: Thirty-three years after he played Fortinbras opposite Sam Waterston's Hamlet on Broadway, Tempest star Mandy Patinkin heaps praise on Elisabeth in a CSC newsletter, saying of his stage daughter, "I was terrified…we wouldn't be able to have her in the play, that she would be swept up somewhere else! I just adore her." The feeling is mutual. Waterston says of Patinkin, "He's been so sweet to me that all my nerves about [working with him] went out the window on the first day. I basically just have to show up and be present and open to what he gives to me." Of course, there's also the matter of falling in love at first sight with dreamy Tony nominee Stark Sands as Ferdinand. "That's been seriously fun!" she says with a laugh. "I didn't get to see him in Journey's End, but he's incredibly talented and a great scene partner."

Art Isn't Easy: Shakespeare's young heroine, Waterston notes, "is a sponge for the world around her—Miranda is so open and trusting of her instincts, and that's a really appealing place to live while working on this play." Away from the theater, Elisabeth continues to paint in a studio space near her Brooklyn apartment. "It's nice to have something I can be in control of," she says of her art. "You don't have a lot of control over a career in acting, so it's nice to have [painting] as a constant in my life. I mostly do it for myself at this point; deep down, I knew that I was going to act, but I like not having a one-track mind."