Interview: Anna Holbrook of MOON OVER BUFFALO at Music Theatre Of Connecticut

Meet Connecticut actress Anna Holbrook

BroadwayWorld.com had a lovely chat with Anna Holbrook who is co-starring in Ken Ludwig’s Moon Over Buffalo at the Music Theatre of Connecticut. Although she is widely known for her award-winning dramatic work on television, her performance as Charlotte in Moon Over Buffalo proves that she’s also a gifted comedienne.

When was the “a ha” moment for her to pursue a career in acting? “My parents would probably say in the womb,” she says. “I’ve been doing Charlotte my whole life in skits in the living room with my cousins and friends.”

But Holbrook’s acting career took an oblique path. “I was never a theatre major,” she recalls. “I was a nursing major, a journalism major. I was going to travel with the Air Force.” Nursing, she reasons, was a practical job that was always in demand anywhere she winded up. “I think now I would have been a good nurse. I have the patience now and empathy I didn’t have then.”

We beg to differ because it wasn’t until she was 27 that she moved to New York for a career as an actress. That’s patience. She is also methodical in her approach. Her husband, Bruce, was based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. From there, Anna drove the three hours to Dallas, Texas to meet an agent. She landed a very small role in the television hit Dallas and was very successful in the commercial market. She came to New York prepared with a reel, which she showed to STE Representatives agent Tex Beha. “I walked into the office. I felt like something out of The Beverly Hillbillies.” Then, she adds, “I had to work very hard to get into the legit department – TV and film.”

Holbrook passionately believes that a performer must explore deeply and ask many questions about himself. “It opens your mind not only to yourself, but the world around you,” she elaborates. “You put yourself in others’ shoes. I think that’s why so many actors are liberal. You see life through the other person’s perspective. Acting taught me so much about myself.” That’s compassion.

She takes acting seriously and approaches it intelligently. While she was a contract player on the daytime drama Another World, the writers composed a storyline in which her character, Sharlene, had a split personality. She didn’t just memorize her lines; she researched dissociative identity disorder by meeting with psychiatrists. She was disappointed that “the writers didn’t care about that” because their job was to “move the story along.” Not surprisingly, this was one of the most challenging parts she played. “You don’t have coaching…you’re winging it and using your own creative juices,” she says. “It was just something [I] had to learn.... I was inventing my own process.” For her work, she won a Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress.

That’s impressive, but no doubt it’s also because she is curious about people and is always willing to learn. “You get gems throughout your life,” explains Holbrook. Some of these gems came in the form of lessons she learned from the acting teachers, coaches, directors, and other actors she’s worked with over the years. In addition to conventional acting and improv classes, she praises the film workshop held by actor and coach Jon Shear. It’s a creative gym where performers and filmmakers can meet to work together on new material and further develop their on-camera skills.

Another example of Holbrook’s patience was her decision to take a 13-year break from acting to spend more time with her two young children in Connecticut. As a commercial pilot, her husband, now retired, was frequently away, and she decided to step out of acting to put motherhood first. It was a hard decision for her to make, but once she broke the news to her agent, there was no doubt in her mind that she made the right decision. During her hiatus from acting, she taught acting at the Performing Arts Conservatory in New Canaan. She still coaches high school students occasionally for their college auditions. “I’m always hoping I’ll give them the ammunition they need,” she says. “I just adore these kids. I love them. They humble me because I was never that dedicated when I was their age.”

We think she’s just modest. When she sets her mind to something, big or small, she puts in all her effort. She can even make beef stew exceptionally delicious. (“The key is short ribs!”) We wondered how Holbrook gets new roles, especially after being out of the daily demands of show business for so long. She relies on her agent to send her material. The audition for Moon Over Buffalo, though, came in her email box from Backstage. She went through her agent to arrange for an audition. She doesn’t do as much comedy as she would like to because she’s frequently cast at the “sophisticated WASPY blonde.” She considers herself an actress who sings, but she doesn’t feel she can sustain singing through a full musical show. Holbrook just may surprise us with that. She already played Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan (www.stonc.org). Perhaps one day she will play Desirée or Countess Charlotte in A Little Night Music. Now wouldn’t that be loverly?

“My goal is to be Maggie Smith,” she says so that she can play a wide range of roles and age-appropriate parts as she gets older and continues to collaborate with dynamic writers and actors. “Acting is so much fun and it’s divine…. I will never stop learning.” With an acting career, she notes, “there’s no finish line. What I love about acting is that you don’t know what’s around the corner.”

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