HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA: University School of Nashville's McKENNA HARRINGTON

Welcome, dear ladies and gentlemen and all supporters of theater (both local and otherwise) to our freshest installment of High School Drama, in which we introduce BWW Nashville readers to some of Music City's hardest working teenaged actors. Living in a city made all the more unique and interesting by the creative people who live here and create art every day, we are especially to be blessed by scores of talented individuals who make a night in the theater both compelling and challenging.

Throughout Middle Tennessee, high school theater is growing by leaps and bounds, challenging all manner or preconceived notions. Led by outstanding educators like Mary Ellen Smith, Matt Smith, Paula Flautt, Daron Bruce, Jenny Noel, Catherine Coke, Jim Manning and Will Butler, student actors are leaving an indelible mark on the theater community, not only in academic productions but in community and professional projects, as well.

Today the spotlight shines on University School of Nashville's McKenna Harrington, a 16-year-old junior who debuts as Millie Owens next week in Circle Players' production of William Inge's Picnic (I'm her director, for sure, and probably not all that objective about her immense talents and spot-on instincts; suffice it to say, McKenna's extraordinary) and she has one of the most impressive resumes we've seen: She's done The Adding Machine, Pippin, The Great Tragedian, Our Town, Gospel at Colonus, I Hate Hamlet, Hedda Gabler, 9 to 5: The Musical (all at USN); 13 The Musical for Act Too Players; Nashville Shakespeare Festival's A Midsummer Night's Dream; Our House for iTheatrics in New York City; and she got her start in Circle Players' Brighton Beach Memoirs. Holy smokes!

McKenna Harrington is accomplished, focused, thoroughly committed and remarkably skilled. She's also consummately professional in her approach to the work and is, quite simply, a delightful young woman who is a joy to be around. Here's your opportunity to get to know her a little bit better (and to whet your appetite for seeing her in Picnic March 26-April 4 - go to www.circleplayers.net for further details)...

What's your theatrical goal in life? The performances that I always admire the most, are those that are the most real. The most real performances in my opinion are not only obsessively true to the character, but are also presented by an actor who is in such total control of his or her body and emotions, that being a different person doesn't look unnatural. My theatrical goal is to constantly improve my character development skills and to portray every character that I play in my career as real as possible. On a more logistic side, after high school I will most likely be interested in pursuing theater during college in either New York or Los Angeles. Mostly, my goal is to act for as long as I can, as much as I can.

If you could play any role in any show...what would you choose? When I am older I would really love the opportunity to play A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche DuBois. It's an incredible role. Being able to develop the character of Blanche would be an unbeatable experience. I'll be the first to admit that I can't come anywhere near to playing a role like Blanche at this point in my life, but I got 15 or so years to get to that point!

What's been your best theatrical experience to date? That's a hard one. I have to give a lot of credit to my experience in playing Emily Webb a little more than a year ago in my school's production of Our Town. It was the first show that really opened my eyes to the whole concept that I had the option to pursue acting beyond high school and possibly even as a career. I was also in the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's Apprentice Company in their show A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2013. This experience gave me a peek into the professional world of acting and into the world of Shakespeare.

I also recently completed The Adding Machine at USN which I have to mention because of, first of all, how great of a show it is, and second of all, its representation of yet another performance at USN that proved endlessly rewarding because of the incredibly talented people that make all of our shows possible.

Our director Catherine Coke is truly brilliant and I'm convinced that Jim Manning is not only the nicest, but also the most talented technical director/set designer in the whole world. In addition, it really came down to the actors that I was working with. There was a moment during our closing night of The Adding Machine when I was sitting on a stool, supposed to be listening to another character, when I realized in awe how lucky I was to be doing a such fascinating show with incredibly talented actors who also happen to be high school students and my close friends. We embraced a rare opportunity of serious familiarity and used it to develop our characters and their relationships with each other on stage. How cool is that?! (By the way this revelation made me almost miss a line and mess up a back-and-forth with the other character/my friend. Go figure.)

I know I'm rambling, but my current, on-going best theatrical experience, is my role of Millie Owens in William Inge's Picnic. Much like how the show explores three generations of women, I am learning so much from each member of our Picnic cast who are of all different ages, genders, and at different at points in their life. I'm growing as an actress, a friend, and as a person. I recently found the book at the rehearsal space that I used as a prop for most of the entire show when I played Laurie Morton in my first Circle Player's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs in 2012. I had written little notes in the margins that communicated my stress and excitement regarding my very small part at age 10. Now that same book is a prop in Picnic. Talk about growth.

Who are your favorite actors? I know these are really all predominantly movie/ TV actors but: I am such a sucker for Kevin Spacey. He's just amazing and can do absolutely everything. The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, and L.A. Confidential are some of my favorite movies and I think his touring around the world playing Richard III is so cool. I also recently saw Bradley Cooper in Elephant Man and he was absolutely phenomenal. He's a great movie actor but the fact that he was so incredible in such an impossibly hard role on stage was mind blowing to me. Oh yeah I also have mention Alan Alda. I'm currently obsessed with watching old episodes of M*A*S*H.

What show that you've never seen would you most like to see? I really want to see a production of The Glass Menagerie. I've read it tons of times and I love it but I've never gotten to see it.

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