THE FRIDAY FIVE: Kathleen Jaffe from PLAY ON!

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce you to Kathleen Jaffe, who stars in Play On! opening tonight at Lakewood Theatre in Old Hickory.

Get to know Kathleen via her Friday Five, then high-tail it to Old Hickory to see her in the backstage/onstage comedy Play On! before the run is completed...

What was your first "live onstage" taste of theater? Elementary school; I played a troll in The Hobbit. I had to master a Cockney accent, and I was hooked the instant I got my first laugh from the audience.

What is your favorite pre-show ritual? It varies. For comedies, I get into costume and makeup, talk with my fellow cast members, and review my lines. For heavy dramatic roles, I need quiet time to get into the right emotional space, so I like to get to the theater well in advance of call time so I can just sit and "be" for a bit before the chaos starts.

What's your most memorable "the show must go on" moment? I took a fall on some steps the night before a matinee of Closer Than Ever, and trashed my knee. I should have gone to the hospital to get stitches, but I knew I had to sing early the next day, so I didn't (staying up all night in the ER would've wrecked my voice). Long story short, I had to perform "Miss Byrd," rolling around the stage in an office chair, with a knee that was still bleeding and in excruciating pain. It ended up being my best performance, because I was so focused on the pain that I couldn't over think the performance.

What's your dream role? Musical: Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Play: Violet in August: Osage County.

Who's your theatrical crush? Meryl Streep can do no wrong; if I were to meet her, I'm quite sure I'd do something embarrassing: cry and squeal like a teenager at a Beatles concert back in the day, try to kiss her ring...

BONUS: Tell us something that would most likely surprise the hell out of people. I can sing the entirety of "The Rabbit of Seville" from memory and in character.

About the show: Lakewood Theater Company presents its third show of the 2015 season with Play On!, opening Friday, July 17, and running through Sunday, August 2.

Directed by Kurt Grabenstein, Play On! is described as the hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play despite the maddening interference of a haughty author who keeps revising the script. Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance in which anything that can go wrong does. When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theatre during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax to a thoroughly hilarious romp.

Play On! stars Kathleen Jaffe as Aggie, the put-upon stage manager; Heather Alexander as Gerry, the frazzled director; Patrick Goedicke and Meigie Mabry as Henry and Polly Benish, the theatre's power couple; Elise Jardine as Smitty, the teenager missing her exams for the show; John Carpenter as Saul Watson, the snarky and devious villain; Logan Dowlen as Billy, the dashing leading man; Samantha Brannoch as Violet, the beautiful ingénue; Doreen Gibson as Louise, the deadpan sound and lighting tech; and Drew Ann Borsos as Phyllis Montague, the fledgling author with a taste for interfering all the time.

Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $14 for adults, and $10 students/seniors/military. Tickets can be obtained at www.TicketsNashville.com; a limited amount of reservations are available through the Lakewood box office at 615-847-0934. Group rates are available. Lakewood Theatre Company is located at 2211 Old Hickory Blvd., Old Hickory.

For more information on this and all of Lakewood's 2015 season, visit their website at www.lakewoodtheatreco.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.