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How did you get started as a performer?
When I was six I decided I wanted to be some kind of performer, I just wasn't sure which kind. I just love theater people and acting and having fun... my grandmother is a professional actress, the other one is a concert pianist. So I grew up with them right in front of me. I saw them all the time and it was great to have them as examples because, you know how people are... so many people are told that they can't do it.

So my whole childhood I went to acting camps and after school things, I was always doing that, and then in college studied a lot of acting. I was also on a track to do classical singing and I did that for a long time... I sang opera and different styles around New York and Italy. But I always wanted to be a singer who could really act. I found a lot of opera singers weren't doing a lot of, you know... deep acting. So at a certain point I sort of defected from the whole opera scene because I really wanted to get into the real stuff. The thing is, with opera... there's so much technique to learn between the languages and the vocal technique and studying the movement of the different periods... it is easy to get caught up in that and forget what it's all about.

Andrea Reese as Jackie O photos by Lisa Kapler

Are your parents also performers?
No, not at all, my mother's a psychiatric social worker and my father's a brain scientist. But... both my parents love opera, so they definitely egged me on with that. And then I was always helping my grandmother with scripts... every summer she had a new script to learn so we'd go to the beach and I'd always be lying on the beach with her drilling the lines into her head. When I was about 13 I said to her, "How am I going to become an actress if I'm so scared of going on stage all the time?"
And she said, "Oh all actors get terrified and if they say they don't, they're just lying."

It was such a great piece of advice early on. Because I know so many actors who quit because they have stage fright, but it's really just a question of learning to deal with it. That won't ever go away.

Are you still terrified?
Oh yeah! Oh yeah!! I'm a wreck. I mean, the day of a show, usually around 3 in the afternoon I'm just a mess. I'm saying to myself, "I don't want to be an actress any more... I don't want to go through this anymore!" I go through a trip, I think of all the other things I ever wanted to do... I think, "You know, I always thought I'd be a good lawyer, or a social worker... I'd be great at that." It's just crazy.

And then usually about an hour before I go onstage, I really feel like I'm walking a plank. I always look at the back door and think, "I'm going to walk out that door and I'm going to LaGuardia Airport, take a plane anywhere!" It's total fight or flight. It's crazy.

Then once I get out there, everything changes. It's just the adrenaline.

What were your expectations growing up? What did you imagine your life would be like as a professional performer?
Well, honestly, I really wanted to be famous. I really did, that's the honest truth. I wanted to be famous... I always thought it would be really fun.

I know some actors, they love every single bit of the process. I love some parts of it and not others. For me, it's all fueled by the eventuality of taking it in front of people on stage. If it weren't for that, if it were actors just rehearsing forever, I would not be interested. Being on stage is what gets me to do everything else. Even writing my play which was an extraordinarily difficult and hellacious experience... the thing that kept me going was that I knew when I finished it, I was going to get to perform it on stage.

But I always wanted to be... as an actor, or an opera singer... I always wanted to be completely involved in every aspect of it, to be immersed in whatever the project was. I always wanted to have interesting creative things to do, but also to get recognition for it.

A lot of actors talk about how they love "the process"... the rehearsals, the development of a project. What do you love about it?
I like the incredible bonding that occurs between a group of people when they do a project. I love that. It becomes this intense, incredible group... working so hard and getting so tight about something. I love that.

And yet you chose to do a one woman show.
But in this case the bonding is really with me and the director... it's a different kind of thing. And there is one other character... the silent character, Doctor Jacobson, played by Paul Urban. So, there is that... it's different. We have a really good time... we kid around, he has no lines and I'm always teasing him, "Could you please get your lines right this time? Or maybe you could try a different accent for the Doctor." It's a constant ongoing thing with us.

Backstage didn't like the bits with the Doctor.
No. But that's okay. You can't please everyone. If I tried to please everyone with this play it would have been really boring. That's also why I chose the director, Charles Messina. I knew from the moment I started to write it that I wanted him to direct it because he is really gutsy. He'll go places that other people won't go. And I didn't want this to be some cute little historical portrait of Jackie. Inevitably some people love the Doctor, some people don't... and that's great. I'd rather have love or hate than neutrality, you know?

Tell me about your education, you studied acting in college?
I went to college and grad school... I went to Sarah Lawrence undergrad and studied both music and acting there. Then there was a break in between where I sang opera a whole lot in New York and then in Italy. And then I got my master's degree at UC Irvine in music. But, the way that program is set up, I was able to also have one foot in acting and one foot in music.

And then I have to mention that the two greatest teachers I ever had were not in either of those schools. One of them was Jim Bonney, who taught a two year Meisner program. He was my greatest teacher. And then a woman named Kathy Haddad, who I grew up with. She was an incredible inspiration... she told me I could do whatever I want, she gave me a great inner-confidence about the whole thing.

Did your education prepare you for a career as a performer?
In some ways yes, in some ways no. Sarah Lawrence was really great in that they encouraged people in the arts. So the attitude was that it's a legitimate field to pursue. And that's a great way to start. It was like being shot out of a cannon when you graduated with a lot of confidence and a belief that it could really happen.

On the other hand, business-wise? There was nothing. I think this is something that arts schools are incredibly lacking. There's no education about how to be a business person! How to market yourself. And I think at least 80% of the whole thing is marketing. There are so many actors who are so, so amazing that don't have a clue about business, and they're going nowhere. And it's so frustrating for me...you just need a few basic things to know.

Like what?
Well... get a good headshot first of all. So many actors don't have good headshots. They save money, they get a bad headshot, and then nobody calls them.

Do "the rounds", even though Ross Reports says not to. You can! I've done it a million times and I've met people and they liked me! It wasn't a problem. Go! Drop off things at agent's offices. Drop off headshots, make sure you've always got a postcard ready. Do it with friends. I definitely recommend making rounds with at least one other person. Because otherwise it's so depressing. But if you do it with someone else, it takes on a fun, party atmosphere. It becomes interesting and fun.

Recently, to promote my play, I got a book with celebrities addresses and I sent postcards to 240 major celebrities. I figured even if they don't come... even if only five out of 240 people see that this show is happening, that's a good thing. To promote the show, I mean... I'll do anything! Sometimes I go places dressed up as Jackie, I do live promotion stuff. There were these parties at the Gramercy Park Hotel last summer and I would just go there dressed as Jackie. And it was unbelievable what happened. One week I got on New York One, another week the New York Times wrote about it.

Actors need to put themselves SO out there and not worry about looking silly or anything like that. Just do it.

You have the context of this show to put everything into. You look like Jackie, you dress up like Jackie, you've got a show about Jackie... What about someone who doesn't have a show of their own to promote?
I would say just first, just get a good headshot. Put the money into it and make sure that the resume's really good. Show it to a lot of people, make sure the best stuff is the most visible. The thing is, I've been on the other side of things and I've seen the kinds of things that people hand in... crooked resumes, resumes attached with one staple so it's ripping off. All kinds of things that just don't look professional.

If you're in a show, get tons of postcards. If the show doesn't make them, get them made yourself. Any time you go to anywhere, to any show, drop them there. Always have them in your bag and wherever you go, hand them out.

I read a really good book called Self-Promotion for the Creative Person. And the thing that was so good for me about that book is that it made me unashamed of marketing. I used to be almost embarrassed of it... as if it were somehow contrary to being a real artist to be such an outward marketer.

But after reading that book I completely shifted my attitude. I thought, "Why not? I've worked so hard all these years, I've put so much money into this business.. why not just put it out there?" And I think any actor can do that.

Where do you think that comes from, that fear and embarrassment about self-promotion?
I think every actor has the dream that they're going to be snatched up by some perfect agent that's going to make them a star. I think that dream is so unrealistic, and actors are clinging to that dream and it comes at their own expense. I don't have an agent, I'm not in Equity, and I'm doing fine!

I think actors can forge their own territory much more than they realize, and not wait for someone else to carry them along. I recommend to actors that they produce their own plays... find a play they love with a role that's perfect for them, find a bunch of other actors who are always looking to do shows anyway, and produce it.

You can do it for free. You can do it through theater companies who are looking for pieces... contact them and say you have this great play, ask if they want to include it in their season. I've done that a few times. That way you don't have to pay the insurance or rent the theater, but you get your work out there. And it's such a powerful feeling compared to running around waiting and hoping. There's always the running around, but there can be the other side of it, too... being really proactive about your career.