What in your upbringing led to you life as a performer? Was there a cathartic moment when you knew you wanted to be an actor?

Yes, I think it was the first time I went to see a musical. My dad took me to see Annie Get Your Gun when I was five and I knew right then that I wanted to be on the stage. My parents loved music and the performing arts and encouraged me in those areas. I also loved Carol Burnett. I wanted to be her. In 2nd grade I started writing sketches for her show and told her that she needed to improve her endings. If only had the confidence now! Anyway, I sent them off and I never heard back.

What training have you had as an actor, and do you feel it prepared you for your career in showbiz thus far?

I had very little training as an actor. I went to college at Ohio University and started to major in theatre, but quickly changed my mind after one semester. If I would’ve continued with a theatre major, I would have spent all my hours in the theater doing the required tech etc and I just wanted to be out exploring and creating. In order to get thru college, I took a position as a resident volunteer at a state mental hospital. I lived with the mental patients and earned free room and board in exchange for writing and staging plays with the mentally ill. Early on in my theater classes, I would bring in original monologues based on my experiences of working with the patients. My material was not encouraged and I was told to focus on the traditional plays/roles and that was another reason I did not continue to major in theater. I switched to one of those majors that you can design yourself. College did not boost my self esteem in regard to my own work-it made me doubt more.

What were your goals as an actor when you began, and have they changed at all?

In the beginning, my goal was always to get on Saturday Night Live. My background was in comedy and doing wild characters and SNL seemed the place for me. I went thru the Groundlings classes and got in the Sunday Company. I was in the company with Cheri Oteri, Will Ferrell, and Chris Kattan. We had great shows and I had a great time, but I started to realize that I wanted to write something longer then a 3 minute sketch. I also began to discover that my writing had a lot of depth and that it wasn’t always funny and I wanted to continue to explore that. So I quit the Groundlings and began work on solo shows.

What motivated you to begin writing and performing your own material?

I just had these characters in me and I had such a strong desire to share their story. I think a lot of the characters I perform are people that we wouldn’t normally run across in our daily life. They are characters living on the edge or the margins of society and their stories are often not heard. I could say the same for myself. Before coming to NYC, I was working for $8 an hour at a homeless shelter for the last 10 years and I thought how in the heck does someone make it in the world today. There is such a division between the haves and the have nots and I wanted to let people know how it is to be doing the best you can and still not making it.

Upon graduation from college, most aspiring actors try to earn their Equity cards doing summer stock. Instead, you moved to Alaska to work at a cannery “sliming fish”. Can you describe that experience, and explain what led you there?

What led me there was a 1 way ticket to Alaska which my parents gave me for graduation. I had read in a back of a magazine that you could make 20 grand in one summer cleaning fish so I thought I would go there and make my money and then move to NYC to be an actress. I sucked at the cannery job. The first day on the job they put me on the slime line to pick the blood balls off the salmon. I was wearing these high heeled pink fashion boots( there were some cute guys at the cannery) and the freezing water got down into the boots and I got hypothermia. I passed out on the cannery floor and awoke to a thermometer in my butt and 12 burly men staring down at me.

In addition to your experience at the cannery, you also spent time cleaning up the Exxon Valdez spill, at sea on a research vessel, working and living at the Athens mental hospital, and working the graveyard shift at a homeless shelter for mentally ill women. In short, you’ve had some very unusual jobs. What appeals to you about the jobs you’ve done, and why have you avoided the simplicity of waiting tables or other normal actor jobs?

I can’t wait tables because I don’t have the speed or the brain to multi-task. My first job I ever had was at McDonalds and I got fired after 2 weeks because I put out an order of Big Macs thru Drive Thru with no meat in them. I can’t think fast and waitressing is very hard.

I’ve also always been interested in working with the poor and so I ‘ve done that for many years. I think I’m a really good listener and I think that’s what most people need- just someone to hear their story and validate it. Listening also then informs the way I write.

In Alaska, I took the job because it paid well and I loved the adventure of being out to sea for a year. I was always looking for adventures, stories, people with amazing stories- I wanted to see it all.

You took an interesting approach to finding housing in New York. Can you describe how you did it?

I knew after I saved the money in Alaska that I didn’t want to blow it on rent, so I put an ad in the New York Times classifieds saying, “Alaskan Bush Woman seeks free room in exchange for tutoring in the arts and/or companionship.” Well, let me tell you, I got a lot of freaks calling me, but I did find a legitimate one. He was a 90-year-old Jewish Orthodox man who lived on Central Park West, and he had just lost his wife. His daughter responded to my ad, and she had me move into his apartment and keep him company in the morning, just until the maid came. It was an unbelievable apartment. My bedroom overlooked Central Park, and all I had to do was just sit at the breakfast table with him while he ate his gefilte fish. He called me “the kook,” I think because I used to play banjo in the subway with a red wig on. That’s when I started getting desperate for money.

Do you begin work intending to create a solo show, or do your shows come out of a continuous process? For example, with Squeezebox, did you set out to write a show focusing on your experiences at the homeless shelter and events occurring around that time?

With Squeeze Box, I set out to discover why it was that I had lost faith. How I could be in my 30’s living paycheck to paycheck with my spark for life slowly being distinguished.

With all shows, I always set out to discover something about myself and to hopefully grow from writing about it. I found that notes and journal entries that I never thought I would use, made their way into the show. Once I began the show, I let the narrative take shape and continued writing until I found the answers.

Can you describe the process of developing an idea into a show?

I write about 10 minutes and then I perform it. I’m always writing in chunks and then performing it to see how it is being received and to hear it spoken. I’m also a big fan of weekly writing groups. I was in a Terri Silverman’s Life Stories Workshop for 3 years. It was a weekly workshop with writers of all levels. I really liked Terri’s feedback as well as all the other writers in the group. I learned a lot.

You reveal some very personal and intimate details about your life. Is that difficult to do?

It is not difficult for me to write personal material. I don’t know why. I’ve never felt like I needed to hide anything. Although in writing this, I can hear myself saying “Ann, I know something you won’t talk about.” However, whatever I may be afraid to speak about, I can always put it into a character. I’m not afraid to say anything when I’m playing a character.

How do you know when a script is “done”?

I knew my ending halfway thru writing my show, so it was easy for me.

With something as personal as a solo show, how do you find the right director?

I think it’s hard to find the right person, but hopefully you will know when you found them. For my other solo shows, I always wanted a director but I didn’t know how to find one. I found my current director by seeing his work and saying that I would like to work with him. His name was Alan Bailey and he was amazing. He was so encouraging and allowed me experiment. I think you know you have a good director when they inspire you to create. He was also with me from the first 10 minutes of the material and helped me shape the show.

Can you describe what happens when you have a show ready to perform?

For me, I’ve always self produced. I could only afford to rent a theater every 6 weeks and I would pack it with everybody I knew. I think if you have comedy in your show, you want to play to a full house. It’s better to do a show every now and then with a full house instead of nightly to very few. Anyway, I didn’t have money to advertise, but I enlisted friends to put the word out thru their email lists. My phone number was also the box office number.

With Squeeze Box, I eventually saved enough money to do 6 shows in six weeks. That is the minimum requirement in LA to get reviewed. Luckily, I got great reviews and I have to admit that it didn’t do anything for getting an audience. Even in NYC with a great review from the NY Times- it didn’t help.

Whenever you do a show, make sure you get an email list started. Even in doing Off-Broadway, I still come out after the show and get people to sign up on my list. Audience is everything and seems to be harder than ever to get them.

Back to SB. So I put up my show off and on for 3 years hoping to find an investor who would move the show to NYC. I can’t tell you how hard this is. Fist of all, I have no agent and I don’t know any rich people. Friends would try to help. Well, by chance, I was in a weekly writers group with Mel Brooks daughter in law. I didn’t know she was his daughter in law, but she was . Anyway, she told him to come see the show and he did. Afterwards, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft came up to me and said that they would like to make a movie of the show and bring it to NYC. That was a dream come true.

What were your goals for the show in New York?

I think the main goal was just to get the confidence to believe that I could do 8 shows a week. I was really worried about losing my voice, but now that fear has subsided. Now my goal is to get a younger audience. I feel like I’m not reaching the people that would really identify with this show.

Do you prefer working by yourself, or with other actors?

Well, doing this solo show has been at times very lonely. There’s so much pressure and I miss the camaderie of working on a show with a group. However, I don’t miss the group dynamics of a bunch of comics fighting over material and jokes.

Most of the time, I do prefer to work alone.

You’ve been performing this show for a long time now. What keeps you motivated?

What keeps the show fresh when you have no one to play off of? What keeps it fresh is the ability to see the audience. If I can see their face, then it really helps because I immediately feel a connection. Of course sometimes you get the ole sour face and that can be hard too.

Do you have role models?

For me, the role models have always been musicians-Aaron Copland, Pat Metheny, Ennio Morricone, Jane Siberry, Bjork. Music inspires me to create. As far as solo performers, I’m a big fan of Danny Hoch.

Why should people go see live theater when they can stay home and watch tv or go to movies?

I can just say that I’ve had so many moving, inspiring experiences in the theater and that the theater has the power to transform. I never feel that with TV. I think TV deadens the soul.

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