Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Spotlight On...Lyndsey Anderson

Name: Lyndsey Anderson

Hometown: I was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina. We moved around a lot though, and I ended up going to high school and college in Indiana.

Education: BA, Theatre, BA, English, Indiana University

Select Credits: Recent NYC Theatre: Let Him Eat Steak, Hooker Raft, Wolf Girls, Keeping Abreast, Pizza Man. Recent film/tv: "Forever", "Blue Bloods", "National Lampoon"

Why theater?: For me, theatre is a mainline to Source Energy. An actor onstage is always asking the audience "This is me at my most childlike, most joyous, most vulnerable, most fragile. Don't we look a lot alike?" Live performance always reminded me that I wasn't alone and that life is this huge, humbling and shared experience of bittersweet.

Who do you play in Lomesome Devil?: The Visitor, a bisexual, Satan worshipping serial killer.

Tell us about Lonesome Devil: This play (by the hugely talented Ben Lewis) is unlike anything I've seen. Ben and Eric Powell Holm as co-directors have taken such graphic and at times disturbing subject matter and turned it into one of the most hilarious and poignant projects I've been a part of.

What is it like being a part of Lonesome Devil?: So good I cannot wait to get to rehearsal. It's like a big family. Most of us have worked together many times before. We're all kind of in love with each other.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: New works, created with the spirit and enthusiasm of children creating stories and worlds in the backyard. My favorite tshirt says "My favorite artists are my friends". Whenever I see John Egan and Katie Melby act, I'm inspired and enthralled. A couple of days ago, Hallie Haas and I were rehearsing a scene and she looked at me dead in the eye and said a line so truthfully I had chills up my spine.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I was dying to play The Visitor, though I didn't know it at first. Anything that comes out of the mind of Ben and Eric. Iago. Hedda. Lady McB. Anything by Sarah Ruhl.

What’s your favorite showtune?: I cry whenever I hear "Ol' Man River".

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I've been directed by Austin Pendleton before, but to be able to act alongside him would be a dream come true.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I'd love it to be a girl version of Richard Linklater's "Boyhood", with a real girl who isn't an actor that grows up before our eyes.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I always tell people to get their asses to Cloud City.

What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: I've been devouring The War on Drugs's "Lost in the Dream" album for months now. The first track "Under the Pressure" is my shower song, and "Disappearing" is gorgeous with this sentimental, retro feeling. I can't wait to take a road trip to Big Sur again with this record in the mix.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Maybe The Visitor is rubbing off on me, but none of my pleasures make me feel guilty.

What’s up next?: A massage. And then I'm going to finish writing a play I've been working on for a couple years now. And I'm sure our caravan will conceive something awesome for the winter. Right friends?

For more on Lyndsey, visit http://www.lyndseyanderson.com/