Kathy Brombacher. Photo by Ken Jacques. |
My wonderful journalism teacher gave me as a
graduation present a two week workshop at the University of Redlands. My mother thought “Are you kidding? What
could she do with theatre!?” But the
teacher saw something in me. And so I
took summer school at the University of Redlands right out of my senior year of
high school. First, I was terrified at having
to perform and sing and do the things that they did. But then, I got hooked. And because I was going to the university, I
met actors: the teachers were students at the university in the theatre
department. So I met the people already
and it was just a natural segue to getting involved with the theatre. But I owe that all to my journalism teacher
who somehow saw that that might be something good for me. I had been a public speaker in high school
also…I had done speech competitions, contests, that sort of thing. So maybe that was part of it. Then, I started taking those theatre classes
in college and went on and focused on directing at one point.
What
was the first show you ever performed in?
What role did you play?
I think that would be the “Merchant of Venice” my
freshman year. I played the role of
Jessica. And, heaven knows, I needed a
lot of training! [laughs] But the University
of Redlands did one Shakespearian production a year. And we all auditioned for everything and that
was what I recall was my first official role.
And to this day, I love Shakespeare!
I
want to talk more about your acting experience in the pre-Moonlight era. Have you acted with other San Diego theatre
companies, for example, The Old Globe or La Jolla Playhouse?
Yes, with The Old Globe. I did a production of Chekov’s “The Seagull”
directed by Craig Noel. At the time, I
was teaching high school in Vista and they had open call auditions. At that time, I think it was 1978, this was a
production that went into the theatre-in-the-round there and they were not paying
the actors, except there were two Equity actors that they paid, but it was essentially
all volunteer at that time. So my
driving from Vista to San Diego while I was teaching full time was a little
demanding, but it was something that I really wanted to do.
Kathy and Craig at the 2006 SD Theatre Critics Circle Awards. Photo courtesy of the SDTCCA. |
I also performed with The La Jolla Stage Company in “The Lion in Winter.” I played Eleanor. That was some years ago … I can’t exactly remember the date, but it was another one I performed in while I was teaching and I drove down. And I became good friends with Walt Stuart, who was the artistic director of La Jolla Stage Company and directed the show. He was a long time teacher of theatre at La Jolla High School and that theatre was on the campus of La Jolla High. It was a community theatre that he helped develop.
And I did a couple of things here locally before the
Moonlight got started. I did “The Lion
in Winter” here for North County Community Theatre. I was Eleanor in that. And I did the role of Hope Harcourt in
“Anything Goes” with that same community theatre.
And onstage at Moonlight I played the role of Vera
in “Mame,” the role of Jack’s Mother in “Into the Woods,” and Julia in “Lend Me
A Tenor.”
Wow. You’ve had the privilege of playing some
fantastic roles. Have you worked
alongside any memorable San Diego actors?
Brian Salmon.
Brian, I met at “The Lion in Winter” that we did in La Jolla. Thereafter, he came to our theatre to play
Professor Henry Higgins in our first “My Fair Lady.” And I have great admiration for Brian. He’s a great person as well.
Any
particular funny stories or interesting experiences during your onstage acting
career?
Well, when I was doing “Mame” at Moonlight in 1991,
I decided to be on stage, which took a lot of doing, but meanwhile I was
working with a new director, a new lighting designer, a new costumer. Usually, what an artistic director does is integrate new staff in that direction
from out front. So, because I had a
relatively large role onstage, I wasn’t able to sit out and integrate. The director had a personal emergency, the
choreographer left the show, and the costumes weren’t finished the night before
opening. And I thought: of all shows to
be in onstage, when what I really should be doing is helping direct from out
front, helping finish the lighting, etc.
So we just had to go forward and I called in some of my friends who
helped with the costumes and the show went on … but it is not really a funny
story. It’s actually kind of sad. [laughs]
That all these things happened in one production!
Into the 1990’s I had decided - and it was a very
good decision - to bring in some wonderful directors from the outside. I had only had a couple of local directors
work with me and I was directing most of the productions in the 1980’s. So in the 1990’s, I said we’ve got to reach
out and bring in more actors of a professional level. So that was my philosophy in the 90’s: integrating
the artists that come from Orange County, San Diego, wherever it might be. And it was wonderful. But “Mame” was one of those projects where
things just didn’t line up. [laughs]
I
want to talk about your educational trajectory from college to graduate
school. You mentioned you went to the University
of Redlands where you got your…
BA in Theatre and then I went for my Master of Fine
Arts in Acting at the University of Denver.
It was a two year program with summers included and that was really
training to become a repertory actress.
And I loved the theatre department because they did musicals as
well. And we did
Shakespeare, and lots of training in repertory literature with some fine
professors.
University of Redlands. Photo courtesy of redlands.edu. |
Any
specific highlights or milestones you vividly remember from those years?
It was a wonderful time of learning. I also taught voice at that time because I
was raising money to pay for college and I played piano for classes and that
sort of thing. What I remember most is
the core of people and the achievements that we had. I mean, this was a theatre program where all
the costumes were built from design.
I remember my training with John Powell who had
worked significantly with the BBC in London.
He painted pictures on stage that were
extraordinary. I think it was during my
MFA in Acting that I began to realize how interested I was in the directing
aspects of theatre. Largely because
there were such great theatre directors there.
There were people who were "actor’s directors" who focused principally on
the text and bringing that alive from the inside. And then there were (like John Powell)
directors of great pageantry and visual imagery and they directed in a very
different way. And then there was a
third professor that I remember so clearly, Yayega Ziff. She was with the Polish Lab Theatre and she
gave us exercises and coached us in dialect and her insight into the characters
was just on a whole different plane. And
very physically oriented.
And then, I just started directing a couple projects
myself there. Even though I was in the
acting program and required to be in all these productions, I started some
outside multimedia directing and did some black box directing, too.