ALUMNA PROFILE

Nancy Palk is one of the founding members of the Soulpepper Theatre Company.
She performs in Soulpepper's Angels in America, Parts l & ll, by Tony Kushner, directed by Albert Schultz, from June 12 to July 12, 2014; and A Tender Thing, by Ben Power, directed by Michael Shamata, from August 14 to September 29, 2014; the remount of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, directed by Albert Schultz, August 30 to September 20, 2014; and Spoon River, directed by Albert Schultz, October 29 to November 15, 2014.

She was interviewed in March, 2010, while at NTS to work with the first-year Acting students on the play White Biting Dog, written by her NTS classmate, Judith Thompson (Acting, 1979).

_ (Photo credit: Tim Leyes)_

How did you enjoy being back at the NTS?

I was absolutely thrilled to come back and I loved being in Montreal. I really enjoy working with the first-year students. It’s a time when everyone is learning their craft and discovering who they are.

I have such great memories of the School. It’s where I met my husband, Joe Ziegler (Acting, 1979), during our first year.

What do you feel has changed since your time at the School?

The world was a very different place when I was here. There were far fewer theatre schools, and it seemed like there was more money available for the arts, and new theatre companies were starting up all over. So there was more work.

Today, there are so many theatre schools launching so many young actors, every year. There's a lot more “self start” work by young actors. When we graduated in 1979, we hoped that we would be hired to work on plays by new playwrights or perform the classics at the more established theatres. Fringe festivals and the new works playwrights festivals didn’t exist. I never had a camera class at the School. That’s definitely part of what you’re expected to have learned when you come out of a theatre school now.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

Well, I’m doing three plays with Soulpepper: Waiting for the Parade, by John Murrell; A Month in the Country, by Turgenev, adapted by Susan Coyne (Acting, 1984); and Death of a Salesman, in which Joe and I will play Willie and Linda Loman.

Will this be the first time you play husband and wife on stage?

Well, it’s the first time in a long time! We have played the Macbeths, off-Broadway, and we’ve played couples in various comedies directed by Robin Phillips during his time at The Citadel Theatre. But this will be the first time we play husband and wife at Soulpepper. We do work together a lot though. And I've been directed by him many times.

How do you reconcile family life and your work in the theatre?

We were able to travel a lot and work together before our children were born and up until our first boy was about 6 years old. (Nancy and Joe have three sons; their eldest, Timothy, is an actor and a member of the Shaw Festival company; their other boys are still in school.) At that point, travelling was too disruptive and we felt that one of us should always stay in town, so we had to make some choices. You do what you need to do. Yes, there were some things that I had to turn down, but we’ve been very fortunate in our careers in that there has been enough work close to home and so it actually hasn’t been that difficult.

What do you still carry with you from your training at the School?

It was really wonderful training and much of it stays with me. We studied under Douglas Rain who taught us that all the clues are in the text, and you must strive to illuminate it, rather than illuminating your virtuosity. We also had wonderful teachers: Louis Spritzer and his partner, Ann Marie Peters, who taught voice and movement respectively. As a unit, they were completely in tune with each other about voice and body work always connecting to the text.

What inspires you?

I always look for what the play is saying to me. I have to find some kind of passion for the story, not just the part. I look for a reason, a human reason to do it.

One always tries to find compassion for the characters one plays. And – I suppose this is true in any career – you never really stop learning, you never feel like you’ve arrived.

Are there any roles that you dream of playing?

Well, I would probably have to say Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. I also love those sort of wacky Tennessee Williams women and those Chekhov beauties like Ranevskaya (The Cherry Orchard) or Arkadina (The Seagull), I’d love to get to know them.

You recently played Martha in Soulpepper’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. What is your process leading up to such a role?

That was a mountain to climb and it was so big; at first, I was scared of it. That happens often with iconic parts like Martha. There are some plays in which you feel the weight of other people’s performances. But once you get into rehearsal, the role becomes your own. Since I suffer from a bit of stage fright, I like knowing my lines and being very prepared before getting into rehearsal. A lot of actors don't agree with me about that. It just happens to be my way. I don’t like to be full of tension. I like to be relaxed and, for me, it helps if I know my lines.

Do you have any advice for young actors?

I suppose I would go back to what Douglas Rain taught us, that the text is what’s important. Try to relieve yourself of thinking that it’s about you. Also, the need for generosity –not only for your character, and scene partner, but towards the audience as well. They've had a long day at work, they're tired, they're intelligent, they're in the theatre for a reason, they crave a good story. Don’t judge your characters: stand in defence of them.

What would you have considered doing had you not become an actor?

I don’t know the answer to that. This is probably what I was meant to do.

At what point in your life did you start thinking about theatre?

I was very fortunate to have grown up in Winnipeg where my father was on the board at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, when John Hirsch was the artistic director. It also was the time when actors such as Douglas Rain and Martha Henry (Acting, 1962) were all flooding to Winnipeg so the theatre scene was very active. The MTC ran a drama school and I started taking lessons in grade 5.

The first project that I remember involved a bunch of poems scattered on the floor. We were to pick one up and start working on it. I picked up this really good poem that started with: “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players…” And, of course, I just thought it was the greatest poem I’d ever heard! So, while everyone else was taking piano lessons, I was going to theatre school. I didn’t necessarily know at that point that I’d become an actor, but I did know that I enjoyed it.

Please finish this sentence: “If I’d have known then what I know now….”

I would have had five kids, fifty million dogs, and made twenty skillion dollars.