LOS ANGELES — She got her start in theater back in the ’70s, when off-Broadway was just coming into its own. And now, 40 years later, Marylouise Burke is as vital as the day she first hit the boards, winning the 2000 Drama Desk Award for David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Fuddy Meers,” and receiving a nomination in 2003 for Lindsay-Abaire’s “Kimberly Akimbo,” in which she played a teenage girl with progeria, a fatal genetic disease that causes premature, rapid aging in children.
In “A Parallelogram,” the new play by Bruce Norris (“Clybourne Park”), she plays Bee, a guide from the future who goes back in time to help her younger self navigate some knotty problems, raising questions about fate and free will.
In a recent interview with ARTINFO, Burke spoke about bringing the play from Chicago’s Steppenwolf to Los Angeles, stage fright, and the good old days of New York theater.
What was your first reaction to the play and at what point did you feel you really had a grasp of the material?
I can’t say that I understood it at all at the beginning. I couldn’t have told you what the play was about. I just knew it would be a challenge and a pleasure at the same time. And so we all kind of learned about it together in Chicago. Bruce was around the whole time and [director] Anna Shapiro has worked with him a lot. This was the first time the play was done. So we were all finding out together how it worked and how it goes from beat to beat. And the same thing has been happening here [in Los Angeles]. Bruce has been present and he made some changes before we started rehearsal to deal with things that he wanted to clarify from the Chicago production.
After all these years, do you still get nervous when you perform?
Oh, definitely. It’s very scary. Last night we were feeling that because we were running through the whole play for the first time with all of the tech elements in place. It was our first chance to do it beginning to end with the tech, and suddenly Tom Irwin and I were backstage waiting to go on and I said, “Y’know? I’m nervous.” He said, “Are you kidding? I’m nervous too!” It still comes every time. I think, “Why did I choose to do this? Why didn’t I become a surgeon or something?!”
When you’re on stage, I’ve heard it’s easier to remember the nights where things don’t go well. But on good nights, it’s all a blur.
I think I’m cognizant of it because it feels so good. It’s like riding a fabulous wave if it’s one of those special nights when something clicks and it’s really happening. I think I’m aware of it but then it can be troubling because you want that to happen every night. You can start to feel as if you failed if it wasn’t one of those magical, inspired nights. I had to learn that that does not mean it was disappointing to the audience. I just had to realize that’s part of being a pro because it just can’t be magic every single night. I heard an Olivier story about that too, “Richard III” or something, where he was really depressed afterward because he said he didn’t know how to make it happen again.
Is this play going to Broadway?
I have absolutely no idea. I don’t know what’s in the works. Broadway isn’t the only place to do it. Some plays would be better served by smaller houses, I think, like off-Broadway. But my understanding, also, is that it’s hard for producers to make their money back because there are fewer seats. So it’s driven by economics.
I know you began your career in New York in the ’70s. How has the theater scene changed since then?
It’s a lot tougher to do a straight play. I think the economics of it are such that it’s also the producers want a name. I often think if I was just leaving to New York today, it would be so much harder if I weren’t rich because of the economy in New York and the cost of living and the scarcity of affordable housing in Manhattan. So they move farther and farther out. I feel really lucky that I came in the ’70s when I did, when it was easier to find a place to live, it was easier to get cast in downtown things. It was the earlier ’70s, kind of a wide-open time. It was shortly after, really, the beginnings of off-off-Broadway. So you were in church basements, or fourth floor walkups, but you were doing it, y’know?
“A Parallelogram” runs July 10-August 18 at the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center in Los Angeles.