Frances Sternhagen (#185) - January, 2008

Two-time Tony-winner Frances Sternhagen (for The Good Doctor and The Heiress) surveys her six-decade career in the theatre, ranging from her decision to stop teaching "dramatics" to schoolchildren to her most recent Broadway appearance in Edward Albee's Seascape. In between she talks about her time in such illustrious theatre companies as Washington DC's Arena Stage and New York's APA; her Broadway debut in a revival of The Skin Of Our Teeth with Mary Martin, Helen Hayes and George Abbott; the wonderful experience of performing Chekhov by way of Neil Simon in The Good Doctor; her efforts to be cast in the U.S. production of Equus based solely on having read a review of the play's London debut; why she thinks Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh is due for a revival; how she came to create the role of Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond while she was still in her 40s; and why she works so steadily, at theatres large and small, after all these years.