She's been a Sun Devil for less than a year, and already theater freshman Laura Wilkinson is preparing for her first main stage production: Good 'N Plenty - a comedy set in the bicentennial.
Fresh out of Hamilton High School in Chandler, this up-and-coming ASU actress is determined to prove herself on stage, playing Cindy, the villain in Good 'N Plenty, as well as the Bulgarian foreign exchange student, Margie, who always quotes songs from the 1970s.
After just two small roles at the Prism Theatre last semester, Wilkinson says she's ready and willing to tackle anything ASU has in store for her.
The bubbly 18-year-old got her start in fourth grade at a New Mexico children's theater and hasn't been out of the spotlight since. She performed throughout high school and has been involved in Valley improv theater groups for three years, where she developed a passion for absurd theater.
Catch her on stage with Apollo 12 and The Barrow Gang during the Phoenix Improv Festival this weekend at the Paper Heart Gallery.
In between classes, rehearsal and lunch, Wilkinson shared her secret obsessions, theater dreams and what she really thinks of ASU.
SPM: What do you hope to do after ASU?
Wilkinson: I know I want to get a graduate degree in theater. I probably won't be a professional actor, but maybe a theater academic. I also think about drama therapy.
SPM: What's that?
Wilkinson: It's a lot like music therapy - you use your arts to help people and to create healthy ways of thinking. It looks like it would be really rewarding, but really challenging.
SPM: How has your acting changed since you've been at ASU?
Wilkinson: My characters are more grounded in reality. I've been able to look at a lot more aspects of the theater, like theater history and dramaturgy, not just acting.
SPM: Are you a natural actress?
Wilkinson: No. It's work, it's not just a natural gift, or at least I don't like to think so. That would be detrimental to my working process.
SPM: What's your biggest challenge on stage?
Wilkinson: Letting myself go to the level that the character needs to go to. Sometimes I'll let my own personal self get in the way.
SPM: Are you nervous for your first big ASU production?
Wilkinson: No. I have faith.
SPM: In what?
Wilkinson: That I'll do a good job, and I know everybody else will. I have faith that there will be an audience that will like it.
SPM: Is there anyone that people say you look or act like?
Wilkinson: I used to get Molly Shannon in high school, but I also got Matilda. I wish people told me I looked like Gilda Radner, but nobody ever tells me that.
SPM: What inspires you?
Wilkinson: I get really inspired when I see people that I go to school with putting their whole lives into doing theater right here, right now. I hope I have that same drive a couple years down the road.
SPM: What's the strangest role you're ever played?
Wilkinson: When I was in seventh grade I had to play the hunger artist in that story by Kafka. I was this man that would fast for 40 days and 40 nights, and I was in a cage. I ended up dying because I starved myself.
SPM: What's your motto?
Wilkinson: Show up, tell the truth and pay attention.
SPM: What's your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Wilkinson: Earlier this semester when I was in For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls, I was supposed to take a cocktail stirrer and throw it at the wall behind the couch, and this is a really small stage. I threw it and it went straight down, hit the couch and bounced back towards me. That was really embarrassing.
SPM: What's something that most people don't know about you?
Wilkinson: I really like Will Wheaton from Star Trek, but I'm not a Star Trek fan. I have an autographed picture of him that my friend got me at a Star Trek convention.
SPM: Do you like him as an actor or because you think he's hot?
Wilkinson: Neither! I don't know him as an actor. I read his Web log and I just think he's cool. I wish I was friends with him, and so that's weird. I have a bunch of quirks that people don't know about me, but they don't seem that quirky to me. I do like She Hulk, the Hulk's cousin.
SPM: What's your impression so far of ASU?
Wilkinson: It smells good and I really like the professors I've had. It's really meeting my needs.
SPM: What's the key to being a good actress?
Wilkinson: Don't have a big ego, listen to what the director says, trust your instinct and don't be lazy. I'm not saying I do all those, I just happen to know those are key.
SPM: Is there anything else I should know about you?
Wilkinson: I'm smarter than I come across on paper. I've done interviews before and I always sound so air-headed, but I'm not!
Reach the reporter at jaime.schneider@asu.edu.
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