My Love Affair
Posted by Melinda Lopez on 7/31/2007
I want to tell you about my love affair with Chicago actors.
Madison– the magician musician. I loved Madison the minute I heard him play guitar. Madison is tall and lanky. I love a tall man. He takes his shirt off in the play, and he’s all sinew. He plays guitar. Of course I love him. He is soulful and sad, and he plays Tommy who is soulful and sad. Madison makes music all the time—you can just say, Madison, play something, and he can. In the rehearsal room, he’s restless and unsatisfied, and only comes to stillness when he traces his long fingers over the strings.
Judy Blue is my love. Judy is soft where Madison is solid. Strawberry blonde with alarmingly blue eyes, she is genteel as a Tennessee Williams heroine—and just as tough. She’s shy when she steps up to the microphone to sing her solo—I don’t know why because her voice is powerful and full of truth and pain—but her modesty is so disarming that I love her for it. She never stops working on the character she plays. She never hurries. She has the dignity of royalty. I bet she makes a great pie.
Rani can fly. She hangs in the air and holds a 180° split—like the girl in The Matrix. This is not poetic license, okay? I’ve seen her do it—it’s true. She is an ancient Hindu goddess come to life—maybe that’s where her name comes from? I should ask her. Rani has crazy hair, like a Botticelli. Her skin is so pale you can see through it. She favors the ‘wife-beater’ t-shirt— you know, the Marlon Brando look, that shows off her chiseled arms (there’s that marble skin—maybe more Michelangelo than Botticelli?) She plays the drums—with fierce concentration, and for all her delicate beauty, she is terrifying when fighting for her life in this play. She’ll kick your ass if you cross her.
Brad is trouble. It’s his eyes. They are always up to something. He was a trouble-maker kid, and his mom washed his mouth out with soap so many times that he started telling her “I like it, give me more.” Brad is a trickster, and half the women in the company have been trying on his discarded jeans to see who gets to take them home as a door prize. Brad has classic good looks—like his namesake, Mr. Pitt. He plays Mark, tortured soul, under dog, keeper of secrets. Beauty and darkness flicker on his face in flashes—one minute day, one minute night—like a crazy drunken astronaut circling the earth.
Rachel. Pure of mind and soul. The Midwestern icon of American loveliness. Do you remember the Ivory Girl? Am I dating myself? Rachel brings sweets baked by her family to our rehearsals. Rachel has a perfect smile. She couldn’t possibly even weigh a hundred pounds. In the play, she kisses a girl and a boy and leaves a girl and a boy and goes head to head with Tommy—twice her size—and bests him. It’s wicked to see this girl in a rage. Like Rani, she’s a swan in steel-toe-boots.
I love these actors. They are my company. They are really brave. Really smart. Really kind. They have darkness in their hearts. They have music in their blood. I’m lucky lucky lucky. I wanted you to know.