Isabel Keating, Actor
Primary Stages:
A Lifetime Burning, 2009
Career highlights:
Hairspray, 2007
The Neil Simon Theatre
The Boy from Oz, 2004
The Imperial Theatre
Enchanted April , 2003
The Belasco Theatre
Q&A
Nickname
Bel (which came from my little sister not being able to say my full name when she was young -- it stuck); Is; Izzy; one person has called me Isness; also Blockalockistan, but that is rare
Pre-show ritual
Each play has necessitates and deserves its own unique ritual. There was one that started out requiring just my usual, but escalated to including the ritual of yelling out of my dressing room window to the theater across the street right at the 5 minute call (only on Saturdays.) Usually that kind of thing depends on who one's cast-mates are! Supreme embellishments also develop according to what the character demands, but minimum for me: water, water, water, make-up, hair, water, quiet, go.
Book you are reading
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff
Highlight of the year (so far)
Performing Cusi Cram's A Lifetime Burning at Primary Stages!
And mom turning 87!
Your perfect day
A pot of strong tea after the sun is up, fresh air and trees and crazy animals in the park, a challenging and brilliant new script, friends, listening to Mark play the piano. Perfect.
Favorite theater urban legend
I appreciate the outrageous ones for the laugh-so-hard-your-ribs-hurt factor (e.g. corn, celebrities, digestion) but I especially love the ones about ghosts at the Belasco. once you have played the Belasco, you no longer even call it "legend." I didn't ever see Olive or Mr. Belasco, but there is undeniably something, even if it is my imagination!
Alter ego
Isn't that plural!?! Of the myriad I have known, one frequent visitor is "Matilda," who appears spontaneously and randomly, full of wrong-headed wisdom and malapropisms. "Dancer-girl," comes to visit every once in a while -- she does not speak, just dances what she has to say.
Favorite place in NYC
Indoors: The Metropolitan Museum of the Arts plus the Whitney
Outdoors: Central Park
Hidden talent
I swim. I used to compete and was a long-distance medalist, especially in Individual Medley. As an extension of that I have to mention that I have, as does my sister, a highly developed skill for talking under water. We are quite clear despite the muffling and bubbles. However, I do not aspire to play Esther Williams on the stage, even if a genius scenic designer came up with a tank/pool/multimedia thing. Well maybe.
Last show you saw and LOVED
The Late Christopher Bean by Sherman Howard, directed by Jenn Thompson (TACT at the Beckett);Charlayne Woodard's The Night Watcher directed by Daniel Sullivan at Primary Stages; Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, directed by Sam Gold at Playwright' Horizons
A guilty pleasure
I like to pretend that I have outgrown my obession with Michelle Obama's wardrobe, but I am growing back into my obsession with shelter magazines, while continuing my on again/off again love affair with french fries a la mustard
Something you don’t want us to know
I don't want you to know that there is anything I don't want you to know.
