Cast Interview: Mary Lahti in A LIE OF THE MIND

Your Name:
Mary Lahti

Role in this production:
Meg

What's been your favorite role, to date?  

Cinnimon.  No, kidding (sort of).  My favorite under 40 role is the role of Amy in COMPANY.  My favorite over 40 role is "Georgia" in CURTAINS.

What's the wackiest experience you've ever had onstage?  

Oh, so many to choose from.  I guess maybe performing for a Father's Day Benefit dance concert where the only audience member turned out to be the choreographer's father.  We were tricked into thinking it was a big benefit concert.

What's been the most challenging thing about preparing for this role?  

I was going to say, preparing to massage my character's husband's feet, but that's not so bad.  I would say probably finding a balance in the character substitution for my character's daughter who is beat up and has brain damage.  It was way too easy to put myself into that realization and I have had to find a balance in the exploration for the character.

What's been the most exciting thing about the rehearsal process?  

Besides absolutely loving this cast?  I would say breaking down a scene by individual objectives and exploring just one at a time for the whole scene to really get a sense of the dynamics with your scene partners as well as within yourself.  It's just amazing what unfolds in the process.   

What parts of yourself are similar to the character?  

Oh, I would say the over mothering is probably the biggest similarity and there is mention to not yelling or screaming which is very much me.  I don't like yelling.   But I am in no way, shape or form a country girl.

What's next for you (with The Seeing Place, or other)?  

Well, I will be helping the company for the season but my next project is my debut cabaret show planned for May which I'm so excited about.  This is a different area I had not considered before and after studying this form for awhile, I'm ready to take what I've learned and put on what I hope to be a fun show.  

A LIE OF THE MIND runs March 1-17, 2013

Wed-Sat at 7pm;  Sat & Sun at 2pm, in New York City.

For tickets, click here.

For more info about The Seeing Place, click here.

To donate (it's a worthy cause!), click here.