ANDY DRACHENBERG: What has your experience been like being with this show for so long?
CARRIE COON: We took a twenty-month break in between productions so it was a little different than usual for us. The break was scary at first but I think it was important. It was fascinating revisiting our roles – it became less about recreating than it was rediscovering.
AD:What was it like coming back to it with fresh eyes?
CC: I think it helped us more than it hurt us and that was unexpected. We tried to get together once a month to run our lines. It was great to jump in afresh but not feel the pressure to repeat anything. We also didn’t feel like we had to get rid of the things that worked really well the first time.
AD:What helped you to further understand Honey when you came back to the piece?
CC: Physically, I learned that Honey is pretty high strung. I realized that I was taking a lot of that tension in my body and I’ve had to learn how to relax and release it while keeping the right tension and physicality in the role.
AD:Did you find any new tricks to release the tension?
CC: Well I am pretty active in my personal life and play a lot of soccer as a stress release. I love coming to the show refreshed. Yoga also really helps me relieve the stress and tension in my personal and acting life. During the last run, I got a couple of massages which helped… and I hope that I can continue that during this run!
AD:Can you tell us about your own response in coming to Broadway?
CC: It’s completely surreal. I had an idea what it would be like and it still wasn’t what I expected. These are iconic roles in the American theater and it’s a privilege to be part of a play with such a legacy. Since it has such a history, people won’t always like the choices that everyone makes. Part of joining a legacy like this is that it also comes with a legacy of criticism, but its part of your job to accept that. Everyone is going to have an opinion on how they think it should go and you just have to trust the director and company, and know that you show up every day and do the best job you can in the play you built together.
AD:Eight times a week you play your character in this iconic piece. I don’t think anyone could better define Honey right now than you. Who is Honey?
CC: I think she’s much more complex than is revealed. I think that she is a pleaser who has her ear tuned to what people want her to say, do, and be. But she is chafing under those expectations. Honey is afraid of having children, afraid of having an unfulfilled marriage, and is facing the reality that there might not be anything better than that out there for her. Previous productions touched more on Honey’s past than ours by telling about how she has had an abortion, is on birth control, or is making choices for herself in secret that her husband doesn’t know about. Throughout the play, Honey goes on a scary (but eye-opening) journey where she decides she may want to make a different choice, maybe have children, and have a more authentic marriage after witnessing the erosion of George and Martha’s relationship. I haven’t decided yet as to whether or not I feel they will actually accomplish that. I don’t think Honey has found her voice yet and the thing I love about her is that that problem hasn’t gone away; it’s just gone a little more underground. Women are still socialized to be people pleasers and we’re still expected to put our own needs second. Something my grandmother said to me is, “Carrie, you can just say no to things, you will be so much further ahead and it’s taken me until now to learn that”. I consider her to be a very strong woman and I think this battle is one we’re still fighting. I think that Honey is still in the middle of that herself.
AD:How did you get a handle on how to portray Honey?
CC: I was really touched by just how lonely a life she is living. We know that whatever happened in Kansas was really devastating. Honey had a hard time fitting in. I really have a lot of compassion for that lonely existence for this woman who doesn’t have a career, just sits at home all day while her husband is gone, hasn’t been able to find a social niche, and doesn’t have kids. I just imagine her puttering around the house, reading magazines, nipping the brandy, and putting off to the last minute getting dinner together for Nick when he got home. That must be so frustrating and it made me feel a lot of compassion for her.
AD:What was it like putting everything together with the rest of the cast?
CC: Madison and I were just brought in for this particular production because the Steppenwolf company members are generally older. These were very sought after roles in Chicago, since it was the first time Steppenwolf would be performing an Albee production; not to mention the fact that Tracy and Amy were in it, Pam was directing it, and it was the 50th anniversary. It was already an immeasurable accomplishment for us being in the same room with those actors but to have it go on to Broadway was just ridiculous. It feels like a crazy dream you wouldn’t dare dream for yourself.
AD:What is one of your favorite moments so far?
CC: One of the best moments was walking into the theater for the first time. Todd Rosenthal’s set is so beautiful in that space. The theater was recently renovated and it looks like that theater was built around that set. It just fits in there wonderfully. That was the first moment it felt like it was actually happening.
AD:What was your path in getting to know this play?
CC: In some ways I was blessedly ignorant of the legacy, I didn’t have a strong memory of Sandy Dennis’s performance. I got to discover it in the process as if it was a new play. At Steppenwolf, Amy, Tracy, and Pam decided to approach it the same way. We used the text to justify every choice and move we made. I didn’t come in with a lot of thoughts on what it should be. I came in thinking about this very lonely woman who is trying to make good choices and I went from there.
AD:What are the challenges playing a character when you already know the secrets that they will reveal and learn throughout the night?
CC: Edward Albee asks impossible moments of his actors such as having a stage direction of “not really with it” and then he has them say a line. It’s hard to figure out how to get there within the time you have. Honey is not always present mentally or physically throughout the play so I think she becomes the cipher for the audience so they get to experience those secrets coming out in the same way she does. Consequently, they can look to her to see the reaction to that secret coming out, especially when it concerns her. In some ways, her journey to the play runs parallel to the audience’s.
AD:What would you say to people about why they should come see Woolf?
CC: I think that if you have ever been or considered being in a committed relationship, you owe yourself the opportunity come and ask yourself some hard questions. If you ever have been or are on a quest to be your most authentic self, it can also be a very revelatory evening. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t fit into one of those categories. Therefore, everyone should come see the play.
Carrie Coon (Honey) is honored to make her Broadway debut. Regional theater credits include: Three Sisters, The March(Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Arena Stage); The Girl in the Yellow Dress (Next Theatre Company); The Real Thing(Writers’ Theatre); Magnolia (Goodman Theatre); Bronte (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company), Reasons to Be Pretty, Blackbird(Renaissance Theaterworks); The Diary of Anne Frank, Anna Christie, Our Town (Madison Repertory Theatre); and four seasons with the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Television and film credits include The Playboy Club, various commercials and One in a Million. A native of Copley, Ohio, she received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.