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Listen to the interview with Kate Brown Pernia. [MP3 3:11 2.9MB]

Mike: This is Mike Clark with Show Biz Radio and I am backstage at a rehearsal for Providence Players‘ Rehearsal For Murder. I am talking now with Kate Brown Pernia, who pays the role of Bella Lamb. Thank you for talking with me today, Kate.

Kate: You’re welcome. It’s good to be here.

Mike: So who is Bella Lamb?

Kate: Bella Lamb is a Broadway producer. She’s a wealthy woman and she is a good friend of the playwright, Alex who is the lead character in the play. We have a long standing relationship.

Mike: So has it been hard building the character? Is she at all like you or is she very different from you?

Kate: We have some similarities. I’ve never had her kind of power or her kind of money. She is a strong character and has a lot of self confidence, and I think now that I am over a certain age I have developed a little bit of confidence over the years so I can relate to her.

Mike: Do you like her?

Kate: I like her very much. She’s witty. She come up with a clever line or two in the play. She has a great sense of humor.

Mike: So what was the last show you’ve done? You were telling me a few days ago that it’s been a while since you’ve been on stage.

Kate: Yes. it’s been about ten years since I did a show. I used to do professional theater many many many years ago. But I gave that up so I could make a living. The last show I did was at a little community theater in Texas. I was living near Houston at the time. It was in Texas City. They called themselves the “Biggest Little Theater in Texas,” the College of the Mainland. We did a couple of great shows there. My favorite one was Eleemosynary. I played a scientist. It was a very wordy play. It was great fun.

Mike: So, do you have a role that you would love to do, that is like a dream role?

Kate: Well, I’ve had many of those over the years and I’ve out grown a lot of them. I once played Masha in Three Sisters. I loved that, was one of my favorite parts I’ve ever played. Can’t say that I’ve had that on my radar lately. I wanted to play Lady MacBeth at one time, but I think I’m too old for that now.

Mike: Do you have a next project yet or are you just getting through this one?

Kate: I’m just getting through this one for the time being. Having missed a couple of weeks of rehearsals while I was traveling, I’ve had to play catch up a bit this week.

Mike: So do you feel good? It seems that it’s coming together pretty quickly the last couple of days.

Kate: Yes, I think so. Last week was a tough week for us. Partly for me getting caught up and also we were getting on stage and dealing with the distractions of the technical issues. I’ve never been in a show where we did the technical work so early and I think that’s great. I think in this show so much is done with lights we have really needed to do that. Now we’ve got about a week and we can relax into just work on the acting and fine tuning. That’s a real luxury for an actor. It’s going to be a fun week.

Mike: Well, thank you very much for talking with me. I appreciate it.