Interview with "A Little Night Music's" Nora Ankrom

   It’s always amazing to see an actor portraying a character who’s the opposite of their real personality. 

   You can see a great example of this in the ARTS musical A Little Night Music (which runs this weekend and next in Huntington), as the beautiful and talented Nora Ankrom - who is wonderfully kind in real life - plays a wicked, spiteful woman!

    Here’s our interview with Nora: 

Q: Tell us about the musical A Little Night Music.

Nora: A Little Night Music is about various messy and interwoven love triangles. It's a little confusing on paper, but there's a very helpful diagram in my script. 

Q: What part do you play?

Nora: I play Countess Charlotte Malcolm, wife of Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, whose mistress is Desiree Armfeldt (not a secret and probably not the first). Charlotte is jaded, sarcastic, and devastatingly blunt. She rightly blames Carl-Magnus for her drinking problem and would likely be treated for manic depression today*.

Q: What's your background in theatre?

Nora: I've been performing at ARTS since May 2013. This is my third year in the ARTS Resident Acting Company. Throughout the year, I work on vocal performance with Bruce Rous and acting lessons with Leah Turley. Most importantly, I sing and play pretend with Joey and Darcy Ankrom most of the day, everyday 

Q: What's your favorite song in the show?

Nora: The closing number for the first act, “A Weekend in the Country.” It begins with vignettes of all the characters, which leads them to an unlikely weekend together in the country, where they're twice as upset as in town (and “some” of them are uninvited). 

Q: What's been the most challenging thing about the show?

Nora: The Liebeslieders, the singing storytellers for the whole show, have the hardest part by far. They constantly weave in and out of the scenes, observing, commenting, and totally judging the rest of us. All of this to Sondheim songs. 

Q: What makes this show so much fun?

Nora: It's oozing with talent. It's got beautiful costumes from the early 1900s. It's in the ARTS ballroom. It's accompanied by a lovely combo. It's Sondheim. And, I get to play a bitter, scorned woman who sings about death. What's not to love (besides the corset)? 

*(The views and opinions expressed in this interview of Charlotte's "drinking problem" and "manic depression" are not scripted and do not necessarily reflect the views of the playwright, the composer, the director, the choreographer, the costumer, the lighting and sound designers, or anyone else of any importance.)

   Thanks, Nora!

    ARTS presents A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler at the Renaissance Theatre at 900 8th Street on March 12, 17, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for the show only, and $30 for dinner and the show. Call for reservation 304-733-2787.