PHX Stages Q/A: Kathleen Berger

Soprano Kathleen Berger comes from a big theatrical Arizona family. After finding success on opera stages around the world, she recently moved back to Phoenix from Madrid, Spain. She was Rose Lennox opposite her brother Jesse as Neville in Arizona Broadway Theatre's The Secret Garden last spring and most recently played Solange in Theater Work's Follies opposite her father, veteran Valley actor Marty Berger.  Since she's been back in town, she's played the sassy Miss Jones in How to Succeed.. at Theater Works, where she also appeared in their I Get A Kick Out of Cole, as well as played Lucy in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Fountain Hills and Velma Von Tussle in Desert Foothills Theater's Hairspray.  While her first love is Opera, the Phoenix theatre community is glad to have her back in its graces. This week she appears in Viva Divas!, a recital with soprano Julie Wyma, presented by Theater Works. This very funny lady took a break in her crazy schedule to sit down and answer the PHX Stages Q/A:

Name: Kathleen Anne Berger

Where you were born and or raised: Litchfield Park, Arizona - I’m that rarest of rares, an Arizona native.

Kathleen with her father Marty Berger in Theater Works' Follies - 2015

photo: Wade Moran

What made you decide to stay in or return to Arizona? I moved to Madrid, Spain in 2006, lived there for seven years, married a Spanish chef, and we adopted the Four Kitties of the Apocalypse. The economy essentially collapsed, unemployment went to 25%, work dried up for both of us, and we decided to bring the furry kids across the ocean and give the USA a try.
 
What your parents did/do for a living:  My dad retired after 50 years as a pediatrician (he is the original founder of Maryvale Pediatrics) and, not coincidentally, he’s a well-known and Zoni-winning Valley actor. My mom, in her own words, is “the world’s best audience member,” and a professional mom and grandma to many.

Siblings: I’m number 5 of 6! Barbara, 60-something, sang in choirs all her life; Joe, 60-something, rock/fusion guitarist and sound man for the last 40 years or so in NYC, Larry, 50-something, three kids, doesn’t do music himself but married Karen, a soprano, Carol, 50-something, lives in Oregon, has four kids, and is awesome, then I’m 43, and Jesse, 40-ish, Company Manager at Arizona Broadway Theatre, singer/actor, he’s married to Laura, a fabulous singer/actress who works at Childsplay, and they are the parents of Isaac, World’s Cutest 1.5-Year-Old.  

Family/Children: I’m married to Manuel Alba Garrido, who is gorgeous, blond, Spanish, and a chef. We have four furry, purring children and would not say no to a human child as well (but only if it could purr).

Day job/part time job (if not acting full time): Oh wow. I sing and act (and occasionally sort of dance, badly), I teach private voice, and - coming out of the closet here - now that I no longer want to travel so much I manage classical/crossover singers, under a Classified Secret Agent name.
     
First show you ever saw:  The Tales of Hoffmann, at Lyric Opera Theatre at ASU, when I was 3 years old. Yes, really.

Moment you knew you wanted to perform for a living: According to my mother and sister, all the way home from The Tales of Hoffman (at 3) I announced “I’m going to be an opera singer!” Way to corrupt a mere child.

in Theater Works' Follies - 2015
photo: Alastair Gamble

The one performance you attended that you will never forget: I have to pick just ONE????? Um. Hmmm. Ok. This is hard. The Secret Garden, on tour, at Gammage, sometime back in the early 90’s. I will never forget hearing/seeing “Winter’s on the Wing” for the first time. I came across the program a while ago and realized that Audra McDonald played the Ayah on that tour. Talk about luxury casting!  Oh, but also, Sweeney Todd at Avery Fisher Hall. It was supposed to be Bryn Terfel and Patti LuPone, Terfel cancelled, and it was GEORGE HEARN. He tore the place up. I sobbed embarrassingly audibly from beginning to end.

First stage kiss: I think it was probably with Gregory Jaye, who played Hero to my Philia lo these many  years ago in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Glendale Amphitheater.

Best stage experience you’ve had so far: My debut as Lucia di Lammermoor in Torremolinos, Spain, on one rehearsal. First - and only - time I’ve ever gotten a standing ovation in the middle of an aria.

What has been the most fun or fulfilling aspect of your current/ most recent show?  Oh, where to start? I got to do Follies with Steve Hilderbrand, Phillip Fazio, Misha Shields and the Best Cast Ever - including the person I SAW as Eponine on Broadway back when I was in high school? EVERYTHING. Everything is the most fulfilling/fun aspect of this.

Most challenging role you have played onstage: Violetta in La Traviata. Also the role I have played the most times.    
     

Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata (with tenor Javier Palacios and chorus)
Cuenca, Spain

Any upcoming or side projects you can talk about? Yes! On April 16, Viva Divas! - a concert of Italian opera (it’ll be fun, I promise!), with Julie Wyma, soprano, at Theater Works; I just performed the soprano solos in the Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (Mozart) at Glendale College on March 12, and "The Joy of Sextets (and other things singers do in groups)" is coming up in May (dates TBA), produced by Desert Foothills Theater! There are a couple of other possible happenings, but nothing's confirmed yet, so I’m keeping it zipped for now.

Leading role you've been dying to play: Opera or Musical Theater? Opera: Anna Bolena (I have a thing for Tudor queens who get their heads chopped off), Musical Theater: Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza

Leading role of the opposite sex you wish you could play: Harold Hill in The Music Man, the MC in Cabaret.  

Pre-show rituals or warm-ups: I have dark chocolate, apples, and sparkling water in my dressing room/at my station, and about an hour before the show I have a café cortado (an espresso with a little sploosh - that’s the technical term - of milk).

as Countess Almaviva in
Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Medellín, Colombia

Worst flubbed line/missed cue/onstage mishap:  First Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, ten weeks after I broke my right hip, so still had relatively significant weakness in the leg. My first aria, "Porgi, amor," is staged on a chaise lounge down in front of the stage (right in front of the first row. Don't ask, I have no idea why) . After aria is done, Susanna comes on stage, is looking around for me, and I'm supposed to run gracefully up the stairs onto the stage. Opening night I trip on my dress, the leg wobbles, and I go down - WHUMP! - face first on the stairs (they were carpeted, thankfully). Audible gasp from audience. I get up, grimly straighten my dress, and continue. Am later extremely relieved to discover my parents didn’t even notice.
 
Worst costume ever: No comment. They never did find the body.  

Best costume ever:  Anything Tamara Treat gives me to wear. She makes me look FABULOUS!    

Your go to audition monologue/song: Opera: "Dove sono" from Le nozze di Figaro. Musical Theater: "Waiting for the Music to Begin," from The Witches of Eastwick, or “More," from Dick Tracy. Monologue? That’s acting, and it scares me. When I have to do it, I use Joan Cusack’s bit about killing people from Addams Family Values.

Worst audition experience: The Artistic Director Who Shall Not Be Named, who took out his cell phone, made a call, and started talking about his VACATION PLANS in the middle of my aria. Loudly. If I’d been as stabby a person then as I am now, I would’ve stopped and said “I’ll just wait while you finish this very important moment.”

If you could go back in time and catch any performer or show, what would they/it be?  Beverly Sills as Anna Bolena, Roberto Devereux, and Maria Stuarda; the original cast of Sweeney Todd (read: Angela Lansbury in ANYTHING); Mary Martin in ANYTHING.      

Famous past stage or screen star(s) you would have loved to have performed with:  Gregory Peck, Yul Brynner, Robert Preston, Carol Burnett, Ezio Pinza (yummmm), Beverly Sills.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Theater Works - 2014

Actor/actress in the Phoenix area you'd love to perform with: Many of them were in the cast of Follies! Otherwise: Johanna Carlisle, Sally Jo Bannow, Christy Welty, Debby Rosenthal, Toby Yatso (he’s directed me, but I’d LOVE to be onstage with him), Lizz Reeves, Paul Pedersen.

Your personal acting idols: Madeline Kahn, Allison Janney, Carol Burnett, Meryl Streep (duh), Joan Cusack, Kathleen Turner, Kevin Kline, Christine Baranski
               
Performer you would drop everything to go see:  Opera: Christine Goerke; Musical Theater: Lea Salonga

Current/recent show other than one of your own you have been recommending
to friends:  Dreamgirls at Desert Foothills Theater! Also, anything my clients are in, because they are la salsa de awesome.

Favorite play(s):  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; A Streetcar Named Desire
     
Favorite musical(s):  Anything written by Sondheim in the history of ever, especially Sweeney Todd;  The Secret Garden; Peter Pan; South Pacific; Show Boat
   
Some favorite modern plays/musicals: Avenue Q; Spamalot (I can’t help it, I die laughing every time); The Phantom of the Opera (hey! I like it! Shut up!); The Light in the Piazza, did I mention that already?

Favorite showtune(s) of all time: I have to pick JUST ONE?????? Um. "A Little Priest," but it isn’t really something one hums, is it now? Unless one’s me. Definitely NOT “A Real Nice Clambake.” I can’t decide. You pick. Oh! Wait! "Le Jazz Hot," from Victor/Victoria

Most listened song/music on your iPod/Phone?  “Almost Home” by Mary Chapin Carpenter

First CD/Tape/LP you owned: that I can remember clearly, the soundtracks to Mary Poppins and West Side Story. On *ahem* 8-track.

Last good book you read:  The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert

as The Witch in Into the Woods
(with Janine Smith and Darren Friedman)
Fountain Hills Theatre,

Must-see TV show(s): I don’t watch a lot of tv, but when I do, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Outlander

Guilty pleasure binge watching tv show: Outlander. HOT SCOTS IN SKIRTS.

Last good movie you saw: Into the Woods (yes, I FINALLY SAW IT)

Favorite movie: A Room With A View.

Music/book/movie that makes you cry: The Secret Garden; La Traviata; “Contessa, perdono” from act 4 of Le Nozze di Figaro; Anything written by E.M. Forster; I sob uncontrollably watching the movies Juno and *sniffle* Up.

Favorite restaurant in the Valley: Nook Kitchen! Go try their Pulled Pork Bruschetta. Right now.

Favorite cities:  San Diego; Madrid; the entire Almería region of Spain.

Sports teams you root for: Real Madrid, the Cardinals, and whoever is playing the Patriots or the Cowboys.

Something about you that might surprise people: I’ve always been SHYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Also, I really like cats.

Special skills: Able to fall down any staircase ever made.  

Career you would want if not a performer: President, but I’d never be elected because I’d look at my opponent in a debate and say “Did you seriously just say that? That is the stupidest goddamned thing I ever heard. Do you actually listen to yourself?"    

Worst non-theatre job you've had: I decline to answer this question on the advice of my attorney, because just remembering it makes me really stabby.

Best non-theatre job you've had: If by non-theatre you mean not actually onstage, teaching voice is unbelievably rewarding. I really love my students.

with Kaitlynn Kleinman and Matthew Curtis
in The Secret Garden- Arizona Broadway Theatre 2014
(photo: ABT)

Three things you can't live without: My husband, wine, cats, coffee. Oops, that’s four. You’ll live.
   
Words of advice for aspiring performers: There is exactly one thing you can control about this business, and it is YOU; that is, how you look, how you sound, how well you train yourself, how good a colleague you are, how you present yourself. It behooves you to go into every situation - audition, performance, whatever - being as fully YOU as you can be. Do not waste your precious time and energy comparing yourself to others, envying others their careers, putting others down, or in any way viewing this career as a competition. It is not. Someone else’s success does not diminish you; rather, deliberately and consciously being generous to and happy for your colleagues and friends will improve both your life and your performance. You are not your talent. You are the prism through which your talent shines. Polish it in every way possible, and you will always reach your audience. Life’s too short to make yourself miserable over the way you think things SHOULD happen - learn to be happy in this moment, now, and you’ll never look back with regret.

What you love most about theatre in Phoenix: The absolutely phenomenal talent pool and the enormous number of opportunities that have sprung up since I left 20 years ago. Theater here is thriving, and it does my heart good.

What you think needs to be changed/improved/different about theatre in Phoenix: Phoenix has an undeserved reputation for being a city without much culture. I’d like to see that narrative entirely dropped now, thanks. A thriving opera company, a symphony that presents world-class concerts, several professional-quality Valley orchestras, a Chamber Music Festival, a Jazz Festival, and countless professional, semi-professional and community theaters providing opportunities to actors from all over the USA…I think we’re doing just fine. In addition, I note that there are still a very few theaters where other Valley theaters are viewed (use of passive voice deliberate) as competition, rather than as colleagues (no, I won’t name names. They know who they are, and they know who they aren’t). Stop that right now. The arts will only survive if we work together, and whatever you put out there really does come back to you tenfold.

And, the “Inside the Actors Studio” 10 questions:

1. What is your favorite word? Awesomesauce!

2. What is your least favorite word? “u” instead of “you.” IT HAS THREE LETTERS, people.

as The Witch in Into the Woods
St. Petersburg, Florida

3. What turns you on? Laughter

4. What turns you off? A competitive nature. Also, grammatical errors. Oh, and being so vain that you think this song is about you.

5. What sound do you love? My husband singing to Nina the Small White Cat, who purrs along.

6. What sound do you hate? Any sound that occurs before I’ve had my first, second, and third cups of coffee.

7. What is your favorite curse word? English: motherfucker. Spanish: gilipollas (loosely means “asshole.” Just a great word.)

8. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Mommy.

9. What profession would you not like to do? Anything involving mathematics harder than the basics.

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? “Boy, there are a lot of cats waiting here for you!"