New and Familiar Faces

By Jenny Seidelman, Campaign Manager

Sarah Ruhl’s new play, Stage Kiss, is in tech rehearsals right now and will begin previews this Saturday. This world premiere brought a batch of brilliant new faces to the Goodman along with it—among them two hilarious young actors, Jeffrey Carlson and Sarah Tolan-Mee, who are both making their Goodman debuts in the comedy.

But if you are a long-time Goodman patron—or even if you’ve joined us every once in awhile— it’s likely that you’ve seen some familiar faces grace our stages over the years. Brian Dennehy, Mary Beth Fisher and Karen Aldridge, among others, make frequent appearances on our stages. Among the Stage Kiss cast, audiences may remember Erica Elam from her appearance in The Trip to Bountiful in the Horton Foote Festival; Ross Lehman from Waiting for Godot, Wings and The Rover (among others); Mark L. Montgomery from A Christmas Carol; Scott Jaeck from this season’s The Seagull and Mary; and Jenny Bacon—who returns to Goodman Theatre as “She” (the actress with no name) in Stage Kiss.

Behind the somewhat anonymous character that Ms. Bacon plays in Stage Kiss is an actress who has made frequent appearances on Goodman stages over the years. Among them are performances in Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet (1995/1996) with Brian Dennehy (directed by Robert Falls) and Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1994/1995; pictured above), also directed by Falls. She was also in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz (1992/1993) for which she received a Jeff Award nomination for Best Actress in a Principal Role in a Play.

Here’s an article from a 2000 edition of the Chicago Reader in which Ms. Bacon talks about her journey from wallflower to leading lady.

Top: Jeffrey Carlson and Sarah Tolan-Mee in rehearsal for Stage Kiss. Photo by Liz Lauren. Middle: Jenny Bacon and Mark L. Montgomery in Stage Kiss rehearsal. Photo by Liz Lauren. Bottom: pictured in Robert Falls' 1995 production of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov are Susan Bruce (Olga), Jenny Bacon (Masha) and Calista Flockhart (Irina). Photo by Eric Y. Exit.