<<<Back to Table of Contents
Auditioning for a fifth grade production, Lauren Lane recalls listening to her classmates read the script. “They were terrible. I kept thinking that all you have to do is say it the way you would in real life.” Her interest in acting was fueled by the fantasy worlds of television shows like Lost in Space and Star Trek. “I had a crush on Spock,” she later confessed. “When my mother explained that these people were actors and were just pretending to be in outer space,” Lane said, “It was the undeniable beginning of my longing to be an actress.”
Lane graduated from UT Arlington with a BFA in theater. “At that time I was reading that Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline and Mandy Patinkin had all gone to this magic place called graduate school. So I set my sights high and auditioned at Yale and the American Conservatory Theater.” Accepted at A.C.T., the 24-year-old from Texas set off for San Francisco. For 14-hours-a-day she studied, rehearsed and lived theater. Her life was changed forever.
Six weeks out of graduate school, she auditioned for the television cop drama Hunter and landed the role of Chris Novak. “I had no idea what I was doing because I was classically trained in the theater,” Lane recalled. Recurring roles on long-running series including LA Law and guest appearances on other well-known shows followed. The Nanny was Lane’s big break in the role of C.C. Babcock, the egocentric, insensitive and mean-spirited partner of a Broadway producer. Tall and blond, Lane was the perfect foil to Fran Drescher’s character. Lane’s C.C. Babcock has proved to be so popular, that C.C. has her own page on Wikipedia and comes up in a Google search.
“While I loved playing C.C. and was grateful for it on so many levels, it was limiting. I had to balance the fact that I’m tall with a deep voice and that categorized me in Los Angeles as the evil seductress. And that’s what I kept getting auditions for, over and over. Eventually, for television, I would get a breakdown of a role like in Dawson’s Creek – of a really hot 45-year-old mom who still does yoga, frustrated with her ex-husband and drives a Lexus. In other words, these were shallow, superficial descriptions of middle-aged women as seen by a 20-year-old male writer,” remembers Lane. “Those were heartbreaking to me and literally drove me out of L.A. I had a four year-old at the time and I just knew I wouldn’t survive.”
After L.A., Lane and daughter Kate chose to call Austin home. “I’d been to Austin many, many times and I thought this is like a little oasis where I can figure out what was next,” said Lane. She continued to be active in regional theater, performed at The Kennedy Center and as part of the acting company of The American College Theatre Festival.
Lane has settled into her oasis with her daughter, surrounded by extended family and her dogs. Her days are filled with making lunches, running the dogs, supervising homework, watching episodes of Glee with Kate and teaching acting full time at Texas State University in the Department of Theatre and Dance.
“I love teaching and I love my students,” exclaims Lane. “We are making artists as opposed to teaching students to go out and do just one thing, to be the funny gal on some sit-com or be a commercial actor.” The Texas State students get conservatory-like training and this is the only undergraduate-level program in the state to take students to showcase their talents to New York casting directors. Her students also get cast locally. Michael Amendola had the role of George in Zach Theatre’s production of Our Town.
“I’ve always longed to have an artistic home,” says Lane. “Your work gets better when you work with people you know and trust over and over. Austin is so lucky. Not only do we have a great equity theater like Zach with such an eclectic season, but also we have the Rubber Repertory, Hyde Park Theatre and last year I did House of Seven Stories at the Austin Playhouse. The audiences are smart and very willing to experience new stuff – cutting edge stuff – or they are willing to be surprised.”
Lane will be taking the stage at Zach Theatre for Becky’s New Car, the romantic farce written and directed by acclaimed Austin playwright Steven Dietz. The play was commissioned as part of Seattle’s ACT’s New Works for the American Stage program that matches patrons to playwrights to generate new scripts. It was a gift from donor Charles Staadecker on behalf of his wife Benita who will attend the opening performance at Zach.
“It is very different than Clean House, the last show I did,” said Lane. “Becky is different, much more middle class and sort of more like where I came from, socioeconomic-wise.” Becky is a somewhat content, somewhat stressed-out wife and mother who works at a car dealership. She moves through her not-quite-satisfying existence in quiet desperation. When a socially inept millionaire falls for her at first sight, he offers her nothing short of a new life. Becky’s life spins out of her control.
Dietz lowers the fourth wall at a number of points, making Becky available to the audience. He wanted to have Becky literally take them on her journey and to have the audience literally be her confidants and helpers. “I’m actually processing what Becky’s experience is directly with the audience. It is intimidating and exciting,” shares Lane. “I know the Zach audience pretty well from all the other shows I’ve done. And I think this will surprise some people.”
AW + Zach Theatre Present Girls Night Out
Becky’s New Car
Join us Sunday June 13th
Pre-Performance Party 6pm
Show at 7pm
tickets: zachtheatre.org
MORE INFO
Becky’s New Car
Starring Lauren Lane
Opens June 3, 2010
Zach Theatre
512.476.0594 | zachtheatre.org