Norma Mortimer brings us family drama – more like the drama from family! RUN THE COURSE & DADDY’S GIRLS, running at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 W 54th St, in NYC, March 2 – 13 (Wednesday thru Saturday @ 8pm; Sunday @ 3pm. Call for tickets: (212) 581-3044)

RUN THE COURSE: A suicide meant to tear a family apart only brings them closer only to discover it might not be a suicide at all and DADDY’S GIRLS: A widowed father is at the center of a family controversy involving social status. Can love really conquer all?

Emerging artist, Sky Spallone, shared her thoughts on creating a new character in a new play:

I play Mitzi, and while Mitzie has a relatively small amount of dialogue in Daddy’s Girls, she is experiencing several transformational, major life events throughout the course of the play. Some of the events that take place could easily be seen controversially. I wouldn’t call it an obstacle, but it feels very important and has also been fun to build out a backstory for this character who is in a pivotal time of her life that serves her as well as the story that’s being told. I guess if I had to name an obstacle in creating the role, it’s that I feel very protective of Mitzie and part of creating her is figuring out how to incorporate that impulse into a character who I believe genuinely wants something I might advise her to think long and hard about if I were her best friend.

Everyone wants to get on Broadway, but Sky insists that this play is better suited for the intimate stages of Off, “because it’s a fun one act.” But she can see the play and her role growing. “I do think there could be more to the story, and I would particularly like to see how the relationship between Mitzie and Fanny might develop if so. In which case perhaps Broadway!”

You’re working in a landmark theatre with one of its premier directors, creating roles in new plays… How does it feel?

Oh I adore ATA. It’s such a charming space, full of life and about as NYC as you can get. There was a wild string of synchronicity that landed me there too-so I feel very grateful and at home although this is only my second show in the space. My favorite thing about ATA and everyone I have worked with there is the palpable artistic passion. There’s a feeling of doing it for the sheer joy of it all without pressure for approval. A lot of experimentation, fun, playfulness, patience and willingness to “throw the dishes up”-and so much of that is what attracted me to acting, and to art in general in the first place.

What’s next?

I am really attracted to and excited by characters who are an existential outsider, a freak or a geek, in some type of existential crisis, seeking a deeper and more meaningful/poetic connection in life. Phoebe at ATA was an excellent example! Think characters like Frances in Frances Ha (also god I love everything Greta Gerwig does), Cheryl in Wild, Rue in Euphoria, Dolores in Westworld, Betsy in Dopesick, Abbie in Happiest Season. So I am eager and looking forward to bringing characters in this vein to life in theater as well as film/TV. I am also working on writing my first play!