Artist Profile by Kendall Rileigh

I had a blast working on The Last Cloud. I played Laura, the older sister of a misunderstood teenager. Laura cannot bear the thought of her little brother being gay, and as a result they are never able to see eye to eye. Things are also patchy in her relationship with her boyfriend, whose line of work she does not approve. When a relationship develops between her brother and her boyfriend, well, things escalate!

One of the biggest challenges for me was in finding the humanity in Laura - what makes her laugh, what makes her cry. She has a tough, "together" facade, so I was interested in discovering her vulnerability and her sense of humor and in finding moments when they are exposed. One of my favorite moments occurs in the hospital following the death of her brother, when she is trying to think clearly enough to organize arrangements for the funeral. Not only is she traumatized by her brother's suicide, but she feels a certain amount of responsibility for it. Her façade is ripped away and we see a very humbled person underneath. I loved the challenges of playing a character in such heightened emotional circumstances, and of playing a person quite different from myself.

Even though it had been produced before, The Last Cloud was still undergoing changes throughout the rehearsal period. It's always exciting to part of the new play process because the script is constantly evolving, and it forces everyone to examine the puzzle pieces. Our distinguished playwright, Blake Bradford, allowed for changes and "fiddling" during rehearsal, and that added a playfulness to the whole process.

I was also blessed with a really fun cast and director, Anne Thibault. She was not at all afraid to experiment. Every once in a while she would shout "What was I thinking?!" and we'd laugh and try something else. She used the fire escape on one side of the audience as an exit in some scenes... It was really fun to incorporate a bustling 9th Avenue into the scene! Also, as indicated in the script, she underscored some scenes with music from the 80s and had characters sing/play guitar onstage. The show opened with a slide show montage of the characters in college playing Frisbee, partying, and hanging out (which Anne filmed on a Saturday in Brooklyn). The music and video were fun "live" elements in the show, but they also illuminated a major idea of the play: our attempts to capture a time and an innocence that have been lost. Hopefully our production did the same!