Emily is a returning member of the MCCT family, having recently appeared in LadyBalls as part of our one-act showcase. She has been seen in Frozen, When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?, Travesties, and more.
Emily is a returning member of the MCCT family, having recently appeared in LadyBalls as part of our one-act showcase. She has been seen in Frozen, When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?, Travesties, and more. Emily is an emmy-nominated performer who brings just the right amount of energy and combustion to Masha.
- Name: Emily McGee
- Role: Masha
- Previous involvement in MCCT/Other Theater: I’ve done various things with MCCT for a little over a decade. I had the opportunity to sharpen my acting skills with some really fantastic material with shows like Tom Stoppard Travesties, and Bryony Lavery’s Frozen. I even got the opportunity to direct a wonderful batch of actors in a play called Uncertainty, which was something I always wanted to do ever since my friend Nick wrote it! Outside of MCCT, I’ve worked with Cardinal Stage Company, The Phoenix Theatre, WTIU/WFIU, Brown County Playhouse, Starrynight Productions and various other local companies doing all sorts of things!
- What made you want to be a part of this show? I worked as a fulltime costume designer and props master for the Phoenix Theatre in Indy for a short stint. At some point I was cleaning out the costume storage and I found a half made Snow White costume. This struck me as odd because The Phoenix specializes in contemporary theatre. A quick google search pointed me to this play and I instantly fell in love with every one of the characters and the play immediately went on to my bucket list. I also enjoy that this is set in Bucks County. I grew up nearby and my first experience acting in a professional production was actually at the Bucks County Playhouse. The references to home make me happy!
- What is the most unexpected part of community theater to you? Everyone involved in community theatre is fueled by the enthusiasm and passion for the arts. I have done so many community theatre productions that just start as a bunch of people who find a play they are so excited about that it just needs to happen. With this show, I think we all have gotten so enthused about the potential of what we can do with the words on the page and so everyone has just worked tirelessly to tell the story in the way we feel it should be told.
- What would you like the audience to know about your character/what it takes to make a show work (for tech folx)? I think I would prefer the audience to form their own opinions about Masha when they come to see the show, but I can certainly speak to what it takes to produce a show. Outside of acting, I’ve held so many other roles in productions. I’ve done costume design, props, stage management, directing, workshopping, hair and makeup, special effects, promotions, box office, and I’m sure a few other things that I am just not recalling right now. By the time the curtain comes up, all the audience sees is a collection of actors on stage showcasing the work of tons of folks that are behind the scenes making this all come together. If the show is good, all of this should look effortless and like we just showed up that day and decided that minute to tell a story. In my 32 years of doing theatre, one thing has remained constant: It takes a lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of care and a lot of hard work to achieve ‘effortless’.
- What excites you about this show? I am most excited about the pace of this show….and admittedly also a little terrified! The show moves along like a train running full speed and it feels like it can derail at any time. We are running with our scripts out of our hands and it’s exhilarating! I’m excited to see what this will be when we open and also what the show will look like when we close. I think it’s going to evolve as we all gain confidence and that is always fun!
- What should audiences expect at the show? Get ready to laugh…..also maybe get ready to cry a little too!
- Are you like/unlike your character? In what way? In general, I think that Masha and I have similar worries and woes, we just deal with them differently. Masha is plagued by insecurities, just like me. She just deals with them in the least effective way possible! She also fights tooth and nail to be perceived as young, and in doing that she is missing out on all of the great things allotted to us as we grow older. In recent years, I started to learn that growing old is a privilege afforded to very few. That’s when my personal hangups over aging started to fly out the window…….mostly…..I still cover up those grays with hair dye (but admitting that I have gray hairs at all is its own sort of personal growth I suppose)!
- What is your favorite thing about performing? I always look at theatre as this puzzle to be solved with friends. You have a script and a couple of other things that go along with it, but how it happens is entirely up to the group of folks that’s trying to figure out the best way to tell the story. For example, I was just in a production of “A Christmas Story” at Brown County Playhouse. There is this bit between the mother and father where they need to move throughout the house and turn the famous leg lamp on and off without seeing one another. The play space for this to happen made this VERY challenging. My brain perked up and I asked the director if I could block this because I LIVE for situations like these! She was kind enough to let me do it. It was so fun because the set limitations provided a great opportunity to really dig into my creative thinking and problem solving skills.