Lady Luck, talent bless versatile performer

By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic

THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES Suzanne Bouchard reads before going on stage at ACT.

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Fresh out of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Suzanne Bouchard ventured to Seattle in 1983, armed with a B.A. degree in acting.

Her first year here, she didn't get to play a single role. But Bouchard has been making up for that work drought ever since.

A versatile performer whose svelte, dark-haired good looks and throaty voice helped her become a sought-after leading lady, Bouchard has shone here in sultry vamp roles and affectingly played more tender, fragile souls.

A combo of luck and skill have made Bouchard part of an unofficial "floating ensemble" of primo Seattle players.

These are long-timers audiences recognize and artistic directors rely on, such as Laurence Ballard, Marianne Owen, Michael Winters, David Pichette, along with such younger veterans as Liz McCarthy and Julie Briskman.

"It's extraordinarily gratifying to be in a room full of great actors, all working at the top of their game," Bouchard declares. "I love that Seattle actors seem very, very concerned about serving the play itself. It's not just about, 'It's my turn on stage now.' "

Seattle theatergoers could recently witness her versatility in back-to-back turns at ACT Theatre. She followed up a hilarious bit as a witchy mountain vixen in the ACT season opener, Eric Overmyer's "Alki," with a poignant portrayal of a pious, repressed British matron in the romantic comedy, "Enchanted April."

	CHRIS BENNION Suzanne Bouchard in "Alki" at ACT.

Bouchard's local stock shot up in the late 1980s, when former Intiman Theatre artistic director Elizabeth Huddle singled her out "for some whopper parts. I did Stella in 'Streetcar Named Desire' for Liz, Nora in 'A Doll's House,' Billie Dawn in 'Born Yesterday,' " Bouchard recalls.

She's since piled up credits at Seattle Rep and ACT, and some of the choice smaller playhouses. (She'll soon play Rosalind, in Seattle Shakespeare Company's "As You Like It"). Yet Bouchard is no stranger to the Seattle actor's survival boogie.

"I have earned a living, yes, though sometimes it was a real struggle to do that here," says the Seward Park-based performer. "It's quite variable. Recently I've had my luckiest run of work. Usually I've had to do at least one show out of town every year, sometimes more. But not lately."

What's kept Bouchard here in the lean times, when she might have tried her luck in L.A. or New York?

	CHRIS BENNION Bouchard in ACT's "Enchanted April."

Her answer is swift, and blunt: the theater. Los Angeles was out because Bouchard never longed to work in TV roles. "That's not what draws me. The draw is the [stage] literature itself."

As for the highly competitive New York scene, she says, "It's terrible there when you're not working. It's so expensive!"

Occasionally, Bouchard has toiled in industrial films, or done commercial voice-overs to stay solvent. And she's regularly traveled to Arizona and Portland for gigs. (The Arizona Theatre Company, run by former ACT staffer David Ira Goldstein, is a second home to the cluster of Seattle actors Goldstein often hires.)

Like most busy thespians, Bouchard doesn't take her good fortune for granted — or assume it will continue. And she worries about slipping out of the ingenue range. ("The real enemy is aging!"). But she'd recommend Seattle to any gifted younger actors, "if they really, really want to do stage work. I don't know where it's better for that."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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