Most Valuable Players
A Guide to Austin Stage Actors
Fri., Sept. 28, 2001
Meredith McCall
On the scene since: 1989
MVP for: Zachary Scott Theatre Center
Recent roles: Audrey, Little Shop of Horrors, Zach, 2001; Jouét, Jouét, Zach, 2001; Singer, Santaland Diaries, Zach, 2000-1998; Mabel, Pride's Crossing, Zach, 2000; Magenta, Rocky Horror Show, Zach, 1999, 1998; Mother, The Who's Tommy, Zach, 1999; Harper, Angels in America, Parts I & II, Zach 1998; Donna, The Taffetas, Zach, 1997; Jill, Jack & Jill, Zach, 1997; Judy, Ruthless! The Musical, Zach, 1997.
Honors: Critics Table award & Payne nomination, Jouét; Critics Table nomination, Pride's Crossing; Critics Table nomination, Angels in America, Part II; Critics Table award & Payne nomination, Angels in America, Part I; Payne & Critics Table nominations, Ruthless!
Believe it or not, when Meredith McCall (formerly Meredith Robertson) came to Austin, she didn't think of herself as a musical actress. But after donning a big bouffant for Dave Steakley, her fate was sealed. The Beehive director saw in McCall a fine actor and singer, and cast her in musical after musical, as everything from a Suzy Homemaker-gone-Broadway Bitch in Ruthless! to a cynical, lonely Italian-American in Avenue X to a dominatrix Magenta in Rocky Horror to the globe-trotting pop star in her solo triumph Jouét, written just for her by Allen Robertson. As the above suggests, McCall can play it all: young, old, innocent, wisecracking, sultry. But even at her toughest -- say, her take-no-prisoners Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday -- she reveals a core of vulnerability within her richly textured characters that draw us to them -- and her.
