Most Valuable Players
A Guide to Austin Stage Actors
Fri., Sept. 28, 2001
Shawn Sides
On the scene since: 1988
MVP for: Rude Mechanicals
Recent Roles: Lydia, Big Love, Rudes, 2001; Edith, The Cry Pitch Carrolls, Salvage Vanguard Theater, 1999; Jane, don b's Snow White, Rudes, 1998; Wendy, When You Know What It Is You're Doing, SVT, 1998; Mere Ubu, Ubu Roi, Rudes, 1997, 1996.
Honors: Payne & Critics Table nominations, The Cry Pitch Carrolls; Critics Table nomination, don b's Snow White.
Rude Mechs member whose sweet face belies an edgy forcefulness and wicked sense of humor. Spends more time these days directing others than acting herself, but when she lets loose the reins of command and plays with others, she plays well. Never lacking for energy, Sides propels her characters through their paces with a jet-fueled intensity that fills their every move with urgency, as with her Lydia in Big Love. Periodically mixes this high octane with high dudgeon with rich comic results, as in The Cry Pitch Carrolls, where she turned an elderly widow's ill temper into a beguiling crankiness.
