Deborah Puette: four places

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Actress, writer, friend to spiders. Caught on a bramble near the Hollywood sign.

When you tell people you're an actor and writer, they usually have questions like these:

WHAT HAVE I SEEN YOU IN?
Sam Raimi's 3D blockbuster OZ The Great and Powerful and his pilot for Fox entitled Rake, NBC's Revolution (pic above), executive producer Steven Spielberg's Extant on CBS, True Blood, The Office, Parks and Rec, Grey's Anatomy and more, at IMDb.

Lucky enough to know about the vibrant theater scene in L.A.? Then maybe you've seen me onstage.

CAN I WATCH ANY OF THAT?
Why yes. Yes you can. Below on the right are some videos from work I've done, including the trailer to a short film I recently wrote, produced and starred in entitled Cash for Gold (so far an official selection at the Hollywood Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and Sonoma International Film Festival. Hello, wine country.)

WHAT HAVE YOU WRITTEN??
A number of personal essays, some of which are published on this blog, and some of which you can catch me around town reading aloud for audiences. A short film called Cash for Gold (see above). A television pilot you haven't seen yet.

WHAT ELSE?
I'm a pretty good cook, a really good mom, and an irrepressible fidgeter.

Be my guest and look around as long as you'd like. I promise no pushy sales ladies will bug you.

I'm glad you're here.

Showing posts with label four places. Show all posts

Sunday, March 9, 2014

'a delicate balance' begins rehearsals in los angeles

Yesterday we had our first read-thru with the company and designers at The Odyssey Theater. I'm so glad to be re-teaming with director Robin Larsen and to be working with this terrific cast for the first time. ADB will mark my fourth play with Robin (the Ovation Award-winner "Four Places" I produced rather than acted in), and it's almost exactly two years to the day since we did "The Fall to Earth" at the same theater.

We open April 26th. Once tickets are on sale, you'll find them HERE.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

"four places" nets 3 LADCC awards including best production

With Mark at Jerry's Famous Deli, 1:21 a.m.

The accolades for this gem of a play keep coming. On March 14, the team of "Four Places" received three more awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, including the biggie for Best Production. The award will sit alongside its kin from the Ovation and recently-announced Garland Awards. Folks have been asking me what I'll produce next, but I'm not ready to give details, yet. I'd like to revel in this one a bit longer. Thanks to everyone who supported this beautiful play, written by the wonderful Joel Drake Johnson, and congratulations to my fellow producers, John Perrin Flynn and Matthew Elkins and to director, dear friend and frequent collaborator Robin Larsen. So continuously proud of our cast, Tim Bagley, Anne Gee Byrd, Roxanne Hart, and Lisa Rothschiller Ragsdale on their win for Best Ensemble. A dream cast if ever there was one. And thank you to all of our designers and technical and house staff at Rogue Machine and publicist Judith Borne. You all did a marvelous job keeping that show running through its many extensions in 2010.

The party continued early into the next morning with heaps of corned beef and chicken soup at Jerry's Famous Deli on Ventura Blvd, in a booth not unlike the one in the play....

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

uh, yeah, there's a little bit of theater in L.A.

When my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I moved to L.A. from Chicago, I was pretty sure I was kissing legitimate theater goodbye. The rap about Los Angeles theater being all bad showcase projects had jaded me before I even landed at LAX. I'm sure I'd even muttered some of it myself, before I knew any better.

I'm not often this glad to have been 180 degrees off the mark. Los Angeles' theater community is as vibrant and varied, as talented and troubled as of that in any of the major market in the U.S. It's nowhere near perfect (another post on that when I'm less hung-over), but when it's good, it is top-notch. Chicago taught me my first lessons on living a life in the theater, and L.A. continues that schooling.

Congratulations to all of the nominees at last nights' Ovation Awards. Congratulations to all who toil and triumph, persevere and prosper onstage in the land where the screen would be king. Just being a part of this community makes me as proud as winning Ms. Ovation herself.

Congratulations to you wherever you live, so long as you make theater that truly means something to you.

WHO'S DEB? (abridged)

Award winning actress and producer. Writer. Vedic meditator. Mother and baker of my fair share of cookies. Los Angeles. Chicago. New York City. Regionally. Starring roles in plays, workshops, films, etc. opposite Dustin Hoffman, James Cromwell, Ed Asner, Alfred Molina, Bradley Whitford, Cheryl Hines and their like.

Recently-ish:

2014 played a dream role in Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize winner A Delicate Balance with stage luminaries Susan Sullivan and David Selby as my parents. Had my heart broken and mended over and over again doing the Trayvon Martin plays at the Kirk Douglas Theater for Center Theater Group. Spent time in Connecticut for the first time shooting the film adaptation of Wally Lamb's best selling novella Wishin' and Hopin' alongside Molly Ringwald and a cast of adorable kiddos.

2013 Shot recurring role on NBC's Revolution which will air in the fall. Played lead role in David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Rabbit Hole" at the beautiful La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Onscreen in an enormous white costume to play the Quadling Baker opposite James Franco and Michelle Williams in Sam Raimi's Oz The Great and Powerful. Completed production on the short film I wrote and produced, Cash for Gold. Shot another Raimi project, Fox pilot Rake, opposite Greg Kinnear.

2012 Understudied role of 'Brooke Wyeth' in Other Desert Cities at Mark Taper Forum. Opened world premiere Creation at Theatre @ Boston Court. Opened west coast premiere of The Fall to Earth with JoBeth Williams at the Odyssey Theater. Shot guest star on True Blood, season five, episode eight.

2011 Shot roles in two very different projects: Sam Raimi's 3D prequel to The Wizard of Oz starring James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weiss and in Bill Viola's highly-anticipated St. Paul's Mary, a feature length rumination on the life of Mary, mother of Jesus. The video will play in perpetuity at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Long-running world premiere Caught continued at Zephyr Theatre for a total run of ten months. For three of those months, concurrently played 'Alma' in Tennessee Williams' The Eccentricities of a Nightingale at A Noise Within ("Puette gives a fearless performance" Los Angeles Times).

2010 All TV, all the time: 3 guest spots on 3 networks, all during sweeps. Grey's Anatomy, Parks and Recreation (nicest set, EVER), Criminal Minds. Short films My Education and stupid questions. Opened world premiere of hit play Caught at Zephyr theater in November.

2009 Los Angeles premiere of Stop Kiss by Diana Son as Callie. Ran for four months. The Office guest spot as befuddled waitress--goofiness on set with Steve Carrell, Rainn Wilson and Ed Helms ends up on blooper reel for season six.

2008 Appeared in both the world premiere of Brownstone at Laguna Playhouse (“It’s Puette who steals the show.” Los Angeles Times) Garland Award-winning west coast premiere of American Dead at Rogue Machine.

2007 Lead performance in the acclaimed, long-running Tryst at the Black Dahlia Theatre garnered best lead actress nominations from Ovations, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Garlands and the award from LA Weekly.

2006 Home being a mama to a six year-old boy and waitressing, mostly.

2005 Pera Palas with the Antaeus Company and Theatre @ Boston Court = Ovation nomination and LADCC and Garland Awards for ensemble.

In Chicago, made stage debut in World Premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Pulitzer-Prize nominated The Glory of Living at Circle Theatre. In a stroke of great good luck, originated lead role and received Chicago’s most prestigious acting award, the Joseph Jefferson Citation. Multiple stints as a guest artist at the acclaimed American Theater Company in revivals of Toys in the Attic, The Skin of Our Teeth and Bus Stop followed.

Random: rookie experience producing Four Places directed by friend and frequent collaborator Robin Larsen at Rogue Machine = Ovation, LADCC and Garland Awards for Best Production.