In the Spotlight: Anna Fox

Name: Anna Fox

Character: Biondello

Why Acting? 

There’s a lot left unsaid or unexpressed in “real life” and I feel like I am more myself when onstage or doing something creative.

Why Shakespeare? 

Anna in
"As You Like It"

I saw Othello when I was 7 and hated it because it was long and boring and everyone died, and I didn’t like Shakespeare much until senior year of high school when two things happened: 1. Funnily enough I played The Widow in my high school’s production of “Taming of the Shrew” and got over my fear of the language because once I read it closely and had the opportunity to perform the words I realized how fun it was and how the language isn’t that hard to understand after all. 2. I took a class on Shakespeare’s Tragedies and read Richard III. He is by far my favorite Shakespeare character and my dream role. I will not stop acting Shakespeare until I get to play Richard III… even if I’m 105 years old.

How and why did you get involved with Hampshire Shakespeare & this production? 

I needed something to do the summer after I graduated high school in 2008, so I decided to audition and ended up playing Audrey in the young company’s production of “As You Like It”. Then, after spending half of this past school year abroad in London studying Shakespeare and the other half being in my school’s production of “Romeo and Juliet”, I did not want to stop doing Shakespeare. So, I was home for spring break and decided to audition again on a whim… and here I am.

What is your Favorite Word? 

Mawkish. I learned it doing SAT prep (at least I learned something useful).

What is your Least Favorite Word? 

Pregnant. It’s rather upsetting, but a hard word to avoid…

What sound or noise do you love? 

Faint/distant noises, like distant birds at dusk, distant phones ringing, distant voices, distant cars, distant train whistles. It’s pleasant background noise.

What sound or noise do you hate? 

CHEWING! And the gross clicking sound macaroni and cheese makes when you stir it.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? 

I really want to be German, so it would be cool if I was German and lived in Berlin, and was also a painter. Hopefully they’ll figure out how to genetically change someone’s nationality soon…

What profession would you not like to do? Truck driver

What is your earliest memory of theater? 

When I had to play the “quince tree” in my first grade play. I was pissed off because I really wanted to be “the queen” instead. I always got angry when I had to play the outlandish/eccentric characters instead of what I deemed as the “normal” ones, but have now realized the eccentric/outlandish ones are always more fun to play anyways. How many times does someone get to play a quince tree?

Anna Fox

Why is Theatre Necessary? 

Similar to what I said above in the “Why acting?” answer, except I’d add that the more honest level of expression found through acting and doing theater needs to be shared with an audience. People need to exist in a time scale other than the “real world” one they’re used to every once in awhile.

Has performing Shakespeare given you any interesting insights into Shakespeare? 

That he’s a really good playwright. That’s pretty obvious seeing as we continue to perform his plays 400 years later, but I’ve gotten into playwrighting recently myself and I’ve realized that in order to be a successful playwright you have to have an innate deep understanding of human psychology. Human psychology is timeless and that’s really at the basis of why we still perform his plays. His characters are representations of diverse psychological “types”, yet at the same time are by no means vapid or shallow, so that leaves a great amount of flexibility and interpretation to directors, designers, actors etc. These days a lot of plays are very specific, taking place in a specific time and place with very specific characters, and I wonder if they will last much beyond this era or generation, but Shakespeare knew how to make his plays/characters relate to practically any audience, even ones he could not foresee existing 400 years in the future. That’s pretty genius.

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Anna Fox (Biondello) just completed her junior year at Skidmore College. This past fall she studied Shakespeare at the British American Drama Academy in London, and recently appeared as The Apothecary in “Romeo and Juliet”, set in 1960s Buenos Aires. She would like to thank the three Ms (Mother, Mipsy, Misha).