RP - Thanks for taking time out for this interview. Your show Strip Search will run from October 11^th to November 19^th at the Art Works Theatre, and this is the second run. Your first opened at the ACME theatre earlier this year and had excellent reviews. What’s different this time?

AT - This time its going to be in more of a theatre space – and I’ll have a little more control and say over it. The show is about being single in Los Angeles and finding "pole dancing"- but it’s a lot more than that. It about a woman who is pushed and pulled in all these different directions with her sexuality – and men and life - .

RP - And a blonde boss?

AT - A blonde boss – (laughing) She’s the personal assistant to this crazy woman. She just gets fed up with everything and decides to take this strange stripping class – strange pole dancing class she’s heard about and within this class she discovers herself, without knowing that that’s what’s going to happen. Once that happens, life sort of opens up for this woman.

RP - Did you yourself actually take this pole dancing class?

AT - I did – for several years!

RP - You can actually study this for years?

AT - Oh yes. It’s an ongoing thing. It’s not just a dance class, where you learn to do several moves. It’s more like – and I don’t want to sound too Southern California here, but it’s really like a spiritual journey too. It helped me a lot with my acting and it made me feel more confident, just going through life. It makes me feel like – "ha – ha, I have a secret!"

RP - I would imagine it includes learning about your own body. Discovering some of your limitations and learning about things you can do that you were not aware of before?

AT - Definitely. There’s definitely a fear factor. There’s the fear of just simply looking stupid – There’s also the fear of going upside down and being up on shoes that are really high! It’s a huge undertaking for someone but that’s what makes it so special. The classes are small and there’s this bevy of women that are cheering you on – that are going through the same emotional and physical stress – so it’s a really cool experience.

RP - There must be a tremendous physical exertion wrapping your body around the pole and holding on. Do you do that in the show?

AT - Yes. You have to be strong and you have believe you can do it, but you do have to do a lot of crunches before trying it.

RP - Is there a certain danger in dancing using the pole?

AT - Oh yes – and that scares me. I don’t like to have my hands leave the pole and be holding on by my legs.

RP - That sounds fascinating. Let me change the subject a bit. You’ve been married about a month now.

AT - Yes.

RP - - Has your show changed significantly from the one you did before when you were single?

AT - I did change the show – I’ve added a scene and I’ve edited it. It’s really neat to perform in front of people because that helps you find what’s working – what’s not working. You’re faced with it in front of an audience and that helps you edit. I’ve added a scene but that didn’t come from the marriage. I don’t think the wedding has made the show change, but I wonder how it will play now that I’m married. The woman that took my wedding pictures is buying an ad in my program, and the photo she’s using in the ad is one of my wedding photos, which I really like because I was trying to figure out how I could incorporate the wedding into the show. I didn’t want it to be written in – I didn’t want it to be too literal. I thought of putting a slide on the wall or something at the end, so I kind of like the fact that the program will have the ad for a photographer and people may figure out that the picture is of my wedding.

RP - You’ve been acting for quite some time. I read somewhere that you played a twelve-year-old boy in a film called "Amateur".

AT - - I did!

RP - How old were you then?

AT - (laughing) If I told you that then you could figure out how old I am now!

RP - Were you anywhere near the age of twelve?

AT - Actually I had already finished college by then.

RP - And that was your first film?

AT - That was my first movie. That was how I got my SAG card.

RP - How was it playing a twelve-year-old boy – reading the Odyssey?

AT - - I thought it was really cool. I thought it was super super cool, especially after I found out who Hal Hartley (the film’s producer) was. I just felt really good about it. That’s the kind of role that actors want to play – they want to play a role that is different from them, you know? It did sort of put a little bit of a hamper on my identity. For a long time after that I went on a lot of auditions as lesbians and bull-dykes and things like that. It’s just so typical of this business and how they just completely miss it. The reason I was cast as this twelve-year-old boy was not because I was butch or anything like that. The reason I was cast was because the director was making a statement about how feminine little boys can be. It was not that I was masculine.

RP - You also had an interesting role playing a younger sister to Diane Keaton.

AT - No. I actually played Diane Keaton’s character when she was young.

RP - And was that a bit of a stretch also?

AT - Ahh – that was fun. Yeah, because I had to be like her. I wasn’t making up a character. I was playing a character that she was playing so I had to incorporate her portrayal of her character plus her. I think I did a good job. I watched a lot of her movies, and the scene is not super long but it was really fun, and what they ended up doing was putting her voice on top of mine. So it’s her voice – it’s really weird.

RP - Oh really – that must feel very strange to see.

AT - - For me it is. Other people see it and they don’t even realize it.

RP - You’re a veteran of film, television and now stage. Do you have any preference for any of the three mediums in terms of your own expressiveness?

AT - Well – this show has been the greatest experience spiritually and emotionally, but the most fun is to do a play. It has been really fun to do a one woman show – it’s also really fun to be on stage with other people. But it’s also fun to get a check for doing a television show. But they’re all good things to do.

RP - Guess the compensation is slightly different between the stage and the TV medium.

AT - When you’re doing a TV drama it’s just like doing a film, and it often isn’t the most fulfilling thing. This wasn’t my experience with "JAG" – Catherine Bell is awesome, and most of my experiences with the stars have been great. But when you do a sit-com it’s a lot like doing a play. That was my first job when I moved from New York. I was in the sit-com called "Step by Step". First of all you rehearse all week. Then the producers come in, and they laugh at everything, because they wrote it and they think it’s hilarious. Then the audience comes in at the end of the week, and it’ a huge – huge audience and they laugh at everything you say and it doesn't get too much better than that. I think that’s why they say that sit-coms are the best job in Hollywood.

RP - You have the audience feedback – which you don’t get in films.

AT - Or in a TV drama.

RP - You also did a play called "Not a lot of Coat Check Work in LA – "

AT - Yeah – you know what? That was a little piece of the show that I’m now doing. What I did to get to the show that I’m doing that was to write pieces of it and then perform them. It wasn’t like a piece from something else. I’d perform them as its own piece, but them I pieced them all together, although a lot of it got edited away.

RP - Is there any of the "Electro Magnetic Stripper" on the new show?

AT - Yes! Exactly. I used some of that time on stage at the Improv Olympic as preparation for this larger show.

RP - This show is running for five weeks?

AT - For six weeks actually.

RP - And then – what’s next?

AT - I’m going to apply to some festivals – see what happens with that. Comedy festivals – theatre festivals. Also, some people have suggested that the show would make a good book, so I’m thinking of doing something in the style of a David Sedaris book where they’re short little vignettes, because that’s how the show is. I also have an idea for a screen play about a stripper – completely the opposite tone of Strip Search which is really cute and funny and sexy. The script is really sort of monster’s ballish, sort or raw so I’d like to finish that and make it like a wedding album (laughingly)

RP - A wedding album?

AT - - Buy some Christmas cards.

RP - When you were a little kid did you always want to be in show business?

AT - Yes. My grandmother took me to see ANNIE, and that was it.

RP - You said to yourself – "That’s me!"

AT - Yeah I guess

RP - That’s terrific!

AT - Well – I don’t know.

RP - You don’t have any regrets, do you?

AT - No- no. Well . . . no. I mean, there’s a lot more easier things to do, let’s put it that way.

RP - Let me ask about your show at ACME. Did you find that maybe a certain scene where you hoped to get a laugh didn’t work and another scene where you were not expecting it made the audience laugh?

AT - Yes. There’s one sound cue in the show that we just put it. Patty (Onogan) the publicist said, "You might want to think about putting some sound cues – plays have sound cues and you don’t have any". It was nice of her to say that, and every time it came on people thought it was hilarious. Got huge laughs and really set the tone; that was quite a surprise.

RP - Are you leaving it on for the new show?

AT - - Definitely

RP - One of your reviews on the last show said your characters were great – but your male characters were better. Do you remember that review?

AT - I do remember that one. I think it’s because I am a woman and when I do a woman the character is more like me, but when I do a man character it seems like such a bigger feat I am a woman. You know what I mean.

RP - Definitely. On another subject, you have so much experience and you are so well versed in the business, if someone came to you and said "I really want to get into show business", what would you advise?

AT - I guess it would depend on what they want. If they want to be an actor I would say take a good acting class. I took classes from Todoroff and I think he’s awesome. I would totally encourage them to do what they really want. But also to know that it’s probably not going to be handed to you. You probably will not be lucky. That’s why I wrote the show. I say it in the show – I was sick of sitting around waiting for someone to pick me to do their thing. In this town especially, it’s kind of cool; people embrace those who will their careers. People who say, "this is what I’m doing" and then they really make it happen themselves instead of sitting around waiting for their agent to call them. You know, your agent gets 10% and you get 90% so that means that you have to do 90% of the work and I think that really means making it happen. If you want to be in a play, make the play. If you want to be in a film, make the film!

We concluded the interview with Adria by her expressing that she is interested in exploring more writing – perhaps venturing into film or television. For now, the immediate focus is Strip Search playing Wednesdays and Sundays at the Art Works Theatre, 6569 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038. For ticket reservations: 323-939-5523

For more photos and information you can visit Adria’s website at: www.adriatennor.com

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