Q&A with ‘Buzz’ actress Elizabeth A. Davis: ‘Theater belongs to everyone’ – Montgomery Advertiser

Tony Award- and Drama Desk Award-nominated actor Elizabeth A. Davis portrays Mary Ann “Buzz” Goodbody stars in the world premiere of Susan Ferrara’s “Buzz” at Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Davis’ work has been seen on and off Broadway (Once, King Lear, Dust Can’t Kill Me, Allegro), on television, and in film. She will appear in the upcoming 21st season of NBC’s “Law and Order: SVU.” 

“BUZZ” is set for a limited run at ASF from Sept. 4-15, and is set in a unique space, the theatre’s scene shop. 

What is it about “Buzz” that you personally identify with?

I grew up on the steps of a stage watching my mother direct high school theater productions. So I feel, like Buzz did, that theater is inevitable. It must be for “mummies and daddies and pimply 14 year olds.” Theater belongs to everyone. I also identify with Buzz’s dog-with-a-bone quality. When she believed in something, she wouldn’t let it go. She was Sisyphus, but found a way to love the push and journey up the hill. 

What do you hope the audiences get out of the experience?

Trail-blaze to your heart’s content. Fight for a conviction. Love and be gracious to the people with whom you are working. Think outside the literal and proverbial black box. But also, fight to stay alive. Do everything in your power to make being alive, being a person, just as important as the work you are doing. 

Does the space itself become a character of sorts? Does it give the same kind of feel that actors and audiences would have experienced in “The Other Place”?

During the first week of rehearsal I told some cast mates that the last time I have felt this same sense of intangible creative alchemy was when helping create “ONCE,” the multi-Tony Award-winning musical in a basement in Boston. And the space that Carrie Preston has chosen to use to replicate “The Other Place” has so much to do with that. Thank you to ASF for catching the vision and making it happen.

What’s it like working with Carrie?

 An actual tweet I sent her this morning: “Carrie Preston – how are you even real? Are you an angel among us? That’s the only possible answer.” So, that’s how I’m feeling about working with the remarkable Carrie Preston. Further, Carrie is an exquisite actress, so she is so finely tuned in understanding exactly what we need when we need it. It’s completely organic, fun and wildly exploratory. She’s definitely channeling Buzz.

What’s it like stepping into a role of someone like “Buzz,” who is breaking through the glass ceiling in her day?

It’s a raw, empathic task. It feels like one of the highest honors I have been gifted in my career, while also being extremely heavy. Buzz was a receptacle for the emotions of her actors and she also, perhaps out of mere necessity, took on the mantle of ceiling-busting for women directors. Like so many history makers, she never got to see her impact. For all intents and purposes, she died thinking she was a failure. And for me, I get to stand in the gap between grave and stage and tell those listening that she was a wild success in ways she couldn’t yet see. I hope people leave with their own mantle of knowing generations to come are watching.

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Buzz is presented in the ASF Scene Shop (aka The Other Place). General admission tickets are $50. To purchase, call 334-271-5353, visit the ASF Box Office (open Monday – Saturday, noon–5 p.m.), or go online: ASF.net/buzz. Evening performances begin at 7 p.m.; matinees start at 2 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m. on Sundays. 

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