Artist Spotlight: Kathy Couser

Photo by Siggi Ragnar

Meet Kathy Couser

Certainly the phrase “tour de force” is an overused, under-earned term in reviews of theatre performance, but in the case of actor Kathy Couser that’s exactly what she is delivering in Joel Drake Johnson’s Four Places.

San Antonio audiences know and love Kathy’s performances on stage but they haven’t seen her quite like this. She plays the role of Peggy, an aging mother of two children who take her to lunch for a discussion that will change all of their lives.

We asked Kathy about some of her routine and her thoughts on the play.

How do you prepare for the show each night?

I love my  pre-show routine in the dressing room; putting on my make-up and costume, laughing with the cast, listening to the audience arriving. Then at the ten minute call, butterflies of excitement, panic, like diving off the high dive.

What do you recognize as true about the play?

Four Places is very much the story of all of us who have had to make the painful, sometimes confusing, always loving journey with an aging parent. It made me think about how humiliating it can be for aging parents to lose control, to lose their dignity. I want the audience to remember that.

What do you hope the audience notices about the story?

I hope this play helps people with their own journey through this.  There’s no manual. No instruction book.

It takes a lot of love and selflessness.

Kathy, let’s use Bernard Pivot’s questionnaire made even more famous by James Lipton at Inside the Actors Studio:

What is your favorite word? Awesome

What is your least favorite word? Old

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Watching my cats and dogs play, listening to birds in the morning, spring and fall

What turns you off? Haters

What is your favorite curse word? m.f.  (I love to say it but not write it)

What sound or noise do you love? My husband’s voice

What sound or noise do you hate? leaf blowers

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I’d like to be an artist.

What profession would you not like to do? Crab fishing in the Bering Sea

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Hey Miss Kathy!  What took you so long? All of your loved ones including all of your kitties and dogs are over there in the Kathy Couser Memorial Park.  Just follow the signs please. Next!