Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tracey Letts. What I like about them is that they take the underbelly of the world, show it to us, and make us care about it! I think that's cool.

I hesitate to call myself an artist. I didn't take my first acting class until I was thirty and I feel like I have so much to learn. It's confusing to people that I act, direct and produce. I often think I should probably do one thing, but I can't, at least not for now. It's just too much fun to do it all!

Working with so many talented people is inspiring. At Actors Theatre [of San Francisco] I learned how to be a producer. Jean Shelton inspired me to be the kind of actor I am. She's a genius! I learned about directing from Bill English, who directed everything at the Playhouse in the beginning. I would sit next to him and absorb.

But as far as someone who does all three, I can't think of anyone. Maybe Zelda Friedlander? She founded the Arena Stage and was the Dean at TISH. She's very inspiring, but I'm not sure she's an actor.

I don't think I'm a perfectionist, but if I'm going to spend all my time doing this,

I want excellence. I just don't want to settle, I will not settle.

Why theater? To think. To feel. To connect. The audience is right there. You know immediately what they're thinking. You get instant gratification in a really deep way, There's nothing like it.

All of it is hard, but all of it has such a huge payoff. The hardest job in the theater is getting people to come to shows.

Tech weekend, believe it or not. I think when you add the lights and sound, that's

when the magic happens.

Our goal as a theater company [SF Playhouse] is to give the audience an emotional experience that has depth, so I decide when we choose our season what my involvement will be with each production. If there's a role I can play that moves me, then I'll do it, or

I'll direct it. Now that I'm directing more, I realize that can be just as exciting.

Every story we tell on stage is a story about a human being, so no matter what the person is going through I can relate to it on a basic level, and once I do that, I look for the depth. Bug (Tracey Letts) was hard. I was supposed to be full of 'things going on' but not show any of it. That was very frustrating and hard to get to. Hearing "No don't show anything, but you've got to have it all." It really comes back to what you learn in acting class... know it, and then throw it away; and you truly have to throw it away.

In 'Slasher' I'm playing a complete nut case. That's what everyone's telling me, but I can't interpret my character as a nut case. No way. I'd have nothing to fight for. She's got this great line where she confronts the director of the horror film her daughter has been cast in: "Every other minute there's a Law and Order with a prostitute dead in an alley or a CSI with a stripper face down in a vat of Jell-O. Have you ever thought that maybe we need a different kind of story?" You see? She isn't nuts. She can't stand seeing woman degraded and humiliated and will do anything she can to prevent that from happening to her daughter.

I played Nurse Ratched last summer and totally understand her point of view. People kept telling me I was evil. I wasn't being evil: I told them three times to do it the right way and they didn't listen. Sorry there are the rules, and we have to live within the rules!