| Full given name: | Susan Patricia Blackwell |
| Hometown: | Dayton, Ohio |
| Zodiac sign: | Aries |
| Audition song: | I'm a weirdo—I don't have a book of audition songs. Now I'm nervous…maybe I should get my act together and assemble one. Please send your song suggestions to [email protected]. |
| Special skills: | Preparing and eating food out of my friend's mouths. |
| First Broadway show ever saw: | Angels in America. I wanted to be Stephen Spinella. |
| If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? | Sweeney Todd. I wanted to be Len Cariou. |
| Current show you have been recommending to friends: | I haven't seen it yet, but I can't stop talking about Duran Duran rocking the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. If you're reading this and you can get me comps, please contact me at [email protected]. |
| Favorite show tune: | Does "Hungry Like the Wolf" count as a show tune? "No One Is Alone" from Into The Woods, "Fable" from Light in the Piazza, "Around the World" from Grey Gardens. |
| MAC or PC? | Mac at home, PC at the office. (What? So fabulous and still working at an office? Realness, people.) |
| Most played song on your iPod: | "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire & Krayzie Bone. Seriously. That's how I roll. |
| Last book you read: | "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott – A funny, useful book for anyone interested in writing. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel – brilliant graphic novel. |
| Must-see TV show: | "30 Rock." I bow down to Tina Fey. If the Interweb counts, I'm loving "the [title of show] show." (titleofshow.com/toscasts.htm) |
| Last good movie you saw: | The documentary "The King of Kong" rocked my ass. And I just watched "Tootsie" again. That film is perfect in every way…I want to make out with that movie a little bit. |
| Favorite board/card game: | Years ago, a German friend taught me a game called "Uncle Fritz Sits Happily in the Tub." It's the perfect weekend-in-the-country game for our group, and all you need is paper, pencils and a filthy imagination. The game ends when someone laughs so hard that something comes out of their nose. Everybody wins. |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | I'd trade it all to see Spalding Gray perform live again. |
| Pop culture guilty pleasure: | I'll pretty much stop whatever I'm doing to watch a new episode of "Clean House" with Niecy Nash. I'm also obsessed with "Cash Cab." Whenever I catch a taxi, I fantasize that it's going to be Benjamin Bailey in the Cash Cab and that I'm going to win $900. |
| First stage kiss: | Vampire Lesbians of Sodom my freshman year of college. I got to kiss my friend Shannon on the mouth. Girl-on-girl hotness. |
| How you got your Equity card: | When I finished grad school, I joined the acting company of the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. For the next two years, I appeared in lavish productions of obscure 19th-century German translations. Classy. |
| Worst onstage mishap: | During the final dress rehearsal for The Mousetrap on the University of Minnesota Centennial Showboat, I was running for a quick change when the heel of my right shoe got caught in the cuff of my left pant leg at the top of a set of stairs. When I catapulted face-first down the stairs, I put my arms straight out to catch myself and broke 'em both. I didn't miss a single show that summer and performed the role of the mysterious Miss Casewell with a cast on each arm. Reedonkulous. |
| Who have you played on "Law & Order"? Which edition? | For years, I've been playing public defense attorneys with names like Gabriella Ruffino (because of my strong Italian features?) and Lydia Fernands (because of my strong Latin features?). For this year's season premiere episode, I was called in to play the presiding judge. I thought there had been some sort of mistake—certainly I'm much too young to play the judge. Cut to me, being all "gavel, gavel, gavel." |
| Cats or dogs? | Baby goats (or any other soft, petting-zoo-type animal). |
| Favorite cereal: | Peanut Butter Puffins |
| Who would play you in the movie? | If an evil scientist incubated the devil spawn of Jackie Hoffman and Sarah Jessica Parker, that baby could get an audition to play me. |
| Worst job you ever had: | When we were doing [title of show] 8 times a week at the Vineyard Theatre, I was working during the day managing the North American support staff of a large, international consulting firm. The corporate job wasn't terrible, but [title of show] had reawakened my love of performing. I nearly lost my mind trying to do both full-time. I eventually left that corporate gig. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Word, Robert Frost…Word. |
| Who were you in high school? | 2 awesome +2 b -------------- 4 gotten |
