Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and singer. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and Porgy and Bess. She maintains an active concert and recording career, performing song cycles and operas as well as performing in concert throughout the U.S. She has won six competitive Tony Awards, more than any other actor, and is the only person to win all four acting categories. She also starred in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. McDonald was born in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of American parents, Anna Kathryn, a university administrator, and Stanley McDonald, Jr., a high school principal. At the time of her birth, her father was stationed with the U.S. Army. McDonald was raised in Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters. She began to study acting at a young age to counteract her diagnosis as hyperactive. McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno.[3] She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Good Company Players, beginning in their Junior Company. I knew I wanted to be involved in theater when I had my first chance to perform with the Good Company Players Junior Company. The people who have had the most impact on my life: Good Company director Dan Pessano and my mother. She studied classical voice as an undergraduate under Ellen Faull at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1993. McDonald was a three-time Tony Award winner by age 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime, placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years. She was nominated for another Tony Award for her performance in Marie Christine before she won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, placing her in the company of then four-time winning actress Angela Lansbury. She reprised her Raisin role for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. On June 10, 2012, McDonald scored her fifth Tony Award win for her portrayal of Bess in Broadways The Gershwins Porgy and Bess, thus tying Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris.Her 2014 performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emersons Bar and Grill earned McDonald her sixth Tony award and made her the first person to win all four acting categories. McDonald appeared as Lizzie in the Roundabout Theatre Companys 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade, directed by Lonny Price at Studio 54, for which she shared the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical with Donna Murphy.[8] On April 29, 2007, while she was in previews for the show, her father was killed when an experimental aircraft he was flying crashed north of Sacramento, California. McDonald appeared in a revised version of Porgy and Bess, at the American Repertory Theatre (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) from August through September 2011, and recreated the role on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, which opened on January 12, 2012 and closed on September 23, 2012.[10] For this role, McDonald won her fifth Tony Award and her first in a Leading Actress category.[11] This American Repertory Theater production was re-imagined by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray as a musical for contemporary audiences. McDonald is playing Billie Holiday on Broadway in the play Lady Day at Emersons Bar and Grill in a limited engagement scheduled to end on August 10, 2014. After previews that began on March 25, 2014, the play opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 13, 2014.Of the play, McDonald said in an interview: It’s about a woman trying to get through a concert performance, which I know something about, and she’s doing it at a time when her liver was pickled and she was still doing heroin regularly...I might have been a little judgmental about Billie Holiday early on in my life, but what I’ve come to admire most about her – and what is fascinating in this show – is that there is never any self-pity. She’s almost laughing at how horrible her life has been. I don’t think she sees herself as a victim. And she feels an incredible connection to her music – she can’t sing a song if she doesn’t have some emotional connection to it, which I really understand. youtu.be/TZTwdR3C6_E
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:13:56 +0000
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