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Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein and President Deborah Rutter
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43;)6 WASHINGTON’S HEAVIEST HITTERS, TOP INFLUENCERS AND KEY DECISION MAKERS
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&33/7 JANE MAYER’S ‘DARK MONEY’ *33( POWER DINING AT THE TADICH GRILL *%7,-32 A JETSETTER’S GUIDE TO TRAVELING IN STYLE
PA RT I PA ES! RT PA IE RT S! IE S!
PLUS: INSIDE THE NEWLY-RENOVATED NORWEGIAN AMBASSADOR’S RESIDENCE LUXURY PERKS AT INOVA WOMEN’S HOSPITAL | ANA GASTEYER PERFORMS AT ARENA STAGE
EXCLUSIVE FAMILY PORTRAITS: POWER PARENTS WITH THEIR ACCOMPLISHED SONS & DAUGHTERS
LIFESTYLES | PERFECT PITCH
A STAR RETURNS HOME Comedic actress and singer Ana Gasteyer on growing up in Washington and her one-woman May 9 show at Arena Stage. BY NANCY REYNOLDS BAGLEY
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or six years, she made millions of people laugh with her routines on “Saturday Night Live” (including impersonations of Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton), but many Washingtonians knew Ana Gasteyer before she became a star. My former Sidwell Friends classmate talks about her connection to Arena Stage, her latest creative projects and why she now supports the woman she once impersonated.
WL: You are headlining a one-night benefit show at Arena Stage on Monday, May 9. Can you give us a sense of what’s in store for those lucky enough to be there? AG My act basically kind of starts and … doesn’t really end with the album, but its all kind of a natural form of that. So, it will be a night of ridiculous music and hopefully toe- tapping fun. As we put the act together, funny usually comes first and all the material in the act tends to have a little bit of a wink in it, which ultimately the album also reflects. WL: So, it’ll be cheeky? AG Yes, that’s the plan. I always enjoy a benefit because people tend to be drunker than usual and I enjoy a drunk audience! Providing a fun, good time is basically what I try to do. And I try to keep it elegant to the
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best of my pathetic abilities. I tend to tell stories and I am bringing my whole band and John my musical director who actually went to Sidwell until eighth grade. They are all amazing. WL: I remember we did a few play-dates when we were kids at your house and that
you lived not far from Arena Stage. AG I grew up in Southeast and have really close ties to Arena as a huge childhood influence. My parents were subscribers forever. Some of their best friends were Ida and Bob Prosky and Bob was one of the original tent-poles of Arena. Libby Bower was in my class at Sidwell. Her parents were
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P H OTO CO U RT E SY O F A RE N A STAG E
WASHINGTON LIFE: I love your album “I’m Hip.” It’s on my phone and I think our readers would love it, too. Its jazzy and has been described as saucy — kind of like you! — but honestly, my favorite song is “The Book of Love.” Did you write it? ANA GASTEYER No, it’s a Magnetic Fields song. It’s like a hipster downtown East Village-y song from this amazing album called “69 Love Songs.”
amazing performers, hugely influential on my idea that I could become an actor. Arena played a huge role [in my life] personally. In terms of its community outreach and national [reputation], it is above and beyond the local theater scene … The fact that it was a theater in-the-round was a very experimental idea at the time and they really utilized that space. Their summer programs for youth… all of it, I could go on and on about Arena Stage. WL: Do you prefer live musical theater and live TV/comedy like SNL over television or film? Do you thrive on the pressure of being live, or is that daunting to you? AG I love the diversity in what I do. I like the immediacy that both television and theater offer. TV’s a little slower and I do some work where there’s no audience. I like comedy people, so comedy show sets are fun.
no roles for women. It’s very sexist and it continues to resonate across the culture, everything from equal pay for equal work (like it is for every minority by the way). It’s just a really white male world. It’s changing, but it’s just slow to do so. WL: Are you political? AG I wish that I were more political. I watch my colleagues from Sidwell — people like Greg Berman, who runs the Center for Court Innovation in New York and is so instrumental in prison reform, and
“I always enjoy a benefit because people tend to be drunker than usual and I enjoy a drunk audience. Providing a fun, good time is basically what I try to do.”
WL: Who are your comedic role models? AG It’s evolving. I would start by saying of course the people who inspired me as a kid, Lily Tomlin and Jane Curtin. Bob Newhart was a huge influence on me — his timing is impeccable. But now it’s kind of going the other direction with social media and the young voices of YouTube and Twitter. Those Broad City girls are fantastic. Amy Schumer’s fantastic. There are so many young funny comics on Twitter that I’m friendly with. John Earley and this girl Kate Berlant are hilarious.
Nick Turner, who also works on prison reform. It’s sort of shocking how helpful these people have been to the world. This court innovation thing that Greg’s done … directly impacts people’s lives. It minimizes incarceration. ... I obviously try to support that and him.
WL: I worked as one of [“Saturday Night Live” creator and producer] Lorne Michael’s assistants immediately after graduating from college — five years before you were there — and my experience was that comedy was sort of tough on women and female performers. Have you experienced this and do you feel that it’s getting easier for women comics? AG We have more of a community for sure. I’m very close to my female colleagues, so that helps my perspective significantly. Television is much easier because there’s been a trail blazed. The film community is ridiculous; there are
WL: Are you passionate about any issues or nonprofit organizations? I get involved with nonprofit theater a lot and [as an actor] that’s sort of your responsibility. That’s about it. I haven’t always been so outspoken. I’m an obvious liberal Democrat on issues and a huge Hillary supporter, but that comes more from a place of growing up and wanting the world to be a better place. It’s the most vocal I’ve ever been about a presidential decision because right now I feel like we’re in such a vulnerable place. As a working mother in her late forties, I feel older and wiser and get this kind of head-shaking exhaustion with
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girls who don’t quite realize exactly what a big deal it would be if Hillary Clinton became the next president. Because I think it is the natural inclination of every generation to comfortably move forward and not really worry about what ground has been tread before them. WL: Yes, especially when the Supreme Court… AG … could affect generations and generations of change for our kids. WL: Do you still play the violin? AG I play in my act, but that’s not saying much. I did play violin for years and years and people were traumatized by it, but I’m so grateful because I was a music major, which led me to comedy. If I hadn’t gone to Northwestern, I wouldn’t have found improv. I’m the worst piano mom, too. I swore I would never be. I make them practice every day. WL: What’s next for you? What projects are you working on? AG I have two television shows coming up. One, called “Lady Dynamite,” premieres on Netflix on May 20. It’s a comedy about Maria Bamford’s mental illness, believe it or not, and it’s totally not ironically crazy and awesome. … And then there’s a show called “People of Earth” for PBS that will be filmed this summer in Toronto and will premiere in the fall. It’s also a comedy and it’s about alien abduction survivors. It’s really fun and we had a great time shooting the pilot, so I’m looking forward to that. WL: I’m really looking forward to the show and seeing you. I hope to get a big Sidwell contingent there. AG And we should all have a good time. That’s the goal. It’s never to be serious. It’s never to be earnest. I can’t believe I talked about politics as much as I did...Mostly because my goal in life is to make everyone forget anything serious. An Evening with Ana Gasteyer, May 9, tickets ($150-$1,000), Arena Stage 1101 Sixth Street, SW Washington, DC 20024, 202-554-9066.
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