Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Education: BFA Theatre Pace University, Currently also studying and working with Playhouse West- Brooklyn Lab
Why theater?: Theater, to me, is one of the most intimate displays of story telling. Not only are you a mere few feet away from your audience and working very strongly with your imagination to build the given circumstances around you, but your performance and your way of responding are all live and unedited. It can be such a thrill to step out on stage every night and live out the story, truly going moment to moment and never looking back. Such an adventure to do theatre!
Who do you play in Waiting for AAA?: Valerie
Tell us about Waiting for AAA: All female comedy about two best friends on their way to their college graduation when their car breaks down in the middle of the desert, and what unravels when they are left on their own with no promise of when AAA will show up.
What is it like being a part of Waiting for AAA?: It’s an amazing collaborative experience with some of the most talented and funny women that I know. Not only did we all go to school together but we also have grown with this show and have put our hearts and determination into sharing it with as many people as we possibly can.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: For me, its pretty simple, I like honest work. I love a great story played out by great actors, who truthfully live within the piece. I recently saw Hugh Jackman in The River, and it’s such a simple set and story, and yet watching the couple fall in and out of love and fight against their most personal fears was done with such life, it was arresting. I never looked away or lost interest. I have a lot of heros in this industry, many of them are more Film/TV actors, a few that inspire my general work are Cate Blanchett, Diane Keaton, Madeline Kahn, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, John Wayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Andrew Lincoln, Audrey Hepburn, Bruce Willis…. The list will never end.
Any roles you’re dying to play?: One of the films that I have always envied the most, because it combines a lot of my favorite genres, is the "Fifth Element", I know it sounds so cheesey but I would have loved to have been able to play Mila Jovanovich’s role.
What’s your favorite showtune?: “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from Grease
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I would love to work with Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, JJ Abrams, or Spike Jonze. Actor wise….. Bill Murray please!
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Greta Gerwig would play me and the movie would be called, “The Tall Girl Who Learned To Walk”
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I would love to see the very first performance ever of Phantom of The Opera.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Waiting for AAA, of course.
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Ikea, I’m a weirdo who literally loves going to Ikea and pretending to live in all of the show rooms.
What’s up next?: Keep an eye out for my feature "Brooklyn Tide", and I am also currently working on a few short films to submit to festivals, if you want to know more specifics follow me on twitter and through my website.
For more on Victoria, visit http://victoria-ratermanis.squarespace.com/
