A brief gleaning of Lee Stark’s theater credits instantly evokes the immortalized Meryl Streep dictum: “I need to go where people are serious about acting.” And with renowned productions ranging from “The Crucible” to “Eurydice” peppering her burgeoning resume, the 2007 School of Communication graduate seems to have already fulfilled that assertion — and with resounding praise to spare.
“Lee Stark was truly one of the most talented students I have encountered,” Communication senior lecturer Dawn Mora said. “There are some things you cannot teach and she had them.”
Mora, who instructed Stark for three years, added that “it was always apparent” her former student would go far — as far as 800 miles removed from Evanston. This fall, Stark will be joining the New York City-based Pearl Theatre as the 12th ensemble member of its resident acting company.
J.R. Sullivan, the theater’s artistic director, cited Stark’s “wonderful instincts” and “great magnetism on stage” as key factors in extending the invitation earlier this month.
“She will add much to the Pearl,” he said. “I knew that from when I first worked with her.”
The career breakthrough punctuates an illustrious career stretching from the rickety backstage of Shanley Pavilion to curtain calls at the Windy City’s most distinguished venues. But Stark’s swift progression from campus thespian to Chicago theater-scene regular may not have unraveled as seamlessly without a “last-minute decision” to apply to Northwestern, she says.
She originally intended to study classical voice, but was deterred by the School of Music’s audition component. The logical alternative, Stark explained, was to pursue a theatre major.
What she discovered on campus was a smart and dedicated acting community richly invested in perfecting its craft — or the type of people who are serious about acting, too.
“They kind of hit you right from the beginning,” Stark said, recalling the breakneck pace of juggling student productions and drama coursework since freshman year.
Stark devoted her extracurricular commitments to the Titanic Players, a long-form improvisation group, and Vertigo Productions, a student-led theatre troupe of which she was the executive-board president her senior year. The latter activity’s blend of friendly collaboration and real-life applications appealed to Stark, who estimated starring in a Vertigo play every quarter since sophomore year.
“It was all friends in the cast, which sparks creativity,” she said. “I was astounded by what my classmates were able to accomplish.”
Stark’s role in the 2006 original production of “Debbie and the Green Devil,” remains particularly ingrained in her memory, and probably in Shanley set costumes, too. One of the plot line’s principal characters pens an off-kilter book titled, “Throwing Tacos: How I Made My Sister Go Insane”; predictably, Stark’s dramatic persona becomes entangled in the literature’s messy subject.
“Chipotle donated the tacos, and after the first night, we quickly figured that we had to request no onions because it stunk up Shanley like nobody’s business,” Stark said.
But her four-year stint with Vertigo Productions was not all risible anecdotes. In the fall of 2006, Stark directed her first play, “The War Hall.” Although it was ostensibly a character-clash comedy, it carried along with it an intense time devotion far from comical.
“Making [directing] happen yourself is a totally different world,” Stark said, reflecting on her ramped-up daily schedule, which only escalated over the next year and a half.
Immediately following graduation, Stark was cast for “The Crucible” at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Erica Daniels, the venue’s casting director, recalled discovering a very special actress at the theater department’s annual New York Showcase.
“She kind of got on everyone’s radar at literally the same time,” Daniels said.
With “The Crucible” as a more-than-respectable launching point, Stark continued to flourish on Chicagoland’s famed stages. She landed the female leads in “Romeo and Juliet” and “Eurydice” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, respectively.
Approximately a year ago, Stark departed the drama collectives of Chicago for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where then-director of “Pride and Prejudice” J.R. Sullivan first encountered the actress. Her acclaimed portrayal as Miss Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” all but solidified Sullivan’s decision to offer her a spot at the Pearl Theatre, where he had recently been offered another artistic director position.
Stark obliged and debuted as a guest actress in both “The Playboy of the Western World” and “Misalliance,” which in part comprised the Pearl’s 2009-2010 production season. Prior to those roles, though, she paused, exhaled and devoted two summer weeks to a nation-spanning road trip with her sister that stretched from Milwaukee to Oregon, zigzagged down the California coast and ended in Austin. “I guess it was grounding,” Stark said.
Conspicuously absent from Stark’s cross-country trek, however, was her alma mater and its neighboring metropolis. It’s nothing personal, she claims — returning to Chicago and pursuing a directing opportunity are both future contemplations. Because when one goes where people are serious about acting, they tend to stay there.
“[Northwestern] definitely spit me out into Chicago in a wonderful way, and I’m really thankful for that,” Stark says. “It opened many doors and opened them very quickly.”
“The Sneeze,” Stark’s first production as an ensemble member, opened Sept. 17 and runs through Oct. 31 at the Pearl Theatre, 307 W. 38th St., in New York City.