Interviews

TheSprings: Our guest tonight is none other than Mara Purl, author and former 'Days of Our Lives' actress. This afternoon, Mara will discuss her varied career and her successful string of novels based on the popular Milford-Haven, USA radio series for the BBC.

TheSprings: Welcome Mara!

Thank you so much for having me! This is fun, it's my first chat room interview!

When I was an actress on Days of our Lives, I fell in love with the soap opera format. This is the long form of story telling. In life, we make a series of choices, which determines the flow of our life. That's the same format that soap operas use. So I became intrigued with creating a story within that format. Also, I had fallen in love with a small coastal town in California called Cambria. And I patterned my fictitious town, Milford-Haven, upon the real coastal town of Cambria.

I started everything important in my life when I was really young. I started, my parents tell me, writing, producing and performing plays at the age of three.

Because it reminds people of their own lives. And because it's a trip to an almost utopian small town. Also, because the characters are realistic enough to be recognizable, and eccentric enough to be a kick in the pants!

Well, there are several reasons that my listeners there have told me about. One is that it's a trip to California, which I imagine, when you live in England, has a certain fascination. Another is that there is an uncanny connection to the original Milford-Haven, which is in Wales. When I began my series, I named my show for the original Welsh town. What I didn't realize was how many uncanny connections actually existed between the fictitious town and the real town.

I feel American radio has changed and is continuing to change tremendously. At the moment, American radio is stuck in 'format land'. In other words, we have few options, such as country western music, sports talk, etc. Only National Public Radio provides an eclectic format, and it has lost most of its funding. Therefore, American radio drama currently has no financial support. This is not true in England, where radio drama is just as popular as television drama. In fact, they have a radio guide similar to our TV Guide. What is exciting about American broadcasting is the almost infinite possibilities of the new technology. I believe that radio drama will have a completely new venue through the Internet. We'll be able to enjoy programming in a way that's similar to how I'm communicating right now, to people all over the United States and all over the world, online.

When we're on the air, I break down a month into four tasks, one per week. So I write for one week, I record for one week, I do post-production for one week, and I do shipping, marketing, PR, and other support functions for one week. In each week, I'm working on four shows. So I'm creating sixteen shows a month.

I think most writers would agree with me - you never find the time to write, you have to take the time to write. Every writer I know has stories about putting their pages on top of the refrigerator so they have to stand up in order to get their pages done, or not letting themselves eat until they get their first five pages done, or some device to force themselves to write. For me, I have to write first thing in the morning before the phone starts to ring, before the world needs my attention. Once I start writing, I find it flows.

Well, Erin and I met many years ago, and we were friends within the first sixty seconds. Sometimes you meet someone and it's almost as though you've known each other from some previous life. So we now call ourselves spiritual sisters. We've created many different projects together; for example we created one of the first websites on domestic violence. And we both serve as board members of Haven House, one of the oldest shelters in the country for battered women.

During the course of our friendship, we continue to share many stories, and many of these stories involve our acting work. What we realized was that most actors come to work their first day on a professional set and are suddenly confronted with a new language, a new set of rules, an unfamiliar hierarchy, and a whole overwhelming universe. We certainly made a lot of dumb mistakes. So we decided to share our stories, and also interview many colleagues and share their stories. And this became our book, 'Act Right'. The subtitle of our book is 'Everything You Need To Know That They Didn't Teach You in Acting Class'. So the book is very practical for those entering an acting profession. But we've heard from many readers that it is also a fun read for anyone who enjoys watching films and television. They get the behind the scenes look at how a project is put together.

Erin and I give a seminar based on our book, also called 'Act Right'. We take participants step by step through the process of working on the set. Who do you talk to first? What do you do when you have a problem with your costume? Are you allowed to remove your microphone? Who do you speak to if you can't hear your fellow actor? What does it mean to match? How do you hit your mark? What are you supposed to do when the lighting designer says "hang the baby"?

As to advice, Erin and I both believe very strongly that the first and most important piece of advice is to listen to your own intuition. Your own inner voice is your best guide, and follow your heart, follow your joy. If this inner guidance system brings you to a career as a performer, then you will find happiness and fulfillment in this career. If however, you are pursuing acting because you think it's glamorous, or because you want fame, you are sure to be disappointed.

I come from a theater family. My grandmother was one of the founders of Actor's Equity. My father earned a degree from Yale Drama School. My mother was a professional ballerina, and later, an actress. On Sundays, my family would often read plays together. So theater was the most natural mode of expression as I was growing up. We had a hearth in front of the fireplace, but it looked like a stage to me. I thought I was supposed to do a play every evening. So I did. I was lucky because my parents didn't think I was crazy; they understood and patiently watched my five minute offering.

I do some acting, mostly voice acting. I do the voice of The Wicked Witch in 'Robotech 2'. I do multi-lingual voiceover work, because I speak Japanese and French. I did do an infomercial with Erin Gray, which many people have seen, for a product called 'Smooth and Natural'. And I perform audio-books. If the right acting job comes along, and I can fit it in my schedule, I would love to do it.

That is always a possibility. Soap opera is one of the few venues which always includes a wide age range and has performers aged eight to eighty or beyond. So I'm not automatically eliminated because I'm over thirty. Also, since I love soap opera, and have many friends and colleagues writing, producing and performing in soaps, the door is open. In fact, we are developing my radio show, Milford-Haven, for television. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Days of our Lives. But next time, I'd like to wear gowns, not just nurse's uniforms.

Oh boy! The hours! When you do a feature film, you generally have time to rehearse. Then you normally have time for several takes of any given scene. Whereas, on a soap opera, you must complete the equivalent of an entire film every day. If you flub a line, you must continue and invent some highly imaginative way of making sense of the flubbed line. If you fall down and twist your ankle, you have to make it work in the story. I really think this is why I was hired to do the soap, because I had theater experience. Soap opera is the closest thing to theater, because the show must go on.

Another challenge with soap opera performing is the similarity of scripts. You get your Tuesday script and begin memorizing your lines, and in a dreadful moment of panic, you suddenly think you're working on the Monday script, because it was so similar.

One more challenge with soap opera performing is that 'back story' may suddenly appear. When you do a feature film, you know the character is from Pittsburgh, her father was a steelworker, and she divorced her high school sweetheart. These character elements inform your performance. When you work on a soap opera, you may suddenly be told that you have a ten year old daughter. Needless to say, this changes who you are! That can be a BIG challenge for an actor.

One dream role would be Portia in The Merchant of Venice. I did perform one dream role in both California and Colorado Springs, and that was Timothea in Gardner McKay's play 'Sea Marks'. I was screen tested as Saavik in Star Trek III, and she became part of my soul. So I would still love to play her.

I enjoy them both, but they are different. When I was trying to figure out the complexity of being a 'hyphenate' (writer-actress-producer), well meaning people told me I should drop one thing and focus on another. It was Alan Alda who helped me. He said that he had done all those years of acting to learn to be a better writer. For me, one thing unlocks the other. Acting teaches me to write. Writing teaches me to act.

The list is so long, I'm going to have to live a long time. First, there's the Milford-Haven novel series. The first three are published; I'm now writing the fourth, and there will be twelve. Next, I'm interested in creating a historical novel, which will connect the original Milford-Haven, Wales with my Milford-Haven. I recently visited Milford-Haven, Wales with my husband, and was treated like royalty. What gracious and kind people live there! I also found a Milford-Haven, Virginia. Doing some research, I found a fascinating link which existed during the Revolutionary War, so I'm researching this now.

I also have a science fiction series called Haven Ten, which is fully outlined and in the writing stages. Meanwhile, Erin and I are working on our next book, called 'Audition Right'. And we are also working on a philosophical-spiritual book called 'The Right Way'. And all that is just for starters.

This is a fascinating question. It has affected it by causing me to see much more depth and detail. Yes, they are the same characters, and yes, it's the same basic storyline, but now I find myself plunging beneath the surface to understand exactly why my characters behave the way they do.

Yes, I like them all. This is where my training as an actress has helped me tremendously. Specifically, what I mean is when you perform a character, you cannot judge them. You must work to see life from their perspective, even if they do things you would not do. Therefore I have learned to free myself from judging both the characters I portray and the characters I write.

I think I get ALL my ideas from real life. I always tell my friends that none of them are safe; all of them in some way may appear in my stories. After all, truth is always stranger than fiction.

Neither, actually. The part of Darla Cook was written, then they cast it. However, once I had the role, and the writers got to know my work, they enlarged the part and shaped her to fit me. This is one of the advantages of working on a soap, where you work for a long period of time as one character.

From a performing point of view, the challenge was learning how to adjust for voice only acting. For example, on screen if I slowly turn my head to the right and give my fellow actor a penetrating look, the audience learns a great deal from those few moments of silence. However, if I did that in the recording studio while recording a radio show, the audience would get nothing but silence. After about three seconds, they would probably begin to wonder if their radios were broken. So all of us that were cast members of Milford-Haven learned to fill those silences with meaningful sounds. Sometimes an inhalation. Sometimes a gasp. Ultimately, this made all of us better performers, because we rediscovered the important dimension of our voices.

Yes, it's vital. On stage you must project so people in the back row can hear you as clearly as those in the front row. Unless your voice is properly trained, you will strain it. Kristen Linkletter has an excellent book called 'The Human Voice' which I recommend.

I think Shakespeare in many ways is the foundation of theater, not only for English speaking actors, but for all actors. The more you perform Shakespeare, the more you realize he covered all the bases. Every emotion, every kind of relationship, exists somewhere in Shakespeare's plays. Therefore, as an actor, if you study Shakespeare and perform in his plays you stretch yourself and you grow beyond what you could without Shakespearean work.

We will be teaching it in Florida. The date isn't final but we believe in late January. You can always find out by going to http://www.havenbooks.net and clicking on the events button. Later in the Spring, we will be giving the seminar at several locations in Connecticut.

One of the first inspirations for me was Lady Murasaki, the novelist who wrote 'The Tale of Genji'. She wrote with a clarity and with rich detail and she wrote a very complicated, interwoven story which I think must have influenced me. Another writer I have always read and always admired is Charles Dickens, and I am following in his footsteps by publishing a series of novels. When he first published 'Great Expectations' he published a series of installments. I'm doing the same, with the Milford-Haven novels.

Another writer I greatly admire is Louis L'Amour. Until his death, Louis was a dear friend and mentor, and he encouraged me to continue with my writing. He also encouraged me to continue the depth of research that I do. His own research was so detailed that if he said there was a waterhole somewhere in the desert, either he'd been there himself, or he'd interviewed a man who had been. Research was the basis of Louis' stories, and it's the basis of mine.

I am very involved with this issue, and I think education is the most important thing. Sometimes there are negative patterns in human behavior which we get so used to that we fail to recognize how dangerous they are. Any organization which offers workshops, seminars, or counseling sessions on this issue deserves our support. In Colorado Springs, I support the Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence. In Los Angeles, I serve on the board of Haven House. Nationally, I help the National Coalition for Domestic Violence. If you have a shelter in your area, visit there and ask how you might be able to help.

The changes I see are both internal and external. Externally, we are going to have to face some issues we've been trying to avoid; mostly, environmental ones. For example, global warming is a reality. We therefore must adjust our lifestyles to include such things as public transportation, recycling, and lower emissions on a daily basis. Living in great harmony with the planet is not a chore, it's a joy. I've been recycling, for example, since the 70's. And now, I can't stand putting useful items into landfills.

I also think as technology continues to provide us with great wonders, such as virtual reality, we'll have to examine our thinking more closely. For example, we know it's wrong to steal from someone. However, if we steal from someone in a virtual video game, is it also wrong? Yes, it IS wrong. Because of the new technology, we'll have to watch our thinking more carefully. My plans for the new millenium are to continue to grow spiritually, and to find more ways to help other people. In a way, that's what my stories are all about.

Yes. A ton! I'm on deadline for my fourth novel, which is called 'Cause and Conscience'. I'm completing post-production on the audio book called 'Closer Than You Think'. My show, Milford-Haven, goes on the air in Wales in ten days, so I'm creating special on-air promos. Erin and I are working on 'Audition Right', our next book, as well as preparing for upcoming seminars. And I always travel and do book signings. Also, I teach a curriculum I wrote, called 'Student Radio Drama'. I teach this regularly at the Colorado College, and also at the University of Alaska, and have just been asked by Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti to teach it in Los Angeles under the auspices of his office.

Yes I do. www.marapurl.com

Yes, please send fan mail to milfordhaven@aol.com or to reya@havenbooks.net

I really appreciate getting feedback from readers and listeners. You may not think you affect the work I do, but you do. So please, continue to send email, it really makes a difference. What I wish for you all is to follow your heart, and realize your dreams in the new millennium.

TheSprings: We've reached the end of tonight's chat session with actress and author Mara Purl. It has been presented by ColoradoSprings.com. Produced by Talk City -- copyright 1999.