In brief: Veronika, 31, is a Suzi Award-winning actor who’s been seen on stages all around town. She’s making her directorial debut with Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin, produced by Weird Sisters theater project at the New American Shakespeare Tavern. Word-of-mouth has been beyond enthusiastic. (See it at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Aug. 15 and Aug. 20-21.)
Hometown: Marietta. Attended Wheeler High School, where she played either the old maid or the mother in its plays and musicals, i.e., Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, the mayor’s dim wife, in The Music Man.
Lives now: Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood.
Where you’ve seen her: As the revenge-seeking Nan in Synchronicity Theatre’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear (world premiere); as Abigail in the Alliance Theatre’s Spoon Lake Blues (world premiere); and as Becky in Becky Shaw at Actor’s Express, among others. Also with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Theatre in the Square, Aurora Theatre, Theatrical Outfit and True Colors Theatre Company.
About that Suzi: She won in 2009, lead actress in a play, for the comedy Tradin’ Paint (Theatre in the Square). She played an auto parts clerk with self-esteem issues.
First time onstage: Sixth grade. As Coretta Scott King(!) at East Cobb Middle School.
Why theater: “I decided it was going to be a career when I was in elementary school. My very first theatrical experience was in kindergarten. My parents took me to see Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby. I was mesmerized. I loved everything about it.” Annie came next. Veronika remembers directing classmates on the playground to play Sandy the pooch and others.
Pivotal moment: One night friends of her parents asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. To make herself look smart, she said: “I think I’ll be a doctor.” Her dad exploded with laughter and said, “Oh, Veronika, you are going to be an actress, and this is going to be OK.” She was in third grade.
About Weird Sisters: Biscuits and Gravy Productions, which staged Desdemona, a Play About a Handerkerchief at the Tavern last summer, morphed into Weird Sisters, co-founded by Duerr and Atlanta actors Kelly Criss, Jaclyn Hofmann and Megan Rose Houchins. “We felt that we have a great community of women who are great friends and very talented and that work in and out of the Shakespeare Tavern,” Duerr says. “There are so many roles for men and so few roles for us and so rarely do we get to play with each other. We wanted to create another outlet for ourselves. It was all about not waiting for someone else to bestow opportunities on us.”
Next: Look for another Weird Sisters show next summer. Meanwhile, Veronika can be seen doing improv at Dad’s Garage and, in January and February at Aurora Theatre, in Bob, a new play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. The comedy will tour to Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., in March.
Ah, the glamorous life: Anton in Show Business runs about an hour and 45 minutes, with one intermission. If you want to meet Veronika, she’ll be at every performance. “I’m also the house manager,” she says, “and I take out the garbage at the end of the night.”
::
Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, editing, writing about or working in the performing arts for most of her life. To suggest someone for this column, please email kathy@atlantametropub.com.
