In brief: If you’ve been to Georgia Shakespeare in the past decade or taken in something by Atlanta’s French-language Théâtre du Rêve, you know Park Krausen’s face. You can see it — and her — through July 21 in the luminous, liquid Metamorphoses at Georgia Shakespeare. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.504.1473.
Bicoastal (then): Grew up in Fox Point, Wis., near Milwaukee and Lake Michigan, spending summers with her grandmother in Hartford, Conn.
Bicoastal (now): Splits her time between Atlanta and Los Angeles. When here, she relies on the kindness of strangers (friends and family), staying at spots in Midtown, Morningside, Buckhead and Little Five Points.
South, to Atlanta: Came to attend Emory University. Emory’s academics convinced her “you’re-not-going-to-be-an-actor” parents to relent. Graduated with degrees in theater studies and French.
Where you’ve seen her: As Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Desdemona in Othello, Kate in Shrew the Musical and Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac as well as What the Butler Saw, The Servant of Two Masters and many others at Georgia Shakespeare. Also at Actor’s Express, the Alliance Theatre and Out of Hand (where she’s a core member), Theater Emory and the late Theatre in the Square.
Nationally, internationally known: She’s worked with About Face and Chicago Dramatists in Chicago; Lincoln Center Living Room Series in New York; the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford; the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival; and Le Conservatoire National Superieur D’Art Dramatique in Paris. Among others.
Dance with me: Wore toe shoes for years before speaking any dialogue. Made her professional debut at age 11 (or 12) in Milwaukee Ballet’s The Nutcracker.
First time onstage. In fourth grade, in a show called Tall Tales and Heroes. “I was the announcer. I could be physically onstage; as a dancer I had no problem with that. But I was scared to death to open my mouth.” A music teacher later gave her a solo in an all-school program. Park still finds being asked to sing “remarkable and mortifying.”
Why theater? “It’s truthful. The initial impetus started when I was 4 years old, sitting at the ballet in New York with my grandmother. I was watching Giselle, and when the lights went down and the story unfolded, I said, ‘This is a place where it is safe to think and feel and go on a journey and I want to do that when I grow up.” (She’s certain the 4-year-old version was less articulate.)
Dream roles: Hamlet! Also Edward Albee’s The Goat and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And the Witch in Into the Woods.
Plugs: Be on the lookout for major announcements from Théâtre du Rêve, where she’s artistic director. “We’re working with different art forms,” she says. “Culinary artists, musicians, clothing designers.” Also: Tdr’s season kickoff cabaret Aug. 25. Location TBA. She’ll also be touring with a one-person Tdr piece titled Fables Fantastique and is shooting a web series in L.A.
A tease: Look for her as Coco Chanel in March 2014 on the Tdr stage.
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, covering and and/or working in the performing arts for most of her life. Please email her at kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
