Victoria Platt
Sold out for four months and extended for the second time, Building the Wall and the Fountain Theatre have even more to celebrate: the return of Victoria Platt to our Fountain stage. Last seen at the Fountain as Roxy in Cyrano, you may recognize her from such popular TV shows as All My Children and The Chicago Code. Taking over the role of Gloria in our smash hit world premiere of Building the Wall, Platt begins performances this Saturday, June 24th. This second and final extension runs to August 27th.
In between her crazy rehearsal schedule, Victoria took time to talk about her roots, her love for the Fountain Theatre, and the importance of theatre in the age of Trump’s America.
Where are you from? What’s your background?
I was born and raised in Queens, NY to a Polish father and West Indian mother. I have 8 siblings and there was 1 bathroom. That says it all! I started performing as a kid and then attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan (the Fame school). I enrolled at Hunter College but work kept rolling in and I chose work.
What initially drew you to this project/script?
I heard about the production and how amazing it was but I was in a play at the same time so didn’t get a chance to see it. Then Simon Levy (Fountain Theatre’s Producing Director) emailed me about auditioning for the extension. I know Robert Schenkkan’s work and this play in particular is beyond relevant for our time so I was really excited about the possibility.
After the election, many theatre artists declared that their work was more important than ever. Do you agree with this and how does Building the Wall relate?
I do agree. There was a time when the common goal of artists was to challenge, to awaken, to question the status quo and hopefully incite change. At some point it became about foreign sales and social media followers and witty sound bites. This election seemed to remind the artistic community of our responsibility in the world. Why most of us got into this business to begin with. Building The Wall is looking directly at the issues and asking some really important questions.
Victoria Platt and Bo Foxworth in ‘Building the Wall’
It’s like trying to jump onto a moving train! A bit challenging. I’ve done this before however, with The Fountain’s production of Cyrano. My goal is to find that delicate balance between giving the other actors a familiar anchor while also honoring the truth of my own interpretation and performance. Bo and [director] Michael Michetti have been really wonderful in allowing me the space to find things on my own as well as offer the tried and true shortcuts. I’m not too proud to take a short cut!
How does it feel coming back to the Fountain Theatre?
I love The Fountain; seeing productions here and working here. They’re really dedicated to bringing thought provoking and challenging work to the community. They’re actively involved and take responsibility for making the world a better place in a tangible way, all the way down to providing a stamped and addressed postcard that patrons can send to the president! It makes working with them even more inspiring and I feel compelled to match their dedication, passion and commitment.
Robert Schenkkan’s powerful new political thriller 
Mondays at the Fountain Theatre are usually slow and quiet. The traditional day off for folks in the theatre, Mondays at the Fountain are usually spent catching up on office paperwork and reconciling reports from a weekend of performances. But yesterday was anything but quiet when a series of national news stories on our upcoming world premiere of Robert Schenkkan’s new play, 
World premiere of Building the Wall — The newest play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way), directed by award-winning Michael Michetti. It’s the very near future, and the Trump administration has carried out his campaign promise to round up and detain millions of immigrants. Now, a writer interviews the supervisor of a private prison as he awaits sentencing for carrying out the federal policy that has escalated into the unimaginable. This riveting, harrowing and illuminating drama delivers a powerful warning and puts a human face on the inhuman, revealing how when personal accountability is denied, what seems inconceivable becomes inevitable.
World premiere of Runaway Home — Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the unhealed wounds of New Orleans’s Lower 9th Ward continue to fester. In this powerful, funny and deeply moving mother-daughter story by Jeremy J. Kamps, 14-year-old runaway Kali embarks on a journey to pick through the wreckage of what used to be her life. Rhyming, stealing and scamming her way through the still-destroyed neighborhood, engaging the vivid, lively denizens who remain, she grapples with the real cost of what she has lost as she is forced to confront the even higher cost of moving forward and the possibility of redemption.
Los Angeles premiere of The Chosen — The Fountain Theatre celebrates the 50th anniversary of Chaim Potok’s beloved novel with the L.A. premiere of the award-winning stage adaptation by Aaron Posner. A silent father, an ancient tradition and an unexpectedly important game of baseball forge bonds of lifelong friendship between two Jewish boys from “five blocks and a world apart” in this funny, poignant, timely and timeless story about recognition and acceptance of “the other.” Directed by Simon Levy.
World premiere of Freddie — This hybrid dance/theater work by Fountain Theatre co-artistic director Deborah Lawlor will be presented at Los Angeles City College, inaugurating a new partnership with the LACC Theatre Academy. Set in Greenwich Village in 1964 and based on a true story, Freddie fuses theater, music, dance and video to capture the explosive spirit of a passionate artist and a turbulent era. A naïve young woman falls under the spell of Freddie Herko, a brilliant ballet dancer of extraordinary charisma and talent and a beloved luminary of Andy Warhol’s Factory. Frances Loy directs.
World premiere of Arrival and Departure — Troy Kotsur and his real-life wife Deanne Bray star in a modern-day, re-imagined deaf/hearing stage adaptation by Stephen Sachs (Bakersfield Mist, Cyrano) of the classic 1945 British romantic film, Brief Encounter. A deaf man and a deaf woman, married to different people, meet accidentally in a train station. A friendship develops over time, escalating into a passionate love affair that both struggle to permit themselves to consummate. An unforgettable love story about the challenges of communication, social isolation, diversity and self-empowerment.
