Extra, extra, read all about her! Lesli Johnson most recently was on stage in Theatre Downtown’s “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Duck Hunter Shoots Angel.” Now, she’s in the cast of “The Front Page,” a play written in 1928 and set in the journalism world. Here, Johnson talks about how director Sara James has updated the play, playing historical characters at the American Village and much more.
Tell me a little about yourself.
I was born here in Birmingham, though a lot of people assume I’m from the Midwest or north based on how I speak. I received a performing arts degree from Samford University.
What’s your first memory of being on stage?
My first memory of being “on stage” or something similar was a school play at my then private Christian school. It was called “Go Go Jonah,” about, of course, the story of Jonah, and it was terrible. I didn’t know that at the time, I was only 6 or 7. I was in the chorus but had a solo to sing that my parents came to see. I remember my dad walking out when I started singing. I thought he left because I was as terrible as the entire show, but in reality he had to take a call as an on-call physician. Fun times.
Your day job is at the American Village. Can you tell me about that?
I started working at the American Village when I was in college. At the time I was told by my professor about this place that was looking for an actor to play Harriet Tubman for seasonal work, so I went with another student who was also looking for a job to audition. I got the job, and a part-time gig eventually morphed into a career. My job title is historical interpreter, a fancier word for actor, in which I and my colleagues teach children and adults 18th century American history, specifically the American Revolution, by way of first-person performance.
How does that differ from traditional acting roles?
My job differs from traditional acting roles in the sense that the audience does more than spectate. We break the fourth wall constantly, which allows the audience to get one-on-one time with these characters. Also, most of the characters we portray were real people. The audience participates in order to enhance what they learn from us. They become a part of the vignettes/programs. They could be delegates at a convention. They could be soldiers in the Continental Army. They could be angry colonists protesting the Stamp Act. On any given day, the audience is all three of these things. You don’t typically do that in a traditional acting setting, which allows for a more intimate, personal experience depending on the performer and the subject matter. It’s a pretty cool niche type of performance that isn’t like anything else and allows for many possibilities to tell a story. I dig that kind of freedom and creativity.
Tell me about “The Front Page” and your character.
“The Front Page” was originally published in 1928 by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. It’s about a group of newspaper journalists in Chicago who are waiting to wrap up a story on a recent murder of which the killer is set to hang that night. Among them is a newspaperman named Hildy Johnson, who has recently become engaged and is about to leave the city. Before she can, the murderer escapes, and Hildy becomes swept up in this unfolding story, choosing to stay on a little longer to break the exclusive. The entire play takes place in one room. The character I play is Charlie Burns, the managing editor of the Examiner, the same agency Hildy is with. She’s the big boss if you will, a character most other characters talk about but you think you’ll never see. She comes in pretty late in the proceedings of the story. Charlie is a dick, haha. She is ruthless, obsessive, cunning and charmingly entertaining. She won’t stop until she gets what she wants. I am entirely convinced Charlie’s done shady things to get what she wants or to get a job handled and has no problem doing them again if necessary. If there’s a villain in this piece, it’s her, and I love how awful she is.
How has the director, Sara James, updated the show?
The show has been updated from the 1920s when it was written to the 1980s for a variety of reasons. Some of the jokes and wording may not translate as well for audiences now as they did at that time. Most of the traditional male casting types are also played by women, with some female parts being played by men. Of course, talking with Sara about her vision might give a better impression of her vision, but I think other parts of the changes I have mentioned are because 1.) there’s always a much larger pool of female actors in the community with many shows that don’t offer as many traditional parts, and these changes allow female talent to be able to do more. There are a lot of characters in this play, and it also would’ve been a tall order casting something like 18 to 20 men alone in one show. Also, 2.) to illustrate that ladies can be as ruthless as gentlemen. Most of the people in this play are not great. They’re funny and fun to watch, but they’re also kind of terrible. Some might be killers – hell, one woman IS a perceived murderer – and I think that label tends to be thrust more on men than women. I think Sara wants audiences to get an opportunity to see that stereotypical dynamic flipped, and that men and women are not so different in at least this respect when you hold the mirror up.
What else would you like to say about the show?
it’s great, it’s funny, there’s a lot of mad talented individuals a part of this project, and EVERYONE should go and see it! We open Jan. 10. How the hell are we already here?! I don’t know where the time went, but it’s exciting nonetheless.
What’s the last book you read?
The last book I read was “Hannibal” by Thomas Harris, the third in his four Hannibal Lecter series. It’s as dark and depressing as its previous installments and better than its film counterpart. At some point I’ll check “Hannibal Rising” off my list. But I have too many things to read, and that may not be the first 2025 book.
Tell me about a time something went wrong on stage.
It’s tempting to go with the time I got a concussion just after a high-school performance as a something-that-went-wrong, and is certainly an interesting story when it comes to things going wrong in the world of the theater. But technically that unfortunate occurrence did not happen ON the stage, and I wasn’t even in that play, so a less traumatic and true story would be a time I was performing with a scene partner for an audience of five during a thunderstorm, and we lost power in the theater for a few minutes. The stage went black while we were waiting for the power to flicker back up. It eventually did, but the light operator had to spend another few minutes more getting the board back up and working. It was awkward and my scene partner broke character while we waited, listening to the audience whisper in the dark and whispering a touch back to them. The lights finally popped back on, I asked her if she was ready, and we moved right along like nothing happened. It actually was a really good performance, definitely the best small audience I’ve ever had.
What’s next for you?
What’s next for me is continuing to help Theatre Downtown move into its next glorious chapter in its new permanent home. I’ve got some potential cool projects at work I can’t yet say, but they are really exciting and I’m grateful to be a part of them. As for the stage, you never know when I might pop back up in the not-too-distant future.
“The Front Page,” at Theatre Downtown, 3004 4th Ave. South, Jan. 10-26.
