Rogue Spotlight: Amy Lizardo does double duty with roles at Rogue Theater Company and OSF

By Jim Flint for the Rogue Valley Times

You’d never guess it from her confident, solid performances onstage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but Amy Lizardo was so apprehensive about her first-ever audition that she skipped it. She had been doing plays and musicals for more than a decade, but all school-related. At age 27, when she was about to finish her master’s degree in theater at San Jose State University, she finally decided to step into the professional world. “I started signing up for auditions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, but I was filled with so much anxiety — I was terrified! — that for my first audition I didn’t show,” she confessed.“Finally, I got over the fear —well, I faced it— and showed up for an audition for ‘Urinetown.’ And I booked it!” It’s getting easier.

Lizardo landed a plum role this summer in Rogue Theater Company’s “Heisenberg,” a two-person production also featuring Tony-nominated actor Anthony Heald. It plays Wednesdays through Sundays at 1 p.m., July 12-30, at Grizzly Peak Winery, 1600 E. Nevada Street, Ashland. Simon Stephen’s play about love across the generation gap takes place in London where Alex Priest (Heald), a butcher in his 70s, meets Georgie Burns (Lizardo), an American woman in her 40s living abroad. The attraction is mutual, albeit with plenty of stops and starts — and some questions, mostly on Georgie’s part.Lizardo was approached about the role a year ago by RTC Artistic Director Jessica Sage. “First of all, I had to figure out what OSF looked like for me,” Lizardo said. “Somehow the theater gods decided that it would all work out.”

She plays Maria and ensemble in OSF’s “Twelfth Night” this season at OSF’s Allen Elizabethan Theatre. She can manage it because RTC shows start at 1 p.m. and Elizabethan shows at 8 p.m. However, on the six dates she performs in both plays, she definitely will be putting in more than a full day’s work. She and Heald had worked at two theater companies before, simultaneously but not together.“I have admired his work from afar for years,” she said. “I am looking forward to learning from him, learning what his process is, and how we will bounce off of each other to create a truly unique story.”

Lizardo’s character in “Heisenberg” is known for her unpredictability and the enigmatic nature of her personality. “The challenge is about not letting the audience get ahead of me or assuming they know what my next move is,” she said. She thinks the way Georgie is written helps keep the audience from second-guessing her. “Thanks, playwright!” she said. There are aspects of Georgie Burns’s journey that resonate with Lizardo, who draws on her own experiences and emotions to bring authenticity to the role.“Georgie has a need for human connection,” Lizardo said. “She is lonely and seeks companionship, but she’s awkward and almost always seems not to know how to obtain it. I think this is a reminder of myself, navigating my career. How do you sustain human connection when all you do is jump from job to job?”

Lizardo’s connection to the stage was formed early on. She fell in love with theater as a freshman in high school in Tulare, California, a town a little larger than Ashland, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.“I was in ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ a play I have yet to revisit,” she said.“I had been performing publicly as a singer since I was 9, when I sang at my tia’s (aunt’s) wedding. After hearing the applause, I think that was it for me. Theater was always a good fit. It gave me the chances to sing, act, dance, and use my book smarts.”

A job as a visiting teaching artist brought her to Ashland and OSF in 2014.“That fall, I was cast in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of ‘Party People’ by Universes,” she explained, “which had its world premiere at OSF in 2012. In 2014 Universes were resident writers for the festival when I was invited to join the education department.”Universes is a New York-based company of writers and performers who fuse poetry, theater, jazz, hip hop, politics, down-home blues and Spanish boleros to create theatrical works.

Lizardo got the job and worked at OSF until May of 2015. “I joined the acting company in 2019 after a few years of auditioning,” she said. In our seasons at OSF, she performed in “It’s Christmas, Carol!,” “The Tempest,” “La Comedia of Errors” and “Mother Road.”“My favorite so far has been playing Mo in Octavio Solis’s ‘Mother Road,’” she said. “I was able to put so much of myself into that character.”She looks forward to her role in “Twelfth Night.” Maria is a clever, sharp-tongued woman who is not afraid to speak her mind.“I am so excited to get to play this iconic character,” she said. “She is smart, sassy, and as witty as any of the men on stage, if not more so. Developing her has been a joy.”

An earlier Shakespeare role in a school touring production was a bigger challenge, forcing her to step out of her comfort zone. “I was cast as Hermia in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ It was so difficult for me to connect with Hermia, a young lady who is pined over by everyone, told she is beautiful and has essentially gotten everything she has ever wanted. On the other hand, I am a clown, someone who has had to work hard in all aspects of life, and often do not get everything I want in life.” On some occasions Lizardo has played male roles, usually in Shakespeare plays. The irony is not lost on her that in Shakespeare’s time it was the men playing female roles. She jumps at the opportunity when it presents itself. “Those male characters tend to use much more complicated language than some of their female counterparts,” she said. “And I like having those beautiful words coming out of my mouth. But no matter the gender, my approach is always to create a real person.” She has an interesting take on resetting Shakespeare in different time periods. “Every time I take on a Shakespeare character, I am modernizing it,” she said. “I am a brown woman performing a role that was written for a white man who spoke English over 400 years ago.”

Lizardo relishes all the theater work she gets, whether for large or small companies. And there’s always the practical side of work for work’s sake. “Because of my medical conditions, I need health insurance,” she said. “If I am not working, I do not get health insurance.” Overriding it all is the desire to learn, improve, and advance. “Sometimes a goal might be as simple as ‘I want to be on Broadway.’ But sometimes it’s as personal as ‘I want to learn from the best.’ The size of the audience doesn’t matter to me. It’s all about the work I get to do.”

This summer in the Rogue Valley there will be plenty of opportunities to see the work she gets to do. For more information about “Heisenberg” and to purchase tickets, go to roguetheatercompany.com. For more information about “Twelfth Night” and to purchase tickets, go to osfashland.org.

Reach Ashland writer Jim Flint at jimflint.ashland@yahoo.com.