Artist of the Week	Lisa Ann Ludwig by Anthony Chase

(photo: Rose Mattrey)

Why you should know who she is: If you are a theater goer in Buffalo, chances are that you already know who she is! Lisa Ludwig is one of Buffalo’s most steadily working actors. She is most often featured in musicals, but she also boasts an impressive dramatic range. In addition, she often works as a director and as an educator. For the past thirteen years, she has directed the musicals at Iroquois High School, and at Amherst for the past four.

Current project: Lisa is directing the current MusicalFare Theatre production of A Christmas Survival Guide, a self-help comedy revue about surviving the holidays—from getting your shopping done to surviving your relatives.

Do you prefer acting or directing? A year ago I would have said I prefer directing. Now I wouldn’t. I go back and forth.

What have been your favorite roles? I’m one of those people who says, “The role I’m doing right now,” and I mean it. But as I think back, there have been personal highlights. I loved doing Extremities. Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming at Kavinoky. As Bees in Honey Drown at BUA. Kathy and Mo—we did it so many times! And I loved going to the theater to play Gertrude Lawrence with Brian Riggs as Noel Coward at MusicalFare every single night. There was ‘night, Mother too. I am not saying these were my best shows, necessarily, but each had something memorable about it for me, personally. And the more I think about it, the more shows I think of.

What sort of shows do you like to direct? The one’s I’m offered. And that is usually those idiosyncratic shows like A Christmas Survival Guide I was asked to direct Kelli Bocock-Natale as Sophie Tucker (for which Ludwig won an Artie), because I know Kelli, and we have a good working relationship. I did Guys on Ice for MusicalFare, and their summer show. Outside of the high school setting, I am thought of as an actor, primarily, and so getting work as a director is unpredictable—but gratifying!

Do you actually enjoy directing high school shows? I love doing the high school shows! I love working with the kids. The students are wonderful, and it’s never a question of how much talent they have. They are fresh and eager to learn, and willing to take risks. They give 100 percent and bring so much excitement and joy to the process. Nothing can renew your love of live theater like the opening night of a high school musical.

As the mother of two, and with a husband in theater (Ludwig is married to MusicalFare executive and artistic director Randall Kramer), how do you balance the many parts of your life? It was easier when our kids were little—we just brought them along and made then watch thirty performances of each show! Now, I look at the calendar and realize that if I don’t plan carefully, I’ll miss seeing my daughter, Cydney, in her high school show! Thinking back, we’ve made sacrifices. I never went to a school open house with my daughter, because they were always on Curtain Up! night. I suppose we’ve had to plan more carefully than many parents, and it gets more difficult as our children become more independent. But with Cydney 16 [years old] and Griffin 13 [years old], it also becomes more important, because soon they’ll be out on their own!

Having directed A Christmas Guide to Survival, do you have any advice for holiday survival? I buy gifts all year long. When you think about your friends and the people you love, pay attention to the things they enjoy and when you see something that they’d like, even something little, just buy it right away. Then you can avoid being crazed as the holidays approach. I love the holidays and I do not find them depressing. For many years our family has invited people to an open house on Christmas Eve. This started because in the theater world there are always people left without family that night, so you pull together your theater family. Some people think back to Christmases past and get depressed about the people they’ve lost, or the disappointments they’ve had. Not me! The year my mother died, just before Christmas, some of our friends expected us to cancel. Absolutely not! That would have defeated the whole point of the holidays, which is to celebrate life and the people we love.