Next up in our “Meet the Actor” series is Rachel Teagle – who plays Rachel, the lead in Reckless by Craig Lucas. Rachel’s got it tough (both Rachels do, actually) – she’s in every scene and only gets to leave the stage once for about 3 minutes. Here she is cutin’ it up with Santa:
Me: So, Rachel, tell me three ways in which the character Rachel is like the regular human person Rachel Teagle
RT: We both have the coolest and best name and spell it correctly, none of that extra-a nonsense. The name “Rachel” comes from the Hebrew word for female sheep, which connotes being motherly, and it’s another thing we have in common. We both like to take care of the people we love, and sometimes put the emotional needs of others before our own. It’s a coping mechanism socialized into a lot of women, and part of Rachel’s journey in this play is learning to face her own emotions and actually deal with them. Finally, character Rachel has a tendency to speak without really thinking about, and just opening her mouth and letting things come out in whatever order they want to, which is something regular human person Rachel Teagle certainly identifies with. A lot. All the time.
Me: mmmmm. Yes. I’ve seen regular human person Rachel Teagle do that. I like it. Tell me, do you believe that everything happens for a reason?
RT: I think deep in the very smallest core of my being I do believe that, but it’s hard to trust in some kind of greater universal plan in the face of so many icky, terrible, terrifying things in the world. I have to believe that there’s a point to all this, that what we do has some sort of meaning, or at least the hope of having some sort of meaning someday to someone. That’s part of why I write, I think, is to try and ascribe meaning to the world around me, or at least to convince myself that it could exist.
Me: Tell me your worst Christmas memory?
RT: My whole family is severely allergic to pine trees, so we all hate decorating the tree, and I have a lot of grumpy, petulant memories of toiling away like a Dickensian orphan child in an ornament factory and collapsing on the couch as my arms became composed entirely of hives. As we got older, we started “forgetting” boxes of ornaments in the attic. Oops!
Me: What Christmas Carol do you hate the most?
RT: My friends and little brother were in orchestra and every year in high school they’d play “Sleigh Ride,” so I had six solid years of “Sleigh Ride” in my brain, and the moment I see the first string of tinsel, it jumps right back in, and does not leave. The second that the director decorated the lobby for this show, I got my first “Sleigh Ride” attack, and I’ll probably hear it again in my head for the rest of the year. Thanks, Tony.
Me: Oh. I did it so early, too. Now on to pleasant things. Tell me your favorite Christmas thing to eat:
RT: People! No wait, cookies! We make baller Christmas cookies, there is a traditional platter of several different cookie types that must be completed before Christmas actually begins. The Teagle household was often full of cookies, and many of the everyday cookies are a part of the Christmas platter, but there are a few special, more time-consuming recipes that we only really make for Christmas. One of these are Chocolate Crinkles, which are delicious, but need overnight refrigeration and therefore take an unacceptable amount of time between mixing and eating. They are best slightly under-baked, as is also a family tradition.
Me: I MAKE THE KRINKLES TOO! (we spell it with a k. creative license) Can we have the recipe?
RT: TEAGLE CHOCOLATE CRINKLES
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 oz Baker’s Chocolate (unsweetened), melted
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar
Mix oil, melted chocolate and granulated sugar. Blend in eggs, one at a time, add vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into oil mixture.
Chill overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Form balls and roll in powdered sugar.
Place 2″ apart on greased baking sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE! (emphasis verbatim from Mama Teagle’s recipe card)
Makes ~6 dozen cookies.
Reckless opens TOMORROW NIGHT! Grab tickets by clicking on the link at the top of the page, or just show up at the theater. Show starts at 8.