Terri Weagant is one of the Seattle theatre community’s treasures: a brilliant, witty actor with diverse talents. She’s wowed us here at The SunBreak before, and we’re excited for her new solo show, Karaoke Suicide is Painless, which opened last night down at Theatre off Jackson as part of Solo Performance Fest #5. See the whole line-up and festival schedule online; tickets are just $12 advance.

1. Where did you grow up, and how did you end up where you are now?
I was born and raised in Lake Chelan, Wash.–population 2500, but part of my childhood was spent at the north end of the lake in Stehekin–population 100. There were no roads that led to the town. You had to boat or fly in. We mail ordered groceries. There was one telephone for the entire valley. I went to a one room log cabin school house with his and hers outhouses. I shit you not. Full-on Little House on the Prairie. Oddly enough,  this was where I did my first play and decided that I wanted to be an actor. I became a theatre fanatic at 10 years old and read every play I could get my hands on. After I finished high school I got the hell out of town and came to Seattle to attend Cornish College of the Arts. I’ve been here ever since.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting, or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?
Art has been in integral part of my upbringing. My father is an incredible landscape painter and he encouraged me to draw and paint when I was very young. My folks would drag us to museums and galleries all the damn time. I didn’t understand a lot of the pieces that I saw. Dad is a plein air painter and the whole family would often go on big day trips and he would take photos or paint studies. Once we went to a draft horse expo somewhere in Eastern Washington. Hundreds of horses were pulling old tractors and working the fields and Dad took tons of photos. I didn’t really think much more about it. Horses. Tractors. Fields. Blah. It all looked the same to me. A few weeks later he finished a huge painting of four draft horses pulling a some sort of tractor. I’ve never seen anything like it. They were individuals. Each horse had its own distinct personality, sense of humor and style of movement. He captured their spirit perfectly. I don’t know what kind of personal metaphor or what deeper message that is supposed to mean in my life, but that painting is still my favorite.

3. What skill, talent, or attribute do you most wish you had and why?
I would sell my feet for amazing musical ability. I plunk around on the ukulele and I can sing in my own way, but I wish that I was one of those people who could just pick up an instrument and play. I also wish that I was one of those musicians that plays better when I’m drunk. I’m not one of those people. At all.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.
I pretty much work piecemeal. I am the development director for Strawberry Theatre Workshop, substitute teach at Cornish, do voice-overs, babysit, cater for rich people’s weddings, pick up pennies off the road. I spend a lot of time at coffee shops and Than Brother’s House of Pho.

5. Why solo performance? What made you decide to pursue this show in this
form?
I don’t know exactly why. Because it’s new to me. I never had the balls to do it until a couple of years ago. I was intimidated as hell by it, and that was reason enough for me to give ‘er a go. Some of the most incredible plays that I have ever seen are solo works: Robert LaPage’s The Far Side of the Moon, Julia Mackay’s Jake’s Gift, and Jane Wagner’s (and Lily Tomlin’s) The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Most of my experience to this point has been doing interpretive work with a large ensemble cast. I want to start moving into generative work and crafting small, simple stories.  A few other local theatre artist’s and myself have recently formed a collective called The Radial Theatre Project. We are creating new work that is geared towards touring. I want to take shows to rural communities similar to the one that I grew up in. I have an insatiable case of wanderlust and have a very hard time staying in one spot, but I also love theatre. I’m trying to figure out a way to meld my two loves together.