| THEATER TIMES DIALOGUE TIERNEY SUTTON |
INTERMISSION 15 minutes with ...
Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman was 20 years old and an undergraduate at Harvard University when Caryl
Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ made its Southern California premiere at South Coast Repertory in 1984, later
moving up to the then-Westwood Playhouse for a Los Angeles premiere. Ten years later, she became
nationally known on ‘NYPD Blue,’ earning the first of a half-dozen Emmy nominations. Another
decade later, in 2006, Brenneman played Marlene, the lead in ‘Top Girls,’ for five live performances
produced and recorded for radio by LA Theatre Works. This Saturday, (June 21, 2008), on
Brenneman’s birthday eve, LA TheatreWorks will re-air the show (locally on KPCC, and across the
country on a network that is indexed here).
Brenneman has had great artistic and commercial success. Among her stage credits is the world
premiere of Craig Lucas’s ‘God’s Heart,’ directed by Joe Mantello at Lincoln Center (1997) and
‘Saint Joan of the Stockyards’ at Yale Repertory Theatre. The films she has graced would endear her
to any theater fan, with the high-profile ‘Heat’ (with the famous Al Pacino-Robert DeNiro face-off) a
rare exception among films like the lovely Campbell Scott-directed ‘Off the Map’ and Neil LaBute’s
‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’
In 1998, she was part of the cast – along with Jesus (now Alex) Mendoza – of Anthony Clarvoe’s
‘Walking Off the Roof,’ one of the workshops in South Coast Repertory’s first Pacific Playwrights
Festival, and Rauch’s first assignment at the Orange County theater.
It was also where Brenneman and I crossed paths.
AMY BRENNEMAN – Oh yeah! That was fun. I loved doing that.
CRISTOFER GROSS That helped get the Festival started. But it's hard to believe that was
11 years ago.
BRENNEMAN It was really eleven years ago?!
GROSS Sorry, yes.
I know you’re a founder of Cornerstone, so I want to start out there. I assume you have
seen Julie Marie Myatt's ‘Someday.’
BRENNEMAN I saw it on Saturday and was very blown away.
GROSS They put a quote from my review on the Cornerstone home page because of what
I said about one actress. I don’t know, maybe people familiar with Cornerstone are used
to her, but I thought she was just extraordinary.
BRENNEMAN Diana?
GROSS Yeah.
BRENNEMAN Yeah, she is unbelievable. You know I’m on the Shondra Rhimes show
now, ‘Private Practice,’ and I really would like her to meet Diana, because I think it’s kind of
the last frontier, to have a really amazing disabled actress who is able to carry a show like
that. It’s really unbelievable.
GROSS Yeah. And you don’t know, or I didn’t know because I intentionally avoid pre-
publicity, when you walk in where things are going. And this actress moves from what
might be assumed to be a support role and moves into the center and, like you say –
along with Bahni and Shishir – carries the show.
BRENNEMAN Yeah. Yeah. She really blew me away. I was actually part of one of the story
circles for 'Someday.' Sometimes Cornerstone adapts a show and sometimes they
create an original piece. And I have lots of feelings and have experienced a lot about this
kind of thing and so for the first time I was a participant at a story circle, and Julie came to
my house with a bunch of my friends and it was really cool. It was probably the only way
that I hadn’t participated in a Cornerstone show, to be a resource in this way, and that was
cool, too. I actually felt very connected to that show.
GROSS Of the reviewers in town, I seem to have been the one most fond of Julie's ‘My
Wandering Boy,’ which premiered at SCR in 2007. I’m looking forward to sitting down and
talking to her one of these days and seeing if I was reading more into it than was there or
what. I thought there was a lot going on. But anyway . . .
BRENNEMAN Well, Bill really loves her. You know in Ashland they’re doing a premiere of
her ‘Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter,’ which is going to Lincoln Center now.
GROSS Oh it is? Great.
BRENNEMAN Yeah. I was almost in ‘Wandering Boy.’ It was a very sentimental moment
where I thought, ‘Oh, Bill, you’re going to Ashland,’ and I wasn’t working, although I had
some things on the back burner. But, you know, to make the schlep . . . .
GROSS Sure. Well, Beth Ruscio did a great job with that part. So Bill and Julie were well
served.
But . . . on to radio, and ‘Top Girls.’
You play Marlene.
BRENNEMAN Yeah.
GROSS And you’ve recorded three other plays for LATW.
BRENNEMAN I think I did even more.
GROSS Oh. Maybe I screwed up the search. It only indexed four.
BRENNEMAN Which did they list?
GROSS In addition to ‘Top Girls,’ there is Miller’s ‘After the Fall,’ O’Neill’s ‘Desire Under the
Elms,’ and Jeffrey Hatcher’s ‘Work Song.’
BRENNEMAN I also did ‘Streetcar.’ I did Stella in ‘Streetcar.’ And I think there was one
other one. Yeah. I love doing them. I just love them.
GROSS Talk about the various aspects of these recorded plays: a live audience, a radio
audience down the line, and then, forever down the line in recordings long after the show
closes.
BRENNEMAN Yeah! It’s funny I don’t really think about the radio aspect or the fact of the
afterwards aspect. For me it’s just a very safe way to explore really great literature. When I
did ‘After The Fall,’ Susan [Lowenberg, LATW producer] called me up to ask and I just said
‘Yes.’ I didn’t know the play. And then I started doing research and it’s like, Wait a
minute! Me playing the Marilyn Monroe stand-in? That seemed absurd, but then as I got
to discover it and do it my way, it ends up being great. It’s almost always a really
wonderful experience because in the best sense, the expectation for exploration and
excellence is really high, and they’re not going to let you crash and burn. You know what I
mean? And also, I think the audience knows that we’ve only gathered together for five
days. They obviously see us with our scripts in hand. And rather than that taking away
from that experience, that’s what the people who come really enjoy: to feel a part of the
creative process. So, for me, artistically, especially at a time where it’s hard to get six
months to go do a play, or now that I have my family and I just can’t up and go, blah-blah-
blah, this is just such a wonderful way too just dive deep for a couple weeks.
GROSS And it’s always good stuff . . .
BRENNEMAN And it’s always good stuff. Yeah.
GROSS And this re-broadcast comes at a timely when ‘Top Girls’ is a big deal in New
York.
BRENNEMAN Yeah.
GROSS Ben Brantley’s review of the current Broadway staging was very positive. But, as
reviewers always seem to do, he points out that it’s structured oddly because you have this
incredible first scene with all this color and characters, with women from across centuries
coming together for a contemporary dinner party, and then you go into the comparatively
drab modern stuff. But it seems that radio, where costumes and characters and structure
are somewhat sublimated to the words and language, might help mitigate that issue.
Certainly Churchill was aware of what she was doing. There is a lot going on in those latter
acts. Do you remember it well enough to recall if it seemed to work well in that way?
BRENNEMAN Yeah. I think so. And again, I had never seen it before we performed it. I
really didn’t know anything about it. I knew that I liked Caryl Churchill’s work, but when I sat
down to first read it, and got into that first scene I thought, my God what is going on?
[laughs] And then going into the rest of the play, on the surface it’s just so different
stylistically and everything else. But, you know, the more that we did it, the topic of
conversation that is set up in the first scene really carries you through. And, I benefited
because Marlene is the same gal in the second act, where the other actresses become
contemporary characters after the dinner scene.
I mean, I would say there definitely times during our process where we wished that we
had the costumes and we wished that we had the visuals. Because there are visual gags
if you will. There’s obviously visual cues of the ethnicity and the time periods of these
characters. So, in some ways it was mitigated and in some ways we had a bigger
challenge to communicate all of it.
And also there is all the overlapping dialogue, which actually wound up working pretty well
in radio. But there were times where we just had to make sure it was clear. Because they
are doing a lot of things that you’d understand if you were watching the scene. We just
had to make sure that the story was clear even though you couldn’t see it.
GROSS Did you do anything to underscore the double casting from Act I to II and III or did
you just have to let the voices do it?
BRENNEMAN You let the voices do it and I don’t remember that being an issue, because I
think there are strong indicators. Marlene, for one is identified by name. What I remember
being more of a challenge was not having the visual tool you have in a production, when
that first time each character comes in she’s so visually striking and specific. We also
were careful with all the yummy-ness of the overlaps, making sure that each cue was
clear, whether they’re ordering a salad or whatever is going on.
GROSS It's interesting that it presents these unique challenges. Are there any more that
you are scheduled to do at this time?
BRENNEMAN No, nothing scheduled. But, you know I just did a staged reading of this play
called ‘In Darfur’ by Winter Miller as part of a fund-raiser and it was really successful. It’s a
really devastating play. And I passed it along to Brendon Fox, who is LATW's development
person. So, if they take an interest in it, maybe. I don’t know, though, if I would be able to
do it anyway. I mean [laughs] I have a job now.
GROSS That’s right. Which show is it again?
BRENNEMAN I’m on the show ‘Private Practice.’ It’s a job-job. For the last three years I
was free to do my own thing, but I’m really happy. I like this gig. But I’m not as free as I
was before.
GROSS And how many years did you do ‘Judging Amy?’
BRENNEMAN I did it for six. And after that, for about three years, I did movies and plays
and actually went to Williamstown. I had my second kid two weeks after they cancelled
‘Judging Amy.’ So that actually was just great timing. So I could just lie around and . . .
GROSS Yeah, I guess if there was a good role to have as you’re going through the final
trimester of your pregnancy, it would be one where you can wear flowing robes as a
costume.
BRENNEMAN Yes, exactly. I did the whole shebang during that show. You can watch me
gain and lose 40 pounds repeatedly.
GROSS [laughs] What fun on fast forward: Whoa! I remember Julia Louis-Dreyfus talking
about . . . I think she had two kids during ‘Seinfeld.’
BRENNEMAN Yes. I think you’re right.
GROSS And she was explaining why she is wearing parkas during scenes during the
summer.
BRENNEMAN [laughs]
GROSS Speaking of births, I see that your birthday will be the day after this airs.
BRENNEMAN That’s right! That’s right.
GROSS Well, it’s been an eventful and admirable few decades you’ve put in. Did I
remember from a past bio that you studied in India and learned Sanskrit?
BRENNEMAN Well actually I went to Harvard with Bill, we were there at the same time, but
I majored in comparative religion and ended up studying Hindu and Tibetan stuff and then
I spent a semester in Katmandu and learned Tibetan – as much as I could, it’s a really
hard language. But that was . . . . it still is. I mean I have the thrill of my life coming in July
when I get to introduce the Dahli Lama on the 16th. Which I can’t even believe. So, yes,
that’s still a part of my life.
GROSS Wow. Introduce him where?
BRENNEMAN In Philadelphia. I got asked. I guess he’s coming in, doing various stuff,
and sort of through some people I know I got asked to introduce him, which I’m very, very
excited to do. My son’s name is Bodhi . . . . so it’s never far from my heart.
GROSS Have you been up to see Bill in Ashland yet?
BRENNEMAN I have. I went a year ago Labor Day, and we’re going back again on Labor
Day. And I just got to see him . . . Cornerstone just had the Bridge Awards, and Chris
and Bill came down, ‘cause Chris gave me the award and it was just a fantastic couple
days. I would love . . . I’m sure I will, I’m sure I will, take the family and go for a year.
GROSS Oh, that would be good for him, you and the audiences would love it. Is your
husband an actor?
BRENNEMAN He’s a film director. [laughing] So, he would have a little less to do [if we
were in Ashland for a year]. He’s actually finishing off this big Universal film ‘Land of the
Lost’ with Will Ferrell.
GROSS Oh, that should be fun. I’m a friend of Will’s parents and have crossed paths with
him a few times over the years.
BRENNEMAN I was in a movie with him about 11 years ago. I think it was the only one of
his that went straight to video, called ‘The Suburbans.’ He was adorable and great. I think
he’d been on SNL for a year maybe but hadn’t really popped. But he’s the same guy. He’
s the same guy: great wife, great kids. Just a wonderful guy.
GROSS Well, then in addition to plugging ‘Top Girls’ I can put in a little plug for ‘Land of the
Lost.’ Can’t hurt. And hopefully we’ll run into each other again at a show. It’s been fun
talking to you.
BRENNEMAN Great talking to you, too.
GROSS And Happy Birthday.
Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman was 20 years old and an undergraduate at Harvard University when Caryl
Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ made its Southern California premiere at South Coast Repertory in 1984, later
moving up to the then-Westwood Playhouse for a Los Angeles premiere. Ten years later, she became
nationally known on ‘NYPD Blue,’ earning the first of a half-dozen Emmy nominations. Another
decade later, in 2006, Brenneman played Marlene, the lead in ‘Top Girls,’ for five live performances
produced and recorded for radio by LA Theatre Works. This Saturday, (June 21, 2008), on
Brenneman’s birthday eve, LA TheatreWorks will re-air the show (locally on KPCC, and across the
country on a network that is indexed here).
Brenneman has had great artistic and commercial success. Among her stage credits is the world
premiere of Craig Lucas’s ‘God’s Heart,’ directed by Joe Mantello at Lincoln Center (1997) and
‘Saint Joan of the Stockyards’ at Yale Repertory Theatre. The films she has graced would endear her
to any theater fan, with the high-profile ‘Heat’ (with the famous Al Pacino-Robert DeNiro face-off) a
rare exception among films like the lovely Campbell Scott-directed ‘Off the Map’ and Neil LaBute’s
‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’
In 1998, she was part of the cast – along with Jesus (now Alex) Mendoza – of Anthony Clarvoe’s
‘Walking Off the Roof,’ one of the workshops in South Coast Repertory’s first Pacific Playwrights
Festival, and Rauch’s first assignment at the Orange County theater.
It was also where Brenneman and I crossed paths.
AMY BRENNEMAN – Oh yeah! That was fun. I loved doing that.
CRISTOFER GROSS That helped get the Festival started. But it's hard to believe that was
11 years ago.
BRENNEMAN It was really eleven years ago?!
GROSS Sorry, yes.
I know you’re a founder of Cornerstone, so I want to start out there. I assume you have
seen Julie Marie Myatt's ‘Someday.’
BRENNEMAN I saw it on Saturday and was very blown away.
GROSS They put a quote from my review on the Cornerstone home page because of what
I said about one actress. I don’t know, maybe people familiar with Cornerstone are used
to her, but I thought she was just extraordinary.
BRENNEMAN Diana?
GROSS Yeah.
BRENNEMAN Yeah, she is unbelievable. You know I’m on the Shondra Rhimes show
now, ‘Private Practice,’ and I really would like her to meet Diana, because I think it’s kind of
the last frontier, to have a really amazing disabled actress who is able to carry a show like
that. It’s really unbelievable.
GROSS Yeah. And you don’t know, or I didn’t know because I intentionally avoid pre-
publicity, when you walk in where things are going. And this actress moves from what
might be assumed to be a support role and moves into the center and, like you say –
along with Bahni and Shishir – carries the show.
BRENNEMAN Yeah. Yeah. She really blew me away. I was actually part of one of the story
circles for 'Someday.' Sometimes Cornerstone adapts a show and sometimes they
create an original piece. And I have lots of feelings and have experienced a lot about this
kind of thing and so for the first time I was a participant at a story circle, and Julie came to
my house with a bunch of my friends and it was really cool. It was probably the only way
that I hadn’t participated in a Cornerstone show, to be a resource in this way, and that was
cool, too. I actually felt very connected to that show.
GROSS Of the reviewers in town, I seem to have been the one most fond of Julie's ‘My
Wandering Boy,’ which premiered at SCR in 2007. I’m looking forward to sitting down and
talking to her one of these days and seeing if I was reading more into it than was there or
what. I thought there was a lot going on. But anyway . . .
BRENNEMAN Well, Bill really loves her. You know in Ashland they’re doing a premiere of
her ‘Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter,’ which is going to Lincoln Center now.
GROSS Oh it is? Great.
BRENNEMAN Yeah. I was almost in ‘Wandering Boy.’ It was a very sentimental moment
where I thought, ‘Oh, Bill, you’re going to Ashland,’ and I wasn’t working, although I had
some things on the back burner. But, you know, to make the schlep . . . .
GROSS Sure. Well, Beth Ruscio did a great job with that part. So Bill and Julie were well
served.
But . . . on to radio, and ‘Top Girls.’
You play Marlene.
BRENNEMAN Yeah.
GROSS And you’ve recorded three other plays for LATW.
BRENNEMAN I think I did even more.
GROSS Oh. Maybe I screwed up the search. It only indexed four.
BRENNEMAN Which did they list?
GROSS In addition to ‘Top Girls,’ there is Miller’s ‘After the Fall,’ O’Neill’s ‘Desire Under the
Elms,’ and Jeffrey Hatcher’s ‘Work Song.’
BRENNEMAN I also did ‘Streetcar.’ I did Stella in ‘Streetcar.’ And I think there was one
other one. Yeah. I love doing them. I just love them.
GROSS Talk about the various aspects of these recorded plays: a live audience, a radio
audience down the line, and then, forever down the line in recordings long after the show
closes.
BRENNEMAN Yeah! It’s funny I don’t really think about the radio aspect or the fact of the
afterwards aspect. For me it’s just a very safe way to explore really great literature. When I
did ‘After The Fall,’ Susan [Lowenberg, LATW producer] called me up to ask and I just said
‘Yes.’ I didn’t know the play. And then I started doing research and it’s like, Wait a
minute! Me playing the Marilyn Monroe stand-in? That seemed absurd, but then as I got
to discover it and do it my way, it ends up being great. It’s almost always a really
wonderful experience because in the best sense, the expectation for exploration and
excellence is really high, and they’re not going to let you crash and burn. You know what I
mean? And also, I think the audience knows that we’ve only gathered together for five
days. They obviously see us with our scripts in hand. And rather than that taking away
from that experience, that’s what the people who come really enjoy: to feel a part of the
creative process. So, for me, artistically, especially at a time where it’s hard to get six
months to go do a play, or now that I have my family and I just can’t up and go, blah-blah-
blah, this is just such a wonderful way too just dive deep for a couple weeks.
GROSS And it’s always good stuff . . .
BRENNEMAN And it’s always good stuff. Yeah.
GROSS And this re-broadcast comes at a timely when ‘Top Girls’ is a big deal in New
York.
BRENNEMAN Yeah.
GROSS Ben Brantley’s review of the current Broadway staging was very positive. But, as
reviewers always seem to do, he points out that it’s structured oddly because you have this
incredible first scene with all this color and characters, with women from across centuries
coming together for a contemporary dinner party, and then you go into the comparatively
drab modern stuff. But it seems that radio, where costumes and characters and structure
are somewhat sublimated to the words and language, might help mitigate that issue.
Certainly Churchill was aware of what she was doing. There is a lot going on in those latter
acts. Do you remember it well enough to recall if it seemed to work well in that way?
BRENNEMAN Yeah. I think so. And again, I had never seen it before we performed it. I
really didn’t know anything about it. I knew that I liked Caryl Churchill’s work, but when I sat
down to first read it, and got into that first scene I thought, my God what is going on?
[laughs] And then going into the rest of the play, on the surface it’s just so different
stylistically and everything else. But, you know, the more that we did it, the topic of
conversation that is set up in the first scene really carries you through. And, I benefited
because Marlene is the same gal in the second act, where the other actresses become
contemporary characters after the dinner scene.
I mean, I would say there definitely times during our process where we wished that we
had the costumes and we wished that we had the visuals. Because there are visual gags
if you will. There’s obviously visual cues of the ethnicity and the time periods of these
characters. So, in some ways it was mitigated and in some ways we had a bigger
challenge to communicate all of it.
And also there is all the overlapping dialogue, which actually wound up working pretty well
in radio. But there were times where we just had to make sure it was clear. Because they
are doing a lot of things that you’d understand if you were watching the scene. We just
had to make sure that the story was clear even though you couldn’t see it.
GROSS Did you do anything to underscore the double casting from Act I to II and III or did
you just have to let the voices do it?
BRENNEMAN You let the voices do it and I don’t remember that being an issue, because I
think there are strong indicators. Marlene, for one is identified by name. What I remember
being more of a challenge was not having the visual tool you have in a production, when
that first time each character comes in she’s so visually striking and specific. We also
were careful with all the yummy-ness of the overlaps, making sure that each cue was
clear, whether they’re ordering a salad or whatever is going on.
GROSS It's interesting that it presents these unique challenges. Are there any more that
you are scheduled to do at this time?
BRENNEMAN No, nothing scheduled. But, you know I just did a staged reading of this play
called ‘In Darfur’ by Winter Miller as part of a fund-raiser and it was really successful. It’s a
really devastating play. And I passed it along to Brendon Fox, who is LATW's development
person. So, if they take an interest in it, maybe. I don’t know, though, if I would be able to
do it anyway. I mean [laughs] I have a job now.
GROSS That’s right. Which show is it again?
BRENNEMAN I’m on the show ‘Private Practice.’ It’s a job-job. For the last three years I
was free to do my own thing, but I’m really happy. I like this gig. But I’m not as free as I
was before.
GROSS And how many years did you do ‘Judging Amy?’
BRENNEMAN I did it for six. And after that, for about three years, I did movies and plays
and actually went to Williamstown. I had my second kid two weeks after they cancelled
‘Judging Amy.’ So that actually was just great timing. So I could just lie around and . . .
GROSS Yeah, I guess if there was a good role to have as you’re going through the final
trimester of your pregnancy, it would be one where you can wear flowing robes as a
costume.
BRENNEMAN Yes, exactly. I did the whole shebang during that show. You can watch me
gain and lose 40 pounds repeatedly.
GROSS [laughs] What fun on fast forward: Whoa! I remember Julia Louis-Dreyfus talking
about . . . I think she had two kids during ‘Seinfeld.’
BRENNEMAN Yes. I think you’re right.
GROSS And she was explaining why she is wearing parkas during scenes during the
summer.
BRENNEMAN [laughs]
GROSS Speaking of births, I see that your birthday will be the day after this airs.
BRENNEMAN That’s right! That’s right.
GROSS Well, it’s been an eventful and admirable few decades you’ve put in. Did I
remember from a past bio that you studied in India and learned Sanskrit?
BRENNEMAN Well actually I went to Harvard with Bill, we were there at the same time, but
I majored in comparative religion and ended up studying Hindu and Tibetan stuff and then
I spent a semester in Katmandu and learned Tibetan – as much as I could, it’s a really
hard language. But that was . . . . it still is. I mean I have the thrill of my life coming in July
when I get to introduce the Dahli Lama on the 16th. Which I can’t even believe. So, yes,
that’s still a part of my life.
GROSS Wow. Introduce him where?
BRENNEMAN In Philadelphia. I got asked. I guess he’s coming in, doing various stuff,
and sort of through some people I know I got asked to introduce him, which I’m very, very
excited to do. My son’s name is Bodhi . . . . so it’s never far from my heart.
GROSS Have you been up to see Bill in Ashland yet?
BRENNEMAN I have. I went a year ago Labor Day, and we’re going back again on Labor
Day. And I just got to see him . . . Cornerstone just had the Bridge Awards, and Chris
and Bill came down, ‘cause Chris gave me the award and it was just a fantastic couple
days. I would love . . . I’m sure I will, I’m sure I will, take the family and go for a year.
GROSS Oh, that would be good for him, you and the audiences would love it. Is your
husband an actor?
BRENNEMAN He’s a film director. [laughing] So, he would have a little less to do [if we
were in Ashland for a year]. He’s actually finishing off this big Universal film ‘Land of the
Lost’ with Will Ferrell.
GROSS Oh, that should be fun. I’m a friend of Will’s parents and have crossed paths with
him a few times over the years.
BRENNEMAN I was in a movie with him about 11 years ago. I think it was the only one of
his that went straight to video, called ‘The Suburbans.’ He was adorable and great. I think
he’d been on SNL for a year maybe but hadn’t really popped. But he’s the same guy. He’
s the same guy: great wife, great kids. Just a wonderful guy.
GROSS Well, then in addition to plugging ‘Top Girls’ I can put in a little plug for ‘Land of the
Lost.’ Can’t hurt. And hopefully we’ll run into each other again at a show. It’s been fun
talking to you.
BRENNEMAN Great talking to you, too.
GROSS And Happy Birthday.
| THEATER TIMES DIALOGUE / TOP GIRL |
As a teenager, Brenneman had performed in
productions at school and in Creative
Experiences, a theater group for kids in her
hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut. At
Harvard she majored in comparative religion
and co-founded Cornerstone Theater
Company with fellow student Bill Rauch. For
four years after graduation, she, Rauch and
Cornerstone forged a unique theatrical
enterprise: living as migrant theater artists,
teaching and performing drama for food and
lodging in off-the-road locations like a Nevada
Indian reservation or small town in
Mississippi. There they stayed for months at a
time, often hosted by townspeople, adapting
plays of relevance to that community and
performing them with local actors.
productions at school and in Creative
Experiences, a theater group for kids in her
hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut. At
Harvard she majored in comparative religion
and co-founded Cornerstone Theater
Company with fellow student Bill Rauch. For
four years after graduation, she, Rauch and
Cornerstone forged a unique theatrical
enterprise: living as migrant theater artists,
teaching and performing drama for food and
lodging in off-the-road locations like a Nevada
Indian reservation or small town in
Mississippi. There they stayed for months at a
time, often hosted by townspeople, adapting
plays of relevance to that community and
performing them with local actors.
In 1988,
Brenneman
played
Clytemnestra, to
the Orestes of
Christopher Liam
Moore, in a
Cornerstone
adaptation of
Aeschylus' 'The
Oresteia,' staged
in a tribal
welding shop on
the Walker River
Paiute Indian
Reservation.
Brenneman
played
Clytemnestra, to
the Orestes of
Christopher Liam
Moore, in a
Cornerstone
adaptation of
Aeschylus' 'The
Oresteia,' staged
in a tribal
welding shop on
the Walker River
Paiute Indian
Reservation.
Amy Brenneman was
born on June 22, 1964, in
New London, Connecticut.
A versatile performer, Amy
Brenneman is perhaps best
known for her portrayal of a
juvenile court judge and
divorced mother on the hit
drama Judging Amy. The
show was based in part of
her own mother’s
experiences as a State of
Connecticut Superior Court
judge. Brenneman’s father
was also involved in legal
matters, working an
environmental attorney.
A 1987 graduate of Harvard
University, Amy
Brenneman has proved to be
a versatile performer,
handling both dramatic and
comedic roles. In 1992, she
appeared on the short-lived
dramatic comedy series
Middle Ages. Her next big
part attracted more attention
from critics and audiences.
Brenneman played Janice
Licalsi on the successful
police drama N.Y.P.D. Blue.
Her character was a police
officer becomes involved
with the mob and with
Detective John Kelly,
played by David Caruso.
Her role on the series
garnered her two Emmy
Award nominations.
Around this time, Amy
Brenneman also had roles in
several films. In the dramatic
comedy about divorced
fathers, Bye Bye, Love
(1995), she played Matthew
Modine’s ex-wife. That
same year, Brenneman also
appeared in Michael Mann’s
crime thriller Heat as Robert
DeNiro’s girlfriend. She
went on to star in the
independent film Nevada
(1997) as a stranger who
comes to a western small
town. Brenneman also
appeared in Your Friends &
Neighbors (1998) and The
Suburbans (1999).
In 1999, Amy Brenneman
returned to series television
with a project very close to
her heart. Soon after Judging
Amy debuted it became of
prime time’s leading dramas.
Amy Brenneman starred as a
New York lawyer who
moves with her young
daughter to Connecticut and
becomes a juvenile court
judge soon after her divorce.
Audiences were drawn to
the show’s interesting mix of
court cases and the personal
dramas surrounded the lead
character and her friends and
family. The show also
provided a look at three
generations of women—
television veteran co-starred
as her mother Maxine, a
social worker, and Karle
Warren played her daughter
Lauren. During the run of
the series, Brenneman won
several awards for her work,
including a People’s Choice
Award, and was nominated
three times for an Emmy
Award—in 2000, 2001, and
2002. After more than 130
episodes, Judging Amy
finished its long run in 2005.
It is still being shown in
syndication.
Amy Brenneman is married
to director Bradley
Silberling. They have a
daughter named Charlotte
and a son named Bodhi
Russell.
© 2007 A&E Television
Networks. All rights reserved.
born on June 22, 1964, in
New London, Connecticut.
A versatile performer, Amy
Brenneman is perhaps best
known for her portrayal of a
juvenile court judge and
divorced mother on the hit
drama Judging Amy. The
show was based in part of
her own mother’s
experiences as a State of
Connecticut Superior Court
judge. Brenneman’s father
was also involved in legal
matters, working an
environmental attorney.
A 1987 graduate of Harvard
University, Amy
Brenneman has proved to be
a versatile performer,
handling both dramatic and
comedic roles. In 1992, she
appeared on the short-lived
dramatic comedy series
Middle Ages. Her next big
part attracted more attention
from critics and audiences.
Brenneman played Janice
Licalsi on the successful
police drama N.Y.P.D. Blue.
Her character was a police
officer becomes involved
with the mob and with
Detective John Kelly,
played by David Caruso.
Her role on the series
garnered her two Emmy
Award nominations.
Around this time, Amy
Brenneman also had roles in
several films. In the dramatic
comedy about divorced
fathers, Bye Bye, Love
(1995), she played Matthew
Modine’s ex-wife. That
same year, Brenneman also
appeared in Michael Mann’s
crime thriller Heat as Robert
DeNiro’s girlfriend. She
went on to star in the
independent film Nevada
(1997) as a stranger who
comes to a western small
town. Brenneman also
appeared in Your Friends &
Neighbors (1998) and The
Suburbans (1999).
In 1999, Amy Brenneman
returned to series television
with a project very close to
her heart. Soon after Judging
Amy debuted it became of
prime time’s leading dramas.
Amy Brenneman starred as a
New York lawyer who
moves with her young
daughter to Connecticut and
becomes a juvenile court
judge soon after her divorce.
Audiences were drawn to
the show’s interesting mix of
court cases and the personal
dramas surrounded the lead
character and her friends and
family. The show also
provided a look at three
generations of women—
television veteran co-starred
as her mother Maxine, a
social worker, and Karle
Warren played her daughter
Lauren. During the run of
the series, Brenneman won
several awards for her work,
including a People’s Choice
Award, and was nominated
three times for an Emmy
Award—in 2000, 2001, and
2002. After more than 130
episodes, Judging Amy
finished its long run in 2005.
It is still being shown in
syndication.
Amy Brenneman is married
to director Bradley
Silberling. They have a
daughter named Charlotte
and a son named Bodhi
Russell.
© 2007 A&E Television
Networks. All rights reserved.