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Frederick and Co. get their Jaglom on
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Tanna Frederick apologizes for being a few minutes late to return a phone call. Something minor has come up with the production of Henry Jaglom’s play “Just 45 Minutes from Broadway” which she is headlining in Santa Monica, and Frederick had to help put out yet another small fire.
“Little things like seating and the guest list,” says Frederick. “Alexandra Guarnieri is an amazing producer. Henry wrote the script, and I helped put the cast together and things like that. I’m an executive producer type.
“Alexandra is such an amazing producer that I don’t usually have to deal with the little annoying things,” she continues. “Usually I just get to focus on the acting.”
Not that anyone is exactly holding a gun to Frederick’s head to get her to wear the extra hats. Already the leading lady of choice for any project of Jaglom’s stage or cinematic, the red headed actress finds she multi tasks with a certain ease.
“I started doing children’s theater in Iowa when I was like 8 or 9 and there was this whole sense of community,” she says. “I built sets, I put things together, I stayed in the theater for hours painting sets and doing scrims. All of us would come together and do every aspect of the show and production. I have that in my blood.”
“I think I’m the type of person who likes to have her hands in everything,” she adds. “It’s more fun, and I’m a control freak. And it deepens the emotional attachment to the project and the art. I think it just creates more passion for the final product.”
The story of how an actress journeyed from Mason City Iowa to 45 minutes from Broadway is a tale of persistence, ingenuity and a certain amount of good old fashioned moxie from a young actress who candidly admits “there’s no syllabus for this town. There’s no right way to get a break.”
In film veteran Jaglom, the director of “A Safe Place,” “Eating” and “Venice/Venice,” Frederick found a kindred spirit and a mentor. Their collaborative docket to date includes the director’s last three movies “Hollywood Dreams” (2007), “Irene in Time,” (2009) and the upcoming “Queen of the Lot” as well as the plays “A Safe Place” and the current “Just 45 Minutes From Broadway” running through Dec. 20 at the Edgemar Center for the Arts.
The basis for this partnership began with a letter of appreciation written by an admiring actress to an established filmmaker. But the story has a twist. Frederick, a struggling actress and part time waitress at the time, was at work on a play at the Robey Theatre when one of her cast mates began praising Jaglom and his film “Déjà Vu.”
How do I work with this man, Frederick asked. Write him a letter praising his work, was the reply. Frederick borrowed “Déjà Vu,” watched the opening credits and fired off a three page single spaced letter in praise of Jaglom’s entire cannon.
“He called me immediately,” recalls Frederick. “He asked, ‘What did you mean by this? Explain.’ I ended up going to a screening of ‘Festival in Cannes.’”
Perhaps more importantly, Jaglom gave Frederick a copy of an unproduced stage adaptation of “A Safe Place” and encouraged her to see what she could do with it. Frederick ended up getting it produced at the Skylight Theatre.
Never mind that when she wrote the letter, Frederick hadn’t gotten past the opening credits of “Déjà vu” and actually hadn’t seen a single Jaglom film.
“At the time, it wasn’t so much like ‘getting away with something’ as giving it the old Iowa heave ho and trying everything to get your pinkie toe in the door,” says Frederick. “I was just kind of pounding the pavement, dropping off letters hoping somebody would take notice of me. It was a desperate attempt to get into filmmaking. I’ve had quite a number of those without destroying my integrity. This is the one that worked, luckily.”
Their first film together, “Hollywood Dreams,” found Frederick playing a fresh off the bus actress _ from Iowa, natch _ whose relationship with a young actor may complicate her own rise to stardom. “Irene in Time,” Jaglom’s rumination on the relationship between fathers and daughters, again has Frederick’s character unluckily romantic and at sea in the City of Angels. For “Queen of the Lot,” which will co star Noah Wyle, Jaglom and Frederick will once again revisit “Hollywood Dreams’” Maggie.
That’s the future. Right now, in “Just 45 Minutes from Broadway,” Frederick is playing Panda the daughter of vaudevillians who crashes at her folks’ rundown apartment located, yep, near Broadway. Panda’s sister and her fiancé _ who also come to visit _ are not so theatrically inclined.
Frederick likens the play to “You Can’t Take it With You” and says that, as a playwright, Jaglom’s style is a mixture of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Williams with a dollop of Anton Chekhov.
“Harold Clurman at the Actors Studio had heralded Henry as the new voice of American theater,” says Frederick. “The Henry got into movies and never wrote plays again. His plays are much more linear, and his dialog has its own flavor and rhythm. With his plays, he’s very much a stickler about every single miniscule word, period, punctuation mark and emphasis. He’s crazy, but it’s for a good reason.”
Joining Frederick in “Just 45 Minutes From Broadway” are David Proval, Jack Heller, Diane Salinger and musician Harriet Schock, all veterans of Jaglom’s recent movies.
Call it old home week, if you will. Jaglom’s properties tend to encourage returns.
“Pretty much everything we do together really thrives and works,” says Frederick. “We understand each other’s language. I don’t’ know. It’s just one of those great things that works.”
“Just 45 Minutes from Broadway continues 8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 5 p.m. Sun; through Dec. 20 at 2437 Main St., Santa Monica. (310) 392-7327, ext. 3 or visit www.edgemar.org.
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