http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07014/753179-237.stm
Stephanie D'Abruzzo, who grew up in McMurray and graduated from Peters Township High School in 1989, is not one of those actresses who hates TV. She's not even one of the ones -- and there are many -- who never watch the tube.
D'Abruzzo is perhaps best known for her Broadway role in the hit musical "Avenue Q," for which she earned a 2004 Tony nomination as best actress. She's also been on "Sesame Street" for 14 seasons. "The show is in season No. 38, so I'm still the new kid, really," she says.
And she's always been a fan of pop culture.
"Scrubs" writer Debra Fordham saw D'Abruzzo in the off-Broadway show "I Love You Because" last year and sought her out for the "Scrubs" musical episode (9 p.m. Thursday, NBC). D'Abruzzo plays a patient who comes into Sacred Heart Hospital because she hears everyone around her singing rather than speaking.
The "Avenue Q" team was brought in to contribute music for the episode, but D'Abruzzo, 35, was cast separately.
"People are going to make connections, but that just happened by coincidence," she said by phone last month. "People may also connect it because ['Scrubs' star] Zach Braff went to Northwestern [where D'Abruzzo went to college], but that had nothing to do with anything because Zach was there right after I was. It just all happened parallel, and it happened to be these great coincidences."
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Q. Had you watched "Scrubs" before landing the guest star role in the musical episode?
A. I was a huge fan of the show. I've watched it since season one. We have all the DVDs, and when I would have to do a show at night, my husband would have to record it on the DVR.
As an actor it's a great education. The cast is amazing. It's the most underrated cast on television right now. They don't get near the recognition they deserve because it's invisible acting. ... They embody those characters so naturally, so effortlessly.
Q. What did you think when you got the "Scrubs" songs, especially the one with the lyrics, "Everything comes down to poo"?
A. That music was totally "Avenue Q." It's great. It oddly fits in the "Scrubs" universe because it's not the first time "Scrubs" has referred to "poo" as opposed to other colorful phrases they could use.
Q. Do you find you're unusual among actors because you do watch TV?
A. It's always bothered me that all these people who make a really good living working in television wouldn't dare watch it. I'm a big pop culture freak. I love the good, the bad and the ugly about TV. When it's good, it's ethereally good. When a show like "Arrested Development" comes on and you see it last for two and a half seasons, that was miraculous.
I'll never understand why some actors are loath to do TV ... yet, to me, if you're on a show and it runs for 10 years, that's employment.
Q. What characters do you play on "Sesame Street"?
A. Recently I've played Little Pig No. 2, or I'll play a vegetable or a fruit or a chicken. Sometimes it's a puppet in the background, sometimes it has lines. It's different all the time.
Q. "Scrubs" is your first prime-time guest acting job. How did "Scrubs" compare to what you've done in the past?
A. The biggest difference between puppeteering for television and acting for television is that when we're working on "Sesame Street," we can see our performances [on monitors] when we're performing it. We know exactly what we're doing at any given time. We know what we're seeing and what the director is seeing, and we can be on the same page. When you are not able to see yourself perform and you're working without a monitor, it's a real trust thing.
Q. How did you get into puppetry?
A. I didn't discover puppetry as a viable thing until college. In high school we did five shows a year, but then I went to the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, and it was very Method-heavy. Me, having never left Pittsburgh at 16 and naive, I couldn't wrap my head around Method, so I figured if I can't do Method, I shouldn't be an actor. ... So I studied radio, television, film production in college. I did performing in a lot of student films, in improv troupes. I gained more than the freshman 15, had a bad late '80s, early '90s perm, and it was obvious early on that looks mattered. I was a character actor who didn't look right for character parts.
When I would watch the old Bugs Bunny cartoons or watch "The Muppet Show," I realized how multilevel the humor is. Watching old "Sesame Street" and "Muppet Show" episodes, I began to think it was a great way to do character work without it mattering what I look like.
Q. Do you consider yourself more a singer, actress or puppeteer?
A. My goal as an actor is simply to be prolific. I love musical theater, but there are days, especially when you're sick, that you'd give anything to do a straight play. I love comedy, but there are days when you're not in the mood to smile and I'll wish I was doing Chekhov. There are days I don't want to put on makeup and I wish I could roll around on the floor like we do for "Sesame Street." ... A challenge for Broadway is you have to do the same thing every night. I like shaking it up. That's how I want to grow as an actor. I want to explore every avenue that's open to me. I love trying new things and challenging myself.
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