Back when she used to work the Boston Duck Tours, Maureen Morratta went by the name Captain Rock N’ Roll. The appellation suits her; she has an energetic spirit and a winner’s attitude. She may indeed have just what it takes to make it in the often daunting world of the professional actor.
This past June, Morratta graduated Cum Laude from the UMass Boston, a Psychology Major and Theater Minor. Recently, we got together to talk about her experiences in the theater, both at school and beyond.
Q: How did you get involved with the Theater Department at UMass?
I was majoring in Psych and I was working for Olde Town Trolley, doing the History of Boston Tour there, and I thought, “you know what, why don’t I take a history of Boston course at UMass?” So I did that…and then I started taking more classes.
Then my father got really sick and he passed away. My fiancé at the time was going to Suffolk University, he was a musician, and he passed away six months after my father passed away. I was a basket case. My fiancé’s mother said, “don’t get away from school, because if you get out of going to school…you won’t be able to get back.” So I thought “what can I do?” and the only thing that I could think of…that would be a really good outlet for my grief…was theater, which I loved and felt comfortable with.
I took Acting One and I did “Cactus Flower” with John Conlon. I was the bartender, which was good because I’d been a bartender. In Acting One, we had to recite a poem, and I recited “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”…and I just released a million different things with that, and that was the beginning. It was helpful.
So I got back into theater because of grief. To stay within the curriculum at UMass and to keep going. I got back into theater for that, but I had already been into theater.
Q: Acting was something that had appealed to you when you were younger?
A: Well, when I was little I did “Hansel and Gretel”. I did a tribute to Irving Berlin when I was in the 8th grade. My Mom says that I was put on this earth just to entertain people.
My dad played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and he used to play the ukulele too. And we used to sing “Heart of My Heart”…me and my dad used to harmonize.
My parents are wonderful people, but when I was going to school, they said, “well, you go to school to be a teacher or something else, but we’re not an acting family.” So we stayed in that class mode, and I thought, “well, I’d love to do that but that’s not what my family does” and then when I found that I could actually do that, then I thought, “Well, gee, I’ll do that.”
Q: Your Major was in Psychology. There seems to be a connection between psychology and theater. Did you want to go into psych because of acting?
A: I think I wanted to go into psych because I like getting into people’s heads. The inside of people’s heads, what they don’t show, I find that fascinating. It’s the same as in theater; where what you have to do is get inside the character’s head.
Q: Do you take much from your Psychology training for your acting? Do you draw on that as a resource when you are trying to prepare for a role and are thinking about how you are going to play a certain character?
A: I think part of the stuff I draw from Psychology is stuff I knew before but which Psychology sharpened for me. I can understand where a character is coming from better, because I know the psychological ramifications of what the person is doing. That, in combination with a class that I took with John Conlon that had you look at every word, and go back and look at the history of what the person was wearing, to know all the background. Dramaturgy, I think it’s called.
I’m a writer too. I’ve written one screenplay about my house and my family moving into the house before I was born, and I wrote three theatrical plays…if I had my druthers, I’d just do theater and I’d write.
Q: You recently auditioned for Eerie Events, which runs at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Was that your first audition for a professional production?
MM: It was my first audition for a paid acting job. I sent out four resumes. I also do voice-overs…they’re very lucrative; you can make a lot of money for a little bit of work. I have an audition CD with four different casting agencies, and I’m a member of Stage Source, which is how I got the Eerie Events audition. They have a hotline via e-mail and phone, which tells you all the auditions that are going to be in the area.
So, I got my resumes out there, and people didn’t exactly clamor at my door, but I’m hoping that it will work out. I need to get new headshots, in order to do all this you need to have a base; you need to have a day job.
Q: Do you subscribe to any particular school or style of acting?
A: That wasn’t the way I initially approached acting. Initially, I used to think, “Oh, that’s a cool character” and I’d only want to be in plays where I liked the character or I thought I could relate to the character. But when I started coming here, I would audition for a part and I would a get a different part that I didn’t know anything about. I had to figure out, “well I don’t like this person, how do I pretend to be this person?” So I started trying, and failing, just trying superficially to see what the character would do and from trying and failing and being in front of people and getting graded I learned how to pay attention to detail. I’d think, “I have to find out what’s in a character’s head.” I learned that here.
ES: Do you have any advice to give to students who are either entering the theater program at school now or in it and planning to go and do it seriously as a career?
MM:I think that the best thing to do is to realize how important each class is. A lot of classes, you might say, “oh, this is an easy class that I’ll just blow off and get an A or a B in”, which you can kind of do because you can B.S. your way through. But there is a lot of information in those classes that is really useful when you get out there. You need to be aware of everything around you in a play, in the theater, and don’t think that someone who is working on the sidelines is not as important as you are. Don’t be a diva. You should listen and enjoy and learn about characters that you don’t want to learn about, learn about parts of theater that you hate because if you only deal with the stuff you like…then you’ll get out and you’ll be just a piece of a boat, and not a whole boat. You have to work to learn everything that you can about the theater. And while you’re here learning about theater, go out and try to do it at the same time.