Interview: Theatre Life with Maaike Laanstra-Corn

Today’s subject Maaike Laanstra-Corn is currently living her theatre life onstage playing the role of Hedvig in the rarely produced Henrik Ibesn play The Wild Duck at Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC). The show continues performances through November 16th at STC’s Klein Theatre.

While The Wild Duck marks Maaike’s STC it is not her first experience with STC overall. She attended their camp before she became a professional actress. Read on to see what that experience was like.

In NYC, her off-Broadway credits include Atlantic Theater Company’s Grief Camp, Ars Nova’s ANTfest: Homofermenters; WP Theater’s When The Other Mary Celeste Sank, Clubbed Thumb’s Button Lake Band Camp and Ms. Lily, and The Tank’s Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California.

The Wild Duck is a play that is hardly ever done. That alone should be reason enough to attend a performance. The fact that Maaike Laanstra-Corn is coming full circle as a member of Artistic Director Simon Godwin’s cast should also be reason enough to go. Performers sometimes forget how they started or what got them to where they are. Maaike has not and so much the better for that.

Grab your tickets to see The Wild Duck at STC and witness a little known gem of Henrik Ibsen while also marveling at the young talent that is Maaike Laanstra-Corn. She is truly living her theatre life to the fullest.

What would you say was the one show you saw that made you think that you could be a performer?

I don’t think it was ever a single show. I think it was an inside out feeling (cheesy, sorry!). Funnily enough, I didn’t get all that much external reassurance that I could be a performer when I was growing up. And to be fair, I was bad as a kid, all heart and absolutely no skills. I just genuinely loved doing it so much that I was like: well, I have to keep going, this is the only thing for me even if there’s no good reason why that’s the case.

Where did you receive your training?

I went to Brown University. The best training I received there was two fold. Firstly, learning from, working with, and befriending the wonderful playwrights in the MFA Trinity/Rep program. It was my first foray into the world of new play development. I was immediately hooked and grateful to observe as they crafted theatrical worlds.

Secondly, I learned from my peers. I was so lucky to meet friends who happened to be budding geniuses in their various theatrical fields (acting, directing, producing, writing, arts education.) My friend Francesca Sabel, who is a wonderful director, really first taught me how to be an actor and my friend Bella Cavicchi taught me how to enter and exit a theatrical process with grace and kindness.

The list of talented friends and instructors who shaped my taste and tools goes on and on and has continued to expand since I moved to NYC. 

For example, I met my friend Anuka Sethi randomly in a reading and we have proceeded to help each other through firsts in the industry together.

And, of course, getting to work on any professional job provides me with such helpful on the ground training. Spending every night onstage with Nick, Melanie, DP and the rest of this cast and team certainly has been a theatrical masterclass, as was my time during Grief Camp (dir. Les Waters) which involved the most amazing young artists.

What was your first professional job as a performer?

I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in Clubbed Thumb’s annual Winter Works the winter after I graduated from college. It was the coolest thing in the world. I got to work with amazing actors, writers, and directors, and watch the process of bringing new work to light, all in those early fragile days of starting to make theater again in the wake of the pandemic and without a public audience. It was the foundation of my interest in downtown theater and new work development happening in NYC!

Can you please tell us a little something about your character in The Wild Duck as well as a brief overview of the play itself?

I say this with so much love but Hedvig’s a bit of a weirdo — honestly as a fifteen year old who doesn’t go to school and only interacts with a few adults, an attic full of animals, and a couple of old books ought to be. You meet her as the daughter of Gina and Hjalmar Ekdal, a family with a sordid past but a happy present who receive an unexpected re-entrance into their life from Gregers Werle, an old “friend” on a “mission.”

You attended STC camp as a kid. What would you say was the biggest lesson you learned about performing while you were there and how did that experience prepare you for performing professionally?

Again, this theme that I was so not a natural is coming back up. But I remember earnestly trying my hardest and sometimes being so worried that I was making a fool of myself, but ultimately just having so much fun. I loved learning to understand and read Shakespeare. STC taught me to move the words on the page into my brain, and then from my brain to my body and voice so that other people could share and dispute or expand upon the work itself.  Even if I couldn’t quite get it all right as a kid, I appreciate that STC taught me process and not just product even as it related to something steadfast and structured.

The Wild Duck is a very obscure Ibsen play. Ibsen can be a hard sell to some theatregoers. What do you say to those who might need some convincing to go see this show?

Well, I don’t want to fight the hard sell! However, if a modern analogy is helpful, it’s got some White Lotus-y qualities to it. Something’s going to go wrong, and you know that from the start, but you will still laugh and gasp along the way and shake your head at the ways families behave under duress and at how often ego leads to ruin.

After The Wild Duck concludes its run, what is next for you workwise?

That is an amazing question and the truth is that I don’t know. But I look forward to seeing what comes my way. In the meantime, I’m excited to go see all the theatrical and comedic projects all my brilliant friends are working on.

Special thanks to Shakespeare Theatre Company's publicity goddess Heather C. Jackson for her assistance in coordinating this interview.