Interview: Actress Kandis Chappell brings a First Lady to the North Coast Repertory Theatre stage in ELEANOR

What do you do when you want to stage ELEANOR, a one-woman show about the formidable and iconic first lady Eleanor Roosevelt?  Well, if you’re the North Coast Repertory Theatre you call actress Kandis Chappell who has the credentials on stages from San Diego to Broadway, and many places in between to bring Roosevelt to life.  Chappell took a moment between rehearsals to discuss working on this show and doing justice to this complex and captivating woman.  

ELEANOR, as the name suggests, is a one-woman show where Chappell takes the audience on a journey as Eleanor reveals the many layers that made up her influential life. The play jumps back and forth in time, with Kandis playing Eleanor over a range of ages, as well as 15 other characters. For Eleanor, this means getting her distinctive voice and speech pattern right.

“Her voice is so distinctive, with a strong accent that I'm really working hard on that right now. She had so many influences, she was born in upstate New York, and most of her family were very well-educated and elite that elite rich New York group.

Then in her formative years from 15 years old to 18 years she when trouble in school in England and was taught by French women. So it’s quite rich and complex for her speech.”

The play opens with Eleanor married to Franklin and what is happening in her marriage, and then jumps back to her childhood, and moves from time to time throughout the show. Chappell says that she doesn’t normally do much research, but that for this play she did because it is such an amazing and eventful life.

“I generally don’t do very much research, I just never have gotten into that habit, but with this one, I had to. I immediately started reading biographies of her and reading some of what she's written. Some of what she's gone through emotionally in her life, the decisions she made, the choices she made, and it's quite, it's a big journey.  I tell you, it's so daunting.”

While most people know some details about Eleanor, Kandis says that in working on the play and doing the research she became fascinated by all the things that Eleanor overcame in her life, and how she preserved to make a change in the world.

“The most surprising thing to me is that she had such an unhappy childhood. She was from a very wealthy family but was not a pretty child and her mother who was a famed beauty used to call her ‘Granny’ and was obviously disappointed in her.

Her father, whom she adored and he adored her, but he was a raging alcoholic and he had to be kicked out of the house and was forbidden to see the family. He died when she was 10 and all her life she mourned for him. When her mother died,, she went to be raised by her maternal grandmother who was very strict and narrow in her scope of the world and her view of the world."

So, I can't get over Eleanor Roosevelt coming from that beginning to become who she was.”

For Chappell, the true wonder of the show is the dignity and poise that Eleanor was able to show in her life after all of those disappointments, navigating the disappointments that continued to happen throughout her life, and never losing focus on what she wanted to do.

“That for me is the wonder of the show. To rise above so many, there were so many disappointments in her life and she just rose above it all and did so much good when she could. What was it in her that made her want to take care of other people to give them equal rights and all of that?

I think she has so many disappointments in her life, and she rose above it.; that's why she's so amazing.”

Directed by North Coast Rep artistic director David Ellenstein, Chappell is excited to return to the stage and work with the talented creative and crew at the theatre.

“I always said I miss being with people and ironically, my first show back is a one-woman show. We have a wonderful director, assistant director, and a terrific stage manager who I work with in rehearsals, so it’s the four of us in the rehearsal room.”

Kandis is excited to bring this show and shine a little more light on Eleanor Roosevelt for San Diego audiences to enjoy.

“Not just for the audiences and for the theater, but for Eleanor's sake, I hope I do justice to it.”

How To Get Tickets

You can see Kandis Chappell in ELEANOR at North Coast Repertory Theatre through July 2nd. For ticket and show time information go to www.northcoastrep.org 

Photo Credit: Kandis Chappell as Eleanor Roosevelt in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s “Eleanor.”(Courtesy of Aaron Rumley)