PLAYBILL.COM'S CUE & A: Grace Star Kate Arrington

By Matthew Blank
11 Dec 2012

Kate Arrington
Kate Arrington
Photo by Brad Calcaterra

Kate Arrington, who stars as Sara in the Broadway production of Craig Wright's Grace, fills out Playbill.com's questionnaire of random facts, backstage trivia and pop-culture tidbits.

Arrington recently played Cora in The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman Theatre (with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy).

She is a Steppenwolf Ensemble member, where she has performed in Hot L Baltimore, Detroit, A Parallelogram, Fake, The Pain and the Itch, The Well-Appointed Room and The Violet Hour.

Other theatre credits include The American Plan (Broadway), King Lear (with Stacy Keach), When the Messenger Is Hot, Far and Wide, Everett Beekin, Bluebeard and Other Less Grisly Tales of Love, Sexy Saint James and Boom.

She and castmate/partner Michael Shannon are the parents of Sylvia Grace Arrington Shannon.





Full given name: Katherine Arrington Bauso
Where you were born/where you were raised: Born in Plainfield, NJ. Grew up in Raleigh, NC, from ages 1-18.
Zodiac Sign: Pisces
What your parents did/do for a living: They are both English professors.
Siblings: Two awesome younger sisters, Louise and Anne.
Something you're REALLY bad at: I am a TERRIBLE singer and somehow I end up doing it in almost every play I'm in!
First Broadway show you ever saw: Peter Pan with Sandy Duncan
Did you have any particular mentors or inspirations when first starting out? I was named after Katharine Hepburn and I always thought she was pretty damn cool.
If you could go back in time and catch any show, what would it be? The original Streetcar Named Desire. And it wasn't on Broadway, but I sure would have liked to have seen Steppenwolf's production of Balm and Gilead.
Current show other than your own you have been recommending to friends: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Favorite showtune(s) of all time: I love all of the music from Once On This Island.
Some favorite musicals: Caroline, or Change
Passing Strange
Light in the Piazza
Broadway or screen stars of the past you would most have loved to perform with: Barbara Stanwyck and Jimmy Stewart
Your personal performance idols, living or dead: Fiona Shaw, Amy Morton, Laurie Metcalf
The one performance – attended - that you will never forget: The Seven Streams of the River Ota by Robert Lepage
Music that makes you cry, any genre: "Glory of Love" still makes me tingly.
MAC or PC? MAC, grudgingly
Most played song on your iPod: Music by The Mountain Goats
Most-visited websites: Playbill, duh!

And sometimes I read the Times.
Last book you read: "Ethan Frome"
Must-see TV show(s): We don't have a TV but I'd love to get ahold of DVDs of "Boardwalk Empire" so I can see Michael naked with other ladies.
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