For Marianne Owen (left) and Suzanne Bouchard, maturity and experience takes center stage. Photo by Jeff Caven
SUZANNE BOUCHARD AND MARIANNE OWEN have played their share of ingénues—the winsome young love interests. The plucky daughters. The Juliets and Ophelias. But both of these award-winning, Seattle-based actresses are currently enjoying another fulfilling chapter in their long-running careers. Thanks to talent, hard work in a tough field, and their vaunted reputations among audiences and fellow artists, the longtime colleagues are still in their prime after decades in the spotlight. In the last year, at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT), Bouchard memorably portrayed a narcissistic actress in “Stupid Fucking Bird,” an Aaron Posner play based on Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” And she won raves at ArtsWest Playhouse as a determined woman confronting dark family secrets in Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts.”
Aging with Confidence
Owen’s recent roles, meanwhile, have ranged from a legendary London sleuth’s efficient housekeeper (in R. Hamilton Wright’s “Sherlock Holmes and The American Problem” at Seattle Repertory Theatre), to the jolly Victorian hostess Mrs. Fezziwig in ACT’s “A Christmas Carol.” Though Hollywood too often emphasizes youth over maturity (“The close-ups will kill you!” laughs Owen), these actresses also fill the occasional film or TV role. But live theater is their first love and mainstay in the lively Seattle drama scene they’ve helped to encourage and nurture. Owen arrived in town in 1988 after notable stints with Yale Repertory Theatre in Connecticut and Boston’s American Repertory Theater. She signed on as a company member at Seattle Repertory Theatre under then-artistic chief Daniel Sullivan, and soon drew admiration as the feminist lead character in “The Heidi Chronicles,” a Wendy
winter 2017
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