Nora Dunn became well-known on Saturday Night Live playing a variety of characters and now she brings new ones to Chicago audiences live and in person.
She was born in Chicago and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before joining the cast of SNL in 1985. She stayed on television with roles on Sisters and The Nanny before moving forward to films like Three Kings, Pineapple Express and LOL.
Recently Dunn appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre's production of Boeing-Boeing to rave reviews. She now tackles her own one-woman show, entitled Mythical Proportions, bringing a variety of characters to life as well as touching on her own private stories about the growing up in Chicago and life in Hollywood.
Nunn met Dunn for lunch and a chat about this latest project.
Windy City Times: Hi, Nora. Let's talk about what inspired this show. Did this come out of when you were in Love, Loss, and What I Wore?
Nora Dunn: Not really but in doing that show it made me want to do my own monologues. I had already been writing so after that I wanted to really put it together in earnest. There is an audience for it. She did a show specifically for women and mine is not specifically for them. I wanted to do some of my show not as a character.
WCT: It is interesting how you switch back and forth in the show. Talk about the first character. Is she based on Robert Evans?
Nora Dunn: That started a long time ago when I was out with my brother and some other people. Someone had a big pair of glasses and I put those on and started being Robert Evans telling stories. It was really funny and I wanted to make him into a character. By the time I did it was over because his book had come out then. Roberta Evans is not a producer but a celebrity agent. She became her own character and a piece to put in about mythology. That is the ultimate mythology with Hollywood stories and archetypes.
WCT: Joanne came from a doll?
Nora Dunn: Yes, the story is true. It was a doll that I got for Christmas. I loved her and she started talking. My friends wanted to hear from her. I lost the doll unfortunately. I have never been able to find that doll. She came from Marshall Fields and was a beautiful baby doll. Of course, I washed her hair on Christmas Day and most of it fell out!
I performed her when I first started in comedy. She was the first character that I performed.
WCT: I know it was important to you to have this show play in Chicago.
Nora Dunn: Yes, I think it can play somewhere else but it is rooted in Chicago. My childhood was here. Chicago is to me is an Americana city. I never felt like New York was a part of America but that is why I love it because it is not that way. It is not a blue-collar town. I felt the same way in New Orleans. I love that city because it is not a traditional American city. I think Chicago represents America.
Luckily, I am from here because it is a great city to come home to.
WCT: Where did the title Mythical Proportions come from?
Nora Dunn: I love the title. It came from when I was writing the show and I don't want to explain it. If you get it then you get it. It is up to the audience to understand what the title is.
Mythical Proportions is about my life. If you don't have that then you have not reflected on your life. I think most people do but maybe some don't. That would be a mistake not to. I am a writer so I write about my own experiences. I write poetry and that is focused about one moment of my life. You write a poem because you want to understand why you were affected that way.
This show is the same as naming a poem. If a name to a poem doesn't come to me then I feel I haven't written a poem. Sometimes a names comes and that is exactly it. Mythical Proportions came to me like that. It doesn't mean that is what the show is about but the title of the show is really a character that is part of the show.
WCT: Were you influenced by other one-woman shows like Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe?
Nora Dunn: I don't think I was influenced by the shows themselves. I saw that show in New York. I saw Sandra Bernhard use music in her piece. They are very different. I think the genre is very different because you have to hold the audience for that period of time. I think the biggest mistake is to make your show too long. I believe 70 minutes is the right amount of time for my anyways. I don't believe there should be an intermission in a one person show.
WCT: Some shows are so long and a big commitment.
Nora Dunn: Not only a big commitment but it has to be worthy of being that long. I'm an editor. Saturday Night Live was about editing. You only had about four minutes to make your statement. You had to pare it down to what you need.
I had to edit because not every word will people be hanging on. I let myself be indulgent but not for the audience.
WCT: Were there characters or stories you left on the cutting-room floor?
Nora Dunn: Not really, because this is a theater piece. It's a play. I hate to cut anything that gets a laugh. I had some things that were in the show because I thought they were funny but they didn't fit into the story. We cut up until the press night and left some things in for the preview audiences.
WCT: You had told me about Hell in a Handbag's The Birds before and I finally saw it.
Nora Dunn: I love that. There is a perfect example of everything that is in it belongs in it. Their props are perfect. They pull things out of the movie that comments on the movie. It is really a great time.
WCT: What are your future plans for the show Mythical Proportions?
Nora Dunn: I am playing it here and don't want to think too far ahead with it. We will see how it runs here. I don't have plans to take it to New York or do it for the rest of my life. I would like to do it in other theaters for short runs maybe on the West Coast.
WCT: Would you want it to be in a book form?
Nora Dunn: I don't know. Books are not profitable. If it were a show on television then it would sell but it is hard to get a book published unless it is connected to other media now. I am not saying no to television but I believe this show is in the medium it belongs in with theater.
Visit www.theaterwit.org or call 773-975-8150 for tickets to Mythical Proportions, now playing at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave, until Sept. 22.
