Therese Plaehn Comes Home in Acclaimed Drama 'The Humans'

There isn't likely a sweeter homecoming than that being experienced by Therese Plaehn, the Scituate born actress who returns to Boston next week as a cast member of the acclaimed Broadway hit "The Humans." And she intends on celebrating with her family and friends - some 40-or-so who will be coming to the Boch Center Shubert Theater to see her during the play's run (March 13-25).

"It totally makes me nervous, but it wonderful," Plaehn explained recently. "I am so overwhelmed and grateful that they all want to come. And it is going to be fun. We will go to a bar after and hang out. I keep joking with my family and friends that this play is like my wedding."

Stephen Karam's drama was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize (losing to "Hamilton"), but won the 2016 Tony Award for best play. In it Plaehn plays Aimee, a gay Philadelphia-based lawyer who has recently broken up with her girlfriend. The play takes place on Thanksgiving, when Aimee and her family (the Blakes) gather for Thanksgiving under unusual circumstances. Unlike in past years, when dinner was served in their Scranton, PA home, this Thanksgiving is being celebrated in the New York Chinatown apartment of Aimee's younger sister, Bridget, and her boyfriend, Richard. The siblings are joined by their parents, Eric and Deirdre, and one grandparent, Fiona ("Momo"), who has Alzheimer's Disease. Missing is Aimee's long-standing girlfriend with whom she has recently broken up.

In reviewing the play in the New York Times, Ben Brantley called it "blisteringly funny, bruisingly sad and altogether wonderful," and that it "depicts the way we live now with a precision and compassion unmatched by any play I've seen in recent years. By 'we' I mean us non-one-percenters, most of whom are peering around anxiously at the uncertain future and the unsteady world, even as we fight through each day trying to keep optimism afloat in our hearts."

EDGE spoke with Plaehn during one of the recent Nor'easters and the subject quickly turned to her home town - ground zero for the media when storms hit the Northeast where you are likely to find some unlucky television reporter trying to steady themselves on a jetty in Scituate bay.

EDGE: You are from Scituate and already today I have seen reporters on the national news reporting from your home town.?

Therese Plaehn: It's funny because Scituate is the town on the national news, so I always have good friends checking with me from around the country when bad weather happens here. I think it is the featured town in "Storm Watch."

EDGE: Now you play Aimee in "The Humans." How would you describe her?

Therese Plaehn: She is so cool. She is really special. I am so excited that I get to play this part. She is just a diplomat in her family in so many ways. And yet has a lot going on inside that she doesn't really tell everybody. So the audience gets to see her vulnerable moments, but the rest of family may not. She is also so, so funny. She is a lawyer. She is definitely the smartest person in the room, but has some health stuff she is tackling. So this family Thanksgiving that is rife with a lot of internal anxiety for each family member. And the audience gets to witness to that.

EDGE: Now the premise of the play is that it takes place at a Thanksgiving family dinner that Amy's younger sister, Bridget, is hosting in an apartment in Chinatown...

Therese Plaehn: Yes. It is rare for the family not to have Thanksgiving at home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but this is the way it has worked out. Bridget has just moved in with her boyfriend, so for her mother Deirdre, who is very Catholic, this makes things difficult.

EDGE: I take it Deirdre is devout in her Catholicism. And your character is gay. Does she have issues with that?

Therese Plaehn: That Bridget is living with her boyfriend is a new bit of information for the family to take in. The fact that Amy is gay is not new information, so it is not an issue at this time. I think the family has so much love that rises above anything and everything. I think that it is wonderful that it is not addressed.

EDGE: Amy has recently broken up with her girlfriend who has always come to Thanksgiving dinner with her. This year she is not. How does Amy handle this?

Therese Plaehn: It's funny. I think when you want everything to be normal is when things can bubble up. So I imagine walking into a Thanksgiving that you think is going to be the same, but as the night progresses you realize how different and hard it is not to have that person at your side. I think that is the case with Aimee. I think anyone can relate to that who has a break-up.

EDGE: What attracted to you to Stephen Karen's writing?

Therese Plaehn: He is so brilliant. I think he captures in his dialogue the way people talk unbelievably well. The rhythm of the play is so true to life that when the audience comes out I think they feel they've been with their own family in some ways. My parents came to see the play at the Kennedy Center, and that was my mother's reaction. I think that's a testament to the writing - that he writes in a way that people speak. And it is also a testament to the directing. I think that Joe (Mantello) has created such an ensemble that genuinely cares about each other. I hope that audience feels that.

EDGE: You auditioned for the role four times before you got it. That must have been nervewracking. What is it like being a working actor in New York?

Therese Plaehn: New York seems so far away right now. I mean, this tour is the longest I have been out of the city. I haven't been back since October. I love New York. I love the theater community. It is so special. People really care for each other. And I feel so fortunate to have this job. I also miss my friends and anxious to see them again, too. There is nothing like a theater community in any city, be it New York or Boston or Chicago. People who do it really love it, and they are a special group. But there are definitely trials and tribulations in living in New York City, juggling a bunch of jobs, then biking across town to this audition and having to change in a bathroom. I think in the end, if you get a job like this after all that, you kind of forget about it.

EDGE: What has the tour been like?

Therese Plaehn: It has been great. Really fun. It is interesting to see the differences in each city, how people are reacting to it. And how different the experience is in different theaters. It's fun. It's like being part of circus on the road. It is fun going to the airport together. It's neat, really neat.

EDGE: What is it like going from one theater to the next, some larger and smaller than the next?

Therese Plaehn: Well, we have an awesome stage manager and an associate director who come to show often and keep the show at the same level. I think it is important to keep the show as the one we first rehearsed and not change it, so they help us to do that. It's funny, I thought we would be more of an adjustment, but when we made the big jump from Seattle Rep to the Kennedy Center, Joe came back in there and helped us adjust. It was so helpful that he came in to keep us on track.

EDGE: What's been your biggest challenge with the role?

Therese Plaehn: Because the material is so delicate, and almost like a musical score the way that it is written, you really just have to stay present and trust the ride. It is 95 minutes in real time. Once you're out there, you are out there. My character is in the bathroom quite a bit, so my challenge isn't about acting: I have to sit on a fake toilet and tell my body not to go to the bathroom. So that's been a little bit of a challenge. I think just trusting being present - it's almost like this theater meditation. You have to ride the ride and trust the wave.

EDGE: How did acting happen for you?

Therese Plaehn: I went to Notre Dame Academy in Hingham and I would audition for musicals even though I am definitely not a singer or dancer. I am definitely not a dancer. So it wasn't until junior year when they did "Annie." I had seen the movie "Newsies" about 14,000 times, so I used a New York accent, and I am 5'10", so they cast me as Rooster. I did a couple more things in high school, then some at Providence College. But it was always something that really scared me. I couldn't get over my own nerves sometimes, which has definitely effected my auditions too. So it took a while. Sometimes the thing you are scared of the most is the thing you love the most, so it took a while for me to jump over that hurdle. Now I am just so grateful that I can do it.

EDGE: When did you get that confidence?

Therese Plaehn: Truthfully, looking back i think the plays that were the easiest for me to do were the ones where there was a barrier. For instance I did an Irish play in New York, "The Cripple of Inishmaan," and because I had a dialect I could hide behind it was a bit easier for me. But going on the standard auditions, I just wasn't successful. And I didn't have enough training. I didn't take classes in college - I took one class. So once I started training that helped. But it was graduate school for me that made the difference. Having a safe place to try a lot of different things led to the most creative two years of my life. After that, I decided to tackle it in a business-like way and really try to make it work.

EDGE: Your most recent role you played in Boston was Emily in David Comer's radical rethinking of "Our Town" at the Huntington Theatre Company in 2012. What was that experience like?

Therese Plaehn: That was a dream. David Cromer is such an unbelievable director. I learned so much. I learned stuff I still think about when I do other shows - the stuff that he said. Also, the Boston theater community is such a wonderful one. And to do that play in my hometown - the whole thing was just incredible. And it is funny because the week after we closed, my mom found a paper that I wrote about "Our Town" when I was 16 at Notre Dame, and to see what I had written as my 16-year-old self was so interesting. That was an unbelievable experience. That material speaks to everyone. This experience reminds me of that experience.

EDGE: Is there something universal about the family getting together at holidays?

Therese Plaehn: Well, I think you can expect anxiety and humor. This play is so funny. And the deep love that is complicated. I think that there is something universal in how specific both of these plays are. People come out of these plays very curious and wanting to talk. I remember we had an incredible talk back in Minneapolis. People there just wanted to dive in and talk about the play more. I think great plays do that. They just connect people who might normally not sit down next to each other and have conversation, and I love that.

"The Humans" runs March 13 - 25 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. For further information, visit the Boch Center website.