Annalisa Loeffler is one of the stars of Boomerang’s CYMBELINE (running thru July 19th), playing the role of The Queen (so evil, she doesn’t even get a first name!). Previously, Annalisa had been seen in Boomerang productions as two other famous royals: Gertrude in HAMLET (2012) and Titania in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (2014). She answered a few random questions for us while gearing up for the final four performances of CYMBELINE…
Full Name: Annalisa Loeffler
Home Town: Little Rock, Arkansas
How many Boomerang shows have you done? 3 (Hamlet, Midsummer, Cymbeline)
Tell us a little about The Queen: The Queen is a full-on sociopath: charming, disarming, deceitful, manipulative, win-at-all-costs – right down to the abuse of animals as a precursor to that of humans! – and like most sociopaths, assumes (mistakenly) that she is the smartest person in any room and has got everyone fooled. And this is centuries before psychiatrists/psychologists would even identify this as a personality type! Shakespeare really knew about sociopaths – his best one, of course, being Iago (perhaps the greatest sociopathic character ever written for the stage).
What is your favorite thing about working on Cymbeline? Favorite thing about working on Cymbeline? Arrrgh! That’s hard! First of all: it’s SHAKESPEARE – ’nuff said right there, really… but, okay. Ummmm… I think it is that our director, Cailin Heffernan, has created a production in which we all get to bring all our talents to the table – instrumental music, movement, song, dance, stage combat, dialects – and that we’re all using them all the time. The Queen only has a handful of scenes, but I’m working the entire show in various capacities – we all are – and I love it!
What’s your favorite place in New York City? Favorite place in NYC? Brooklyn Botanic Gardens – I love it SO much more than the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I love the lilacs and magnolias in the spring (cherry blossoms are nice, too, but the lilac and magnolia scents remind me of home), the Blue Moon rose in the summer (yummiest smelling rose EVER), foliage colors in the autumn, and the bonsai museum and other pavilions in the winter.
In keeping with the spirit of economy, can you give us your 6 word memoir: Sci-fi fanatic actress timehops via theater.
Thinking outside the Black Box 