Since far too often we only publicly say nice things about people when they are dead I’ve decided to randomly pick a Facebook friend every day and say something nice about them.
May 9, 2019
Today’s person: Dawn L. Troupe!
I think I first met Dawn when she was acting opposite Velina in the two-person play “A Lady and a Woman” at Theatre Rhino, in which she was wonderful as the brusque yet tender hog-butchering “bull-dagger” wife of my wife.
Years later we were both cast in “Black Odyssey” at Calshakes, and this time we were cast as a married couple. So Dawn had played spouse to both of us, and when in rehearsal she asked about Velina referred to her as “our wife.” (I wonder if, when talking to Velina, she calls me “our husband?”
Working with Dawn was wonderfully intimidating, because she is so professional and invested. Onstage she has an expansive warmth and generous laugh which can become judgmental incredulity at the drop of a hat (again, I played her husband in Black Odyssey, and if you saw the show you know what I’m talking about.). She is a wonderfully versatile character actor, as I found when she performed the readings of a play of mine in NY, playing several women and men of different types and ages. Funny, passionate, scholarly, sexy, motherly... whatever you want she can do it brilliantly.
And offstage she’s all that, plus a reliable, caring, joyous friend.