Susan Clark has racked up dozens of film, TV and theatre credits during a 50-year career -- starring in movies with Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford in the late '60s and cementing a spot in television history as the adoptive mom to TV's Webster in the '80s.
So, naturally, the Ontario-raised actress has been itching to work at Manitoba Theatre Centre, where she debuts tomorrow as a dowdy housewife in MTC Warehouse's The Retreat from Moscow. Seriously, Clark asked her agent Ronda Cooper to introduce her to MTC artistic director Steven Schipper five years ago, when she stopped in Winnipeg en route to see Churchill's polar bears with a delegation from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
"I asked Rhonda to set up a meeting with Steven because I have friends on both sides of the border who praised MTC to the heavens, so I was interested in working here and interested in meeting Steven," Clark says.
That meeting was fruitful. Over brunch at the Fort Garry Hotel, Clark, 66, suggested Schipper check out the vibrant young Rubicon theatre in Ventura, Calif., where she's appeared in several productions. So far, that intro has led to three MTC/ Rubicon co-productions. And Schipper made good on a promise to think of Clark when a suitable role came up at MTC.
"He's a man of his word and he said, 'Trust me, something will come along, you'll be right, we'll get together.' And this is it."
The play by William Nicholson (Shadowlands, Gladiator) is about a 32-year-old man caught in the middle when his parents split. Andrew Gillies (The Winslow Boy) plays the father, who is about to leave his wife Alice for another woman, and Gord Tanner (Guys and Dolls) plays son Jamie.
"It's a challenging play, it's really a very interesting play about relationships," Clark says.
"Everybody can relate to all the themes: What it feels like to be in a relationship when you know you're leaving and lying through your teeth. We've all been dumped at some point in our lives, we've all been in the middle of something where two parents or grandparents or whatever are trying to pull you, and you're trying to be neutral."
Alice is an isolated housewife who doesn't have a career or social life. She's a far cry from some of Clark's best-known roles, such as Amelia Earhart and an Emmy-winning turn as athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1975's Babe -- on which she met her husband Alex Karras, the former NFL star, CFL colour commentator and actor. Karras also appeared with Clark in Porky's Revenge and for six seasons on Webster, they played the white couple who adopt a late African-American friend's orphaned son.
Clark says they haven't acted together since -- working and living together was challenge -- and she rarely thinks about the series these days.
"I mean ... people liked it, it was fun, it made us comfortable for the rest of our lives, for which I am very grateful. I learned a lot doing a weekly show, it's amazing."
And not always amazing in a good way. With vast amounts of money involved, the cut-throat business wasn't friendly to creative types. Clark recalls a "classic" incident in which a top studio executive said of the show, 'I don't care what it is, just get something in the can at the end of the week.' "
Clark realized early on that Hollywood's value system wasn't up her alley. She bought a cottage on Georgian Bay more than 30 years ago so she could retreat from L.A., although she wouldn't turn her back on acting or the Buddhist philosophy she applies to her art.
"It is a commitment to a way of life, to a way of thinking, to a philosophy, which is to be open and aware and present, and not judging your characters," she says.
"And you learn about life. We're all on a spiritual journey, you know, and if you're lucky enough to act in good work, that informs the spiritual quest. I mean we're all only here for a blink. You just sort of do what you can to make it an interesting journey. "
