Ella Beatty Is Taking In Every Moment In SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES

Ella Beatty has had an incredible year in New York theatre. After joining the Tony-winning Appropriate as River when the show transferred theaters, she next joined Jack O’Brien’s much buzzed about production of Ghosts at Lincoln Center Theatre. Now, she is downtown starring opposite Hugh Jackman in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, a new work that is produced by Audible and a part of Together, a new theatrical initiative by Jackman and producer Sonia Friedman. 

I recently sat down with Beatty to discuss summers in the Village, Shakespeare, and Cole Escola. 

How are things going downtown?

Oh my gosh, dreamy, so dreamy. It's a really joyous experience and I love the play so much. It's such a wonderful time of year and to be able to pop up at a theater in the Village a few times a week and do this gorgeous play is like a dream come true.

Talk to me about how the play came into your life, because I know you've been working on it for a bit of time. 

Yes, it came into my life in a very cosmic and kind of kismet way. I got a request to do a reading of it last summer. Hugh and Ian and Hannah Moskovitch, the playwright, and I met in I want to say September in an apartment. We did kind of an initial read of it on a Monday I want to say. And we all sort of immediately fell in love with it. We came back the next day to do another reading of it. I had no idea what it was for because I do play readings all the time in New York, often they're not really for anything. It's kind of just to hear the play or sometimes they want to be produced, sometimes they don't. And they offered me the part the next day and I didn't know what it was for, I didn't know where it was gonna be, I didn't know about Together, their theatre company yet. And so obviously, I was like, "oh, gosh, I'm gonna have to clear out the old schedule." I didn't have a job. I was, like, yes of course. And I think that was on a Wednesday. And then on the Thursday and Friday of that week, we read the play again for some students and just kind of got up on our feet a little bit. And that week kind of supercharged us for the next six, seven months while we were sort of waiting to see how we were going to do it and when we were going do it. And we came back and started rehearsing in April. And here we are.

When young folks come and see this play, what do you hope they take away from it?

I think people have complicated and multitudinous experiences seeing this play and I want everybody to feel a sense of ownership over the experience that they have. I hope people are nourished by the arc of the characters and I hope are able to empathize with them both, and that that feels healing and hydrating, and that you are able to synthesize the characters and the plot of the play in a way that feels poignant and healing.

What has the audience reception been to the show?

Amazing. So different. You know, some audiences are very giggly. Some audiences are much more quiet and are listening closely. I think Hannah's play is masterful. I don't mean that casually or colloquially, I think she wrote a truly masterful piece of work and normally the play is sort of what people are the most taken with, you know, as much as I would love it to need to perform. I think the play is kind of the star. And normally when I talk to people, they're like, "wow, this play is so interesting. The dialog feels real and out of the mouths of people."

I'm curious, what is the vibe like backstage with Hugh before the show, after the show?

Generous, loving, open. Hugh and Ian Rickson, our director, have created a creative space that I find to be both totally safe and like a cocoon of love and friendship and also daring and spontaneous and one that encourages a forward movement in our work. Just because we've opened and we're doing shows every day, or not every day because we're in rep, that doesn't mean we're not still working on the play. Our director gives us notes, he gives us points of concentration, and even though Hugh is such a mega force of a person and star, you would never know it from the way he interacts with me and the way shows up to the work with everybody. He's incredibly hardworking and generous, and that has been the bar that he set for all of us from day one to right now.

I want to talk about Together and this incredible initiative that Sonia and Hugh have created.  What is it about Together that excites you as a working actress today?

That big question that we are all in the theater community trying to interrogate of how is this model sustainable? How is this model of ticket pricing sustainable? We're all thinking about it, but it's rare to see two people, three people, Ian, Hugh, Sonia, who have the leverage and the power and the experience to really get in the ring and do something about it. Just sort of get up and do it. That's been incredibly inspiring for me as a person who's much more in the beginning of their career to see people care about an issue and say, "what can I do? How can I use my position to help interrogate that question?" So I feel really lucky to be a part of it. I just can't believe I get to be part of it.

Have you seen Creditors yet?

Oh, I surely have.

I'm curious how, in your opinion, these two plays work in conversation together.

The term you just used, "in conversation" was the term that I left Creditors feeling like was relevant. I think Jen Silverman's adaptation is stellar. And it's so funny. Hugh and I were saying there's lines in both of our plays that sort of pop out. Some of the language is actually the same. Ian ran the Royal Court for many years, so he's very talented at creating a season and finding plays that are in relationship to each other. I think themes of love, sex, power, gender, age are all things that both of these plays are trying to talk about.

When you reflect back on this play that you're doing right now, in five or ten years, what do you hope to remember most about this moment right now?

We love doing it, all of us. I have found the process with both Ian and Hugh and Sonia to be very empowering as a young actress. I hope to remember the way of working that I was taught on this. Whatever life the play has in the future, the joy and deliciousness of this moment, I hope to be able to remember.

It's been so exciting as us audience members watching you on stage and three wildly different performances in the past year or so. So I want to touch on some other things you've been doing. 

You've had three exciting roles in the past year or so. If you could kind of have your pick for what's next, what would you want to tackle? 

It's hard because I feel very open and I would have never imagined that Annie, the character and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes would have come into my life the way that she did. I would love to play another character like her, like Regina, like River, all three very different women who have senses of humor but also have a keen eye towards the parts of life that are more moving and more serious. I don't have a strong feeling about a genre, but I love Shakespeare. I think Shakespeare would be really fun. I feel open is the truth. I think that the next thing will be the right thing.

We are still basking in Tonys season over here. Was there a show you caught on Broadway that you just loved?

I mean, Cole, Cole is just, I think what Cole Escola is doing in Oh, Mary! is a generational moment that I feel so lucky to have witnessed. 

I mean, maybe you'll step into the role of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Wow, I don't know if anybody wants that, but that would be amazing.