DRAMATIC yet DIFFERENT
Tracy Holsinger had theatre in her genes, and her experiences have brought
out the thespian in her. Savithri Rodrigo reviews a lively performance!

f 17^th-century painter Peter Paul Rubens had a modern muse, it would have been Tracy Holsinger. Attractively ‘Rubenesque’, it is her exuberance and the zany way in which she drinks in pleasures from the canvas of life – while tackling the widest gamut of subjects and formats in drama and theatre – that brings her closer to the unconventional genre of that European Baroque artist. But having been surrounded, influenced and inspired by very strong women nearly all her life, it is no wonder that this 32-year-old has leapt in where even angels feared to venture – at least, in theatre!

Holsinger’s grandmother was speech and drama doyenne Wendy Whatmore; her mum (also Wendy) a cellist of no mean repute – followed in the great lady’s footsteps. Placed third in a family of four girls who are intensely close, but whose conflicts are equally passionate, she grew up in a household where – with her great-aunt teaching cello, and her grandmother teaching speech and drama – there was music and drama at any given time. “I knew blocks of Shakespeare by heart, by the time I was eight. I was made to follow classes, which I hated. I often sneaked out and did really badly at exams, because I never memorised my lines,” she confesses.

She was a swimmer and an athlete who excelled in hurdles and the high jump, participating in district and national meets. All she wanted was to get ahead in her sports and not be stuck in a room learning lines of poetry. Holsinger, however, did debut as a poppy in the Wizard Of Oz – at the age of four – and was continuously “shoved on stage” to play various nondescript parts over the years.

For a major part of her adolescent years, it was the greater family’s house at 13^th Lane, Colpetty, that she called home. With dad Monty being a planter and later a hotelier, she remembers being bundled into the car at 4 a.m. – nearly every weekend – to travel to someplace where her dad was stationed. “To this day, because of those memories, all of us baulk at the thought of waking up before 6 a.m.!” she laughs, but adds: “We have travelled everywhere in the country as a result.” But when she was 12, the Holsingers got their own house in Kotte… “And, for the first time, we were all together in our own house – and I had my own room,” she recalls.

An unfortunate accident at the tender age of 16 put a premature end to her sporting career. But a friend, actress Thusitha Jayasundera, persuaded her to play the psychotic girl in Rupert Brooke’s Lithuania. “It was very intense and dark. I ended up winning the Best Supporting Actor’s award while Feroze [Kamardeen] won Best Actor. That was the time I really got into drama. I had read voraciously since I was a child and loved the likes of Ibsen and Wilde, but never wanted to be in theatre – because all I wanted to be was a serious swimmer!” Holsinger reveals.

Calling herself a very indifferent scholar – with her grades ranging from As for English and Music to Ds and Fs in every other subject – Holsinger admits to being the square and even shy sibling of the four. With her ‘O-Levels’ results looming and failure imminent, Holsinger’s appeal to the principal – seeking permission to read for the London O Levels – was fruitful. In six months, she had unlearned her Sinhala, relearned her subjects in English and passed the exam without a problem. Thereafter, Holsinger was accepted into Goldsmith’s College at the University Of London. She plunged straight into a degree in drama and theatre, embracing the curriculum – and the sights and sounds of London…

“Those were really the best years of my life. I wanted to do everything in drama and theatre; and while studying, one of the first things I did was to work in the West End. I made the rounds to every theatre, gave in my curriculum vitae, badgered and bullied them into taking me and started working front of house – until I finally made my way backstage,” she discloses.

Holsinger, cut her thespian teeth at the Apollo, Lyric, Garrick and Fortune theatres and had the enviable task of dressing the all-male cast of Swan Lake, produced by AMP. She also met her idol, Sir Alec Guinness; and later, Mick Jagger – both of whom came backstage to meet the cast at the Piccadilly Theatre. “There I was with my jaw hanging open, babbling like a child and behaving in the most undignified manner!” she giggles.

Returning to Sri Lanka in 1998, Holsinger was at a loose end until Kamardeen referred her to Ariel Dorfman’s Widows. “Widows was the most amazing theatrical experience I have ever had. We had Mohamed Adamaly, Ruwanthie de Chickera, Michelle Perera, Karen Balthazaar, Wanda Godlieb and John Benedict in the cast. This was the first and last time all of these people were on stage at the same time. It was an amazing bonding for me,” she reveals.

After founding Mind Adventures, Holsinger plunged into directing Seneka Abeyratne’s Virgo Intactca – which had such a surreal script that she felt she had to do it – then Slag, A Merry Regiment Of Women, 3 Star K and Ubu Rex, which wound up being called ‘the water-balloon play’. She also worked in collaboration with StageLight&Magic and The Performing Arts Company on Death And The Maiden. Most recently, she directed Fefu And Her Friends in Colombo, having originally played the character of Paula in the Goldsmith production. She also worked backstage on Slag, with Nimmi Harasgama.

“For me, theatre has always been experimental and has to interest me. I look for alternate venues, dramatic genres and acting styles,” she avers. While she would love to do Equus and perhaps a restoration play or a really dark comedy, a little thespian in the making – due in January – will put a temporary stop to any theatrics!

Widows also led her to radio, where she birthed Sun FM’s morning show. Six months later, she was headhunted by Niraj Wickremesinghe, and an unforgettable five-year experience at TNL followed. “If I ever go back to radio, it will only be to TNL!” declares Holsinger. It was here that she met the one whom she now calls her “sternest critic, benevolent master and oppressor aka husband,” when asked to produce a comedy spat for radio. Two months into the show, she started dating Deshan Tennekoon – a courtship that blossomed and flourished at Barefoot.

With characteristically minimal fuss, a wedding was organised in two weeks, with Nazreen and Dominic Sansoni gamely lending the garden café, while Koluu transformed the nuptials into a fairytale night.

“Deshan is my soulmate. He’s the chilled-out one – very logical and analytical – whereas I’m volatile, emotional and instinctive. But we are there for each other and we share everything!” she reveals.

Obviously enjoying being both a mother and a wife, as well as describing herself as “a Jill of all trades” – teaching, voicing commercials, writing copy, directing plays, compering, etc. – Holsinger gushes that daughter Neha (now ten months old) is the “best thing that ever happened to me. She has made me a complete woman”. She also recalls the early phase of her marriage with great amusement.

“I used to experiment with all kinds of dishes, which poor Deshan would manfully eat. And believe me, even I couldn’t eat it!” she recalls.

She has the utmost respect for Ruwanthie de Chickera. “She has the drive and energy to constantly be out there, working really hard. Also, Jehan Aloysius – who is probably the first to write a local musical,” she notes. Observing that while she doesn’t make money from theatre, she does believe that theatre can be profitable.

In conclusion, Holsinger cautions young people about complacency: “If you win one award, you don’t know everything. To be in theatre, you don’t simply have to know acting, you have to study theatre. In a good production, all components come together to make up a whole – and unless you get that right, it doesn’t work out.”