When Teri Ralston was in college, she planned on a career as a teacher. Indeed she holds a lifetime teaching credential from San Francisco State University. But while she was studying drama, music, and English Lit--and teaching students on the side--fate intervened.
She was cast in Your Own Thing, which took her to New York, where she was then cast in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. A chance meeting with its book writer, playwright George Furth, prompted her to invite him to see that show. He came to a performance and immediately recommended her to producer/director, Hal Prince, who cast her in a project that he and Furth were working on with a composer who was about to turn Broadway upside down with his witty, sophisticated, and insightful score.
That was in 1970. The composer was Stephen Sondheim. The show was Company. Ralston had been out of college for all of one year, and plans for teaching were suddenly being usurped by a blossoming stage career.
Ralston made her name in the revolutionary Broadway show. She didn't know it at the time, but her appearance as Jenny in Company initiated decades of theatrical experience that would serve her well in the new millennium, when her original goal of teaching would finally be realized.
"I constantly reinvent my life," the actor explains, "and the backbone of it is always theatre. There are so many things I love. But the teaching has given so much to my life; I so look forward to working with the kids, and seeing them grow and learn. And I learn so much, myself, as I'm teaching. I think I'm a much better performer because of it."
But Ralston is not easily satisfied with the achievements of the day, nor does she rest on her laurels. She is, at heart, an ever-evolving explorer who not only relishes the opportunity to move in new directions but eagerly seeks them out. And although her career began at the top more than 30 years ago, much more has happened that she finds just as thrilling. Not content with just acting and singing, she has ventured into directing, producing, and of course teaching. And, more often than not, she does some combination of these.
Case in point: Today (Thursday), Ralston directs and stars in a staged reading of Sondheim's 1971 Tony winner, Follies (book by James Goldman), using its original, darker ending. The show, which will run for three nights only, famously tells how past choices infect present circumstances at a reunion of former showgirls. Ralston's reading features an astonishing congregation of veteran musical theatre performers--all friends recruited by Ralston for this production--working alongside high school students from the California Conservatory of the Arts. David Green, head of CCA, is producing the show, and the school is one of four Orange County institutions where Ralston currently teaches musical theatre performance. The others include South Coast Rep, where she was an original company member, UC Irvine, and Laguna Beach High School, her alma mater. Ralston's 53-member cast also includes some of her adult voice students--because, yes, she teaches privately, as well.
Despite the "staged reading" tag, Ralston has Follies fairly well blocked, choreographed, and costumed. But such a contract allows only two weeks of organized rehearsal, so actors will often be on book. Happily, though, several of them--including Ralston--have previously done the show.
Ralston plays Sally, the faded chorine who has long deluded herself about a past affair. Stephanie Zimbalist is Phyllis, Sally's former best friend and the unhappy spouse of Sally's ex-lover, Ben, played by Kurt Peterson. And Harvey Evans portrays Sally's huckster husband, Buddy. In a charming bit of fate, Peterson and Evans created the "ghost" roles of Young Ben and Young Buddy in the original Broadway production. And Ralston has played Sally twice before--at San Diego Civic Light Opera, and at San Jose Civic Light Opera with Evans as Older Buddy.
Joining them are Broadway legend John Raitt as Weisman (sharing the role with Tom Hatten), and Betty Garret as Hattie Walker ("Broadway Baby"), a role she played in the 2001 New York revival. Julie Wilson and Jonelle Allen are also featured as, respectively, Carlotta ("I'm Still Here") and Solange ("Ah, Paris!").
So much career multitasking may seem overwhelming to some, but by Ralston's own admission, she thrives on such variety. "I find great excitement in change," she says. "Just doing theatre is very insular; we are our own commodity, so we must do whatever we can to take ourselves out of that. When we get too into ourselves, we don't move ahead. We start worrying about money and what's going to happen; we expend energy worrying rather than doing. It's amazing how much can be accomplished when you're busy."
The danger in all of this "doing" is, of course, spreading oneself too thin. Ralston remedies this by staying focused on what's immediately in front of her, even though she has many more projects lined up. Following Follies, she will perform her club act in New York, co-direct The Music Man, direct a high school production of Forever Plaid, gather material for her first CD, and appear in a summer production of Sondheim's Side by Side, directed by Nick DeGruccio, at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura County--all in addition to her teaching commitments.
"It never stops happening," she says, laughing. "You can't worry about getting older. There's something new around every corner, but you must be open to it. As I get older I find that my life just gets richer and richer. You'd think I'd be slowing down, but really, it just feels like there's even more that I want to accomplish.
It seems that there's a lesson there for everyone to learn. BSW
"Follies," presented at UC Irvine's Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. Jan. 29-31, 8 p.m. $17-28. (949) 854-4646 or Ticketmaster.