Lifelong passions (and careers) sometimes become apparent at an early age – if you’re lucky. Elizabeth Teeter believes she discovered hers when she began acting at the age of 7, and now, at 19, she is living her dreams.
From Webster Groves, Teeter plays the role of Laura in “The Glass Menagerie” during the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis: En Avant!, running from Nov. 5 to 15, on Classic 107.3 and twstl.org.
But her acting career started more than a decade ago, and Teeter has already found herself appearing in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in New York, as well as numerous shows in St. Louis.
Her father, Lara, is a dancer, an actor and director, and head of musical theater in The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University; and her mother, Kristen, is a dancer, and a theater and dance teacher at a local girl’s school.
So … maybe performing is in Teeter’s blood.
She and her father have performed together several times, he directed her in productions at Variety Theater, and Teeter said he’s been a huge influence on her in many ways.
“I was imaginative, and he was always all in and ready to act with me – or whatever. I would go to some of his workshops and listen and learn. We have a special bond because of our love of theater,” Teeter said. “And he is an amazing, funny guy.
“My mom and dad didn’t push me, but they supported me,” Teeter said. “I went to open calls and was able to play the part of Jane Banks in ‘Mary Poppins’ on Broadway. That was a real turning point in my life.”
And since she began at such a young age, she had to work around her schooling.
“My parents wanted me to have a ‘normal’ childhood, and I was conscious of that, and there was never a time that I was ‘always’ working,” she said.
For some periods of time, she was home-schooled by her mother (as were her siblings), but she was able to attend public high school, sometimes having work sent to her if she had to travel to New York.
Now, she attends Marymount Manhattan College, but surprisingly, she’s not majoring in theater.
“I want to major in something like communication arts or English that could complement theater,” she said. “And I would like to get more into TV and film, as well. I want to have longevity in my career and play many types of roles and explore all mediums.
“Someday, I would like to direct, too,” she said.
In 2019, she played “Lily” in Atlantic Theater Company’s 2019 off-Broadway production of “The Secret Life of Bees.” Her Broadway credits include the role of Betty in Ivo von Hove’s 2016 Tony-nominated revival of “The Crucible;” she was a young Elizabeth in “The Audience,” starring Helen Mirren; and her role as Jane Banks in “Mary Poppins” is one of her favorites.
“But I also loved playing Lily in “The Secret Life of Bees,” which was based on the book. I’m a real book nerd and for me, that was really special,” she said.
Regionally, she has been involved in multiple performances with The Muny, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Theatre St. Louis and Variety Theatre.
“And the Tennessee Williams Festival has been a blessing,” Teeter said. “The words are beautiful, Carrie Houk (TWFStL executive artistic director) is incredible, and I hope radio plays keep going. It adds something. But I do hope to be able to perform ‘The Glass Menagerie’ on stage at some point. It’s a timeless and beautiful play.”
The St. Louis-based masterpiece, “The Glass Menagerie” is arguably Williams’ most famous and most personal play. The narrator recalls late in life how his youthful devotion to his sister Rose (Laura in the play) conflicted with his creative passions as he was about to escape from St. Louis for good.
In addition to “The Glass Menagerie,” the festival will include productions of “You Lied To Me About Centralia” and “Glass.” Two one-act plays, “Tom and Rose” and “The Man in the Overstuffed Chair” will be performed by Jeremy Lawrence. A scholar’s conference will be curated by Tom Mitchell, who is a Tennessee Williams St. Louis scholar-in-residence.
Headliners also include Brenda Currin, Bradley James Tejeda and Chaunery Kingsford. Ken Page will host.
The key elements of the festival will air multiple times on Classic 107.3, and all will be streamed for two weeks on twstl.org and classic1073.org. Each performance will be followed by commentary from noted Williams scholars.
This summer, TWSTL brought some of Williams’ one-act plays to the airwaves in a special “Something Spoken: Tennessee Williams on the Air” program, in which Teeter also performed.
