Playing the Ingenue

The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingénue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such roles. 

A year and a half into my theatre career I had the opportunity to be part of a play called The Imaginary Invalid, written by French Renaissance comic genius and playwright Moliere. I was made to read two parts: Angelique, the ingenue romantic lead, and Beline, her scheming stepmother. At the end of the audition, the director asked which role I preferred. I tossed my head and impulsively replied, "Not Angelique." At the age of 22, I felt that I was tired of being the sweet, naive, seemingly perfect love interest to the play's hero, a role that I had constantly filled in my short time as a stage actress. I wanted a change of pace, and the opportunity to sink my teeth into a "meatier" role, one with seemingly more spice, more zest, more life.

The director was surprised. "I had you pegged as Angelique," he told me, "But let me take that into consideration." 

He ended up casting me as Beline, as I had hoped, and I had the time of my life playing her. Still, during the course of the production, I felt twinges of envy as I watched a dear friend and immensely talented actress take on the role of Angelique, and emerge onstage glowing and radiant in a beautiful dress, her eyes sparkling and her voice soft, while the audience sighed collectively in admiration.  I derided the ingenue, did what I could to avoid playing her, and yet, I missed her.

As Beline in The Imaginary Invalid

I was to be in a love-hate relationship with the ingenue in the ensuing years. I played her again in subsequent productions, then would become angry when I was labeled as such. I remember when I was cast as Lady Macbeth and met my alternate for the first time. She was a compellingly beautiful woman with a rich, smoky voice and hooded, alluring eyes. The perfect Lady Macbeth. "I asked people about you because we had never met,” she said, "And they said that you were the ingénue." I laughed and said nothing. It was true. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to be.

Some ten years later, with a child, a marriage, a three-year corporate job, and a business under my belt, I find myself back where I began. I play Bianca Minola in Ephesus Teatron’s production of The Taming of the Shrew, the younger sister adored by many, who cannot give her hand unless her fiery older sister marries first. I treat this as a homecoming, as a coming in full circle of sorts. And I approach my sojourn as Bianca not with the rebelliousness of my youth, but with joy, with gratitude, and a little bit more wisdom.

I know I am growing older. I see the fine lines growing around my eyes and know that I am biding my time. As of late, I have been hearing that sweet, sweet call to be a mother to a second. I do not know what the effects a second will have on my body. But I gladly, and with a full heart, welcome this. It is part of life. But if I must forever say goodbye to the ingénue someday soon, for this sweet wrinkle in time that I get to play her, I choose to cherish her.

Also, with the wisdom of a more experienced actress, I now know that I need not play the ingenue as a cookie cutter, doe-eyed, boring little innocent as I had foolishly believed when I was younger, but play her as a fully formed, interesting, compelling, and believable human being with her own quirks, failings, dreams, desires: all her good - and her bad as well. And as the curtain rises on my Bianca Minola, I hope and pray that I rise to the challenge and am able to make her alluringly, captivatingly imperfect; a little bit naughty, a little bit flirtatious, and sometimes a little bit mean - definitely flawed, but still fully capable of inspiring the most passionate of adoration and love.

Bianca in Taming of the Shrew

Catch Ephesus Teatron's Taming of the Shrew at the Emilio Aguinaldo College Theater, UN Avenue Manila, on August 22, 23, and 29, 2014 at 2:30 p.m.