Erika Soto sees her history as Helena, in A Noise Within’s upcoming production of All’s Well that Ends Well
In the constant dynamic of actors and their roles, some actors are challenged by the task, and must summon up their stage skills to “become” a character that they may otherwise bear no resemblance to. Others see themselves in a role, and step in like stepping into their home.
Erika Soto, a native of Houston, Texas, who will portray Helena in the upcoming A Noise Within Theatre’s production of William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, finds herself in the latter position.
She sees her home and history in the role.
In the story, Soto’s character, Helena, a doctor’s orphaned daughter, is under the protection of the Countess of Roussillon, a widow herself.
Helena is in love with Bertram, the countess’ son, so she follows him to court, where she cures the sick French king of an apparently fatal illness. The now-healthy king rewards Helena by offering her the husband of her choice. She names Bertram; he is not into it.
And off we go.
As Soto noted, she found a “very cool connection with Helena,” in that she too has her own paternal healer lineage. Her grandfather was a healer in his small town of Monterey.
“There is a lot of spiritual healing work within our culture, of course,” Soto continued. “And it’s both religious and medicinal and spiritual and of the earth.
“And so my grandfather was a healer. My great-grandmother was also what you would call a Curandera. And my father is, you know, lovingly referred to as a brujo, a witch, but also like a healer, like a magical person, and so with Helen having her father be a healer and passing down these remedies to her, I really connected to that.”
Thus she finds her character connection. And the role follows its natural course.
As did many local theatres, A Noise Within mounted productions online over the past two years, and this will be the company’s formal return to a live stage.
Soto is excited about the return and said, “It’s been really humbling as well because I realized, ‘Wow, we haven’t done this in over two years,’ and we’re reactivating the muscle of being on stage with other people and really interacting is a really cool wake up call for me.”
Before the world entered ‘Annos Pandemica,’ Soto was a busy actress, working with A Noise Within in a host of roles. To wit: Ensemble, Sonnets for an Old Century (Noise Now audio play); Alice, Alice in Wonderland; Elizabeth/Female Creature, Frankenstein; Poppy Norton-Taylor, Noises Off ’18-‘19; Laura Wingfield, The Glass Menagerie; Katherine/Boy, Henry V; Vivie Warren, Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Cordelia, King Lear; Thomasina Coverly, Arcadia; Dolly Clandon, You Never Can Tell.
And now it all returns, we hope. And somehow, ends well.
All’s Well That Ends Well, Opens Sat. Feb. 12. 8 p.m. A Noise Within Theatre, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd.Pasadena, CA 91107. www.anoisewithinorg.
