Edna Goes to Camp

by Jay Blotcher, January 31, 2012

A few weeks ago, Tivoli-based actor Bill Ross was in Manhattan to do a little preparation for his next stage role. That motivation was not apparent to the puzzled female shoppers in Wigs Plus and Kmart. “I just have to get over the fact that I am pawing my way through all the oversize bras in the Kmart in midtown Manhattan,” Ross says. “But I do what I have to do.”

The results of such dedication will be on display this month at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck when Ross takes the stage as Edna, Baltimore housewife, diet-pill-popping laundress and, most recently, business manager of local dance sensation Tracy Turnblad, in the musical “Hairspray.”

The role is the latest in a series of shape-shifting parts for the longtime actor, whose previous Center productions include “Evita,” “Macbeth,” “Falsettos,” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” “I’ve played a king, a prince, a duke, a bisexual transvestite—and now a happily married, middle-aged wife and mother,” Ross says.

“Hairspray” director Kevin Archambault, who worked with Ross in “Evita” and “Falsettos,” praises Ross’s commitment. “His ideas and details are well thought-out and rehearsed and researched,” Archambault says. “And he says: What part of that did you hate and what part did you love? He’s totally willing to go on that ride.”

Ross, who won the role over five other actors, will not play Edna Turnblad as a caricature. “This is never done tongue-in-cheek; you’re never winking at the audience [and saying] ‘I’m a man.’”

Hence the careful attention paid to dresses, shoes and wigs. Ross is eager to be fitted with a fat suit—“It’s all boobs and butt,” he explains—because it will force him to transform his body language and center of gravity. The intensive process excites him. “I’m in the Meryl Streep school of acting,” he says. “I like to disguise myself.”