Bad, Bad Lisa Brown
Unknown Daytime Magazine, 1981
By John K. Genovese

*Baddest girl in the whole damn town . . .Springfield that is! As Nola Reardon, Guiding Light's grasping manipulator, Lisa Brown should be cheered, not jeered for creating one of soaps' all-time most hated villainesses . . .

About a year and a half ago, Guiding Light was deluged with new, young faces. They were usually seen with beach towels in a picnic atmosphere, and it took a while for the average GL fan to distinguish between them.

Today, they are no longer just "the kids." They are established Springfield residents, and they are known as individuals. And Nola Reardon, the grasping, selfish catalyst of the group, is hated as passionately as was Robin Strasser's immortal early portrayal of Rachel on Another World, as Nola spins lie after lie and places innocent people at cross-purposes so she can attain her goal: Kelly Nelson, a young med student whom she believes will one day give her the world on a string.

Like Nola, actress Lisa Brown has gone after what she wants. Unlike Nola, however, Lisa knew how to go about getting it. And unlike countless other young performers, she did it a la Smith Barney–the old fashioned way. She earned it.

Lisa grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, then moved with her family to Kansas before her father's job found her moving around constantly during her high school years, when most kids have the opportunity to make lasting friendships. Was it rough? "It was. I think the senior year was the hardest. I lived in Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio and then Pensacola, Florida. And that's where I met a dancing teacher who brought girls up to New York during the summer. That was how I first came up here. I studied during the summer at the American Ballet Theater, and I decided this was where I wanted to be. So I worked the next year, saved up my money, and moved up here the following June.

If this sounds cliché about the young girl who makes a whirlwind decision to hit the big city, it assuredly is not in Lisa's case. As an only child from a family of diverse interests, Lisa had some influence. "My grandmother was in theater, and traveled around with summer stock. She did musicals, mainly. That's where some of the influence came, because I can remember looking at her picture as a kid." Lisa said that her parents are not theater oriented, "although they both play instruments. My mother played the violin and my father played the clarinet."

But what was her goal, precisely? "I knew I wanted to do something in theater. I always knew I wanted to dance, and I had done musicals in school, but I had never really gone into acting in high school." Once she got her feet wet in the Big Apple, however, Lisa found herself doing a little of everything. And doing well at it.

"One thing led to the next. I see it as going up the ladder. I started doing a show as a dancer, then I got a speaking role, then a commercial, then a nice role in a musical." Her first professional show, Seesaw, was a "bus and truck tour. I think everyone should do a bus and truck tour. That's a great way to learn, because each stage is different. It bugs me that there isn't some type of apprentice program in the United States. They have it in England, where you have to go out and do a certain amount of summer stock before you can get your Equity Card. This way you learn so many unwritten rules, simple courtesies and things. It's called “Being a Professional.” Things like that you don't learn in school or in books."

Lisa's major step up on Broadway was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a raucous, rollicking musical with Henderson Forsythe (As the Word Turns' David Stewart) starring as a Texas sheriff. And it was during her stint in "Whorehouse" that Lisa landed the meaty role of Nola on GL, although, curiously enough, she had auditioned for the less "bitchy" role of Morgan. Henderson gave Lisa some advice in soap acting, which Lisa combined with her own years of theater to produce the latest entry in the Serial Bitch Hall of Fame (or Infamy).

But would Lisa like Nola to remain a royal pain, or would she like the character to mellow somewhat? "A threat is more interesting to play. It's more interesting for me to play the person who creates the action, while everyone else is running around wondering what to do next. For Nola to change and all of a sudden develop a conscience–which I think is possible–doesn't happen overnight.

Nola reached the height of horrendousness in a recent fight scene with Amy Steel, who plays Nola's nemesis Trudy Wilson on GL. And by fight, we mean fight. It was wild, physical, Madison Square Garden material and for Lisa it was fun! She wasn't afraid to beef it up, because we worked out all the moves and choreographed it. We got a couple of bruises.

Lisa has received tons of audience reaction to Nola, and some of it is not so hateful. "I'd been getting feedback from people, like, ‘You're really a bad person and I hate you.' But now I'm starting to get some sympathy which is really good because I try to show why." (What motivates the character?) Some viewers tell Lisa that Kelly and Floyd (John Wesley Shipp and Tom Nielsen), the two strikingly different young men in Nola's life are too naive to be believed and too easily manipulated by Nola's machinations. "The reaction I get from some women–and men– is, ‘Why do they write the men so dumb?' But there are guys in the world like that just like there are people in the world like Nola."

It amazes Lisa that among Guiding Light's prestigious, versatile New York cast, "there are no egos. We don't speak in terms of ‘who's the star of the show.' Everybody's a star of this show. Most of the actors on GL are theater trained." Then she takes on an awed tone. "We have William Roerick (Henry Chamberlain) and Richard Hamilton (ex-Logan Stafford)! I was talking to William about Shakespeare–I'm really interested in Shakespeare–and he was telling me he was in there incredible productions with, maybe Helen Hayes. I mean, we're talking biggies! I don't get to work with him, unfortunately." (**just be patient)

Still, Lisa would be the last to complain about the great talents she does work with regularly. "Working with Michael Zaslow (ex-Roger Thorpe) was really (great). And of course Lee Lawson who plays my mother is another theater lady who's a working actress.

(Several sentences of article are missing) " . . . .But of all of that comes from Doug Marland (the writer). He's incredible. Last summer when we did our first remote, we all got to meet him. I said to Doug, ‘Is this real? (meaning the movie facts in the script.) Because if this isn't real, I would like to use things that are real. I would like to use things that are.' But he said, ‘Oh, yes, this is real.' He's a real movie buff."

Lisa is also a music lover, and her tastes are varied to say the least. "I like everything. It depends on my mood. I love musical music, like "Oklahoma" or "Sound of Music," or classical like Vivaldi or Bach, or jazz, or rock and roll. Jimi Hendrix is my favorite." She takes voice lessons where her soprano range is tested to the fullest extent, and believe it or not, "I also take acting classes from Max Gartenberg to work on craft and technique." When she's not working or learning her craft, Lisa is most likely at a flea market or an antique store.

Now that Lisa Brown is established on the stages of New York and in the swimming pools of Springfield, what does she want the future to hold for her? "My dream for a career is to do theater and movies," she stated simply. Her television aspirations are more in the line of made-for-TV movies and PBS theater productions, then nighttime series.

Wherever Lisa chooses to advance and develop her career in the arts, we'll lay odds that she will get there. For Lisa Brown did not get to where she is by flashing bodily parts in designer jeans ads, or being discovered by a producer while waiting tables because she has the right "look." Lisa has come this far because she has worked, and studied and traveled, and learned every possible facet of her craft.

Pretty young face? Unquestionably. But also a pro.