Actress Kelley Faulkner's life is surrounded by showbiz. The New Jersey native began acting professionally at a young age and hasn't shown any sign of stopping. Her 2-year-old daughter is named Amelie, yes, after the delightful title character in the beloved 2001 French film. Even many of roles since her move to Milwaukee in 2010 – Sally Bowles in "Cabaret," country music star Patsy Cline, Vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit in "Ragtime" – are performers themselves. 

Add another role to that list with Brooke, an inexperienced actress in the show within the show of "Noises Off," the raucous Michael Frayn behind-the-scenes comedy coming to the Rep Nov. 19. OnMilwaukee.com caught up with Faulkner to talk about the surprisingly easy move from "Ragtime" to slapstick, how to play dumb right and the pressures of being married to the theatre's artistic director. 

OnMilwaukee.com: When did you realize you wanted to be an actress?

Kelley Faulkner: I’ve been doing this almost my whole life. I’m not sure what initially got my parents to take me to a talent agent when I was young, but we lived right outside of New York City. No one else in my family is really in the business, but I’ve been doing it professionally on and off since I was about 7 years old.

OMC: Do you remember what your first show was?

KF: I did a professional production of "The Music Man" in Englewood, N.J., when I was 7.

OMC: What really drew you to the theater?

KF: I love the excitement of it. It’s the best adrenaline rush ever. It’s the best drug. (laughs) I love storytelling with other people, and there’s a sense of intimacy and camaraderie that you get doing this job that you don’t get in many other fields. I love that. 

OMC: What brought you to Milwaukee then?

KF: I was living and working in Philadelphia doing theater when I first met my now-husband Mark (Clements, the Rep's artistic director) when he cast me in "Les Miserables" at the Walnut Street Theater. We had been dating for a couple of years, and he was sort of a gypsy, like, not really living anywhere, just directing around the country and overseas. He’d stay with me in Philly. Then this job came up when we were working on a production of "Oliver!" in Philly, and yeah, so I here with him to start a new adventure.

OMC: How have you been liking it so far?

KF: I love it here. Some of my New York and Philly actor friends were like, "You’re moving to Milwaukee! Why are you doing that? That doesn’t make any sense!" But I said I’m living with the artistic director of an amazing theater, and with all due respect to Boise, Idaho, it’s not like I’m moving to Boise to be an investment banker.

People don’t know a lot about Milwaukee. I didn’t have a negative view of Milwaukee; I just didn’t know anything about it. And I was so surprised at what an amazing, lovely, full, rich and cultured city this is. So we love it here. We love being by the lake, and this theater is, in my opinion – and I’m certainly biased – the best regional theater in the country for so many reasons. So it’s been a blast.

OMC: I have to ask, since you are married to the artistic director, how is that?

KF: You know, it can be tricky. We both certainly were very on edge when we moved here about my involvement in "Cabaret," which was the first show. Sally Bowles had been a dream role of mine, and Mark obviously really believes in my talent. That’s how we met; he cast me in a show. But we also know how that can look to people, so sometimes I’ve felt like I’ve had to work harder to prove myself.

But it’s really been wonderful because I’ve had the opportunity to work with many other directors from very early on in my time here. I consider myself nothing but lucky because I’m not living a typical actor’s life in New York, and there are certain opportunities now that, now that I have a family here, that I don’t have anymore. But I’m also really well connected to this incredible theater, and I’ve made some new connections with other great directors here too. So it’s been great, and we love working together. It’s been good.

OMC: Onto the show. I would like you to describe your character to me in your own words.

KF: I think Brooke is a bit of a misunderstood creature. (laughs) There are some implications – it’s a little fuzzy – about what she may or may not have done for a living in the past, but she’s perceived as a simple girl. She’s the tart with the heart, and I’m the one that stares blankly into space and runs around in her underwear.

OMC: Does that take extra confidence?

KF: Yes. We have an amazing costume designer and an amazing team in the costume shop. It’s the best costume shop I’ve ever worked in by a mile. So they help. They would never send me out there feeling anything but totally confident. But yeah, it definitely takes a leap of faith and some discipline on my part. (laughs)

OMC: How do you kind of get into the mind of a character who can be easily looked down upon?

KF: When doing comedy like this and playing a character like this, you have to actually get inside of them, believe what they’re doing and give them a really rich inner life. Otherwise, it’s just flat and boring. I can’t think of myself as dumb; otherwise, it’s just a cartoon.

OMC: Now, "Noises Off" is that it’s a play within a play, and you’re playing a character who’s also playing another character. How to you balance all of that and figure all of that out?

KF: Lots of coffee. (laughs) It’s really just repetition. It all kind of becomes clear in rehearsal the more you do it. You have to get out of the habit of having your nose buried in the script on a piece like this because so much of it is purely physical. But there’s an actual wall that separates the two worlds, so once you’re in front of certain doors, I’m Vicki, and once I’m behind the door, I’m Brooke.

OMC: You also just did "Ragtime," which is a very different show. You were more of a lighter character in the show, Evelyn Nesbit, but still going from a serious show to a comedy, how do you kind of jump into that? Or was that not really a problem?

KF: It was amazing telling that story in "Ragtime," and I did play other roles in the ensemble that were of a darker nature, I guess. But the emotional world that I lived in during "Ragtime" was very light, and people would always say, "Aren’t you emotionally exhausted at the end of the evening?" But I wasn’t doing what Coalhouse and Sarah were doing. I didn’t live in that world except in the ensemble for very small moments. So actually, this doesn’t feel all that different because a lot of what I was doing was quite outlandish and silly and light. I always said I kind of had the princess track.

OMC: What is your favorite show that you’ve ever been in?

KF: Of all time? I loved doing "Always … Patsy Cline." I had been singing Patsy Cline songs since I was a kid, so it was kind of a life-long dream realized. Getting to inhabit somebody like that, singing that incredible music – it was something like 30 songs a night – and being on stage with Angela Iannone, an incredible local actor, was a treat. I’d love to get a chance to do that again, for sure.

OMC: Why is this show important right now?

KF: Because it’s just silly, stupid fun. I say stupid, but the writing is incredible, and this is a really skilled group of actors. It sounds cliché, but there’s so much crap going on in the world right now and so much darkness. I strongly believe in theater as a medium for social change, like with "Ragtime" and many other pieces that we’ve done here, but this is just a chance to laugh until you can’t laugh anymore. There are pants falling down and sardines and slamming doors and girls in their underwear. So there you go; that’s why.