About Bev Sheehan
Well. I'm an actor... and a storyteller. So, get to know me as much (or as little) as you like!
Chapter 1 - College
In 1972, I left for college to study interior design. But at the urging of my dorm mates, I went to audition for a play at the theater department. I felt like I was home. So I switched my major to theater arts. Not long after I was cast in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum…
Dress Rehearsal:
MARCAS LYCUS introduces me to Pseudolus after he turns down 4 other courtesans….
“Fortunately, we still have Vibrata.”
(I enter)
“Exotic as a desert bloom … wondrous as a flamingo … lithe as a tigress … for the man whose interest is wildlife.”
I do my dance. But I was just a teensy bit late in starting. And so I spent the entire number a beat behind the music, frantically and maniacally trying to catch up.
Afterward, I was so humiliated I went over to apologize to the director, who was also the head of the theater department.
He was crying with laughter and said to me, “Promise me you’ll do it that way every night.”
I think it’s safe to say that was the birth of my decades-long career as a comic actress.
Chapter 2 - Washington DC
After spending a couple of years in the southern dinner theatre circuit, (here I am as Sophie Rauschmeyer in Neil Simon's The Star-Spangled Girl,) --->
I moved back to the Washington DC area where I was raised. There I met my future husband, and started working in voiceovers and on-camera commercials, which got me into SAG and AFTRA.
My experience in comedy continued at the Smithsonian where my comedy partner and I did a show for kids called Discover Clowning. That led to the two of us working on an adult show, An Evening of VAUDEVILLE, where I discovered it really is “all in the timing.”
It was a one night only show and the headliners were Joe Silver and Paul Dooley. I was playing the nurse in the fast-paced Dr. Kronkheit sketch. When Paul delivered the line “The doctor told me I had very close veins” there wasn’t a sound from the audience. Crickets. I said to myself… I’ll wait. So I stood there with a vacant look on my face for what seemed like an eternity, until from the far right of the house there was a chuckle. As the rest of the audience caught on or caught up, it grew into a big laugh and even a small applause break. When we left the stage after the sketch Paul Dooley tapped me on the shoulder and said “Good girl.”
“When the daily juggle of dealing with performer contracts, production logistics, promotions, press releases, ticket sales, writing grants, board development and bills seems like too much to manage, What Exit? Theatre Company's Artistic Director Bev Sheehan says she turns to her colleagues at the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and gets the inspiration and support she needs to keep going another day.”
- Deb Cooperman, NJ Theatre Alliance
"We started out with no organizational structure, and because of the Theatre Alliance, we received mentoring in what steps to take. It's great to be a part of the theatre community, and the Theatre Alliance is the glue." - Bev Sheehan
Chapter 3 - NY: The Manhattan Punchline; NJ: The What Exit? Theatre
In 1983 my husband and I bought a house in Maplewood NJ to continue our careers in NYC. I auditioned for The Manhattan Punchline Comedy Corp a few years later. I was happy to join a group of comic actors, and to take classes with the artistic director, Steve Kaplan. We did all sorts of jobs at the theatre, and we learned a LOT about serious comedy.
I enjoyed the Punchline and its mission so much that in 1994, with the same focus on comedy-- all kinds of comedy: sketch, farce, dark, satire, tragicomedy-- the What Exit? Theater Company was born.
Chapter 4 - Other Plays and Other Places
The What Exit? theatre did take up a lot of my time, but our season was only so many shows a year. However, when I wasn’t in production there, I was fortunate to have other roles in other places.
Click here to see my reviews for some of my on-stage performances.
Résumé
Explore my experience and past work in theater, film, TV, and voiceover. Check out my résumé below.
Chapter 5 - I'm Not Dead Yet
These commercials were a gift and a lucky one, because the woman who plays my sister is someone I have known for 20 years, and also lives in Maplewood. They even shot the commercials here, too. Very convenient for the two of us!
