Quick Chats: Abbey Siegworth on The DoctorDilemma

Welcome to our Quick Chats series, where we take a peek backstage and ask questions that are almost completely related to the show. Today, we're chatting with Abbey Siegworth, who plays Jennifer Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw. The doctor in question is the newly-knighted Sir Colenso Ridgeon, a brilliant physician who is in gravely high demand due to his effective new cure for tuberculosis. Just when his workload has reached capacity, he is presented two potential patients: a timid and poor medical colleague or a gifted artist whose personal traits are less than savory. Further complicating his decision is charming Jennifer Dubedat, the artist's wife, whom Dr. Ridgeon just might want for himself. The play explores the comparative values of human lives and what can muddy the waters of a physician's moral code. Let's hear a little from Abbey. APT: Here's your very own dilemma: Coke or Pepsi? A: I haven't had pop in 6 years, but when I did, it was Diet Coke ALL DAY! APT: Louis Dubedat is quite the artist. Is there an artist whose work you admire? A: I admire any artist who works despite opposition; who challenges boundaries, asks difficult questions, or twists a widely-accepted truth; anyone who encourages me to question what I assumed to be true. APT: Which of the 5 doctors in this production would you visit for your next checkup? A: That Cutler Walpole's a nut, but pretty darn cute.... I'd fake an illness to get near him again. [Note: Abbey and John Taylor Phillips, who plays Walpole, are getting married next week!] APT: Assuming you could do either, would you rather be an artist or a doctor? A: Artist. There's a very different gauge of success/failure... APT: Shaw is known for the extravagant descriptions in his stage directions. In a sentence or two, how might he describe you or the room you're sitting in? She sat in the motor, which hummed along a darkened moonlit road. The warm beams setting the unknown future aglow as she rolled her way forward. With the eagerness and fumblingness of a 6-month-old puppy, she wrote the description naively; blindly grasping at the mere impossibility of reaching the depth of Shaw's abilities. But she was trying, always trying. The Doctor's Dilemma runs through October 3 on the Hill. For more information or to buy tickets, please visit http://americanplayers.org/plays/the-doctors-dilemma or call the Box Office at 608-588-2361. Photo: Carissa Dixon