Snapshot: Melanie Flood fulfills childhood dream to be a stage actress

By ANDREA GEMMET

It was a field trip to see an ACT production of "A Christmas Carol" that made Melanie Flood realize she wanted to become an actor.

Ms. Flood remembers that when she was about 7 years old, her class at St. Raymond's Elementary School in Menlo Park made the trek to San Francisco to see the play, and that year, the class got to talk with some of the young actors.

"That's what made me want to become an actor," she says. "I really wanted to play Belle."

Now a third-year graduate student at American Conservatory Theater's Master of Fine Arts Program, Ms. Flood, 24, got a chance to live her childhood dream when she was cast as Belle, the love interest of young Ebeneezer Scrooge, in last year's production.

"I kept thinking, here I am on stage, almost 20 years later," she says. "I always knew I belonged at ACT."

Ms. Flood, who grew up in Woodside, pursued her dream of acting all through school, taking lessons in jazz dance, acting and singing, she says. Her first lead role was in eighth grade, when she played Cathy, "a tough girl from the wrong side of the tracks," in Woodside Elementary's production of "Happy Valley High." She played roles in Woodside High School drama department productions, and graduated in 1993.

Upset that she couldn't audition for ACT until she was 20, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, Ms. Flood says, and waited for her chance to go to ACT.

She hasn't been disappointed.

"The teachers here are some of the best in the world," she says. "They really encourage you to be an individual. They show you how to take your life and your personal experiences and become the artist you were born to be."

Her current role is closer to bad girl Cathy than tender-hearted Belle. Ms. Flood is playing Lissa, as one of a trio of "evil sisters" who wreak havoc on their private school and terrorize fellow students in "Girl Gone," a surreal comedy by Mac Wellman.

She says her black hair tends to land her roles that she finds to be "more interesting than the typical ingenue."

"I think I tend to gravitate toward the roles I'm typecast for," Ms. Flood says.

Personally, though, she says she's not very serious. "I'm pretty lighthearted," she says. "It's fun to do on stage what you don't do in real life."

That probably explains her ambition to someday play Lady MacBeth, Mina in Mac Wellman's "Dracula" and "anything in 'The Trojan Women.'"

Ms. Flood says she is grateful for the opportunities she has had to hone her craft while growing up in Woodside, but that she sees a need for more funding for performing arts programs in public schools.

"When I was at Woodside (High), drama had no money. It didn't seem to be taken very seriously except by the people who were in drama," she says.

She says she was fortunate to have parents who were very supportive of her acting, as well as a lot of exposure to music at St. Raymond's Elementary.

"The thing I like about ACT is that they do a lot of outreach to schools," says Ms. Flood. "They donate a lot of tickets and have student matinees. ACT has a lot of people committed to bringing the arts to education."

As for her own commitment to ACT and education, she says she would follow in the footsteps of Tony Award-winning actor Bebe Neuwirth, who performed in "The Threepenny Opera" with Ms. Flood's ACT class last fall.

"Of course (I'd come back)," she says, laughing. "I'll always consider this my home. I'll always hold a special place for it."

PERFORMANCE

Melanie Flood is performing in "Girl Gone," directed by Peter Wallace, at the Magic Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco, March 10-19. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for students, teachers and seniors with I.D. For information, call (415) 749-2ACT or log onto www.act-sfbay.org.