Back to her roots

Local woman makes her mark on TV, comes home for community theater

By BRIAN BINGAMAN
Staff Writer
The Reporter

Lansdale native and 1995 North Penn High School graduate Liza Weil has come full circle.

Long before she became Paris Gellar, Rory Gilmore’s roommate on the TV series “The Gilmore Girls,” Weil was involved in North Penn’s theater program and debuted on the stage of Montgomery Theater in Souderton at age 16 in the play “The Speed of Darkness.”

Eleven years later, she returns to the local stage in the role of Catherine in the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play “Proof,” which opens Friday at the Souderton theater.

“I feel it’s the only place you can hone your skills as an actor,” Weil said of performing live theater. “You flex a whole other muscle. You don’t get to do the do-overs.”

Weil said she acted in a handful of plays at Montgomery Theater before moving to New York to follow in the footsteps of her parents, Marc and Lisa, and pursue life as an actress.

Roles in off-Broadway and regional summer stock theater led to acting in Columbia University student films, an independent film called “Whatever,” and then stepping up to roles in “Stir of Echoes” (Kevin Bacon) and “Dragonfly” (Kevin Costner), and in television, including “ER,” “The West Wing” and “Law & Order, Special Victims Unit.”

Then came the family drama, “The Gilmore Girls” on the WB. Now on filming hiatus for the summer, the show will be entering its fifth season.

“Moms and daughters say they’re glad to have a show which they can watch together and just forget about their daily hostility. It’s nice to be involved in a show people seem to like,” said Weil.

In “Proof,” Weil plays an emotionally volatile young woman who has been caring for her mathematician father who seems tostumble back and forth across the fine line between genius and insanity.

It so happens that her father, Marc Weil, will be playing the role of Robert, her father in the play.

“It’s kind of kismet in a way. It’s neat to see another side of him,” Weil said of acting alongside her father.

“It’s a departure from what I’m usually doing — through the window and knocking down the set,” said Marc Weil, describing his comedic stage roles.

“It’s strange the first run-through because it’s (my) daughter. After that, the professional stuff takes over,” he said.

“She’s done really, really well,” Marc Weil said of Liza’s success. “She’s been working steadily for several years, which in this business is a miracle.”

Hope DeFrenes, Montgomery Theater’s managing director and long-time friend of the Weils, said that Liza Weil’s star power is affecting ticket sales and that a “Gilmore Girls” fan from Ohio has inquired about tickets for “Proof.”

“I can picture some people going ‘Oh my god, I’m this close to her!’” said DeFrenes.