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Daydream believer Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Deidrie Henry, an actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is also a singer and a pilot. In preparation for a pair of cabaret shows she�s doing this week, she rehearses with OSF musicians Jennifer Perry and Daniel Flick. By Bill Varble Deidrie Henry was on her way to Atlanta to do a benefit for Phylicia Rashad when her New York agent called about an audition for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The festival was doing "Seven Guitars," her agent explained. August Wilson�s blues-drenched play about African-Americans in the 1940s was hot; it had its Broadway premiere in 1996 and was popping up at theaters around the country. About the show Who: Deidrie Henry. What: "What a Day for a Daydream," a cabaret show. When: 8 p.m. tonight and Wednesday. Where: The Old Siskiyou Barn, Ashland. Tickets: Call 488-7628. Henry showed up to read and found OSF artistic director Libby Appel and associate director Penny Metropulos. "I was reading, and I saw a tear fall on Libby�s face," Henry says. "I went, �Yes! Yes! Yes!� " Offered the meaty role of Vera Dotson, Henry paused. Her career was heating up in New York. "Geez," she remembers thinking. "I don�t know if I want to go to Ashland, Oregon, for 10 months." Henry asked who was directing. Kenny Leon, was the answer. Bingo. Henry had worked with Leon, one of the country�s hot young directors, at Atlanta�s Alliance Theatre. She liked and respected his work. Which is how Deidrie Henry gave up her New York apartment (she still owns a home in Atlanta) and wound up in a rented house in Ashland, where she�s living with her border collie/rottweiler mix, Ben. Henry also played Margaret in "Much Ado About Nothing" last year. This year she played Ophelia in "Hamlet" and Susie the nurse in "Wit." Appel remembers Henry�s audition and admits to the tear. "It was this incredible vulnerability and warmth and truth," Appel says. "She�s one of the most sensitive and deeply, emotionally connected actresses I know." But enough about Deidrie (pronounced DAY-dree) Henry, actor. Two cabaret-style shows at the Old Siskiyou Barn are about to showcase Deidrie Henry, singer. Called "What a Day for a Daydream," the cabaret-style show is built around her interpretations of tunes from Duke Ellington to Kate Bush, Johnny Mercer to Bonnie Raitt, Babyface to "The Color Purple." A show set for tonight quickly sold out, so a Wednesday show was added. Henry was a soloist with the Marble Collegiate Gospel Choir at Carnegie Hall and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra. She won a 1999 New York Backstage Bistro Award as outstanding vocalist. When she performed at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre in New York City, a critic called the show "the most impressive and exciting cabaret debut I�ve seen in several years ... sassy, funny, dramatic, sensual, sexy, joyous, and immensely likable." Henry started out to be neither actress nor singer but a pilot. When she was growing up in Barbados, her uncle flew for a Caribbean airline, and she�d often fly with him. "Flying captured my heart," she says. But her banker father moved the family to Atlanta, Ga., when he was transferred. In school Henry sang, played violin, marched in the band and acted in school plays even though she took no drama classes. An honors program sent her to Valdosta State University to study with director Chris Coleman. Acting professionally caused her to graduate a semester late. She went with her love of flying and earned a bachelor�s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. She won a commercial instrument rating for single-engine planes, but Coleman called and it was back to Atlanta to the theater. "Acting started taking over," she says. "Then one day, after a couple years, Chris said, �Get out of here, go audition somewhere.� " She worked at Jomandi, a well-established African-American theater in Atlanta. She did Shakespeare. By 1995 she was at Atlanta�s Alliance Theater with Leon. She originated the role of Delia for Pearl Cleage�s "Blues for an Alabama Sky." She came to Oregon because she felt acting was what she needed to work on. "Singing is something I don�t have to think about," she says. "When I walk on that stage to sing, it�s mine. It�s my creation. You�re either gonna like me or you�re not. I have a great time. If you don�t like it you can leave. I�m hoping you like it. There�s a journey I go on. I hope you�ll go." Until recently audiences wouldn�t have seen an African-American in the role of Ophelia, Hamlet�s girlfriend. "Libby is incredibly brave," Henry says. "She�s had to deal with people having an opinion about her Ophelia." Appel says in fact nobody has questioned the casting. "We haven�t had any of that," she says. "I think she just picks the best person for the job," Henry says. "It�s the person who has the essence of the character." "There�s no one with my skin color or build playing this role. In the mad scene, I want to go to what�s primal. What I can call on is my experience as an African-American woman, a Caribbean woman." Appel says for one thing, Henry has the dramatic strength to play against the powerful Marco Barricelli. For another, "She�s able to get to places other people don�t necessarily allow themselves to go." Henry�s agent said she was afraid if Henry went to Oregon she might not come back. "I thought she was wrong," Henry says. "Now I don�t know if I could go back. I love Ashland, the air, the proximity of mountains and green and sea and all of it. "The only thing is being an African-American woman in Ashland, not seeing anybody who looks like me. Daily. It�s difficult not being in a community." Where does she see herself in five years? Hint: She�s talked with Los Angeles agents and is reading screenplays. But then again, "It�s difficult to not make this place your home." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA