Five Questions: with West Village Resident and Star of Stage and Screen Maryann Plunkett

By Robert Galinsky

Maryann Plunkett has been living in the West Village for over 30 years. She is a wife, mom, and Tony Award winner, and has won multiple Drama Desk Awards and starred in scores of films and television shows. I had a few moments to catch up with her to ask five questions about life in the West Village and life as an in-demand actor.

Maryann Plunkett. Photo credit: Tom Bloom.

1. You have lived in the West Village for many years. What is it about this neighborhood that you love and that keeps you here?

Living in the West Village has provided for me for three-plus decades, a haven, a neighborhood of stores and places where I know the people and they know me, and a home I love being in. Though many things have changed, some not for the good, the West Village still holds its past in the streets, hearts, beliefs, and talents of the most long-lived of the residents. It is still a destination for hard-working dreamers.

2. Share your favorite highlights of the West Village.

St. Luke’s Garden on Hudson Street remains, even with the rise of the tall luxury apartment building next to it, a refuge of nature and peace. Bus Stop Cafe is a great diner with great food and people, as is Tavern on Jane. The access to the river and the sunsets over the river are incredible. The library next to the park on St. Luke’s Place is a place I have spent many many hours, all the way back to when my 29-year-old son was a baby. The key guy on Seventh Avenue!

3. You’re a busy actor, constantly working on projects for stage and screen. Which art form, film/tv/streaming/stage do you like the most and why?

Immediate answer: theater. Doing a play is about becoming part of a community—working together to discover, create, and shape a world to be shared with the people who make up the audience. I am so fortunate

that I have been able to live that life.

4. You’ve been selective about the roles you take on and the characters you play. What do you look for and value in the projects that you work on?

Sometimes the choice is made for you. The rent needs to be paid and food needs to be bought, and when an opportunity comes for work it is taken. That being said, I have been immensely fortunate in the roles I have been offered and the people I have worked and “played” with—especially, my husband, Jay Sanders, who worked with me in Richard Nelson’s 12-play Rhinebeck Panorama for over 11 years in NYC and around the world.

5. What inspired you to get into acting and who/what are your influences?

Perhaps, surprisingly, shyness led me toward theater. I was awkwardly and painfully shy when I was young. My mother took me to a production of The Red Shoes at a college near our home and I was hypnotized and utterly taken. Theater is a beautiful tool for a shy person to become more social. There is a process, and everyone has to go through it at the same time. The script can be a protection until one gets comfortable. There is always something to look at and talk/think about.

More about West Village resident and neighbor Maryann Plunkett: Maryann has worked with Richard Nelson for over 11 years on the Rhinebeck Panorama (the Apple Family plays, the Gabriels trilogy, The Michaels, the Apple Zoom trilogy, and What Happened? The Michaels Abroad). She was Juno Boyle and Bessie Burgess in Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy at Irish Rep. On Broadway she appeared in Agnes of God, Sunday in the Park with George, Me and My Girl, The Crucible, and Saint Joan. On Off-Broadway and in regional theater she has appeared in Rodney’s Wife, and Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, and Theater of War productions. She was also in the films Showing Up, Family Fang, MAD, Little Women, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and on TV in Om City, Bull, Law & Order, Dr. Death, and Manifest.