Applause, Applause

Outstanding performers for the week of April 29



Like a steel magnolia, Genie Francis is in full and glorious bloom these days. With Laura's wrongful indictment and imprisonment for Damian Smith's murder, the true essence of the character has emerged like a flower forced from dormancy into welcome maturity.

The beauty of Francis' performance the week of April 29 was that it showcased Laura's many diverse personality traits; she is as complex as someone of far more advanced years. From that moment in the courtroom when the judge denied bail, to private time with Luke (with prison bars between them), to an encounter with hostile inmates, Laura was fragile yet fierce, as flirtatious as she was frightened; Francis played each moment to its fullest by maintaining a firm grip on all facets of her character's nature.

She is especially effective staking Laura's claim to maturity without sacrificing the childlike freshness or feistiness that make her both an appealing character in her own right and Luke's ideal mate. Even when her body language was in perfect sync with the bravado of her dialogue talking down the knife-wielding bully, her eyes never belied her true feelings.

"I think that when I was playing Laura the first time, I really focused only on Laura's vulnerability," Francis explains. "I think it was a nice sort of cathartic completion for the audience to see Laura get some strength. I wanted that basis of who she is, that very vulnerable, damaged woman or girl-who's-now-a-woman, and has been so damaged that she's gotten tough. She knows how to defend, and she knows how to fight. If in her 30s she were still just a victim, I don't think women would want to watch her. I think really the applause goes to the writers for having given me some rich material. All I do is make myself available to that material."

Linsa Susman