Laurie Metcalf is the type of actor other actors admire. One of the nine original members of Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, her 30-minute monologue in Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead remains the stuff of legend nearly 30 years after its 1980 Windy City debut and wildly successful Off-Broadway transfer four years later.

Though best known to the general public for her 11 years as Jackie on the groundbreaking sitcom Roseanne, the three-time Emmy winner has always crisscrossed the country for the right theatrical role. She recently racked up frequent flyer miles doing three world premiere plays-David Mamet’s November on Broadway (Tony Award nomination), Jane Anderson’s A Quality of Life at the Geffen Playhouse and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco (Ovation and LADCC Awards) and Justin Tanner’s Voice Lessons at the Zephyr Theatre.

Locally Metcalf has dominated the Ovation Awards for Lead Actress in Play, winning three times out of the past seven years for Geffen productions Looking for Normal, All My Sons and A Quality of Life, twice under Jane Anderson and once under fellow Steppenwolf member and Geffen artistic director Randy Arney.

Last week it was announced she will return to Broadway in the fall to star in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound to be performed in repertory under the direction of David Cromer (Adding Machine).

Metcalf sat down after tech rehearsal in the Zephyr lobby and later over the phone to discuss her third foray into Tanner country, the joys of Jane Anderson, returning to the same part twice and why she needs fireworks in a role to be happy.

LA STAGE: The past few years have been very rich for you in terms of theatre roles. To what do you attribute this? Good choices or hitting your stride as an actor?

LM: I’ve always preferred theatre to other ways of working. But it’s not as easy making a living at it. (laughs) So there are other things that supplement your theatre career.  I must say though for about a year and a half now I’ve been doing mainly theatre. It’s been wonderful. It’s taken me out of town for long chunks of time, which I hadn’t been used to. Having kids makes it more difficult. That ends up influencing more decisions than you think. But I want to continue working this way and doing the majority of my work in theatre.

LAS: I saw a television interview you did in San Francisco for A Quality of Life where it was clear the hosts saw you as a TV celebrity who was acting in a play rather than someone whose theatre legacy dates back to the founding of Steppenwolf. How does it make you feel when people jump right back to the Roseanne years?

LM: The upside of that for me is the TV role I am recognized for the most is one I’m extremely proud of because of the writing and the show itself. It’s a different kind of recognition but just as welcome because I really valued the caliber of that show.

LAS: You’ve just jumped from Broadway to a regional theatre and now a 99 house on Melrose. (LM starts to laugh) I guess that shows what a true theatre junkie you are but what drove your decision to do these pieces?

LM: The Broadway show fell out of the blue to me and I couldn’t pass that up. I wanted to work with Nathan (Lane) and I’d never done a Mamet play so that was an easy decision. And then I’ve loved working at the Geffen. All three of the shows I’ve done there have been really great experiences. At the same time, I go way back with Justin and I’ve always been a fan of his writing. He started working on this play a couple of years ago. We did readings at my house and different people’s living rooms. So when he finally got the space, it was impossible to not do it.

LAS: Your character’s a community theatre actress?

LM: (laughing) I don’t know what the hell she is! She’s out of her mind. That’s the part I like.

LAS: How did you meet Justin?

LM: I went to see Pot Mom at the Cast Theatre because I’d heard so much about it. This was a million years ago. I was sitting in the back row and for some reason I had a feeling the guy sitting next to me running the light board was the playwright. I don’t know why. I hung around afterward to meet the cast on the sidewalk and it turned out it was Justin. I told him I’d love to be in one of his plays. So when they remounted Pot Mom, he called me.

LAS: Did you go to community theatre where you grew up in Carbondale, Illinois?

LM: No. I dabbled in theatre just barely in high school and then just barely in college. I really started learning about it with the Steppenwolf Company that we formed coming right out of college. We were just sort of self-taught that way. We didn’t have any limitations that we put on ourselves. We thought we could do anything and everything and we just did.

LAS: Have you ever thought much about whom you would have been today if those particular people and events hadn’t converged in 1976?

LM: I wouldn’t be an actor I know that for sure. I never would have done it on my own. I was fortunate to do it with a group. I didn’t have the exterior for it. I didn’t have a thick enough skin for it. I would have gone to one audition and got turned down and quit. I don’t know what I would be doing. I’m so fortunate I have it because it’s really the main passion in my life.  To be able to have this as a career is so rare.

LAS: How has being part of Steppenwolf molded and shaped you in terms of being an actor over the years? I know you’ve said you don’t like to be away for more than two years.

LM: That joint gave me a lot of courage I think. Nobody was afraid to look foolish. The goal was always just to entertain each other. It led you out on limbs you probably wouldn’t have dared to walk out on. Knowing everyone so well and being so insular. It gave an odd kind of stability in a career where you don’t find either. The place has morphed into something very different now but it’s always my first choice to go back and do a play there than anywhere else.

LAS: You seem to be able to float between Chicago, New York and LA. How do you find the LA theater scene?

LM: My experience here is just so rare. I’ve bounced between Justin’s stuff and the Geffen. So for myself, I don’t have a lot of experience with theatre here.

LAS: Michael Ritchie hasn’t given you a call to come work at the Taper?

LM: I’ll go where the work is. It really doesn’t matter to me at all. I do have that as my goal now. To do plays back-to-back-to-back if I can.

LAS: You’ve worked with Jane Anderson on two of her plays. I heard she wrote Jeanette in A Quality of Life with you in mind?

LM: Maybe….

LAS: What was it like dropping back in to play her again at ACT after a year’s hiatus?

LM: That was the second time I was able to go back to a role. The other one was All My Sons, which I had done in London first. I never knew if I’d like it and I love it. To have a year off or even longer and go back. It’s a very humbling experience because I was thinking, why did I do it like that the first time? That was so simplistic or I didn’t think that through well enough. It’s a great way to come at something you’re familiar with and see it fresh after enough time has passed. It lets you start off at a higher level and go even further. There’s been nothing negative about it at all to me. So I enjoyed doing A Quality of Life twice.

LAS: All of the actors seemed so deeply committed to it.

LM: I love that play so much. We continued to work on it. It’s going to the Arena Stage (in Washington DC) next. I know Jane is tinkering with parts of the second act. Hopefully it will slowly make its way to New York.

LAS: I know you’ve said you don’t often have the opportunity to get your hands on something with that kind of depth and range.

LM: No. And Jane floats real easily between comedy and tragedy. I love her writing. She has surprises and turns corners you don’t expect. I love presenting that play to an audience knowing they don’t know the ride they are about to be on. It’s something I think I would have enjoyed seeing myself.  Just walking into a space and not knowing much about it at all. You’re always amazed at the amount of humor she can get out of these difficult subjects that she tackles.

LAS: And to witness that level of “quality” work in a small space was refreshing.

LM: I think the biggest crime in theatre is just to be mediocre! (She laughs)

LAS: You mentioned the 2001 National Theatre Company production of All My Sons where you replaced Julie Walters who won an Olivier Award for the role of Kate. The reviewers seemed stunned that Roseanne’s sister could trump Walter’s performance. Here’s what the Express wrote: The real revelation, however, is Laurie Metcalf, the American actress best known from TV’s Roseanne, who takes over from the award-winning Julie Walters to play Joe’s wife, Kate. At once manic and magisterial, Metcalf is goose-bumpingly good as a woman who makes a rational decision to live in a world of delusion because she knows the real one is impossible to bear. It is the kind of acting you want to call the performance of a lifetime–only you cross your fingers that it isn’t.

LM: Wow. What a part, huh? I loved that show. I begged them to let me play that part on Broadway. I begged them.

LAS: I was going to ask you about that.

LM: Well, obviously they said no! (laughs) I didn’t have a chance. We thought we were onto something but somebody else already owned the rights and he wanted to do it in a different way.

LAS: The reviews were mixed.

LM: I didn’t see it. But I believe in the show just in the world it lives in. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with it. It’s just as well.

LAS: So was that your first time on the London stage? How was it?

LM: Yes. It was wonderful. I loved seeing the National for the first time. It reminds me a lot of Steppenwolf. Even the structure. I had a great time. I love how the whole in-house system works there. The three theatres. The built-in breaks. I was so lucky. The whole cast went into rehearsal again for three weeks.

LAS: Was that the first time you had taken over a role from someone?

LM: Yes. This will happen to me someday but I’ve never seen a performance and then gone in to replace them. I think that would mess me up. Once you’ve seen something, you can’t shake it, especially if it’s good solid work. You think, of course they did it that way, how else would you do it? You forget that there’s a million different ways of doing it.

LAS: What was it like for you working with English actors?

LM: They were very collaborative, which I’m used to. Not a lot of places are. I think of any group as an ensemble but it’s not a given in any theatre experience you walk into. If someone has an idea about what I can do in this moment, I’ll take it. From anywhere. But a lot of people don’t like working that way.

LAS: How did it get to the Geffen?

LM: I think it came into Randy’s radar because I had done it. Once he decided to do it, he did call me which I was really thankful for because he didn’t have to go that way. If you’re putting together a whole new show, you don’t necessarily want somebody who’s already done it. You might want to start fresh. I think he had already cast Len Cariou which was also a great selling point for me because I really wanted to work with him.

LAS: I read where you said that David Mamet came to see the show and sent the cast handwritten notes.

LM: Yes! That was the first time I had ever met him. I was blown away. I couldn’t believe he came! I couldn’t believe he sent a note! There are few people you get, not tongue tied around, but you know it’s really special just to be able to meet them. I get that way around a lot of writers because I have no idea how they do what they do. I’m fascinated by their particular talent. It’s so foreign to me. And that’s where everything starts.

LAS: Did that precipitate him casting you in November?

LM: I don’t know how I got on the short list for November! I was happy to be asked. It might have had something to do with the director Joe Mantello. I had wanted to work with him for a long time. I don’t know how that happened.

LAS: Did the Tony nomination shift anything for you?

LM: No. I lost! I lost to Rondi (Reed), which was just as it should have been. I was so happy for her and she deserved it. They got that one right. I loved being there at the Tonys and seeing all the August people up on stage. It was a great night.

LAS: Are the Broadway revivals of Neil Simon’s plays being done in repertory?

LM: I don’t know how that’s going to work. But I was intrigued, first of all going back to Broadway and second, I’ve never done rep. Ever. I think it sounds great.

LAS: At one of the talkbacks for A Quality of Life, you mentioned your daughter Zoe was having a hard time getting theatre work in New York without television credits. Do you find that ironic?

LM: I know. It’s completely backwards now. It used to be, do lots of theatre then head to LA. Now you have to go to LA first, get your face on TV before you can come back and do some theatre.

LAS: So do you tell that to young actors, say if they come out of Juilliard, to just come here?

LM: Oh no. I mean if you can do theatre then you can do all of it. If I had to do it all over again, I’d still try to break in through theatre because you learn the most. And you learn things that are applicable to the other media. There are people who obviously do it the other way. I’m torn. I don’t know if I love theatre so much because I started out in it. I learned everything I know from it. So that’s why I always go back to it to feel like I can still act.

LAS: What is it that you don’t like as much about television or film?

LM: I don’t like the camera being anywhere around. I like the intimacy of the audience. I like the immediate feedback. Being in charge of the performance they’re seeing rather than an editor maybe. You can just sense taking them up to this level and then leaving them up there for just a little bit and now we’re going to go over here and back around and they stay with you. You’re in charge. You can really drive it. I love that.

LAS: Many actors complain about the lack of rehearsal time.

LM:  I like the rehearsal process. You don’t get that in the other ones. That’s the most fun. You never get to rehearse anywhere else. That’s why I have panic attacks going out and showing up on a movie set. I don’t know what’s going on. I rehearse like four days on a TV show and on the fifth day we’re supposed to do it? I’m not there. I’m not ready. It’s very stressful. I don’t like the process of any of it except for theatre.

LAS: At this stage of your life, has there been a shift in terms of what you choose to do?

LM: I’m trying to think about what I naturally gravitate to. Definitely anything that amuses me. And then a great story. If I can get just a whiff of a character then I know there’s something there that even I can’t see at the beginning of rehearsal. That’s what it was like for me with the mom in All My Sons. I read it. I didn’t get the mom at all. I didn’t get the power she had. I didn’t know she was literally holding everyone together. I didn’t see that on the page. I didn’t see the A Quality of Life character on the page but I knew Jane did. And I wanted to work with Jane. So sometimes I trust there is more there than I can sense. I’m not the best judge of material.

LAS: I’ve heard you want to play Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

LM: Yeah. I’d love to do that! (big laugh) Here’s what it is. I gravitate towards the fireworks. And if there aren’t any, then you’ve got to add some. You’ve got to come up with them on your own! (laughs again)

LAS: Any others?

LM: No, that’s my top one right now. I get energized by plays. Some people think eight shows a week is draining or very physically exhausting to do. I think they’re good for me. They’re healthy for me! (laughs)

LAS: You once said, “I’m hideously shy as myself but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.” Do you still feel that way?

LM: No. Not so much anymore. I can attribute some of it to theatre, you know? I think it got me over some rough patches. It was a way of hiding behind a character. Doing something outrageous but being able to say it’s not really me. It’s a very warped ability to get away with stuff. I don’t know, maybe I unconsciously need to act out so I choose these roles that are more flamboyant or something! (She laughs.)