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Thursday, February 7, 2002
The show must go on 'She Loves Me' a form of therapy for actress injured in car crash ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN
OLYMPIA -- On Sunday, Jan. 27, Susanne Layton was driving her parents' Lincoln Navigator on U.S. Highway 101 near the Black Lake Boulevard exit when the vehicle hit a patch of ice, veered into a sideways skid, slammed into the guard rail and launched into a violent rollover.
When the SUV stopped moving, it was back on its wheels and the 16-year-old Capital High School junior was left with a deep gash in her left wrist, a serious concussion and no memory of what had happened. The seat belt and side air bag saved Layton from further harm.
"The paramedics took us aside and said that when they saw the accident, they thought they had a fatality," says Layton's mother, Patty.
One might assume Layton's starring role in the impending Capital Playhouse production of "She Loves Me" was the furthest thing from anyone's mind.
"Actually, I did think about it," says Patty Layton. "I thought there was absolutely no way the show would happen."
Yet only four days later, Susanne Layton took the stage of the Capital Playhouse on opening night of the show. Not only had Layton missed the vital series of final technical and dress rehearsals, she had lost much of her short-term memory.
Up on the stage, the only visible sign of Layton's accident was the dressing that covered the 14 stitches on her wrist. And the most noticeable flub of the evening was when that bandage fell off during a dance number.
"We couldn't believe it," says Patty Layton. "She sang beautifully, she acted beautifully. I started to cry. It was just, like, 'wow.' "
Wow, indeed.
"It was a serious 'wow,' " says director Troy Arnold Fisher. "Susanne has an artistic sophistication that is beyond her age. And there are not many other actresses I would trust to open a show in (these conditions)."
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"I was pretty much a zombie," says Susanne Layton. "I don't remember much at all about last week. But I do know it was probably one of the scariest opening nights of my life. I had to trust myself, but I didn't know what was going to happen.
"I was so out of it, I actually fell asleep backstage during the show."
But when Layton speaks of her accident, she somehow finds a way to put a positive spin on it all, even the stitches that will leave a scar. She simply laughs and says: "It'll be in the shape of a smile, so I don't mind."
Her main frustration, it seems, is her loss of memory. The photos she has seen of the totaled SUV don't bring back anything.
"I guess that's what head trauma does to you," she says with a laugh.
Now in the midst of her second week of "She Loves Me" performances, Layton says she's pretty much back to normal. Oh, she's tired all right, but she's no longer having trouble recalling what she ate for breakfast or whom she just spoke with on the telephone.
She's not sleeping 18 hours a day anymore, and she's back in school.
"I am over it, I think. My memory is pretty much back," says Layton. "I am so fortunate."
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As far as Jeff Kingsbury is concerned, he's fortunate to have met Susanne Layton in the first place.
Kingsbury, artistic director of Capital Playhouse, first encountered Layton as an 8-year-old newcomer to the company's Kids at Play summer theater program.
"Susanne has really rock-solid instincts about performing," says Kingsbury. "She's got a beautiful grace on stage, she has good comic timing, she's a fabulous dancer and she has this wonderful, natural singing voice.
"She's one of those kids I look at and think if I were also 16 and (competing for roles) with her, I would find her very annoying," Kingsbury says with a laugh.
Of the 2,000 students Kingsbury has watched progress through Capital Playhouse, he says Layton is easily one of the best.
"I think we're just ridiculously fortunate she likes to do musicals," Kingsbury says.
That's a sentiment shared by Fisher, who cast Layton in her first major lead role for Capital Playhouse, following nine consecutive summers of Kids at Play productions.
"She Loves Me" is a comic musical drawn from the same source material that inspired the films "The Shop Around the Corner" and "You've Got Mail."
"You've got to have a great voice for the role, and Susanne definitely has the vocal chops," says Fisher. "Also, she's a very pretty girl and a great comedienne. She brings all three elements to the role."
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After her accident, Susanne Layton's father, Mark, brought her in to see the cast of "She Loves Me."
"I wanted her to have some contact with other people," says Mark Layton. "As long as you would engage her and talk with her, she'd be fine. Once she was sitting alone, she would just drift off."
Susanne and Mark Layton attended the final dress rehearsal together, and Susanne tried running through a scene with the cast. She ended up completing the entire first act.
"I thought she would deliver her lines in a lethargic way, but she just perked right up," says Mark Layton. "The animation was there, the lines were there. And when we got home, she was hungry. She didn't want to just go back to bed.
"It had been a very difficult week for us all, but (we realized) our daughter was going to be fine."
And Susanne Layton sounds more than just fine.
"I feel so lucky," she says. "I feel lucky I've had such incredible opportunities at the Capital Playhouse. And I feel so lucky to be OK. I'm not going to complain at all."
Ross Raihala covers music and entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or OlyRoss@aol.com.
On the Web:
For related stories go to the South Sound Living section.
- What: A comic musical by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, starring 16-year-old actress Susanne Layton.
- When: 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday and Feb. 13-16; 2 p.m. Sunday.
- Where: Capital Playhouse, 612 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia.
- Tickets: $17-$22 adults; $12-$17 students and seniors. The Feb. 13 show is a pay-what-you-can performance.
- For information: Call 360-943-2744.
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