Kelly Rigole regularly gets cast to play “kooky” women, teachers/romance novelists/writers/etc, who really know they are meant to do something.
“They have big dreams and big aspirations – they just don’t know what they are yet,” she told us after filming was completed in December for the Media-X web series, Saving the School District. “They know they’re meant to save the world, but they don’t have the right focus. ”
As the series progresses, the character she plays – the all knowing Mrs. Hobblesworth – becomes more and more important to the story. In Episode 4. released this week, she arrives with the latest test scores and school rating for Oakstump High School. Uh oh…
Rigole is a stage and screen actor, specializing in movement, mime, mask and voice. She is also the artistic director and co-founder of Ditto Productions, a theatre company dedicated to creating new work in the style of verbatim theatre. And she is also a founding member of the collective Deluxe Hot Sauce having just closed their most recent work SKIN, a musical drama based on the selkie myth.
Another character she played for Odyssey Theatre in “mask,” was a woman named “Despina”.
“She was the maid, kind of you know – lower class. She went around and did the work for everyone else and didn’t get the credit.” Rigole explained.
“Wait a minute, that’s exactly our web series!”
In fact, she used a few of her previous roles for inspiration. The pencil in the hair for instance, came from a would-be romance novelist who at the end of the play writes a story based on her life, and finally falls in love.
Kelly Rigole: “I can be a little kooky sometimes. All the costumes I wear in the series are my clothes. My character is fashion challenged, so I wore all the clothes I love the most!”
But much of Mrs. Hobblesworth (who we eventually find out is in fact, Janice Hollingsworth) comes from Rigole herself.
“I can be a little kooky sometimes. All the costumes in the web series are my clothes, that I wear. Not necessarily in that arrangement – but I wear them at some point in my wardrobe, ” she said.
“When I came into the audition, I had read in the script that the character is ‘fashion challenged’ – that she is frumpy and wears these ridiculous outfits that are not meant to be worn in public.”
At this point in our interview she starts to laugh.
“I’ve gotten that before from people about some of my clothes! So I wore the clothes that I love the most – like my red leg warmers and my purple polka dot dress – but I wore them altogether.”
“All my magical clothes together in one lump. It seemed to inspire the writer and the director and they seemed to really like it.”
Indeed we did! Here is a clip from her audition in November.
It worked, and Rigole ended up wearing most of her own clothes during the two days of filming.
Director Micheal Dobbin, from Quiet Revolution Studio was thrilled how she handled the role, and her wardrobe was only part of it.
“Kelly really had fun with the role I think. She managed to show us a female character who beneath her quiet, submissive facade was a woman poised to take command of a foundering ship captained by inept (if not lovable) male leadership.”
Not that something like that would ever happen in a real school!
Dobbin added that “Kelly’s choice of wardrobe really speaks volumes of her successful take on this really fun character.”
Here’s a portion of our interview with with Kelly Rigole. Stay tuned for the final 3 epsiodes of Saving the School District to watch her character transform the school, and herself…