Greenwich Academy Alumnae

Reet (pronounced ret) Varnik started acting late in life, but credits her interest in the craft to drama class at Greenwich Academy. A native of Estonia, she is realistic about being typecast in roles for older women and foreign actors, glad for the opportunity to hone her skills. Even doing television commercials is a delight for her. Reet speaks almost fondly of TV commercials, "They pay really well, and other actors know how difficult it is to get the roles, so there is no stigma attached to acting in a commercial." Comedy is her passion, and in January of last year, she was chosen to appear on "Late Night with David Letterman," when he featured foreigners telling jokes in their native tongues. Dave read the wrong translation, which annoyed Reet, but filled Dave with laughter. He then admitted he had read the wrong joke and read the right one, but by then Reet had marched off the stage, leaving the audience in stitches in reaction to her anger. She's reticent about the experience, " So we learn about show biz."

Her life can change at a moment's notice. She was called the night before for the Letterman audition. She spent the whole morning at auditions, and the same afternoon was spent taping. That evening she opened in a theater production, Madama Fortuna, and arrived home in time to watch the joke segment on television. Never a dull moment!

Reet was born in Tallinn, Estonia, and started school in Displaced Persons Camps in post-war Germany. When her family came to the United States in 1949, she entered fifth grade in New Jersey, but quickly realized she was way ahead in reading and math skills and spoke three languages. Her mother tried to find a school that would let her skip grades, but to no avail. Three schools later, she entered GA on a scholarship in the middle of a school year, took classes with both seventh and eighth grades and was graduated from both grades at the end of the school year. Reet thanks Mrs. Ruth West Campbell for believing in her, "In this process, much extra help was bestowed on me by a very caring faculty and staff."

At Smith College, she majored in political science, went on to receive two masters' degrees from Columbia University, and she taught political science at Manhattanville College for five years. Reet says, "I am glad Mrs. Campbell lived to express her pleasure at my becoming a teacher."

About 20 years ago, a lawyer invited Reet to the Amateur Comedy Club, a 19th-century private club for gentlemen who act, not professional actors. This started her thinking about acting, and she took classes at the HB Studio with the late great Herbert Berghof and others. Her first real part was as Helga ten Dorp, the Dutch psychic in Deathtrap, which she has played in both dinner theater and summer stock. Her big break was the title role of the musical Chez Garbo, which she played for several seasons and on the cast CD (available at www.footlight.com). September 18 is the centenary of Garbo's birth, and there are plans for an abbreviated reprise of this play for that occasion (keep posted on www.duotheater.org). In December, Reet was in I Hate Hamlet playing Lillian Troy, the actor's agent who resumes an affair she had years earlier with John Barrymore, this time with his ghost. Celeste Holm originated the role on Broadway. Other favorite roles have been in Agnes of God, playing Mother Miriam for the Outrageous Fortune Company at Queens Theatre in the Park, Valerie von Kant in Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (VIA Theatre) and Ruth Binder in Klara's Boy (The Medicine Show).

Q: What inspires your career in the performing arts?
A: "Although my taste is old fashioned (I especially love opera), I find off-off Broadway very exciting, whether new work or new approaches to the classics. When the material is good and everyone is doing a good job, I just believe what I am seeing (and never have time to analyze the acting). Shakespeare is continually new and inspiring."

Q: How did GA prepare you for your career in the performing arts?
A: "Although I was not preparing for a career in the arts, the opportunities to participate in the arts constituted the most important part of my GA years. During my junior year, I gave a piano recital. I always sang in the GA choir, and I remember when we sang with the Greenwich Choral Society in Handel's "Judas Macabeus," Rossini's "Stabat Mater" and other great works. I appeared on stage several times, the first as an angel in a Christmas play, Two Sides of the Door. The only time I have been allowed to do Shakespeare (and I do keep trying) was playing the tailor in The Taming of the Shrew at GA. During senior year, I had a big role in The Cradle Song; the cast also included my friends Joan Stouffer and Yvonne Altman. When the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" did the same play a bit later, we took a trip to NBC to see how they were painting their sets, etc. I also enjoyed drawing and painting, not just in connection with theater sets."

Q: Did you have any mentors at GA who inspired you?
A: "I had so many wonderful teachers at GA that it does not seem right to single them out, but in the arts, the most important for me was Helen Parker Ford, our piano teacher. She was a fine musician, but also was like a grandmother to me, dispensing practical advice. She especially loved Debussy, and I remember her telling me that a certain musical phrase should sound as if you think someone walked by and you smelled the perfume but you are not sure, perhaps you just imagined it. Her assistant, the beautiful Mrs. Suzuki, shared my love for Bach and Chopin. Mrs. Ford lived to be 104. Our drama club (I was vice president during senior year; the late Linda Wentworth Cannon, talented and witty, was president) was shepherded by Marian Edwards, who came in once a week from glamorous New York and treated us as adults. Many years later, when I moved to New York, we enjoyed going to theater together. When I started to act and complained to her about my limitations, she told me, 'What you are will always come across stronger than what you do or say, but a good director can use that.' Also, Margaret Lacey, who taught theater arts, made us feel that we were colleagues, participating in designing scenery and costumes for shows. Rocco Santora, part of the GA custodial staff, participated enthusiastically in the building of our sets."

Q: How do (did) you train for your career after GA?
A: "About 20 years after I was graduated from Smith College, I started acting little by little, and that's when I first started taking classes at HB Studio with Herbert Berghof and others. There, I also started taking singing and dancing lessons."

Q: What is your advice for students and alumnae interested in pursuing acting as a career?
A: "It is important to remember that the vast majority of professional actors must supplement their acting income in some other way and also that most auditions do not result in job offers. Both of these facts can lead to discouragement. But if you do not rely on validation from the approval of others, you can get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction just from performing. There the confidence and courage from GA can help. You must find some balance between the business aspect (marketing, etc.) and the creative (studying, reading), and that, too, is not easy because it seems to call for two very different people. Being typecast is not necessarily a bad thing, for it enables you to approach the material with more honesty. Even if you are not interested in musicals, you should take singing and dancing lessons; it is simple mathematics, there are 100 times as many performers in musicals. Also, I believe it is important to know your 'type,' even if you believe yourself versatile; this is especially true in film, where you have to be yourself. The camera does not want to see you act!"