Actress Mary Riley Building Star Power

By Jing Chen

Mary Riley

Astoria resident and professional actress, Mary Riley will star in the play, “Mad Mel and the Marradians,” a sci-fi comedy by Gary Morgenstein that premieres July 11 and will run throughout the month at the Abingdon Theatre, as part of the 2011 Midtown International Theatre Festival.

There seems to be nothing the Virginia native can’t do. Besides acting, Riley also sings and models, while working at two other jobs to pay the hefty bill of living in the Big Apple. Despite her extensive theater resume, Riley considers herself a model as well, who most notably made several appearances on the pages of “Beauty Revealed,” a book by photographer and novelist, Jerry Harke.

Riley doesn’t stop there. She founded and served two years as the Artistic Director of the American Bard Theater Company. While she has handed that position over to someone else, she was appreciative of the perspective it gave her.

“Being an actress, all I did was act,” she said. “You don’t realize the work that goes into it to make a play happen. Being the Artistic Director, I handled a lot of the administrative tasks and there was something nice about that. You’re casting the actors, dealing with the paperwork, booking the place. I learned a lot.”

While it was a prestigious title and an enjoyable two years, Riley soon realized she loved performing too much. “It’s fun on the stage, and it’s fun for the audience,” she said.

She has been doing just that recently – performing. Besides upcoming performances as Anita in “Mad Mel and the Marradians,” she will play model and TV personality Anna Nicole Smith, in “Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory,” and is reading the role of Rosalind in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” She also recently performed in the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts as one half of “Unstuffy Divas,” a singing duo that combines opera with comedy.

With so much on her plate, how does she find time for herself?

“It’s hard, but I love to travel,” she laughed.

Riley won’t be relaxing anytime soon, as she has plans to make a name for herself in the theater community for generations to come. “I don’t care about fame, about TV fame; I just want the theater community to know my name.”

“Mad Mel and the Marradians” will be performed at the Abingdon Theatre, 312 West 36th St., Monday, July 11, at 6 p.m., Saturday, July 16, at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 19, at 8:30 p.m., Sunday, July 24, at 6 p.m. and Thursday, July 28, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-$18 and are available at ovationtix.com/trs/pr/834935 or by phone at (866) 811-4111.

Reach Intern Jing Chen at jchen@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 124.