Millburn-Short Hills Magazine Spring 2020 | Page 26

entertainment Riding in the Bar Car Stephanie Kurtzuba works with Martin Scorsese, then commutes home to Maplewood WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER W DID YOU COME FROM A FAMILY OF PERFORMERS? My mother appreci- ated the arts and loved dance and music, though she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, unfortunately. Every once in a while, she would take us to see Cats. I know — everything old is new again! 24 SPRING 2020 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE crime behind and keep being a crimi- nal. It was just me and him on the stage, and I felt, “This is the power of being important to the story.” BROADWAY AND BEYOND Stephanie Kurtzuba has acted for the stage and small and large screens. WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALIZE THAT YOU WANTED TO ACT? Growing up in Omaha, we used to have dance recitals at a gorgeous theater down- town called the Orpheum. I loved wandering around backstage during rehearsal days. I remember that when I was 10, I was hired to play a boy pickpocket in Oliver. I had long hair as a girl, and I got all of it cut off; obviously, I was really into the truth of looking like a pickpocket boy. Anyway, I was chosen to be the one who hands Fagin a piece of bread, and he decides not to leave WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT APPEARING BEFORE LIVE AUDIENCES, AND WHAT IS MOST CHALLENGING ABOUT IT? I love that there’s a relationship in real time with the audience, an immediate response to what you’re trying to do. That’s the most exhilarating part of it. What’s challenging is that the stamina required and lifestyle that you’re forced into is hard. You’re performing six days a week. My sons were both born during the runs of Broadway shows; they’ve both performed in utero in Tony Awards ceremonies. That was one of the big motivating factors to transitioning out of theater work and into TV and movies. The schedules were so daunting, and I wanted to put my kids to bed at night. HOW LONG DID YOU LIVE IN THE NYC AREA, INCLUDING YOUR YEARS STUDYING ACTING AT NYU? I lived in Manhattan in the beginning of my career, and then in Brooklyn for 11 years. I met my husband at the Alley Theater in Houston, where he was a carpenter working on the props. I thought I’d met a cowboy, but he was from Ohio. It was too late. I was already in love. We married in 2005 and moved to Maplewood in 2008. We followed the migratory pattern of everybody here. And I’ve been fortunate – I never had to move to Los Angeles. hen actress Stephanie Kurtzuba started house- hunting in New Jersey, she visited Maplewood, and “it was love at first sight.” The town was not only a great place to raise a family — her two sons are now 10 and 8 — but it was a favorite of other actors, making for an easy sense of community. “The 5:45 p.m. train into the city has been called the Broadway Express,” says Kurtzuba, who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has per- formed in Mary Poppins, Billy Elliot the Musical and other shows on the Great White Way. “Around the holi- days, performers used to meet in the first car of the 11 p.m. train home and bring wine and cheese. We had our own bar car.” Living in commuting distance of New York has also made it easier to work with filmmakers based in the city — among them, Martin Scorsese, who directed her in both The Wolf of Wall Street (as single mother Kimmie Belzer) and The Irishman (as Irene, wife of Robert De Niro's Frank Sheeran). We spoke to Kurtzuba about balancing motherhood, movies and what it’s like to be on a first-name basis with Marty.