by Christy Rodriguez de Conte

Tiffany Underwood creates a place for herself within the Tallahassee theater community. Her latest role in “The Irish Laundresses” brings her blended approach to acting to this year’s Bloomsday Festival, which continues June 15, 16 and 18 at Goodwood Museum and Gardens.

Some moments in an artist’s life remain ingrained in our memory, shaping the understanding of ourselves. A painter remembers the first brush stroke that piqued their interest; the musician can almost always play the chord to their favorite tune; and an actor has a story of watching a show and thinking that one day, they’ll be on that stage.

For actor and director Tiffany Underwood, that day came when she was a young girl, and the stage was Theatre Tallahassee. Underwood sat as an audience member, enthralled by the ability of the lead actress to become the character and leave herself behind. She knew that someday she, too, would deliver a brilliant performance, framed by the proscenium of the Tallahassee Theatre stage.

Flash forward through decades of creative work, and Tallahassee native Tiffany Underwood found herself on the stage she once envied. In 2018, Theatre Tallahassee produced an energized performance of Tracy Letts’ “August Osage County,” with a cast of theatrical Tallahassee A-listers like Shawn McCauley, Nancy Diskin, and Rachael Kage.

Underwood played the cynically comical aunt Mattie Fae Aiken and knew she had succeeded when an audience member expressed how she had never loved, hated, and wanted to hit someone so much. “I made it!” declared Underwood. “I really thought it was because I held my own and stood out…and that’s when I knew I was just as good.”

Underwood’s theatrical training took her from Tallahassee Community College through the KD Conservatory in Dallas. She eventually returned to the Tallahassee, Thomasville, and Monticello theater community to direct “Vanities,” “Plaza Suite,” and “Simply Divided.” In 2015, Underwood pushed beyond her comfort zone as an actress in the funny and empowering “Calendar Girls.” There, she shed her fears and found the confidence to step beyond the stage.

In 2020, the pandemic essentially shut down the theater, which caused many in the industry to pivot. Like other theater actors who lacked access to their community and theater spaces, Underwood ventured into film.

“It’s a whole different skill set between theater and film,” said Underwood. “Film is right here in your face. You can literally just think and the camera will pick it up. Voice control is different and if you screw up, you get to go again. In the theater, you just have to go.” And go she did. Underwood performed in five feature films and four short cinematic works within the indie film network.

Through perseverance and commitment to honing her craft, Underwood wears multiple hats within various branches of the entertainment industry. Still, Underwood finds her deepest connection in creating characters. “I think actors make the best directors because they know what is going on… My passion and my love lay in acting.”

In addition to supporting the arts through performance, Underwood believes in using theater to connect the Tallahassee community to the land, the history, and the stories that have shaped it. This has become evident in Underwood’s involvement as a board member for Goodwood Museum and Gardens over the past two years, and her performance in “The Irish Laundresses” produced by the Irish Repertory Theater presented at the Bloomsday Festival.

This world premiere highlights the story of two women who gave their lives to servitude and became friends at Goodwood Museum and Gardens during the early 1900s. Underwood is honored to perform in a show that confronts the realities of Irish immigrants’ lives at the turn of the last century.

The site-specific nature of the show elevates the connectivity to the people whose lives are portrayed. She believes this makes both the show and festival very unique. “ We mention certain things [like] the water tower that is right across. You can actually point to the main house.”

Underwood thinks telling a Goodwood story on the site where it happened will inspire and stir people’s imagination. In addition to transporting Goodwood back to 1904 Dublin with this production of “The Irish Laundressess,” the Bloomsday Festival also features Irish step dance by the Irish Step Dances of Tallahassee, Celtic music by Roisin Mo Chroi and Dram O’Day, and a lecture by Florida State University’s Camille Vilela-Jones on the influence of James Joyce’s Ulysses in Latin America.

So jump up and join the Irish Repertory Theatre’s celebration of food, music, and Irish culture.

Read the article on Tallahassee Democrat.