From: http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9479

VIVA VITA!

It isn't easy to get Tony Award winner Patricia Elliott back on stage these days; the former A Little Night Music star routinely says no to any kind of eight-show-a-week run. But Elliott loves doing staged readings -- and when you throw in another chance to portray one of her favorite characters, the opportunity to work with one of her favorite actresses, and the ability to contribute to a good cause, you've found the winning combination. Hence, she'll be happily starring in the No Frills Company's benefit reading of Eileen Atkins' play Vita and Virginia, about the friendship between authors Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, at the Cherry Lane on Mondays, November 27 and December 11.

"Kathy and I first met at a fundraiser where we did some silly little skits, but I knew we would dance together in a piece like this," she says. "Acting with her is like playing a great game of tennis; we're just so present for one another. And we're both going not just for the British reserve, but for the emotional underbelly of the piece." Indeed, Elliott has already got another play in mind for herself and Chalfant: "I'd love for us to do an all-female Waiting for Godot, but I don't know if we could get the rights from the Beckett estate."

She first portrayed Sackville-West in 1985 in Virginia, which starred Kate Nelligan as Woolf. "When we were doing that play," she recalls, "Kate said to me one day, 'You have to act like you were raised in a castle, you need to walk differently.' Vita was almost six feet tall. So I went to the Frick Museum uptown and walked around it like it was my home. The next day, Kate said I did it. But one night, backstage, I really felt that Vita's presence came into me. Not long after, Vita's granddaughter was in the audience. Afterwards, she came over, gave me a hug, and said, 'You are my grandmother.'"

Elliott is still playing her longtime role of Renee Devine Buchanan on the ABC soap One Life to Live, but now she shows up for only a handful of episodes each year. "I love the character and sometimes I get to do great stuff," she says. "I recently had a scene that was like Medea. And I'll be on the Christmas episodes, doing some small bits. When I first started acting, I told Stacy Keach that if my career ever got to the point where I had do a soap, I'd leave the business. But this has been the most wonderful 18 years. I was originally scared of the camera; now I'm addicted to it."

I her. The last time I was really into OLTL, she was front & center, with the story of Max conning she & Asa into believing he was their son (turned out it was Ben). I wish they would use her more. Love me some Renee.