Lara Pulver’s Parade Days

Actress Lara Pulver, best known in her native England for her role as the troubled Isabella on the hit BBC series “Robin Hood,” makes her Los Angeles stage debut at the Mark Taper Forum in “Parade,” the grip­ping Tony Award-winning musical, and she couldn’t be happier to be in the City of Angels.

“I’ve been hiking in LA loads, which I love. We did the backbone trail around Topanga Canyon the other day. You guys have something special here. In England, we just don’t have the space in that sense where you have the city, the beach, the beautiful canyons, the horseriding through Griffith Park, the shops of Beverly Hills, the variety — it’s all here!”

Coming to Los Angeles is extra sweet for Pulver, who performed the same role in the London production of “Parade” for which she received an Olivier nomination.

“The nomination was huge, but the real prize was when the producers said, ‘Laura, do you want to come to LA and return to do the role?’”

In “Parade” Pulver plays Lucille, the young wife of Leo Frank, a Jewish facto­ry manager who, in 1913, was accused of raping and murdering a thirteen­year-old employee. A true story, Leo’s infamous trial was sensationalized by media frenzy, arousing anti-Semitic, racial, and sexual tensions in Georgia.

In regards to the show’s sociological message, Pulver says, “I hope people think twice before they go full throttle into something they believe is justice. We all get so passionate about what we think is right that we lose all sense of perspective and being able to see the whole picture. And that’s what happens in this piece with the characters. And it’s all fear.”

An ensemble piece, “Parade” relies on the teamwork of its talented cast to transport the audience to post-Civil War Atlanta. Pulver describes the camaraderie with the cast as “incredible.” Among the cast is T. R. Knight, fresh from his role on “Grey’s Anatomy,” playing Leo Frank.

“Before ‘Parade,’ T.R. had virtually no singing experience. He spent two months in vocal lessons. He has this phrase, ‘It’s a process.’ I have the utmost respect and admiration for him because he’s gotten faster and faster with his understanding of it, and it takes a very spe­cial person to work that quickly and be at this level in that small period of time, and his performance is so beautiful, vulnerable, and sincere.”

To master Lucille’s southern accent, Pulver watched A Streetcar Named Desire, Gone With The Wind, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

“Anything that had southern accents, and I really listened. I also read books like And the Dead Shall Rise by Steve Oney. I’m one of those people that can’t form the dialect until I get a picture in my head of what I would see, the climate I was brought up in, and the clothing I would wear — and then it all makes sense.”

Next up for Pulver is a role in the feature, The Special Relationship, written by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost Nixon) and starring Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid.

“I play Tony Blair’s new intern in the office. Michael Sheen is so phenomenal to work with and he is a very talented, charming man.” She adds, “After ‘Parade,’ I’d love to do television and film stateside.”

And as the “Parade” rolls on in downtown Los Angeles, Lara Pulver can also be found on the small screen, in a stunning array of pre-Raphaelite gowns scheming her way through Nottingham in BBC America’s “Robin Hood.”

“‘Robin Hood’ was like putting a bunch of actors back on the school play­ground. Lots of running and fighting and playing around. Such fun! We filmed it in Budapest. It is very much a male-dominated show, which is the nature of ‘Robin Hood.’ They wrote this new character, Isabella. She comes in at first as the damsel in distress who falls in love with Robin and then you find out that she’s been abused and is riddled with fear and goes crazy, and ultimately does some­thing that she may just slightly regret. [laughs]

“In England, I am recognized because of ‘Robin Hood.’ At Heathrow Airport recently a little girl shouted at me, “That’s the girl, Mom! That’s the girl that did it in Sherwood Forest!”  ▼

“Parade” plays at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles through November 15. “Robin Hood” airs on BBC America on Saturday evenings at 8PM.