Bridget Hanley Preaches Gospel of a Makeup-Free ‘Sermon’

Bridget Hanley knows she has the role of a lifetime in her hip pocket.

“All performers dream of having something like this,” says the actress, who’s won raves for her solo turn as a fiery preacher in James Dickey’s epic poem “Sermon” at Theatre West. It is, however, a less-than-glamorous role; Hanley appears in a plain bun and matronly garb. “After a while, working in television, I start to think I was born with eye makeup,” she says wryly. “So it’s wonderful to wash my face and just go out there bare.”

This part is “the opposite end of the spectrum” from Hanley’s 1991 stage turn in Chazz Palminteri’s “Faithful” at the Court Theatre, in which she played a wealthy wife haggling over her life with a hit man. “Chazz says he wrote it for me,” she notes of the role, which will reportedly be played by Liz Taylor in the upcoming film. “I think he’s now told Elizabeth Taylor he wrote it for her.” She laughs. “It’s OK. I got my chance to create that character--and I know that.”

In “Sermon,” the Seattle-raised actress (mother to two grown daughters), exhorts her female audience to grab some personal power in the world. “She tells them, ‘We should feel as free and correct as the animals feel. They may be penned up, but they strain toward sex wherever they are. You’re entitled to sex, to freedom--freedom from male and religious dominance. We are whole and should treat ourselves accordingly.”’

Those in the thirtysomething set recognize Hanley for her role as Candy Pruitt in the 1968-70 ABC series “Here Come the Brides,” in which she played the love of then-teen idol Bobby Sherman. “People really do remember that series, which is such a joy,” she says of the show, which also marked the beginnings of a real-life collaboration with her husband of 23 years, director E.W. Swackhamer. “So I couldn’t have a crush on Bobby Sherman. I already had one on E.W. Swackhamer.”