WITH AN EYE ON . . . : Clea Lewis’ Audrey still tests ‘Ellen’s’ patience but it’s paying off well

Clea Lewis doesn’t mind a little juggling these days, especially since it’s the kind of balancing act actresses like.

The recurring character in ABC’s “Ellen” shoots the hit sitcom at Disney Studios in Burbank, then zips south daily to Costa Mesa to star in South Coast Repertory’s “Pterodactyls.”

“It’s taken some doing,” Lewis says during a rare break at her Los Angeles home. “With ‘Ellen’ shooting at the same time, it’s been crazy, but the play’s great. It’s great to do live theater again.”

Her “Ellen” character Audrey began as a one-shot deal in the first season. Despite large-scale changes in cast, producers and story line changes in the show, Audrey survived.

“She was Ellen’s negative friend,” Lewis recalls of her first appearance on the show, then called “These Friends of Mine.” When they brought Audrey back, she went from “drab and downbeat,” as Lewis puts it, “to perky and oblivious.”

“She’s annoying in a different way now,” the actress says. “In every possible way, she’s a little over the top. She’s evolved from being just negative to saying inappropriate things, with this bubbly personality and kind of guileless. Somehow, she manages to be appealing.”

Audiences found Audrey appealing enough that producers brought her back for 8 episodes of this season’s 24. Lewis thinks people “liked the mix and it’s become a great combination, with Ellen so down to earth. Audrey’s a great foil. A doily. She’s so pink and upbeat and nerdy. She loves iceberg lettuce and kittens. It’s a funny contrast.”

Audrey’s endearing and perhaps inexplicable appeal could be, as Lewis puts it, “everyone has a friend who, when you hear their voice when you answer the phone, you just want to beat your head. They’re so nice to you, you can’t be mean and you can’t get rid of them.”

Lewis, a Cleveland native, “always wanted to be a performer,” like her father Robert. Performing with his brother Stanley, they were the vaudeville act “The Sunrise Happiness Kids.”

“They were song-and-dance kids back in the mid-’20s,” Lewis says proudly. “They were on the circuit and played with the Marx Brothers and Fanny Brice. They were the kid act.” But, she says, “truant officers caught up with him. He didn’t start the first grade until he was 12. By then he was ravenous for learning.” Her father became a corporate lawyer and “would revive his act every now and then.”

The youngest of five siblings, Lewis, 29, was a theater major at Brown University and studied drama in London her junior year. She moved to Chicago after graduation and worked there in the theater, her first and continuing love. “I also worked as a waitress, a caterer and temp,” she recalls. “I also worked the (Princess) Borghese counter. I had to ride up and down the elevator wearing a toga, asking customers if they wanted to try the new mud mask.”

Lewis moved to San Diego in 1990 and was working on a master of fine arts degree when she got her first commercial in Los Angeles, during a summer break. “I was getting pretty diverse work, although I found I was good at playing bitchy roles,” she says, giggling.

In 1992, she landed a key role on Fox’s little-seen but critically acclaimed sitcom “Flying Blind.” As Tea Leoni’s roommate, she was “a kind of manic-depressive, a strange girl who couldn’t hold a job and who loved men who were mean to her. She lounged around in a 1930s bathrobe. It was a really neat role.” But the show’s time slot (Sundays at 10 p.m.) proved deadly and the ratings stayed rock-bottom.

Lewis finds her stage character, Emma, in the black comedy “Pterodactyls” particularly challenging: “Emma’s so complicated, and has so many problems. I still like to do things like figure out what does she eat for breakfast, what is her favorite color, what is she thinking in every scene. I like to know every little detail.”

But she doesn’t mind the rush to Burbank for high-profile Audrey. “Sometimes I worry a little about getting too associated with this intensely annoying persona. I’m kind of hoping they know that’s not what I’m really like. But she’s fun! She’s a goofball.”

“Ellen” airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. “Pterodactyls” runs through April 16 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. For information, call (714) 957-4033.