On a Role

For actors, there are good parts--ones that challenge them, stretch their range, show off their talents. And then there are perfect parts.

Lisa Kaminir has found the latter.

The role of Sharon in “The Adjustment”--one of the only unqualified Valley theater hits this year--fits Kaminir like spandex. Sharon is a slick political lobbyist who is brash, confident and decisive. “I know this woman,” Kaminir stated matter-of-factly. “I know the world she lives in. I think I understand her character arc. I understand where she argues from.”

That’s no small feat, considering the complex issues playwright Michael T. Folie addresses in the play. “The Adjustment” is centered on the relationship between Sharon, a nonreligious Jew, and her chiropractor, Matt, a devout Hasid with Parkinson’s disease. When Matt’s situation worsens--his business starts to fail, his disease advances--he relies on faith in Rabbi Schimmel. Sharon, meanwhile, relies on her political influence to set things right. Through these conflicting characters, Folie explores the issue of balance--between religion and secularism, assimilation and faith, ambition and integrity.

“The Adjustment,” in the midst of its West Coast premiere at the Alliance Repertory Company in Burbank, was produced before in Highwood, Ill., and Rochester, Minn., for the New Play Festival. It has been playing to sold-out houses at the Alliance since June and has been extended through Nov. 30.

The part Kaminir knows so well almost went to someone else. The way many small theater companies operate is that actors suggest plays. If the company decides to produce it, that actor gets first crack at the role he or she wants. A different actress co-sponsored “The Adjustment” at the Alliance and played Sharon at a staged reading last year.

“When I saw the reading, I thought the actress did a wonderful job,” Kaminir said. “But I also thought, ‘My God, this is the perfect role for me.’ ” As it happens, the other actress had to back out, and Kaminir got to audition after all.

Director Bob Neches found Kaminir well-suited for the part. “She has such a strong sense of pride in what she does that relates to Sharon impeccably,” he said. Then he laughed as he remembered Kaminir’s audition last spring. “She read the scene and said the part was written for her. And I said, ‘Oh really?’ ” Neches said. “Did I mention she’s cocky, too?”

She didn’t seem too cocky sitting on a step outside a 6-by-8-foot trailer on the CBS lot in Studio City. But she didn’t seem out of place among the star-filled sound stages, either. Her name, written on masking tape next to the door, indicated she was a temporary visitor, here for a guest role on the new Steven Bochco comedy, “Public Morals.”

The part was an indirect reward for the success of “The Adjustment.” A casting director who saw the play recommended Kaminir to a colleague casting “Public Morals.” Kaminir plays a vice cop who is undercover as a hooker. “I’ve played two hookers and a slut [on TV] in the last year,” she said. “It’s like a little niche.”

She wasn’t in hooker attire because the cast did only a read-through of the episode. Instead she wore a casual striped shirt and Levis with something like a 34-inch inseam. They weren’t rolled up. She has easily enough hair for three people, and it is in tight dark curls that set off startling blue eyes. She said she “plays late 20s,” a little younger than her actual age.

She grew up on the upper east side of Manhattan, essentially an only child. Her parents divorced when she was 12 and her mother later remarried. As a child she, with the girl next door, made up shows with titles like “Piffle, It’s Only a Sniffle.” But she caught chronic drama fever at summer camp in Maine, where she played a cantaloupe in “Jose the Candlemaker.” “I went to camp for 10 years. I loved camp,” Kaminir said. “I would still go to camp if they would let me.”

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She studied theater at Northwestern University, then worked in Chicago, New York and regionally before landing in Los Angeles with no agent, no screen credits and no idea of how the movie/TV business worked. She planned to stay four months. That was almost eight years ago.

She decided that actors in Los Angeles were, at least, working. Besides theater, there were commercials and guest roles on TV. And, she said, “it’s easier to be unemployed here. The weather’s nice. You can do stuff free. You can go to the beach. You can go to the mountains.” In New York, she said, it costs you money every time you leave your house.

As fiercely motivated as Kaminir seems to her colleagues, the actress said she treasures her life outside the theater. She teaches yoga, both privately and at the Center for Yoga in Hancock Park. She also serves on the board of directors for Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles. For just over a year, she has been married to director Kevin Kelley, who gave Kaminir her first role in Los Angeles. She was Luciana in “Comedy of Errors” when he was artistic director of the Shakespeare Festival.

“Some people can be incredibly focused and driven and create a career out of that,” she said. “I need to look at it in a big-picture way and relax. That’s when I get creative and people want to hire me.”

On stage, though, Kaminir is all business, said co-star Gil Bernardy, who plays the chiropractor, Matt. She takes Sharon’s tough and independent demeanor and infuses it with a sensitivity that makes her appealing.

“She’s extremely skilled and very giving as an actress. And very disciplined, which is nice, especially in Los Angeles where a lot of people have a hobby or showcase attitude toward theater,” Bernardy said. “Working with her is a challenge because of those qualities. It forces me to be on my toes so that Matt doesn’t get swallowed up.”

The success of “The Adjustment,” which is now extended through Nov. 30, has been a bit of a surprise. Everyone involved knew it was a great play, Bernardy said, but he was afraid that it wouldn’t find its audience.

“I thought it would be successful, but I didn’t think that it would run for five months,” said Bernardy, who is also the company’s dramaturge. “I didn’t know that it would be the sold-out, extend-extend-extend hit that it’s been. Especially in an [Actors’] Equity-waiver theater. Especially in Burbank.”

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There’s been some talk of moving the play to a larger theater in Los Angeles, but it seems more probable that the next production will be in New York, the implied setting of the play and home of playwright Folie.

Folie, who also works as a corporate speech writer, said the Jewish Repertory Theatre has expressed interest in “The Adjustment.” Though Kaminir has been an essential part of its success here--”She has them in the palm of her hand through the whole play,” Folie said--she probably won’t reprise the role in New York.

The Jewish Rep seems committed to getting a well-known actress in the role of Sharon, Folie said, mostly because he doesn’t yet have name recognition as a playwright.

“They think that in order for the play to work they need to get someone to draw people in in the role of Sharon,” Folie said. “And probably in five years, Lisa will be a name and we won’t be able to get her.”

DETAILS

* WHAT: “The Adjustment.”

* WHERE: The Alliance Repertory Company, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays.

* HOW MUCH: $15.

* CALL: (213) 660-8587.