They passed the board exams

Michael C. Hall could commit to only six weeks in the Broadway production of “Chicago” last summer. But the producers of the long-running musical leaped at the chance to cast the co-star of HBO’s “Six Feet Under” in the role of flamboyant trial attorney Billy Flynn, announcing his arrival at the height of the all-important tourist season with big ads.

It was a far cry from the days when the actor -- who plays the uptight, gay mortician David Fisher on “Six Feet Under” -- was a respected but little-heralded mainstay on the Broadway and off-Broadway stage, appearing in such productions as “Cabaret.”

With his newfound TV fame, the actor instantly noticed a change in how audiences reacted to his performance. “When I came out of the stage door at the end of the evening, there were a lot of people who were definitely there who were fans of ‘Six Feet Under,’ ” says Hall. “That was one of the reasons they asked me to do it. It was the first time I had the experience of stepping on stage and being recognized for another performance.”

The Broadway stage and the television screen -- entwined since the earliest days of television -- are as closely connected as ever, thanks to TV’s insatiable appetite for disciplined performers and theater’s need for audience-grabbing faces.In fact, nearly every series on the small screen is populated with theater veterans, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon on “Sex and the City,” Anthony LaPaglia on “Without a Trace,” John Mahoney of “Frasier,” Hattie Winston of “Becker” and Doris Roberts on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

Theater actors leave for the small screen for numerous reasons, including the financial rewards, the increased visibility and the chance for bigger parts when they return to the stage.

For their part, television producers seek out stage-trained actors for a whole other set of reasons. Most of those, it seems, trace back to the discipline of acting in the theater.

“I think as a general rule theater actors have a tendency to look at the text and go, ‘It’s my job to bring this to life,’ ” says Alan Ball, the creator and executive producer of “Six Feet Under.” “All of our series regulars have spent time on stage, so they all bring that sort of approach with them. There is also a discipline that theater actors have that sometimes people who haven’t spent time on stage don’t seem to have.””

J.J. Abrams , the creator and executive producer of ABC’s spy series “Alias,” says he loves writing for his three theater veterans, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin and Carl Lumbly, because they appreciate the written word. “You can write stuff that sort of borders on arch and someone like Ron can deliver it with humanity. You can write something that is overly patriotic and someone like Carl can deliver it with sweetness and honesty and pride. And with Victor you can do lines that are real technical and almost overly intellectual, and he brings this feeling and sort of introspection and sorrow to it.”

Bill Lawrence, the creator and executive producer of the NBC comedy “Scrubs,” who describes himself as a “theater nerd,” finds that theater actors can handle the singing, dancing and wacky comedic bits in the series. “This show is such an exercise in guerrilla filmmaking, anybody with a theater or improv background seems to have a real strength to roll with the punches, getting materials five minutes before you have to shoot it on film or finding something that works better.”

Lawrence also likes to cast theater actors because “the exciting thing about TV is finding new talent, finding people who aren’t that familiar. I think you find yourself going through the cast process -- it is usually the same 20 or 30 names for the parts.”

“The other thing about theater actors,” adds Rene Balcer, the executive producer of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “is that a theater actor will come in for a day or two as a guest star and will only get one or two scenes. They have to make a big impact in those two scenes and communicate a lot of back story about the character that they are portraying. I think theater actors have that training and that ability to come in and quickly make an impact.”

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From big stage to small screen

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New Kids

Audra McDonald

TV role: Chief of staff Jackie Brock in NBC’s “Mister Sterling”

Film and TV highlights: Guest-starred on “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Appeared in the TV movies “Wit,” for which she received an Emmy nomination, “The Last Debate” and “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters.”

New York theater highlights: Only 32, she has already won Tonys in the featured actress category for “Carousel,” “Master Class” and “Ragtime.”

Motivation: “I have been offered a series regular before in another show, but I turned it down because I didn’t think the character would have that much range and that much to do on a weekly basis. But I really liked the script and I thought the characters were really interesting, and I thought this is a character I would live with for a while, which is certainly the case with these shows. If they are successful, you live with them for years. You don’t want to rope yourself into a character you didn’t like.”

Adjustments: “The hours. You leave so early and you get home so late at night. You spend your life here on the set. Also, not being able to live with the script for very long. By the time you are starting to get it in your bones, you are on to the next episodes.”

Theater plans: “I still have concerts and we’ll start up again when we wrap here. I am at the point where I have a couple of [musical] shows in workshop. I’ll be on Broadway as long as Broadway will have me. This is a nice challenge, and you don’t want to get too comfortable with anything.”

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Michael C. Hall

TV role: David Fisher on HBO’s “Six Feet Under”

TV highlights: “I delivered some room service [as an extra] on a soap opera.”

New York theater highlights: “Cabaret,” “Chicago”

Motivation: “I was working on Broadway and I was making as much money as I had really hoped to make, so money wasn’t really an issue. I really responded to the scripts.... When I read the ‘Six Feet Under’ pilot script, I was really taken with it and really felt like I had a sense of how to do it.”

Adjustments: “I had to learn a lot fast, and I just tried to be as much of a sponge as I could be, absorb as much as I could in terms of the technical aspect of things. David remains not the most relaxed person. I was playing a character who was in an extreme state of tension, so I didn’t have to deny my nerves. I could just sort of incorporate it into what I was doing.”

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Old pros

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Kelly Bishop

TV role: Emily Gilmore on the WB’s “The Gilmore Girls”

Film and TV highlights: “An Unmarried Woman,” “Dirty Dancing”

New York theater highlights: “A Chorus Line” (Tony Award), “Six Degrees of Separation,” “Promises, Promises”

Motivation: “There is a finite amount of good jobs in the theater. So if you can do something that pays a little better .... Theater actors in general, you’ll find that we’ve all done theater, television and films. We all go where the work is, basically.”

Theater plans: “I have been horribly lazy because mainly I spend so much time out of town that when we are on hiatus I just want to be home.”

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Edward Herrmann

TV role: Richard Gilmore in WB’s “The Gilmore Girls”

Film and TV highlights: “The Practice” (Emmy Award), “St. Elsewhere,” “Eleanor and Franklin”

New York theater highlights: “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” (Tony Award), “The Philadelphia Story” (Tony nomination), “Plenty,” “Love Letters”

Motivation: “If you are lucky enough to have a series that’s a hit, it’s a lot more money than you can make in the theater, and if you want to send your kids to college .... It can be a very creative time.”

Adjustments: “Of the three mediums, TV is the most difficult, and a single-camera hour is the most difficult because you have to work quickly. You simply don’t have time to change things or find things. It’s a very, very tough schedule. But I get a great kick out of making it happen.”

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Ken Jenkins

TV role: Dr. Bob Kelso on NBC’s “Scrubs”

Film and TV highlights: “The X-Files,” “Chicago Hope,” “I Am Sam.”

Theater highlights: In 1967, he co-founded and served for three years as the associate artistic director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Appeared on Broadway opposite his son Danny Jenkins in the musical “Big River.”

Motivation: “I must admit I like it enormously. I don’t find theater as enjoyable as when I was 30. I have gone back to the theater a couple of times. I went back to New York and did a Tennessee Williams play, ‘Summer and Smoke.’ I didn’t enjoy it.”

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Victor Garber

TV role: Jack Bristow on ABC’s “Alias”

Film and TV highlights: “Titanic,” “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows” (Emmy nomination), “Frasier” (Emmy nomination)

New York theater highlights: Tony nominations for “Damn Yankees,” “Lend Me a Tenor,” “Deathtrap,” “Little Me”

Motivation: “It’s very hard to sustain a living in theater. I wasn’t actively looking for a TV series when this happened.... It has proven to be one of the most interesting characters I ever played.... I am fortunate that I am doing a show I happen to love doing. I think it would be a nightmare if it didn’t work out this way.”

Adjustments: “The challenge on television and film is the intimacy, which is just a different kind of focus. The hours on television are difficult, but for me it has been luxurious. Some days I don’t work at all, and I do not have to do eight shows a week.”

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Jerry Orbach

TV role: Det. Lennie Briscoe on NBCs “Law & Order”

Film and TV highlights: “Beauty and the Beast,” “Prince of the City,” “Dirty Dancing”

New York theater highlights: “The Fantasticks,” “Guys and Dolls” ( Tony nomination), “Promises, Promises” (Tony nomination), “Chicago” (Tony nomination), “42nd Street”

Motivation: “I had wanted some sort of a film career, and a guy who was then head of Allied Artists said that in a big-budget movie, the best I could get was third, after the lead guy and the lead girl. I wasn’t about to get leads in a big-budget movie because I wasn’t Robert Redford. I said, ‘What’s the answer?,’ and he said, ‘Television.’ You have to get a television series. That’s the career truth and the economic truth.”

Theater memories: “People remember ‘Chicago’ and ‘42nd Street’ -- maybe. But what you do on the stage goes up in smoke. ... People look at the movie of ‘Chicago’ and they don’t know what I did with Billy Flynn. Richard Gere has his own thing but mine is gone.”

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Frances Conroy

TV role: Ruth Fisher on HBO’s “Six Feet Under”

Film and TV highlights: “Law & Order, “ “Cosby,” “Our Town”

New York theater highlights: “The Lady From Dubuque,” “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan”

Adjustments: “The task of an actor is to bring to life a character that you have been given.... In the case of the stage, an audience sits there in the dark and you give out to them and they can both hear it and share it with you. With a television show and film you are giving out with a lens relatively close to yourself, but I think the process remains the same.”

Theater plans: “I haven’t done any theater since we started and that’s for a couple of different reasons. After the first season aired, it was nice to be out in L.A. with my husband because his career is based out here. And I was tired. It was quite an experience shooting 13 episodes. We only learned as we went along.... I am not pining [for theater]. It’s in my bones. I just know this is what I am doing right now, and then when the break comes, whatever comes up will come up. It doesn’t matter to me.”

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Jamey Sheridan

TV role: Capt. James Deakins on NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”

Film and TV highlights: “Shannon’s Deal,” “Chicago Hope,” “The Stand”

New York theater highlights: “All My Sons” (Tony nomination), “Julius Caesar,” “Biloxi Blues”

Motivation: “It’s the subsidy. I don’t think I could work in the theater at all if I didn’t do films or television, not with a wife, a house and kids. The thing is that the theater needs us to acquire a certain level of fame for them to be able to sell tickets.... The other reason for doing this stuff is that you do any things you can’t do on stage. I love theater but I love them all. Range has been my good fortune.”

Adjustments: “The thing that is the biggest drawback of film work and TV work for me is repetition.... I sort of like to do something a thousand times and hone it down. In camera work, that’s not how people work. People pretty much accept the first or second idea.”

Theater plans: “I have a couple of young boys, and I am focusing on my family. But I miss theater very much. I am constantly plotting my next attack. The thing is, you want to get it right. The more time goes by and the more opportunities I have, I want to pick the right piece and do it with the right people and not just do a play to do a play.”

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Juggling acts

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S. Epatha Merkerson

TV role: Lt. Anita Van Buren on NBC’s “Law & Order”

Film and TV highlights: “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and “Mann & Machine”

New York theater highlights: A Tony nomination for “The Piano Lesson,” currently appearing at the Public Theatre in a new play while filming “Law & Order”

Motivation: “I thought it is time to get back on the boards. It’s been years since I have done something in New York.”

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B.D. Wong

TV role: Dr. George Huang on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”

Film and TV highlights: “Father of the Bride,” “Oz,” “All-American Girl”

New York theater highlights: A Tony Award for “M. Butterfly,” plus roles in “The Tempest,” “A Language of Their Own” and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” Just completed a run off-Broadway in the comedy “Shanghai Moon” while working on “Law & Order” (which shoots in New York).

Moonlighting mania: “The most difficult thing is the schedule and trying to make sure I can get out of shooting in time to make it to the theater. There have been several times when I have run out of the studio into the car and have been driven to the theater and gotten there probably half an hour later than I wanted to.... If I can’t make it, then they put in the understudy. I can’t stand that.”

Motivation: “ ‘Law & Order’ is not a tremendously expressive job for me. It’s a very intelligent, very well-written and successful show, and it’s intellectually stimulating for me, but that’s pretty much it. There really is a need to explore another side of myself, which is really more about being more expressive and doing different things and trying different things and having a kind of emotional gratification, which comes from doing a play, particularly a comedy.”