Fans of “The Good Wife” know that Jackie Florrick, the calculating mother of Chris Noth’s disgraced politician, always has an agenda. But few know that the woman who plays her — Mary Beth Peil — has long kept a secret: She used to be an opera singer. “When I started tiptoeing into musical theater in the early ’80s, I thought [opera] would be a strike against me,” she says. “I feel so fortunate that at my age, I can let down all the curtains and say yes, I did this, and not feel I have to apologize.” She certainly needn’t apologize for her star turns in Broadway’s “Nine” and “Follies.” She’s currently starring in off-Broadway’s “The Morini Strad,” as a violin virtuoso in a male-dominated world. Here’s what’s in her library.
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
The first book I ever read where I got an inkling of what they meant by passion. I took an acting class at Northwestern where we had to create scenes from a favorite book. I chose this and got so caught up in the moment in one scene, I hauled off and smacked my teacher! I got gold stars for it. She probably saw stars, too!
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
I’ve read it three times, which shows I’m probably ready for No. 4. When I was in my early 20s, I became crazed for all things Russian — its history, poetry, literature, music, art. It’s unexplainable other than it hits a chord deep within me. Tolstoy really wrote about the history of his country, the aristocracy and the peasants. Here, he gives you all of it.
Creative Visualization
by Shakti Gawain
This fell into my hands during a time a dear friend referred to as my “blue period,” when I experienced stress and doubt on every level. Gawain made the act of transformation practical, putting it in terms anyone can understand. It’s about examining your own true nature and asking yourself, “What can I do today?”
Monsieur Proust
by Céleste Albaret
This is a transcription of the interviews Proust’s housekeeper gave a reporter 50 years after Proust’s death. She’d promised never to tell anyone anything but became so alarmed about the things people were saying that she wanted to set the record straight. I was in a one-woman play Mary Zimmerman wrote about it.