Jess Barbagallo received a NY IT Awards nomination for her role as Eliot in the original 2009 production of MilkMilkLemonade.

But she’s not too keen on just rehashing what she’s done in the past. She’s ready to dig deeper and find new levels in APAC’s MilkMilkLemonade remount. (Now playing through Nov. 13th. Buy tickets here.)

HOW DOES IT FEEL STEPPING BACK INTO MILKMILKLEMONADE WITH THE REST OF THE CAST?

I like revisiting the play. I think Jose [Zayas, Director] has a different take on the play. There’s something cool about the fact that he didn’t see the original, so he doesn’t have preconceived notions about it. He’s heard things and we’ve contributed a lot about it but he’s just looking at it as this text, as opposed to Isaac [Butler] working on it in this really hands on way with Josh.

So the fun part about acting it again is to have this totally fresh director’s eyes on it, who has different insights about the text. Almost all of us are like, “Oh, I haven’t even thought about that the first time.” Because you build a performance, you lock it in and you just do it. And that feels like the right thing. Now I’m like there are all these other possibilities for playing these scenes which are really fun.

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU COMING INTO MILKMILKLEMONADE THIS TIME AROUND?

Throwing away old muscle memory stuff. You learn something with your body too, so getting a new direction I see all the ways I’m locked into how to play it. So that’s a challenge. It’s like dropping that stuff and trying to be like really fresh and let new things happen.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE MILKMILKLEMONADE SCRIPT?

I like that it’s really romantic. I’m definitely not the romantic hero in the play but I like the fact that I get to have, what I think is, an authentic romance with someone and it’s complicated. And the fact that we have a play within a play in the middle of the show, there’s just a lot of dimensions to the characters. So it’s cool to get to do a lot of different things in one play. And it all happens pretty fast, so once you start it it’s just going. There’s not a lot of waiting around because then you’re in this next thing. I like that.

WHAT HAS IMPRESSED YOU THE MOST ABOUT WORKING ON APAC’S PRODUCTION OF MILKMILKLEMONADE?

Everybody just seems really excited about the production. I love this cast. I haven’t worked on it with anybody before this last round and they’re really cool actors. And I think there are so many cool people involved in every part of the plan. So that’s really nice. And the production values, I walked in and the set looks awesome. I can’t wait to actually play on it. It’s really cool how big it is.

It’s so weird coming from the cardboard set to like “Whoa!” I’m actually looking up at the set as opposed to looking straight at it. Like, “There it is. Okay let’s fold it up and put it in my pocket.” So that’s going to be really fun. And I don’t know how that’s going to change things for the audience. That’s going to be really cool to see.

READER QUESTION: ARE YOU GOING TO DO ANYTHING NEW IN YOUR ACTING PROCESS TO KEEP THE ILLUSION OF THE FIRST TIME?

No, I won’t. I’m not interested in doing that. I hope to a point that’s not detrimental.

One of the things I had suggested when we first started this run was just finding the darker parts of the script. I mean it’s a comedy. How far can you go not playing every line for a laugh? That was one really fun interpretation of the play. I think some of it was a lot more cartoony. And I don’t mean that in a derisive way at all. It was like, [motions with her body] “Now I’m here. And now I’m here.” I’m not sure how well that’s going to translate in the transcription. Pictures are always helpful. [laughs.] This would make us all like machines and there would be no point for us doing a remount if we weren’t going to go through the script and think about ways to give it more depth. It wouldn’t be any fun.

THIS SEASON AT APAC WE’RE EXPLORING THE IDEA OF HOME FROM AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE. THE SPRING MUSICAL, THE HUMAN COMEDY LOOKS AT CHARACTERS WHO YEARN TO RETURN HOME. IN MILKMILKLEMONADE THE CHARACTERS WANT TO GET AWAY FROM HOME. WHAT WAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HOME?

As a gay person in upstate New York, I didn’t have painful bullying experiences. I also wasn’t out. But I was definitely questioning my sexuality. I had a girlfriend, like a secret girlfriend, when I was in high school. And I was definitely always thinking that my interests were way broader than what was immediately at my disposal. I went to a really tiny high school. No theater going on. Not to put the place down because there’s lots of beautiful stuff about it but just not a lot happening in the way of people creating new culture. That was not happening. I was pretty certain that I wanted to move to a city or move to a really different kind of place from the time I was like 15 or 16.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AFTER THIS PRODUCTION OF MILKMILKLEMONADE?

I have two projects happening. I’m a playwright myself. I have a play going up in January and February that I’m really excited about. It’s tentatively called Saturn Nights. I’ve been thinking about tooling with the title. That’s happening at Incubator Arts Project in January/February. So I’m in the process of casting it and fundraising. I’m not directing it but I’m working on it even now.

I’m also going to start workshopping a new show with The Builders Association. I’ll start that in January. That’s going to be a long development process but that open next fall.

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Don’t miss Jess Barbagallo and the rest of the original cast in APAC’s remount of Joshua Conkel’s MilkMilkLemonade running through Nov. 13th. Buy tickets to MilkMilkLemonade here.