So you may not think playing a chicken could be all that compelling.

And if you thought that, you would in fact, be wrong.

Just ask Jennifer Harder. The 2010 NY IT Awards recipient - Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role, for her portrayal of Linda the chicken in the original 2009 MilkMilkLemonade production.

If you missed the original production fear not. Harder is currently reviving her role in APAC’s MilkMilkLemonade remount with the original cast. (Yes, you should get tickets.)

I recently pecked Jennifer’s brain about her experience with the remount.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NY IT AWARDS WIN FOR OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE FOR YOUR WORK AS LINDA THE CHICKEN IN THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF MILKMILKLEMONADE. WHAT’S THAT EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE?

It feels good! Josh [Conkel] and I were nominated as producers last year, and I just really love the IT community. It was an experience just to get to know more people. I met the NY Neo-Futurists. They’re very cool people. It was nice just to celebrate the fact that downtown theater is alive and thriving. It’s in every single borough.

I felt so relevant and alive and connected. Just a few days before the IT Awards I was thinking, “Why am I doing this again?” So it was really nice to be like, “Ah! I’m doing it because we’re all doing it.” And we’re doing really, really good theater. And we’re telling really, really good stories. I was also just pleased as punched that night, I was just having fun. And getting to dress up that was an element of it too.

NOW YOU’RE REVISITING YOUR ROLE FOR THIS REMOUNT OF MILKMILKLEMONADE. WHAT HAVE REHEARSALS BEEN LIKE?

I love it! It’s a shame we only got a 3 week run the first time. I think it was only nine performances. It was such a shame. You know how, and a lot of actors feel this way, they feel like they’re finally just getting to the character right when the curtain closes. So it’s great that we’re all getting to reprise our roles.

I love working with Jose [Zayas, director]. He has this whole platform to start on and now he can dig a bit deeper into all these things. I feel like I’m going in a slightly different direction with the character and it’s going to affect people differently and the story line is a little different. I’m just enjoying myself. And you know the cast is [goes into character]: “Frickin’ talented!”

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE MILKMILKLEMONADE SCRIPT?

I love Josh’s humor. It’s so dark and yet so spot on. Almost every joke you’re just nodding your heading like, “I get it. I’ve been there.” Especially if you’ve grew up in the mid-west and you talk about Mall Town. I remember being a 10-year-old kid, living on a dirt road across from a chicken farm. We got all our eggs from a chicken farm down the road. I was always like, “I want to go to the mall.” I remember auditioning for some talent competition in the big city. I just love the story line. But if I had to choose one thing about the script I would say the humor.

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE COMING BACK INTO THE ROLE OF ‘LINDA’?

The death scene. Before, I’m not sure if anyone else would say it was the weakest link, but I think the consensus was, in the last production, that dance sequence was not what we felt most confident with and now it’s been completely retooled. In the script it’s been rewritten, onstage it’s a different machine, a different dance, different music — everything entirely. I think they’re almost edging toward it being a solo dance now. So that the biggest challenge for me. That’s the one scene I’m going to have to work on and become comfortable with.

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

The level of design is out of control. I’ve never worked on a show with so many designers. Friendly, talented, multi-faceted people. APAC has been working for months preparing for this and now we’re in the thick of it. I can’t wait to get on the set and get into those costumes. It’s really the whole element of design that I’m impressed with. I can’t wait to see the lighting too.

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

I hardly ever have a chance to zone out. There’s no place in this play to zone out. It’s tight. It’s short. It’s jam packed with action. Plus the fact that I don’t speak english for half the play means that I have to listen and respond so carefully. And timing is a must because it’s usually one character’s line-my line-and then the translation line and then another character’s line. So it’s always fresh. That’s maybe half the play. Then whenever I’m speaking english it’s usually to the audience and whenever your speaking to the audience it’s new every single time. That’s scary. It’s scary talking to the audience. [Laughs] It can be very, very satisfying and thrilling but most of the time it’s really, really scary. There’s no way you can NOT have that be for the first time.

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?

You know what was interesting is that I’m from a really blue collar town. It’s mostly farmers, construction workers, auto workers or railroad workers. My family was, we weren’t like intellectuals, but they were school teachers. I was just into different kinds of music. I was more into classical music than country music. I definitely wasn’t an outsider when it came to sexuality or race but I liked going to the theater which we didn’t have in town. We didn’t even have a movie theater in town. We didn’t even have a McDonald’s in town. I was always driving somewhere, forty-minutes to an hour, to get to some cultural place. I always knew that I wasn’t going to stay in my hometown.

WHAT’S NEXT AFTER MILKMILKLEMONADE?

Well, I’m in a rock band, and we have some shows lined up. The name of the band is “Super Major” and I play the trumpet. We’re in the International Pop Festival which is after MilkMilkLemonade closes. But I don’t have anything theater-wise lined up. So I’m trying to put the bug in my friends’ ears.

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Be sure to catch Jennifer in MilkMilkLemonade through November 13th. Then you may want to hire her. Bawk!

*Photo Credit: Rhys Harper Photography