Perfect partners: ‘Gorgeous’ actress shares stage with veteran Chicago actor, cute pooch

Must like dogs. Casting directors don’t typically require that of actors, but it was imperative for Stephanie Shum, a dog-loving theater artist currently co-starring in Raven Theatre and Rivendell Theatre’s premiere of “Gorgeous,” Keiko Green’s dramedy about two women embroiled in a dispute over a beloved bulldog.

Auditioning for the show, the Stevenson High School graduate, formerly of Buffalo Grove, was “100% on board” sharing the stage with Rivendell artistic director/actor Tara Mallen and Vivi, the championship bulldog who plays the titular character.

Awaiting her cue backstage during a performance, Shum regularly checks in with Vivi just to say “hi.”

“It’s the best midshow break to pet a sweet pup in the moments before going back on stage,” she said, laughing.

Performing a new play with only two actors poses challenges. Adding a dog poses another.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” said Shum, referring to the ever-present possibility of a noisy audience member distracting her four-legged co-star.

Then again, Shum has never shied away from challenges. That includes working on new plays.

“Tara likes to say you get to leave your DNA on the show,” she said of the play she jokingly describes as a “three-pawer” (a nod to the term “two-hander,” which refers to a play with only two actors).

That’s one of the joys of working on a premiere.

“I get to help in shepherding the story,” she said of the play, an examination of loneliness, loss and grief in which two characters discover they have more in common than they imagined.

Shum also felt kinship with Green, an Asian woman raised in the South whose work the actress describes as “wonderful and full of heart.”

“As an Asian woman, it's important to me to help create characters and experiences that reflect my lived experiences,” said Shum, who was born in Canada and moved to Buffalo Grove with her parents when she was 9.

She hadn’t given much thought to acting until a friend signed up for theater camp. Unwilling to spend her first summer in the U.S. without her new pal, Shum signed up for the camp too, igniting passion and talent she didn’t know she possessed.

“I fell in love with theater,” she said. “It became a community.”

She performed with the Buffalo Grove Park District, did shows in middle school and at Stevenson High School, where the late playwright Joel Drake Johnson (“Four Places,” “The Fall to Earth,” “Rasheeda Speaking”) was her teacher.

“Mr. Johnson brought me to this moment,” Shum said of Johnson, a Victory Gardens Theater playwrights ensemble member whose work was produced at Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Zebra Crossing and off-Broadway). “He was a huge part of my life.”

“It was such a thrill to see my teacher’s work at these stages,” said Shum, who was especially drawn to new plays. Among them was “Rasheeda Speaking,” which she saw for the first time at Rivendell Theatre with Mallen in the cast.

When it came time for college, she followed her parents’ advice and pursued a business degree with a minor in theater. After graduating from the University in Montreal, Quebec, she put her degree to work as a marketing manager for Lookingglass Theatre Company and later as co-artistic director for The New Coordinates (originally The New Colony), which specialized in new works.

She currently works in A Red Orchid Theatre’s marketing and development department.

On stage she has performed with Oak Brook’s First Folio Theater, The New Coordinates, A Red Orchid, Goodman and Steppenwolf, where she is currently an understudy in its upcoming production of Noah Diaz’s “You Will Get Sick.”

In “Gorgeous,” Shum plays Jenny Akida, a Japanese woman raised in Georgia coping with the loss of her older boyfriend Bill, whose English bulldog Gorgeous Jenny has been showing. Conflicts arise when Bill’s estranged wife, Bernie (Mallen), arrives.

“There’s nothing like seeing the gestation of a play, getting to opening night and seeing what we all created together,” said Shum, adding that there are still moments onstage that catch her off guard.

“It stays fresh,” she says, “every night you’re listening with new ears.”

“What’s beautiful is the trust we have with each other,” said Shum of her human co-star. “She’s a Chicago legend. Getting to learn from her is an incredible experience.”

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“Gorgeous”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through June 7

Where: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago, raventheatre.com

Tickets: $45