Miriam Silverman, the popular actress, made her debut on national television as an infant. Her birth was aired live on “Good Morning America” as part of a report on pregnancies in older women. Four and a half decades later, Silverman is a Tony award-nominated performer for best-featured actress in the play “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”.
Alongside Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan, Silverman has received high acclaim for her role as Mavis, a bigoted, older Upper Manhattan woman, who is also the older sister of Iris.
Receiving hugely positive reviews for her performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music stage earlier this year, Silverman has impressed both audiences and critics alike. She successfully steals the scene from other big names in the industry and has earned a number of glowing reviews.
Silverman’s life took a different path initially
Silverman comes from the Upper West Side of Manhattan and was more into ballet and soccer than the performing arts as a child. It was not until she attended college at Brown, where she acted in Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” that she developed a passion for acting. Silverman’s future was secured when she landed her dream role as Hennie in Clifford Odets’s “Awake and Sing!” at the Arena Stage in Washington. The role lifted her career and also provided a partner for life as she met her husband, Adam Green while working on the production.
Silverman prefers complicated, flawed characters because of their humanity
Speaking about her career in acting, Silverman revealed she prefers playing complicated and sometimes difficult characters and relishes exploring their humanity. Her latest role in the stage play is blissful to her as she considers the character as something of a perfect one to play:
“It’s much more interesting to me than just playing a likable ingénue that, you know, everybody immediately can sort of get on board with,” she said. “I’m always more drawn to complicated, tricky, flawed characters. And not trying to make them likable, per se, but just trying to be inside of them in all of their humanity.”
Silverman is unafraid of embracing the darkness
Anne Kauffman, who directed “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” stage production, expressed her admiration for Silverman’s theatre work and emphasized her colleague’s fearless approach to embracing darkness:
“She’s unafraid of embracing the darkness of this character,” Kauffman said. “She looks to how to grow and incorporate an angle of her character, embraces it, inhabits it and lets it deepen her, rather than just make it feel like it’s added on.”
Silverman has other interests too
Alongside her acting career, Silverman teaches undergraduate and MFA acting students at N.Y.U. She enjoys mentorship and has a passion for exposing new actors to the industry.
Theatre helped Silverman through a tough time
In February this year, facing the personal challenge of her mother’s passing, Silverman pulled through by focusing her energy on theatre:
“It was a lodestar,” she said. “Five o’clock would come and I would feel a little bit lighter, like I knew what I was going to do. I knew I loved doing it.”
Silverman’s hard work finally pays off with a Tony nomination
Silverman’s dedication to her craft earned her a Tony nomination, and her colleagues think it’s about time she received such recognition. Kauffman believes that Silverman was destined to hit such heights:
“She puts her head down and she does the work and she’s consistent as hell,” said Kauffman. “She’ll read your mind and give you what you need and more. She’s a workhorse who is finally getting what she deserves.”
Notwithstanding the acknowledgment, Silverman scrutinizes the Oscar ceremony’s honours:
“I really just want to be onstage performing in rich and gorgeous plays,” she said. “This role feels like an offering.”
