Jane Sell Trese, a Tony Award-winning actress, has a starring role on Broadway every Tuesday, but she's not giving up her day job as an executive assistant in a multinational advertising agency.
Trese, who is the regular standby for Carol Burnett in "Moon Over Buffalo" and is appearing on Tuesdays through February, is astonished to find herself back on stage after a long hiatus. In fact, she does not even act under the same name, Janie Sell, anymore. "I changed it because I figure I'm too old for a diminutive," she said, "and I added my married name."Trese, 56, who won a Tony in 1974 for her performance in "Over There," gave up acting about 15 years ago.
"The parts started thinning out when I hit my 40s, so I went back to school and graduated from Hunter in 1989," she said. "I was 49, and I didn't know what I was going to do next, so I got a job as a receptionist at Young & Rubicam. Shortly after that I became the personal assistant to Peter Georgescu, who is now chairman and chief executive there."
She had been in that job almost six years when Tom Moore, the director of "Moon Over Buffalo," phoned.
She recalled: "He said, `We know you love your job and you wouldn't have to quit. We would work rehearsals around your schedule.' "
At her debut, "The audience was very supportive," she said. "Of course, they had to be. A lot of them were my family and friends."