Daniella Heywood, who recently purchased a house in West Windsor’s Colonial Park, is playing the role of Lotty Wilton in “Enchanted April” opening Friday, November 7, in Philadelphia. “It’s a real ‘chick-flick’ feel good show,” she says.##M:[more]##
Heywood discovered the theater when she saw an audition notice for “The Mousetrap,” and was cast as Molly — still her favorite role. “I’ve always loved Agatha Christie and ‘The Mousetrap’ is still running on Broadway in the UK, so community theaters cannot get the rights to do it,” she says. “I would never have gotten the chance to play the part if I hadn’t come to the U.S. I was so excited to get the opportunity to play the role. That was my first role at the Old Academy [a theater in Philadelphia]and I fell in love with the people and the history of the theater.” (She made her U.S. drama debut on the same stage as a young Grace Kelly did circa 1941).
Heywood, who has been acting since kindergarten, has also portrayed Moxie in “Relative Values,” Lady Gertrude Chiltern in “An Ideal Husband,” and Anne Hathaway in “Murdering Marlowe.”
“Lotty Wilton feels down-trodden in her marriage,” says Heywood. “Her husband won’t even take her out for dinner and is only interested in using her to make business contacts. She seems to be able to see what people are feeling and also claims to be able to see people’s futures.”
“The play begins in a rainy London in the 1920s and Lotty sees an advertisement in a local newspaper to rent a castle in Italy for the month of April. She decides it would be the perfect place to escape her marriage for a while and asks Rose Arnott (equally miserable in her marriage) to join her. They can’t afford to rent it alone so they recruit two other women (a young socialite and an old, cranky woman) to join them. The unlikely foursome all find themselves in Italy.”
Heywood received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in biochemistry from Leeds University, UK. She heads up Adelphi International Research, a pharmaceutical research company based in Doylestown, PA. She relocated from Manchester to the United States five years ago. Her boyfriend, Gavin Lau, works in the air section of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in New York. Their cat, Houdini, is “true to his name in that he attempts to escape from everything. He has been known to go up a chimney and burst out of his carrier.”
“When we were ready to buy, we wanted somewhere where we would have a big yard and would be able to get a single family home that was detached,” she says. “You just get so much more for your money in West Windsor, plus the school system is fantastic.” The couple plans to have kids. Since Lau works in New York they needed to be close to the train station. “We also loved that the neighborhood we have moved in to is very well established so there are lots of old trees, and our neighbors have been extremely welcoming,” she says.
— Lynn Miller
Enchanted April, 3540-3544 Indian Queen Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19129, 215-843-1109, $12 includes refreshments at intermission. Fridays and Saturdays, November 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, and 22, at 8 p.m. Sundays, November 16 and 23, 2 p.m..
