THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
THE YOUNG ACTRESS Laura Robbins sits in the faculty lounge of a magnet school in Kempsville sipping tea, discussing her future.
She's thin and tallish at 5-foot-7. Very little makeup. How fresh and well-scrubbed she is. She will one day have her 15 minutes of fame, says Robbins. The 15 minutes are coming slowly for the twentysome-thing Laura Robbins.
``Little by little,'' she said. That's fine with her. She did not expect to become famous all at once.
Robbins has been in three network prime-time series (``Matlock,'' ``American Gothic'' and ``Homicide: Life on the Street'') and has appeared in two made-for-TV films including one on CBS (``A Mother's Instinct'') in which she did a scene with Lindsay Wagner and Debra Farentino.
This week, Robbins visits Wilmington, N.C., with a part in a film (``Perfect Daughter'' for the USA cable network) with Bess Armstrong and Tracy Gold.
Robbins keeps good company.
This actress from Virginia Beach with the long brown hair in a million twists, blue eyes and a smile that a Miss America contestant would die for, is edging ever closer to that 15 minutes of fame promised us all by Andy Warhol. What she needs now is The Big Break.
Laura Robbins. What is her type? What does Robbins say when the casting directors ask that question?
Robbins is taking her time to find the answer. But not too much time. She teaches a class in theater arts at 2:30 p.m. It's almost time to conclude this interview.
Here comes her reply. ``My type is real-person. I'm the real-person type. I think I have real maturity.''
She has been cast as a real-person third wife in ``A Mother's Instinct,'' and a real person goddaughter to Andy Griffith on a ``Matlock'' episode, and this week in Wilmington she will play older as a 30-year-old real person single mother.
Does the role really matter? Robbins always lights up the screen. ``She fairly glows,'' said Joe Burnsworth, who helped to find the actress in Laura Robbins when he was teaching at Princess Anne High School.
It wasn't hard, said Burnsworth. ``She was a natural.''
Today Burnsworth teaches at the Kempsville magnet school where four afternoons a week Robbins also instructs the gifted 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds who are captivated by the theater. The students love to hear about when Robbins goes out on auditions - even if she doesn't get the role.
Tonight at 10:30 p.m. on WHRO, Robbins will be on screen in a 30-minute film that Virginia Beach filmmaker Glenn McClanan wrote and produced while working for his master's degree in New York University's graduate film program.
``Tribes'' is about love between an interracial couple in Princess Anne County in 1919. WHRO calls it a Southern Gothic. Be warned. It is a dark, depressing half hour.
For most of the film, Robbins is seen dressed in a fancy dress, running through the Great Dismal Swamp, and on location in the Seashore State Park - a hot, difficult shoot, she said.
(WHRO on May 13 through May 17 at 11:30 p.m., and again on May 18 at 10 p.m., will air 18 short films in the Regent U. College of Communications and the Arts Film Festival, including several works in which Robbins has the lead role).
Robbins said she will soon decide if now is the time to leave her life here as part-time actress and part-time teacher to seek full-time work before the cameras in Southern California.
In ``A Mother's Instinct,'' Robbins was before the cameras all day for one scene. In one TV film, she had 11 days work. The ``Matlock'' episode titled ``The Godfather'' was her biggest role. On Robbins' resume, it says she was a co-star.
Today, a guest star and a co-star. Tomorrow, the lead. Why not?
``I'm highly motivated,'' said Robbins, finishing her tea and hurrying off to teach her class. ``And enthusiastic.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo appears on p. E1
by CNB