By Liz Eichler
Dale Hodges is headed to Milwaukee with Mrs. Christie, a co-production between Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
Cincinnati celebrates Dale Hodges. Milwaukee’s about to find out why.
Hodges is one of those performers audiences seek out regardless of the title on the marquee—a compelling actor who brings precision and truth to every role.
So how does an actor build that kind of career—one defined not by flash, but by longevity, rigor, and trust?
Building a Solid Foundation
“I didn’t go straight into theatre,” Hodges said. “I took the secretary route.”
After high school, a practical path made sense. Theatre was something she loved, but not yet something she believed she could build a life around. Over time, through doing the work and encouragement from friends, she realized she might be good at it.
At 24, she made the leap, enrolling at East 15 Acting School in London. She spent three years immersed in training that would shape both her technique and her understanding of what theatre could be.
One production left a lasting impression: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Peter Brook and designed by Sally Jacobs for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1970. Performed in a stark white box and infused with circus-inspired physicality, it stripped away Victorian convention and reimagined Shakespeare for a modern audience.
Moving to New York City
London also brought a personal turning point. In 1971, Hodges fell in love with an American actor and moved with him to New York City.
“It took me a year to figure out how the city worked,” she said. “And another year to figure out how that theatre world worked.”
In a pre-digital industry, the Theatre Communications Group would post notices outside its offices listing regional theatres coming into the city to audition. Hodges would study those listings, research each company’s season, and type and mail dozens of letters just to be seen. Persistence paid off.
By 1974, she had joined Actors’ Equity Association. Her first union role was in Hayfever at Baltimore Center Stage, followed by an understudy position in Equus on Broadway. Those early opportunities established not just credits, but relationships—the foundation of a career built as much on trust and reliability as talent.
More roles came along–including becoming a mother. Later, she became a single mother as her marriage fell apart. She was able to piece together a career, being an understudy or with small roles–and relied on a network of friends who helped sustain her life and work.
Cincinnati: A Leap of Faith
In 1988, she made another leap—this time to Cincinnati, alongside her current husband, David Logan.
“Although I am not religious, it was an act of faith,” she said. “Nobody thought of moving to Cincinnati for a career at that time—but now you can.”
When Hodges arrived, Cincinnati’s professional theatre scene was still taking shape. Playhouse in the Park (the Mothership, she affectionately calls it) was growing, building audiences since its first show in 1960–and creating an appetite for more professional theatre venues. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati was just a few years old in 1988 and had just written their first union contract. She also watched what would become Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, as the Fahrenheit Theatre Company performed at Gabriel’s Corner.
Hodges became part of that growth. For her, one of the most significant shifts in Cincinnati’s theatre ecosystem came with the expansion of union work.
“The union is very helpful for the profession,” she said. “Whether it is LORT (League of Regional Theatres) or SPT (Small Professional Theatres), some pay more, some pay less. Bottom line, it’s the health insurance. That’s what allows you to know you can survive as a performer.”
That stability made it possible for more actors to stay in town and build sustained careers. Companies like Cincinnati Shakespeare, with large casts and demanding repertory, helped create consistent opportunities and a clearer path toward a professional life in the region. From rarity to sustainability—even home ownership.
The Work Itself
Some challenging roles stand out. At Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Hodges took on Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night, a role that demands emotional endurance across a sprawling portrait of family dysfunction. Another favorite: Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit at the Playhouse, a scholar confronting her own mortality with intellect and vulnerability. These are not roles one drifts through. They require craft.
“I don’t have a big routine,” she says. “I read the play–out loud and alone. Then I get up and read it again, eventually feeling the character and how she walks in the world.” That approach, led her to a discovery about the character Dabby Bryant in Our Country’s Good, a role at the Playhouse in 1993. “She is a fisherman’s daughter, spending her life on boats. It affects her walk,” she demonstrated. It’s a small detail, but grounds the character in the world and in the work.
Process, Instinct and the Subconscious
Hodges’ process is both intuitive and disciplined. She values table work early in rehearsal, using it to understand the structure and intention of a scene before getting it on its feet.
“I need to know what the scene is about,” she said. “You experience the music of it—the words—before you start breaking it down.”
For Hodges, language is not just meaning—it’s rhythm, tone, breath. Something to be heard and felt as much as analyzed.
“I don’t trust a director who knows all the answers before the cast gets in the room,” she said. “There’s no conversation.”
When she directs, she brings the same openness. “I start with an idea,” she said. “And I’m willing to throw it out if it doesn’t work.” She has directed regionally, including Trip to Bountiful at Human Race Theatre and The Realistic Joneses for Clifton Players.
“The principal duty of a director is to create an ensemble,” she said. “Because the ensemble is what moves the play forward.”
Then, with a smile: “The purpose of the first rehearsal is to get through to the second.”
Following the Hunch
Hodges often returns to an idea she attributes to Peter Brook: the importance of “following the formless hunch.” It’s an approach that values instinct alongside analysis—allowing space for something not yet fully articulated to emerge.
“You have to let the subconscious work,” she said. “Start with something and see where it takes you.”
That mindset was reinforced during her fifteen summers with the Peterborough Players in New Hampshire, where rehearsal periods were often compressed to less than two weeks.
“Sometimes we did the falling apart in the first days of the run instead of the rehearsal room,” she said.
There is a calm acceptance in that. Theatre is always in process.
A Life in the Arts
When Hodges isn’t performing, her engagement with the arts continues. She and her husband are active supporters of independent film, including Cincinnati’s Cindependent Film Festival, and she speaks passionately about sustaining local venues and arts organizations.
Nearly four decades working in Cincinnati have shaped her perspective on institutions, funding, and artistic freedom.
“I absolutely think when it comes to war—the opposite of war is art,” she said. “Peace is the absence of war. Art is the opposite.”
For Hodges, the argument is not abstract.
“Art is the best side of a human being,” she continued. “It’s the creative side.We build things. We create. Not when we tear things down—that doesn’t speak to our better selves. And it’s the first thing that gets cut,” she adds with a sigh.
Energy in Motion
When we spoke, it had been just two days since the Cincinnati run of Mrs. Christie closed. Hodges was preparing to step back into the role in Milwaukee—same production, new audience, different space. She was, as ever, ready to keep going.
After Milwaukee, she’s slated to return to Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati for Mrs. Mannerly, reprising a role that became a local favorite.
Early in her career, she imagined a life as a repertory actor—not a Broadway star, but a working artist moving from role to role, building something over time.
That is exactly what she has done.
Her name now appears on the Playhouse’s P&G Walk of Fame, marking more than forty productions there alone. She’s banked over thirty at Ensemble. In 2002 she was inducted into the League of Cincinnati Theatre’s Hall of Fame. She has helped shape a theatre community –quietly and consistently–over decades.
And still, the approach remains the same. Her advice is simple: remember your first read.
“The instincts,” she said. “The spontaneity of it. Hold onto that—and keep going.”
This is the second in a series of Cincinnati Theatre MVPs (Most Valuable Players). Read up on Justin McCombs, our first featured player. Who else would be on YOUR starting nine?
