Barabra

Barbara moves through the New Burbage Festival's backstage world as one of the many hands keeping the production running — practical, watchful, present in the margins of scenes rather than at their center. She observes the chaos of mounting a show with the dry patience of someone who has seen theatrical crises before.

Slings & Arrows built its comedy and its heart on exactly these peripheral figures, the ones who keep a beleaguered theatre company functioning while its stars implode. Janet Bailey brings a grounded, unfussy presence to Barbara, the kind of steady competence that makes the show's backstage world feel lived-in rather than merely sketched.