“Being Mrs. Banks”

When I was a child and young teenager, I was very shy and unsure. In middle school I was introduced to theater classes, and I fell in love. I took classes all through high school and some in college too. I can’t really describe the joy and fulfillment that I felt from learning how to perform and taking on characters that reminded me of myself, stretched my limits, taught me things, and more.

When I perform in plays or musicals, I try to think of myself not as actor playing a part, but as the actual character I am playing. To do that, I must really study and understand my character so I can be authentic to her in every way. That’s how I become my character.

I think the most beloved and complex character I have ever portrayed is Winifred Banks from the musical Mary Poppins. She is fresh on my mind, and my eyes are a glossy sheen as I think about the beautiful memories I have from preparing to play her and then performing for friends, family, and theater lovers last month. It was so special to share the stage with my sweet daughter for the first time too.

I want to always remember what it felt like to play her, to feel like I actually was her, when I was on stage.

Twice Winifred sings a song that starts with the words, “Being Mrs. Banks.” I think perhaps sharing my thoughts about her character will help me cherish her always as well as help future actresses who wish to play her and need some inspiration. I hope I can be of service!

Here is the description of Winifred Banks from the production handbook, which is how I started learning about her: WINIFRED BANKS (30s) is George’s wife and Jane and Michael’s mother. A former actress, she is a loving and distracted homemaker who is busy trying to live up to her husband’s desire to only associate with “the best people” as well as be a model wife and mother. She suffers from the conflicting feelings that she’s not up to the job of “being Mrs. Banks,” yet she is, and more. She has a great warmth and simplicity to her tone. Mezzo Soprano

This was a great start to helping me embody Mrs. Banks. I want to share all I learned from the course of my study, pondering, practicing, as well as listening to direction from my director and assistant director:

She is unsure and feels like a failure. Winifred’s first line in the show is right after Katie Nana leaves, and it goes, “Do you really think I made another blunder? What on earth am I to say to Mr. Banks?”

Most of the rest of that scene is Mr. Banks educating her on what a good nanny should be and how she needs to conduct herself.

We know she feels like a failure when she sings “Being Mrs. Banks” for the first time because she sings these words: “Being Mrs. Banks: What does that entail? Facing tests of character I always seem to fail.”

At the end of “Cherry Tree Lane (Part 2),” right before Mary Poppins shows up, I wanted Mrs. Banks to show her true emotions as she sang “Precision and Order” with George and the staff. I did not want her to sing it like an anthem, but rather with facial expressions that showed her anxiety and feelings of not measuring up to the task, as well as her disagreement with George’s way of seeing things.

Winifred also felt unsure when she was directing Mrs. Brill in the “Spoonful of Sugar Scene,” so I tried to show her anxiety and feelings of being out of place.

She again felt unsure if she could give Michael permission to not take the brimstone and treacle from Miss Andrew. She said, “Well, I…” instead of telling Miss Andrew not to give it to him.

As the song “Brimstone and Treacle” progresses, Winifred feels once again she is a failure. All she had wanted to do was help her family but instead she invited fear into her household.

Winifred says, “Well,” “I see,” and “Oh” quite often in the show, further showing her unsurety and how she lets others walk all over her.

She yearns for approval from her husband and thus submits to his wishes. The saddest line Winifred says (at least to me) in the show she says cheerfully as she is getting George excited for a surprise at the beginning of the second act. She says, “Oh George, I do believe you are going to be proud of me for once!” I had to say it cheerfully, but I always thought in my mind how she lived each day trying her best to earn her husband’s approval and feeling like she never quite got it.

George and Mary Poppins both talked about the “best people,” and we know from the first time Winifred sings “Being Mrs. Banks,” that she has no interest in being one of the “best people” with super high expectations and strict roles to play. And yet, she still tries her best to fill those roles so that her husband will be proud of her. It’s heartbreaking. That’s why she gets so sad when nobody shows up for her party. It isn’t because she wanted the party. It is because she was trying so hard to be what her husband wanted, and she failed him, all the while feeling she wasn’t up to the task of being friends with the “best people.” How lonely she must have been.

She is loving and affectionate. Perhaps the first clue about this is during the scene when Jane and Michael wish to say goodnight. After they leave, George hurts her feelings as they talk, but still she gives him a kiss goodnight.

At the bank in a later scene, the children are sad that their father had nobody to kiss him goodnight as a child. They would not be sympathetic to their father about that unless they did have someone to kiss them goodnight, and who else would it be other than their mother since they couldn’t keep a nanny and their father wasn’t affectionate at all?

In the show, I purposely showed affection to George and the children as much as possible, whether it was a look, a smile, an arm touch, a head on a shoulder, or an actual kiss. I felt this was key to who Winifred was as a person.

It was so important to me that when George and Winifred had moments of connection in the second act that they were meaningful. The sweetness of massaging his hair and then kissing his temple when she talks about having what really matters, showing love and affection to George after they leave the bank by holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder, and their cute little dance after she asks him if he thinks they still need a nanny are some good examples.

But the most important part to me was when George tenderly kisses her at the end of the show and calls her his “dearest love.” We went over that part so many times I’m sure my George was quite annoyed with me. But we finally got the moment where it needed to be: My George put his hand on the side of my face while tenderly kissing my cheek. I breathed in a surprised and pleased gasp, turned toward him in love with a small, exhaled giggle, and then put my head on his shoulder with my hand on his chest. It was tender and beautiful, and Winifred deserved that moment.

She is a gentle person who shows genuine concern for others and cares about their well-being. There are many sweet and gentle moments in the show, and Winifred is in many of them. She is this way towards everyone from George to the children to the house staff. For example, when George comes home from work early, Winifred immediately shows concern for him, wanting to know what is wrong and how she can help even though he was in a bad mood and didn’t want to talk to her.

Then at the end of that scene even after he has been horrible to her, she offers to help him. Winifred shows her concern nonverbally for her children during the entire “Brimstone and Treacle” song as she realizes Miss Andrew may not be a good nanny after all.

She also shows genuine concern for George and the children when they all run away and blames herself for them all being unhappy. When the constable brings George home, I had her stare at George when the constable was talking to her, and then run to him with love and concern, following his every move and word to make sure he was okay because she loved him so much. Then at the end of the scene she strokes George’s hair, listens to him, and offers the exact comfort he needed in that moment. After he shows utter angst at the idea of losing everything, Winifred smiles and says, “We’ll still have what really matters…The children. And each other,” ending the phrase with a tender kiss to the temple.

To Mrs. Brill, who is utterly distraught at the loss of the heirloom, she offers her hand to help her up and take her to the kitchen to sit down. To Jane, who asks her if her father is really worried, she says, “Yes, he is. But always remember that he loves you very much, and that’s far more important than job or houses or anything else.” Because she is gentle, I gave her a soft-spoken, sweet voice that she rarely raised.

She wants to be a good mother. I made this evident with her affection towards Jane and Michael, her standing up for them, and with little looks throughout the show, as well as smiles and laughter when around her kids. How did I know she wanted to be a good mother? Well more than once she asked George about really needing a nanny. She felt in her heart she could do the job and be what her children needed. She just went along with the nanny idea because of George. It was never what she really wanted. And then after the last bank scene George offers to let her go back to acting, Winifred declines and says, “No, I loved it, but I’ve found a role I rather prefer, and it’s going to keep me extremely busy for a very long time.”

She isn’t happy in her marriage but it still means everything to her. It is pretty clear from the beginning that she and George are not equally yoked. Winifred gives, listens, and exercises patience and flexibility where George is often the opposite. In the song, “Being Mrs. Banks,” she sings, “I have a name which tells the world I’m someone else’s wife.” The notes go down when she sings, giving the message that she is a wife pretty much in name only.

At the park, in the second act, when she is worried about the missing children and George, she says, “Why can’t you see that I’m here and I am on your side?” As she begins to sing, Winifred has an epiphany that her husband is the way he is because he was raised by Miss Andrew. She is overcome with compassion (which I always felt she had, but perhaps it grew with this new realization) and sings, “If only you had seen that you could share it with your wife.”

Then she sings, “Being Mrs. Banks, it’s easy to forget the way I felt that summer’s day, the day that we first met. Being Mrs. Banks. Being kissed by you, a man of dreams who made me feel that wishes could come true.” I always got tears in my eyes when I chose to stand up and sing that second phrase about being Mrs. Banks. I almost spoke it rather than sang it. In this moment she is thinking back to the man he was, the man she fell in love with. And I believe it was always there deep down. She just brought it back to the surface. In the same song she promises to fight for him and help people see the real him, even himself.

I highly recommend that if you portray Mrs. Banks, that you get really comfortable with whoever is playing Mr. Banks, because you have to perform many emotionally-charged scenes, whether because of hurt, anger, love, or comfort. All take great care. Listen to each other’s thoughts and help each other be authentic to your characters while moving the audience in the best way possible.

She sees the best in people and gives the benefit of the doubt.  I felt this truth the most in the scene where Miss Andrew comes. Miss Andrew spends that entire scene insulting her and her home, but Winifred chooses to be friendly, warm, and inviting even though she is uncomfortable and uneasy about what is being said.

She also clearly sees the best in George, and I felt she held onto that during times he was nasty and irritable.

One night George speaks down to her about being a past actress. She is truly hurt, but she quickly swallows that hurt and acknowledges what he said, that he was only thinking of her well-being. When Michael and Jane are saying cruel things about their father, she tells them not to disrespect him and says that “Sometimes people say things they don’t mean.”

The only time she deviates from this is when she sings to George in the park, and calls Miss Andrew a “monster.” She would never say that to her face but knows in her heart (after experiencing her in real life) it is true.

She keeps the moral high ground and is the bigger person. There are so many times in the show when she is insulted, disrespected, and degraded but she stays graceful rather than give into rage or revenge. Anytime George puts her down she doesn’t fire back at him with insults. And even though Miss Andrew was rude, scary and horrible to her, she still asks about her when she doesn’t see her. And then when she finds out she is gone, she doesn’t make a rude comment. She asks for more information. When George later asks about her, she doesn’t make unkind comments then either. I actually feel like she would be disappointed with the children for saying they were rude to her.

She is forgiving. George is often a socially, emotionally, and verbally-abusive spouse. It is clear from what he says, how he tries to control her friendships, and how he makes her feel small. But Winifred sticks by him and supports him lovingly through it all. After the final bank scene, George even asks her if she can ever forgive him, and she replies simply with, “How can you ask?” In other words, she was always going to forgive him. It was not even a question.

She feels hurt deeply rather than getting angry. There are very few times when Winifred shows signs of anger in the show. The two times that I found were when the kids make a big mess in the kitchen when her party is soon to occur. The other is when George shouts at her when the kids were hiding his briefcase from him. In the first case, she tells the children they are being unkind by their actions. I never felt she would really give them nasty medicine, but because she was hurt, she wanted them to feel that they had done something wrong.

In the second scenario, after George angrily asks her why she isn’t doing anything to reign the children in, she says, “Well, I can try not shouting for a start.” I felt that when she said that she needed to be closer to shouting than any other time because she was truly hurt by what he said, especially since he had been pushing her way from the mother role that she so desperately wanted, but also because she wanted him to feel how shouting at someone makes them feel.

There were several times in the show that I tried to show the depths of her hurt. There were times I had tears in my eyes when I was reacting or saying her lines at given moments. She is hurt when George insults her about being an actress. She is hurt during the entire scene after he shouts at her for not handling the kids, and as Michael reminds her of some awful things George had said about her (he said she was “of neither use nor ornament”).

When the kids come back after running away, she says she should be “as angry as anything,” but isn’t because she is “so pleased to see [them.]”

Winifred is a lover not a fighter most of the time, and that causes her to feel hurt more than anger.

She stands up for herself and others in brief moments of confidence. This happens over and over in the show. The first time, she chooses to stand up for her children’s feelings when George doesn’t think that it’s worth hearing their advertisement. She says, “They were only trying to help” and tries to talk with him more about it by saying “George Dear” until he starts freaking out about his hat and she, along with the staff, has to switch her thinking for seemingly more pressing matters.

She makes sure George lets the children say goodnight to him when he doesn’t want to. She tries to stand up for herself about being an actress when George tells her not to stay friends with other actresses.

She also promises to stand up and be there for her husband when she sings “Being Mrs. Banks” the second time, but that confidence doesn’t last because when George tells her that her going to the bank with him would make matters worse, she decides against going.

What Winifred needed was Mary Poppins and her children to give her that confidence to go anyway. When she does go to the bank, I made sure she gave it everything she had. But when the chairman tells her to leave, I turned to leave with my head down as if that confidence was waning again. But then after a brief pause, and a moment of clarity, I had Winifred decide to turn back around and stay for George. I didn’t portray the scene that way from the beginning, but later on, I realized that is what Winifred would have done. She wouldn’t have been defiant of the social norms from the get-go. Her confidence had major limits, and she was a sweet person. No, she would have had to draw strength from her previous realization that “anything can happen if you let it” before she turned back and stayed, bringing her husband more success than he would have gotten on his own.

She doesn’t think about others based on their class station, and at times is even submissive to those below her station.

At the beginning of the show, during “Cherry Tree Lane (Part 1)” when George is singing “Precision and Order,” he tells Winifred that she knows her role and they (the staff) know their stations. But that’s not what she really feels or how she acts.

To Mrs. Brill: Winifred confides in Mrs. Brill about getting a new nanny and they share excitement together. In the “Spoonful of Sugar” scene she tries to do what George has instructed her to do by giving Mrs. Brill instructions about the party food and being overly concerned about it being done, but when Mrs. Brill scolds her for it, she doesn’t get angry or call her insubordinate. She feels bad about it and leaves the room quickly. She asks Mrs. Brill her feelings when her party guests cancel. And when the heirloom breaks, she shows genuine love and concern for Mrs. Brill, leading her to the kitchen and letting her sit down, rather than telling her to clean it up. I even had her pick up her dropped broom and snotty handkerchief.

To Robertson Ay and Ellen: She worries about Robertson Ay (and in our show, we had a maid named Ellen), when they fall and pass out during “Spoonful of Sugar.”

To Mary Poppins: When Mary Poppins comes and says she never gives references (even though George literally just said to get the references), she listens to her. She also listens to her preferences for time off. She listens to Mary Poppins who tells her to go get ready for her party instead of worrying about what her children have just done.

She is courteous to Mary Poppins and her time, even on a night she really needed her to take care of the children due to Mr. Banks’ outburst.

To Miss Andrew: When Miss Andrew accuses her of spoiling her children, she just takes the feedback rather than protesting. Then, right after, during “Brimstone and Treacle,” Winifred realizes what she has done in bringing Miss Andrew back and feels horrified about it but isn’t able to send her away because Miss Andrew is intimidating and seemingly stronger than her. When Miss Andrew thrusts her suitcase at her, Winifred carries it, well almost drags it, up the stairs to her room rather than giving it to someone else to carry. Even afraid of Miss Andrew, she listens to her.

Winifred also has no trouble cleaning or helping out. In the beginning of the show, she helps George with his coat and other items. She also frantically cleans just before Miss Andrew arrives. So, any time throughout the show I could have her fixing George or members of the house staff, I did.

Even though she didn’t think of herself as better than others, I did try to make Winifred graceful by standing up straight, taking smaller steps, and holding her hands politely in front of her because she was the lady of the house after all. But anytime she didn’t do that it was easier to make it clear she was uncomfortable, troubled, or anxious.

She is observant of words and behaviors. One clear indicator of this is at the end of the show at the bank when Winifred tells George to close his mouth because “we are not a codfish.” She got that directly from Mary Poppins when she first interacted with Michael. In the show, I made sure Winifred was always watching and learning. In the little scene after Mary Poppins arrives, I practiced doing her “Spit Spot” hand motions until Mrs. Brill joined me on stage. She even sings the words “spit spot spic and span” in “Cherry Tree Lane Part 3” before Miss Andrew arrives. She gains inspiration from Mary Poppins who teaches her that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” and “anything can happen if you let it.” She isn’t skeptical but is rather interested and trusting.

She is childlike and whimsical. She was an actress, and anyone who acts knows you have to be whimsical. Winifred also fully immerses herself into the magical ideas of “A Spoonful of Sugar helps the medicine go down”

and “Anything can happen if you let it.”

She even gleefully dances with chimney sweeps when they enter her home!

I believe that if Winifred had the opportunity to have a jolly holiday with Mary, visit a talking shop and learn the best word in the world, and go fly a kite, she would. Because of this, I liked to have her giggle and sometimes use a sing-songy voice in the show.

She also sings with the children about “wonder” in “Cherry Tree Lane Reprise” as she sings with them, “Wonder is returning.” The staff focuses on “Order is returning” instead, which would have been her focus as one of the “best people” rather than the person she actually is.

Also, Mrs. Banks has two times in the show where there is fun music in the background. During “Spoonful Playoff,” and at the end of “Step in Time Reprise,” I had her dancing and having fun to the music until the mood changes. She would do that because she sees the wonder and fun in life. I also showed her really enjoying listening to the children sing “The Perfect Nanny” while their father got increasingly annoyed in contrast.

She brings humor into the show even if she isn’t trying to be funny. I like to think of Mrs. Banks as a perfect blend of humor and heart. The only time in the show she really tries to be funny is when she runs to George at the end of the last bank scene and playfully says, “Close your mouth, George. We are not a codfish!” Even so, she can bring a lot of laughs with her occasional confusion, melodramatics (like her first round of “George Dear” in “Cherry Tree Lane”), and her opportunities for big, animated facial expressions throughout the show. There are plenty of scenes where the humor comes from others, so it’s the perfect time for her to help add to that humor.

For example, in the scene in the kitchen with Mrs. Brill, that exchange could be quite boring. But then you look at Mrs. Brill’s exasperated line about not being a total nincompoop, and you see opportunity there. So, in all my lines I made sure to get progressively more annoying. Mrs. Brill was actually piping frosting onto some tarts when I got down to the level of her hands, and said slowly, “Are you quite sure you know how to ice it?” I kept my eyes low with hers, and as she raised her body, I followed her. As she got progressively irritated in her next line, she kept going towards me with her head, causing me to keep leaning my body backwards. That was the perfect position for me to say, “No!” with my wide eyes before uncomfortably getting out of there as fast as I could.

In that same scene when Winifred checks on everything, we know she is really worried about Robertson Ay and Ellen, but the hilarity of the moment before when they collapsed together gave Winifred a moment to continue that hilarity. My director had me slap Robertson Ay to help him wake up. It was a funny moment every time we got the slap loud enough (Mrs. Brill made a slapping sound off stage to help me, haha!).

The part that everyone who saw the show thought was the most hilarious was when Winifred went to the bank to save George. She runs in (I made sure to not be graceful in that moment, haha) and then exclaims, “Forgive him! It’s not his fault. It’s all because of his nanny, Miss Andrew!” This line is kind of absurd, coming in on the heels of Mr. Banks dancing around crazily singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” And then she puts up her dukes and threatens to fight the chairman, saying he has “come to the right woman.” Well, Winifred is a gentle soul, definitely a lover not a fighter, which makes that part so much funnier.

That whole scene is a great mixture of humor and heart for Winifred. She is genuinely so happy when George tells her he has made the company a fortune. She hugs him as she exclaims, “Really?” But then she is funny again after she decides to stay after being told to leave and takes control of the situation with her questioning and pointed coughing. Then she goes back to joy as her husband gets the raise he deserves before she is funny again and tells him to close his mouth because he is not a codfish. And then they have another moment full of heart. It’s a great scene for her.

She is strong. I don’t mean verbally or physically. Winifred is strong in her love, in her devotion, in her loyalty. I never thought that she would actually get physical with the bank chairman even though she put up her dukes as if to fight. She just was so desperate to help her husband, she was willing to do anything. She loved him that much.

She is the “Perfect Nanny” Jane and Michael ask for. Towards the beginning of the show when Jane and Michael sing their advertisement to their parents in the song, “The Perfect Nanny,” I believe that the qualities they wished for in a nanny already described their mother in so many ways: cheery disposition, rosy cheeks, plays games, kind, witty, very sweet, fairly pretty, take us on outings, give us treats, sing songs, bring sweets, never be cross or cruel, never feed us castor oil or gruel, love us as a son and daughter, won’t scold or dominate us…

If you think about it, she fits the perfect nanny qualifications better than Mary Poppins, for Mary Poppins is often cross and was not as sweet as the children would have hoped. She was even scary sometimes (think about the song, “Playing the Game” or the duel with Miss Andrew). So, while Mary Poppins was the practically perfect nanny, Mrs. Banks was the perfect choice for Jane and Michael.

The actress who played Mrs. Brill in our show brought to my attention that all the things that Mary Poppins taught the children, Mrs. Banks already emulated in her life. I thought that was profound.

And so, the answer was always there. Mrs. Banks is the perfect, or better than perfect, nanny because she is Jane and Michael’s loving mother. I like to think of Winifred as the hero of the show. She needed to grow in confidence and give herself permission to be herself, but unlike her husband and children, she was already full of love, loyalty, devotion, gentleness, forgiveness, long-suffering, selflessness, and child-like joy. She was the glue that held her family together in the hard times. At least, that is how I see her.

I hope this was an enjoyable and helpful read. I loved writing it and I loved “Being Mrs. Banks” for a few short months. She will always be a part of me, and I have learned so much from her.

Here are some cute pictures of me with my castmates!

*If you want to read why I think everyone should be in a musical, a post I wrote after doing another show I adored, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you can read it here.