"Winsome has a real sense of intellectualmerriment," says Professor of English and AmericanLiterature Elaine Scarry, who taught Brown in twocourses, English 188, "Political Theatre and theStructure of Drama," and a graduate-level seminar,"On Beauty."

"She feels a kind of palpable pleasure for thetexts that is very striking," Scarry says.

During Scarry's class one semester, Brown gavea reading from a play titled Miss Margarida'sWay, adopting the person of a tyrannicalteacher. When a professor in the classroom next tothem began banging on the door in anger, Brownmerely incorporated the situation into herperformance. Flying to the door, she proceeded togive the startled professor a verbaltongue-lashing for daring to interrupt the class.

"Winsome's gift of improvisation," says Scarry,"Is truly a sign of her ability to be a greatactress."

while Brown is widely respected and admired,both in academic and dramatic circles, she hasalso made headlines on campus for some of herother theatrical antics.

Her junior year, she stunned the directors ofthe Hasty Pudding show by going to auditionsdressed up in costume under the pseudonym NicholasPettibone.

The producers of the Pudding show, an annualall-male theatrical event famous for itshairy-legged kick lines and booming male voices,were not quite sure what to make of the situation.

"They took me outside, and said to me that Icouldn't do this," Brown recollects, laughing."Finally, they let me audition. I sang the songWhite Christmas."

Although the media--including TheCrimson--played up the event, Brown denies anyhidden agenda or desire to make a feministstatement.

"I wanted to be in a musical," she says, "and Ihave a low voice! I wasn't sure if the Pudding wasmeant to be a drag show or a male show, but in anyevent, it certainly was not to make any greatstatement...I was really just looking to be in thePudding."

Brown nevertheless has won positive reviewson-campus for her portrayal of both male andfemale characters, ranging from her first-yearperformance as the title role in The Visit ofthe Old Lady, her junior year Characterizationof the murderess Charlotte Corday inMarat/Sade, to her more recent incarnationas Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Oscarthis past fall.

"Playing a male is no different than playing awoman who you are not," she says. "For me, actinghas to do with bringing beauty out, and more oftenthan not, it's the male characters who get to saythe more profound things. It's not that I'mdeliberately trying to be cross-gendered; it'sthat I would like to say these lines because Isympathize with them."

Brown won acclaim for her portrayal of Wilde,the brilliant playwright, essayist, and novelistwhose life she captured in her adaptation ofMichael MacLiammoir's play this past fall. Withstage props consisting of whiskey, cigarettes, anda callalily, Brown created an atmosphere that ,according to a review in the Independent, servedas "the perfect platform."

"She engages the audience with her mimicry ofVictorian Characters," the reviewer wrote. "Sheeven catches the candid quips of Wildehimself--popping up with punch lines likemesmerizing bubbles of absinthe...It is a creditto Brown that she maintains the composure andenergy necessary to capture a figure as enigmaticas Wilde."

Brown herself credits much of her success, bothon-stage and off, to her family. Born and raisedin Toronto by an Irish mother and American father,she remains close to her parents and to herbrother, Nicholas, and sister, Victoria, both ofwhom are 20.