Playwriting As Open-Heart Surgery

Playwriting As Open-Heart Surgery
By Anna Renée Hansen

I wrote a play about Haiti in 2008 because no one was talking about Haiti. A family friend traveled there with a humanitarian aid organization. In spring 2008 she got stuck in the riots over rising food prices under Préval’s (the president at the time) leadership. The protests continued into 2009 and I think the only substantial news coverage I saw about it was on Democracy Now! hosted by Amy Goodman. Now that I’m in Boston I’m aware of the discrepancy of coverage on Haiti; California is not home to a large number of Haitians, but Boston is. Even with this in mind, I still think it took the devastating earthquake of 2010 before people really started thinking about Haiti and how important it is that we help in whatever way we can. I noticed a surge in Haitian plays and literature, pieces set in Haiti or with a Haitian character. In the back of my mind I thought I wanted to revisit my 2008 play.

So, guess what? The New Voices @ New Rep Playwriting Fellows opportunity is providing me a way to do that, and I am deeply grateful. I feel that for this play to work, it will need to come out of a more collaborative process. With New Rep’s program, I not only have the beneficial feedback of my peers to draw from, but also an insightful dramaturg, actors, and other design collaborators when I am at a stage in the process where that would be appropriate.

The first step was re-reading the script (and the subsequent comments I made to myself like, “Wow, that was a terrible play”). I had about 10 storylines and maybe as many characters. I decided to take some elements from a couple of the more coherent and interesting storylines and about 2 characters that I wanted to spend quality time hanging out with, and basically scrapped the rest. For one thing, it was written pre-earthquake, and you can’t talk to a Haitian without hearing the words, “after the earthquake.” That changed everything, even for Haitian Americans who weren’t in Haiti for the quake. I think a way of looking at it is this: The old play died, but it turns out it was an organ donor, so I surgically removed its strongest organs to implant into something new, young, full of life. I was going to use a less brutal image, like a phoenix rising or something, but I settled on the brutal one for a reason that anyone who has ever had to massively edit themselves will understand.

And yet (Elie Wiesel’s favorite words). It was all for the best because I am charged and enthusiastic about the possibilities with this new venture. I found the heart of the play: Redemption, or the hope of it. And I think now that that is in place, it will pump invigorating blood into the play’s more systematic elements: plot, character, structure. How do we outrun the demons of our past that seek to destroy us? What do we owe our country? Our family? How do we not just overcome loss, but transcend it? Is it possible to transmute that pain, that sorrow, into something noble, something beautiful? Or do we only try because we feel guilty? These are the questions I am interrogating myself and my characters with as I write this play, currently entitled The Loas. “Loas” comes from VooDoo tradition, signifying spirits that have influence over the living—some are good, some are warlike. The world of this play is full of dualities – light and dark, home and foreign, good and evil, mysticism and slice of life and everything in between. I am looking forward to developing it further along this process of discovery and revival.

Over 200 Students Attend A CHRISTMAS STORY

This morning, over 200 students from Watertown Middle School and Gateway Arts filed into the Charles Mosesian Theater to attend New Repertory Theatre and arsenalARTS holiday production of A Christmas Story.  For many, it was the very first time they experienced live theatre.


After the show the students' exciting experience continued.  Thanks to Clarks, the students were treated to a delicious holiday lunch-- pizza!

 

  That's a lot of pizza!

 

New Rep staff waiting for the students to arrive for their holiday lunch.

Watertown Middle School students line-up to enjoy their pizza. 

A room filled with happy theatre-goers. 

"A Christmas Story" Provides The Correct Dose of Holiday Cheer

By Jana Pollack, New Rep Reviewer

I must begin this review by admitting that I always approach holiday-themed theater with a pre-determined judgement. As a rule, I am disgruntled and annoyed by the holidays, and I've never liked the idea of devoting plays to their singular theme. And so, I reveal here that I entered the theater on Monday night expecting to not really enjoy the show.

But here is my Christmas truth: by the end of the show, I was feeling warm and sentimental. I was also feeling grateful to New Rep for making a new and inspired choice for this year's holiday show, one that did eventually embrace the shmaltz of the season, but only alongside a healthy dose of sarcasm and good humor. "A Christmas Story" is earnest, true to the world of childhood, and really, at its core, quite sweet. New Rep's version is all of those things, and it is also a very entertaining two hours.

This show was universally well-done. Each actor was really excellent, adults and kids alike. As young Ralphie, Andrew Cekala stood out with exceptional stage presence and pitch-perfect delivery. Owen Doyle also drew many laughs as The Old Man, and Stacy Fischer gave a very smart performance as Mother. In the small but influential role of the teacher, Margaret Ann Brady was hilarious. Each child actor showed talent beyond his or her years, and gave a confident, true performance. Although these are stock characters that could easily be one-dimensional, in this production each one appeared fully rounded and complete, and I found myself invested in these people and their day to day lives.

At the very end of the show, the narrator (Barlow Adamson, doing as much as he could with a frustratingly limiting part) extols on the virtues of love, family, and christmas. This is the moment that I was dreading, and I can't say that it won me over completely. But I'd had so much fun, and was feeling so happy for the family I'd just been a watchful part of, that I didn't mind at all.

"A Christmas Story" is a Delight!

Okay, let me just admit it up front. I was really puzzled as to why anyone would want to meddle with the perfection of A Christmas Story (the movie, that is) by putting it on stage.

The New Rep’s wonderful production put my skepticism to rest. It was a delight, and, by the way, totally appropriate for children. They won’t get all the jokes, but they’ll have fun. I can’t imagine a better way for a family to spend an evening in retreat from the chaos of the holidays than watching a comic take on this family’s chaos.

And it’s all there, from the notorious lamp that appears to have been lifted from a bordello to the bored and cynical department store Santa. All through the play I puzzled about how the neighbor’s obstreperous hounds could do their part. I won’t tell, but it was hilarious.

Philip Grecian’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s charming script captures the spirit of the original and brings it to life in a completely new way. Of particular note was the appearance of the narrator as a character. Barlow Adamson’s performance was a highlight of the evening without detracting from the story itself. The director knew just when to have him insert himself into the action and when he should stay in the shadows as he tells the story.

The children in the cast, many of whom have impressive acting resumes, were perfectly rehearsed. Of particular note are Andrew Cekala who maintains the far-away dreamy look on Ralphie’s face as he schemes and dreams of his Red Ryder rifle. Owen Doyle is outstanding as The Old Man. His disguised profanity rings across the theatre as he vents his frustration with the furnace, the inadequate electrical wiring and the dogs who bark only at him. And he let us see the kind father underneath, somewhat baffled by his family, but soldiering on. He is, of course, as much an ambitious dreamer as his son.

The sets cleverly rearrange themselves from the perfect 50’s kitchen to the schoolroom to the department store Santa’s throne. And Gerard Slattery does a fine job of the bored, cynical – and clearly weary – Santa, terrifying the little children who he has clearly come to loathe. He and Margaret Ann Brady fill out the cast by assuming multiple roles.

I long to tell you about how the dogs manage to ruin Christmas dinner, but you’ll have to go and see it yourself.

~ Johanna Ettin (with Shauna Shames)

"A Christmas Story": You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

by Jack Craib, New Rep Reviewer

When New Rep announced that its holiday show for the current season would be “A Christmas Story”, based on the popular film, and not yet another revisit to “A Christmas Carol”, this reviewer was relieved indeed (despite a practice of reading the original Dickens every Christmas season for more than four decades). Hopes were high that another holiday treat would join the ranks of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “The Nutcracker Suite”, “Santaland Diaries” and of course Scrooge, under the theatrical tree, garlanded with hefty dollops of originality. Ah, but as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, or as one of the characters in this play version states, “stay within the margins”.

Adapting any work for the stage from another source is always fraught with peril, especially when it’s a film so dependent on visual gags and voiceover narration. Stephen Sondheim once stated in his memorable lyrics, “the choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not”, but this may have been the initial and fatal mistaken choice by the playwright Philip Grecian. A theatrical production is always the result of directorial and acting choices, all subjective (as is theater criticism, for that matter). Here Director Diego Arciniegas and his cast of twelve (seven of whom are child actors) have also gone astray. From the exhausting performance of Barlow Adamson as the elder Ralph/Narrator (at times in dire need of some Ritalin) to the over-the-top emoting of Ralphie’s parents, Owen Doyle and Stacy Fischer (still relatively sedate when compared to their filmic counterparts, Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon), there is surely a lot of energy on stage. The children are especially enthusiastic, despite their incomprehensibly differing ages and heights (and, in one strange choice, transgender), some occasionally miked, some not, another misguided choice.

Many of those visual highlights from the film get short shrift here because they can’t survive the adaptation. One boy’s rescue (to unstick his tongue from an icy pole) is rendered virtually offstage; the movie’s overhead shot of an overdressed younger brother’s immobility in the snow when he falls over is another casualty of the transition to stage; the climactic turkey theft by the neighborhood canine pack is embarrassingly awkward. So is the fantasy scene wherein a teacher is turned on by a student’s essay, one of only two original playwright touches. Happily, the other bit of originality pays off, when Santa encounters an incontinent urchin, and this happens only once. Grecian’s script and its screenplay source both tend to repeat the same schtick several times in case you didn’t catch it the first time, such as Ralphie’s slow-mo moments, his parents’ dueling struggles with a lamp, and his mother’s dinner of red cabbage and meatloaf. (Bah, hamburg).

As most of the audience will probably know from the film, this is a very slight story about a nine-year-old boy’s wish for an air rifle for Christmas. At least three adults in the work (his mother, his teacher, and ultimately Santa Claus himself, or at least a department store’s version of him) warn our young hero “you’ll shoot your eye out”. By the end of this ninety minute play (which seemed considerably longer than that), you might be forgiven for asking Ralphie to shoot you (well, not literally) and put you out of your misery. Would that the people responsible for this creation had stayed within the margins and left the original film (and its source, a Jean Shepherd tale first published in Playboy, no less) alone. Scrooge, where are you when we need you?

A Family-Friendly Christmas Story

 -- Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep’s version of "A Christmas Story" is a family-friendly glimpse at the weeks leading up to a 1940s Christmas.

The classic Christmas tale tells the story of Ralphie Parker’s mission to convince his parents that all he wants for Christmas is the "Legendary Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass and 'this thing which tells time' built right into the stock!"  The theater version has all the iconic images from the movie: the "Fra-gil-le" box, the leg lamp, the pink bunny pajamas, the irate department store Santa, and the oft quoted "You’ll shoot your eye out!"  Seeing the yearly portrayal of this American family is like hearing a favorite Christmas carol: a beloved reminder that our own Christmas is right around the corner.

The story is told by the adult Ralphie (Barlow Adamson) reminiscing on this pivotal childhood Christmas.  This allows for a satirical glimpse at events acted out by the young ensemble.  Adamson fulfills this role enthusiastically, with a helpful dose of cynicism.  He explains the etiquette of a "triple-dog-dare," the lung-crushing layers of clothing needed to walk to school in an Indiana winter, and the pride of finding the perfect gift for his parents.  The Parker children, the determined Ralphie (Andrew Cekala) and the alternatively silent and shrill Randy (David Farwell), are both excellent, as are the rest of the young ensemble, whether groaning about writing a theme over Christmas break or spoiling Christmas as the Bumpuses' hounds.

The scenery features a profusion of Christmas images; even the walls are printed with blue snowflakes.  Subsequent scenes reveal the warm glow of a Christmas tree  in a room covered in wrapping paper, Santa seated on top of a glittering snow mountain, and Ralphie’s father (Owen Doyle) dickering with the crotchety tree salesman.

There is, of course, the idea of too much of a good thing.  Hearing "you’ll shoot your eye out" is not infinitely humorous, and for the most part, the audience knows which joke is coming as the cast assemble for each scene.  But the production is wonderfully familiar, and the cast's exuberance breathes new life into an old story.

Getting to GOOD

Getting to GOOD

by James McLindon 

New Voices @ New Rep Playwrighting Fellow

Like most of my plays, this one had several separate origins that eventually coalesced into the story that GOOD tries to tell.  (The play is called GOOD this week; it’s had several previous names and may have a few more before I settle on one.) 

I’ve been puzzled by the rash of stories over the last several years of people in the public eye who padded their resumes and got caught: puzzled both by the fact that they thought they could get away with it and the fact that they often did for so long.  I’ve similarly been intrigued by less frequent but persistent stories of people who manage to fake their way into prestigious colleges and grad schools, sometimes by forging transcripts and recommendations letters, but sometimes simply by showing up, attending classes and telling anyone who asks that they were a late admission for whom the paperwork has yet to catch up. Finally, I’ve been astonished to read stories about journalists who make up people about whom they write and for whose stories they even win journalism awards.

At the same time, I live in a college town and have heard from friends of mine on the faculty of various colleges about the various forms of cheating that they encounter, the services that offer term papers to order for sale on-line or in person, and the types of students who use these services: those who have money and are lazy, those who struggle academically, and those for whom English is not their first language. The countermeasures were equally intriguing: software programs that purport to detect plagiarism in the papers that they scan.

All of this got me pondering about how someone who does something like this – resume padding, term paper buying, etc. – justifies this sort of action in her head. I started with the premise that it is the rare person who admits to himself that he is doing wrong; I think people have a remarkable capacity for justifying their actions, or at least their intentions, to themselves. In addition, outside forces make it easier for us today to hold ourselves to less exalted standards. The world in this respect has changed tremendously in the post-Viet Nam/Watergate/Iran-Contra/Monica Lewinsky/Iraq world. The most casual comparison between the world of Mad Men, for example, and our world shows one how much credibility our institutions – the government, the press, and organized religion to name a few– have lost. I don’t think we’re less moral; immorality is just far more visible now than it was, which I think makes it easier for people to justify brief vacations from morality, especially when they believe their goals are good.

This is the moral world of GOOD, as much its world as the college town in which the play is set. I began researching the play last winter, and then completed a draft a few months ago.  Prior to working on it with the New Rep this fall, I let the piece lie fallow for a while so that I could come back to it with fresh eyes.  In October, I got to hear the first act of the play out loud, read by professional actors, which was a tremendous help in and of itself, and then got a lot of very helpful feedback from my fellow Fellows, Bridget and the actors.

Since then, I have rewritten both acts and am looking forward to hearing the second act next week at our December meeting. It’s been a great process so far: the meetings are close enough together to make the sessions feel like a continuing process rather than disjointed, and yet far enough apart to permit unhurried rethinking and rewriting. At the same time, following the progress of the other Fellows’ plays has also been helpful, albeit indirectly, to my writing. I always feel like I learn something useful from watching other writers and their processes, and New Voices has been no exception.

Not one, but TWO Farwells this New Rep Season!

For the last five years, Paul D. Farwell has excited New Rep audiences during the holiday season as the ever-famous Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Now, as New Rep's 2011-2012 Season offers a new approach to the holiday show, we have a new Farwell in our midst.

Paul D. Farwell as Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

This year brings a new work to the Charles Mosesian Theater: A Christmas Story, based on the beloved 1983 movie and featuring Andrew Cekala, Owen Doyle and Stacy Fischer. No Scrooge onstage this holiday season. Instead, Paul will have the opportunity to join the audience as his son, David Farwell, performs as Ralphie's little brother Randy on the big stage.

David Farwell will be playing Randy in
A Christmas Story this December at New Rep.

Though Paul may not be on New Rep's stage this holiday season, he'll be back soon in New Rep's musical, and final production of the season, Little Shop of Horrors as Mr. Mushnik! Don't miss the Farwells in this season's new shows...get your tickets today!

A CHRISTMAS STORY
December 11 - December 24, 2011
adapted/written by Philip Grecian
directed by Diego Arciniegas
BUY TICKETS HERE

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
April 29 – May 20, 2012
book and lyrics by Howard Ashman
music by Alan Menken
directed and choreographed by Russell Garrett
BUY TICKETS HERE

First Rehearsal: A New Rep Family Christmas Story

 

Cast and production team of A Christmas Story

We’re always saying that New Rep is a family, and it was never so evident as Monday night at First Rehearsal for A Christmas Story. Director, designers, adult and child actors, and extended members of the New Rep family, including guests and donors, settled into the Charles Mosesian Theater to hear how New Rep’s production will be brought to life with holiday magic. Although the kids began rehearsing over the weekend, it was the first time the whole cast had come together. 

 

The cast of A Christmas Story

After brief introductions, director Diego Arciniegas spoke about his vision for the production.  “Why do people take time out of their busy lives during the rushed holiday season to come to the theater?” Arciniegas answered his own question by saying that holiday theater is all about the “reclamation of the holiday spirit:” Audiences come to see Mr. Scrooge or Ralphie Parker find the holiday spirit on stage, and then bring it with them out into their own lives. 

Arciniegas speaks about his vision for the production.

Arciniegas also spoke about why holiday classics like A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, and It’s A Wonderful Life become classics. According to Arciniegas, it’s because they all utilize the dramatic device of time travel. In A Christmas Story, Ralph, now grown, reflects back on the Christmas of his childhood that he spent in pursuit of the “Official Red Ryder 200 shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rife with a compass and this thing that tells time built right into the stock!” Time travel is especially poignant at the holidays, because it is by the holidays that we measure the passage of time: how children have grown, which family members have passed, and the mishaps and mayhem of holidays past.

Model of Dahlia Al-Habieli's set design

Scenic designer Dahlia Al-Habieli then spoke about the inspiration for the set. The colors are based off of the commercialism of the advertisements of the 1940’s and 1950’s: teals, pinks, reds, and faded color photographs.  The main focus of the set is the kitchen, and the rest of the world expands outward from there, including many other locations, such as the school yard, the school house, and the Christmas tree lot. 

Costume designer Katherine O'Neill takes costume measurements.

Katherine O’Neill, costume designer, also drawing from Al-Habieli’s inspiration of vintage advertisements, has designed the costumes to represent the notion of “what you strive for, versus what you’ve actually got.”  The costumes would be a cacophony of colors and patterns, which she says is representative of the time period. In the post-depression era, people could maybe only afford a couple of new articles of clothing a year, which were integrated into whatever wardrobe they already had.  This year’s pants with last year and the year before’s shirts, creates a mix of colors and patterns that will pop onstage. 

 After the director and designers finished speaking on how the holiday spirit and the world of the play will be brought to life, the actors dove into a table reading of the script.  

Viewers examine Al-Habieli's model up-close.

New Rep staff and Behind-the-Scenes @ New Rep participants enjoy conversation and refreshments.

A Christmas Story starts on December 11 and runs through Christmas Eve, December 24, 2011. Get your tickets at http://newrep.org/christmas_story.php.

If you would like to attend First Rehearsals @ New Rep or any of our other Behind-the-Scenes @ New Rep Events, please visit http://www.newrep.org/behind_the_scenes.php!

A Commitment to new plays

I just spent this past weekend in Philadelphia at the National New Play Network’s annual Showcase.  Each year the 25 member organizations, which New Rep is a part of, along with affiliate members, agents, and playwrights meet for a weekend to watch readings of plays that could potentially wind up in our upcoming seasons.  During these weekends I get to talk to a lot of different people from all over the country who are passionate about new work and dedicated to producing and developing it.  New play development is something that New Repertory Theatre has long believed in.  Over the years we’ve produced many World and Regional Premieres – several thru our relationship with the NNPN.

This year I was really excited to attend the conference because I had some important news to share with my colleagues.  In September, New Rep embarked on a new program.  We invited four area playwrights to join us for the year to work on developing a full length play on a subject matter of their choosing to be read in June.   They are our New Voices @ New Rep Playwrighting Fellows.  During my 3 ½ years with New Rep I have been very struck by our audiences’ interest in new work.  The attendance at the readings has been very impressive and the talk backs with the playwright following the readings are always lively and engaging.  So, when we started to brainstorm different ways that we could increase the impact and awareness of new plays for our audiences we decided to explore the idea of a creating a celebration surrounding the work.  This year, for the first time, we will embark on a Festival of New Voices, the weekend of June 9^th and 10^th at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.  We will read four plays over the course of the weekend and surround each play with opportunities for the audience to engage with the playwrights about their process. 

One of the things that was very clear to me this weekend was regional theaters across the country are beginning to increase their commitment to developing plays and playwrights within their community.  Most companies rely heavily on individual and foundation support to help fund these kinds of programs.  The ability to commission a new work is usually out of our means.  So, we do our best to identify plays that can be furthered developed in a rehearsal process.  But often this isn’t enough time for playwrights.  Over the years we’ve done our best to find creative solutions and ways that we can better serve the playwrights whose work we rely so heavily on. 

I’m really excited about this season’s endeavor.  The playwrights we’ve invited I found through our open submission policy for local playwrights and readings I’ve attended in the Boston area.  New Rep would like to increase our already strong commitment to producing new work by helping playwrights develop their work here.  Throughout the rest of the season, the New Voices @ New Rep Playwrighting Fellows will be blogging about their plays, what their working on, and how they are collaborating.  You will be able to follow our process thru Backstage @ New Rep, our blog, and on Facebook and Twitter .  We look forward to continuing to talk to you about what were up to and we hope to see you at the Festival of New Voices in June.

By Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, Associate Artistic Director, New Rep

Three Viewings: First Rehearsal

The afternoon of Tuesday, November 9th brought a fresh start to New Rep, as it prepares to produce its first Black Box show of the season, Three Viewings. Directors, cast, staff, and spectators gathered in the rehearsal hall for a deep discussion of monologues, stories, death and life.

Three Viewings takes place in a funeral parlor, but its stories branch into the realms of love, blackmail, and thievery. As all of the designers were quick to point out, the emphasis of Three Viewings is not so much on death, as it is on remembrance.

Costume Designer Molly Trainer shows her collages for each character.

Virginia

Mac

Emil

Sound Designer David Reiffel plays selections of music to the crowd.

Christina Todesco, Set Designer, describes her visions for the Chihuly-inspired floor.

Many of the designers discussed the desire to work flowers into the set, but in a nontraditional method. Set Designer Christina Todesco and Lighting Designer Chris Brusberg described projecting abstracted flowers onto the back wall, treating the wall as a painting. Meanwhile, the floor of the set will display a beautifully lit Dale Chihuly image of glass sculptural flowers, with an array of color lighting the floor.

Viewers were given the chance to handle and explore Todesco's set up close.

 

Jim Petosa, director of Three Viewings.

The man who, by far, stole the show was Three Viewings Director Jim Petosa. Fresh off directing Boston Playwright Theatre's The River Was Whiskey, Petosa's deep insights on Three Viewings were as thought-provoking as they were eloquently put--embracing the power of Autumn as a time of beautiful endings, rather than being bleak, harsh, and negative.

Christine Power, Mac in Three Viewings, laughs with the rest
of the cast as they prepare for the reading.

By the end of the Meet and Greet, all participants seemed charged by the energy in the room, and by the visions of the designers, cast and crew. Three Viewings runs November 27, 2011 - December 18, 2011. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit http://www.newrep.org/three_viewings.php.

If YOU are interested in attending First Rehearsals @ New Rep or any of our other Behind-the-Scenes @ New Rep Events, please visit http://www.newrep.org/behind_the_scenes.php!

Tell Us YOUR "Memorable" Holiday Experience

With New Rep and aresenalARTS' production of A Christmas Story right around the corner, it's time to start sending us YOUR most "memorable" holiday experiences. We'll choose our favorite story, and give the lucky winner 4 tickets to our holiday show! For more information on how to enter, visit our website.

We've already received our first letter in the mail, along with a beautiful letter from Santa. Take a look! (Click on each page to view it larger.)

 

Send us YOUR memories, and enter to win tickets to A Christmas Story today!

“Collected Stories” Is a Powerful Tale

by Jana Pollack, New Rep Reviewer

In New Rep’s “Collected Stories,” a complex, intricate relationship takes shape, evolves, and explodes in an extremely intimate setting. In one wonderfully realized room, we see professor and accomplished writer Ruth Steiner (the amazing Bobbie Steinbach) and writing graduate student Lisa Morrison (the equally talented Liz Hayes) meet and get to know one another. Although the play consists only of scenes between these two women, the power balance is always shifting and the stakes are always high.

This is a common tale – student surpasses teacher – that comes freshly alive in this production. Director Bridget O’Leary, who consistently produces powerful work, has helped her actors create two unique, completely realized women. When Liz first enters, there is just one moment of worry that she is perhaps a caricature of a harried graduate student. But within a few lines of dialogue it is clear that Ms. Hayes knows Lisa in and out. Ms. Steinbach captured my attention from her very first appearance, moving her shoulders to the beat of an old jazz record as she finished working on a typewriter.

As the play continues, it raises questions about youth and aging, truth and fiction, friendship and, ultimately, ownership. Ms. Steinbach expertly removes layers, scene by scene, letting Lisa in little by little, while Ms. Hayes conversely begins to put up thin and then thicker walls. By the end, each woman appears quite changed from her initial appearance, but we can see that really these strengths and weaknesses were there all along.

The passage of time is expertly depicted by costume designer Tyler Kinney, as one woman come into herself and another struggles with letting go. Ultimately, the audience is in the difficult position of choosing a side. As an audience member, I was completely wrapped up in the moral implications of the story, and in the days since seeing the play I’ve thought a great deal about the sadness of what the relationship between Ruth and Lisa becomes. “Collected Stories” is good theater: consistently entertaining and inherently complex.

Who can collect your story?

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Reviewer

Collected Stories by Donald Margulies explores the relationship between two writers – first as a student and a mentor and later as colleagues and the tensions caused by the relationship. Lisa Morrison, a first-semester grad student rushes to visit her advisor and favorite author Ruth Steiner to discuss a writing assignment. Ruth invites Lisa into her home and Lisa is overcome by the fact she is in her idol's apartment. There’s a bit of a misunderstanding, Ruth just sees that as a regular meeting with a student that happens to be at her apartment; Lisa thinks she’s being invited as a guest into Ruth’s apartment. Lisa is nervous and intimidated – speaking in a frenzied manner. She's a young writer with a lot of potential that wants to be shaped by Ruth. Over the course of the evening, through the interactions between the two women we see her progression as a writer and the shift in their relationship. We see Lisa grow to the point where Ruth seeks Lisa's advice on new writings but then challenges her interpretation of the new piece not able to relinquish control. The play explores the relationship between teacher and student – between mentor and protégé as well as what is fair game when writing. When is it appropriate to write about stories others have told you about? It does not try to pose judgment, but rather allow the audience to decide who was in the right in this instance.

In lesser hands, this play may not be very interesting, but under the capable direction of Bridget Kathleen O'Leary and with outstanding performances by Liz Hayes (Lisa) and Bobbie Steinbach (Ruth), this play shines. Lisa evolves from a nervous, intimidated, mousy novice writer into a writer who will do what it takes to get ahead. In the first scene you see her anxiety of embarking on her graduate career – a believable portrayal. Over the next couple hours, Hayes demonstrates Lisa's growth while maintaining vulnerability - a desire to still need approval from the one woman who is unfortunately incapable of providing such support. Bobbie Steinbach inhabits Ruth at her core and is great at as the intimidating, experienced professor who can never be pleased. She commands attention and shows great depth of emotion in the role.

Upon entering the Mosesian Theater, one immediately notices the lovely apartment of Ruth Steiner, masterfully designed by Jenna McFarland Lord with properties design by Joe Stallone. The opening scene and the angles make it feel like it is on the top floor and hidden away - Ruth’s hidden sanctuary. Great detail is put into it with a wall of books, a manual typewriter, and well-worn furniture. You immediately get the impression that this is a place Ruth has lived in for years. I also give credit to the whole team for ensuring that the actors do not get lost in such a large space – while everything around adds to the production, your focus is always on the actors and their compelling story. Credit should also be given to the David Reiffel's sound design – when you enter the space, you can hear the traffic outside the apartment. Deb Sullivan's lighting design also adds texture to the production through good use of light and color.

Overall, this is a strong production with a great team all around and standout performances by both Bobbie Steinbach and Liz Hayes. The story is an interesting one and will leave you evaluating the relationship between the two women after the show.

"Collected Stories" Powerful, Intense

The set for New Rep's terrific new production of "Collected Stories" draws in the audience even before the figurative curtain rises.  Any booklover will drool over the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the comfy leather library sofa and chair, the assembled New Yorker magazines, and the cozy oriental rugs.  (We decided we wanted to live in that apartment!)  Three cheers to Jenna McFarland Lord for set design.  Kudos also to Deb Sullivan for lighting design; in this two-character play, the lighting becomes something of a third presence, cleverly evoking the seasons, time of day, and New York skyline. 

Ultimately, however, it is the acting that astounds.  Local great Bobbie Steinbach has created such a completely real, believable, flawed, contradictory, passionate, and human character in Ruth Steiner that we left convinced we had met this person before.  Ruth is a writer and professor, a tiny, fierce, quintessential New Yorker who feels and expresses everything with such intensity that her hands tremble and she appears about to levitate at the peak of a discussion.  Steinbach's performance is so powerful that we risk siding too much with her in the eventual show-down Ruth has with her graduate student mentee, Lisa (played convincingly by Liz Hayes) -- more on this later.

Lisa is ambitious and wants to surpass her teacher (witness the prickly conversation about why Ruth never wrote a novel, for example).  The play, a terrific work by Donald Margulies, which was nominated for a Pulitzer, is ultimately about ownership of one’s story.  It evokes the danger of sharing too much, making yourself vulnerable, even while it shows us the beauty of this as well.  The work is about teachers and students, artists and acolytes, and the moment where the student begins to overtake the teacher.  But this raises a critical question: whose stories belong to whom?  Can a an “innocent ‘ unsophisticated artistic newbie appropriate an entire culture, e.g. New York artistic Jewishness, about which she has only heard?  The artistic process can devour everything in the environment, appropriating other people's lives and precious stories.  We have a hint of what Lisa can do with her art when she incorporates her father’s love life in a story and then chooses to share just that story with him, then seems puzzled by his reaction. (Ruth keeps asking her why that story and never gets a clear answer.)

Without giving away too much, suffice it to say that Lisa crosses a boundary in ways that Ruth can’t forgive. It is hard to tell if she is smart enough to know what she has done, and we're never quite sure why she did it.  The script is unclear on this point.  More conviction on the part of Hayes -- and perhaps some righteous anger or indignation in that final argument -- might have helped her explain herself better.  The final argument felt one-sided. We left the theater not sure if it was our sympathy with the older character (who is no saint, who takes advantage of the license of being an elder who can say whatever the hell she wants), the playwright’s intention, or the effect of the unequal skills of the two actresses. Haynes is skillful, but she doesn’t summon up the anger to make her an equal combatant in the final scenes. You see a flash of it when Ruth pushes her too far; we would have liked to see more.  (Though standing up to Bobbie Steinbach certainly can't be easy, we're sure.)

On the whole, this is an excellent production.  New Rep has done itself proud with this one!

~ Johanna Ettin & Shauna Shames, New Rep Reviewers

"Collected Stories" Collects Applause

New Rep's production of "Collected Stories" by Donald Margulies is a candid glimpse at the relationship between two female authors, one a venerable teacher and one a student of the craft.  The story of their friendship unfolds over 6 years and through a series of successes, misunderstandings, and confidences, creating a complex and believable bond between these two women.

Bobbie Steinbach as Ruth Steiner is masterful in her role.  She carries herself with the grace of an accomplished writer and professor, engaging the audience with her lively story-telling, her face alight with passion as she tells of her affair with the self-destructive poet Delmore Schwartz.  She is the sage professor, casting piercing looks at Lisa (Liz Hayes), who spills tea and gratingly phrases each sentence as a question.  She is the endearing grandmother who offers cookies and complements to her young protégé.  She is jealous and vehement and vulnerable, and she is completely natural and convincing in all of these roles.

Hayes creates the perfect foil to Steinbach’s confidence.  She is the fumbling, star-stricken grad student, ready to leave her mark on the writing world, but desperate for approval before she does.  While at times her mannerisms seem stilted next to Steinbach’s, her awkwardness works with her character’s struggle to impress her mentor.

The backdrop for the play is Jenna McFarland Lord’s beautiful set design.  A projector screen bathes Ruth’s Greenwich Village apartment in late afternoon sunlight, the orange sunrise dissolving into shadows over her leather couch and stacks of books.  A row of track lights above the bookcases casts the room in a warm glow, aiding the feeling of coziness for an apartment made a home for 31 years.

"Collected Stories" is both expertly acted  and stunningly set.  The play provides an intimate glimpse of the complex relationship between two women as they each evaluate their self-worth and expound on their views of the boundaries of an author.

"Collected Stories": Whose Life Is It Anyway?

by Jack Craib, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep’s production of “Collected Stories” is theatrical heaven, a miraculous melding of profound writing, superb direction and impeccable acting, resulting in the best work this company has done in a handful of seasons. Playwright Donald Margulies is perhaps best known for his 2000 Pulitzer-winning “Dinner with Friends” and the recent Broadway production of “Time Stands Still” (so fine a piece that it was revived, again on Broadway, a year after its initial run, with an incandescent Laura Linney and most of the original cast intact). “Collected Stories”, first performed off-Broadway four years earlier, and on Broadway in 2010, is unaccountably much less renowned, despite having been itself a finalist for the Pulitzer and a Drama Desk nominee as best play in 1996.

The most astonishing fact about the play is that it’s taken this long for it to appear on a local stage, apart from a production in the western part of the state a decade ago. This may be in part because its original off-Broadway run and its more recent Broadway iteration were so short-lived, while several deep-as-a-birdbath mega musicals continue to pack in adoring crowds. It may also be due to the deceptively fluid naturalism of the work; not for a moment does the dialogue seem inauthentic or inappropriate, and this can be deceptive. Without divulging too much of the plot, it can be said that elements of the play are reminiscent of “Educating Rita” (roles being gradually reversed), “All About Eve” (adulation morphing into rites of succession), and especially “Doubt” (a theatergoer left to decide for herself or himself who is a victim or a villain, and how consciously this occurs).

At the base of this work, about the collection of stories, are some rather heavy dilemmas, notably the questions of who owns a person’s life story, privacy invasion, and the inevitable march of time. Margulies complicates the moral question himself when he makes use of real facts from the life of poet Delmore Schwartz and his fictionalized portrayal in Saul Bellow’s “Humboldt’s Gift”. Thus we’re dealing with several layers of borrowed (or burgled?) narrative. While a writer is expected to write about what she or he knows, when is including someone else’s story a tribute and when it is appropriating a life?

The part of Ruth, a writer, teacher and mentor, has been played by such acting luminaries as Uta Hagen, Helen Mirren, and Linda Lavin (on stage, in a Tony-nominated performance, and in a televised version on PBS). Bobbie Steinbach, a local treasure, inhabits the role. As her student and mentee Lisa, making her New Rep debut, Liz Hayes (so memorable in the 2010 SpeakEasy Stage production of “Adding Machine: A Musical”) holds her own in this tightly wound two-hander. It’s terrific to see where their verbal virtuosity and the consistently mesmerizing direction by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary mesh. The technical aspects of the production, most notably the set by Jenna McFarland Lord and costumes by Tyler Kinney (one is tempted to call them “seamless”) also help to make this a resounding success.

Toward the end of the play, Ruth makes the decision to unbolt her door, in a reversal of sorts of a certain Ibsen play, leading to an inevitable confrontation between creative freedom and the duty to claim responsibility for one’s actions. How infrequenty these days is an audience so challenged. Theatrical heaven indeed; number this critic among the saved.

From Audience to Actor: Robert St. Laurence Describes "One Song Glory"

Yesterday, audience member Andrew Caplan posed this question for Robert St. Laurence (currently playing Roger in RENT) on New Rep's facebook page. Today, Robert has answered in great depth! Let New Rep's facebook page be a forum for your questions. Like us, write us: http://www.facebook.com/newrep



Andrew Caplan:

I have a question for Robert St. Laurence: What goes through you mind as you sing "One Song Glory," and how do you think the song affects the rest of the opera?

................................ 

Robert's Response:

Dear Andrew,

One Song Glory is a tough number to perform, mainly due to the fragmentation of the thoughts expressed. I mean, just getting the lyrics right is an enormous task, with all the random 'one song' and 'glory' lyrics scattered about the number. The song mainly expresses Roger's feeling behind the need to write this "one great song." These thoughts and feelings are what drive his actions throughout the story.

There are many layers-- the first being his need to connect with the world and the people around him. He is so plagued by his inability to open himself up to his friends, and he works to do that the only way he knows how, through music. Part of the reason he fails to connect to the world is his constant reliving and inability to accept the past; the main events relevant to this song being the loss of April and contracting HIV. He has already declared his life to be over, and sees his only hope in making a mark on the world as leaving behind "one great song," before he dies.

As the number begins, Roger is in a place of doubt, mocking his 'mantra' of writing one great song. It's the one thing he's held on to for the last couple months/years, and as time passes he loses faith that he can complete this task or that he is even worthy or capable of writing something worthy of glory. He jabs at himself, mocking his previous image and lifestyle as the "pretty boy front man." This is one of Roger's go-to defense mechanisms: to deflect or push away. He grapples with what glory even means, and what is deserving of it. He resents April for taking the easy way out and leaving him to suffer a seemingly endless life of self-imposed isolation and torment. He repeatedly tries to block out his demons, refocusing on the task at hand. Toward the end of the song, a large truth is revealed when he questions a greater power condemning a "young man" to such a bleak fate, and expresses his fear and desire for release from the prison of life.

One Song Glory encompasses much of what drives or inhibits Roger, and much of the drama of the show regarding his character's arc focuses on how this objectives and beliefs hold-up or change when in direct conflict with other characters'. The biggest moment being the final song: Your Eyes. He finally finds the song that will leave his mark on the world and allow him to connect to Mimi, but realizes that the 'perfect song' can't do what an honest and open 'I love you' can. He spends most of the play building a wall to protect himself from the outside world, while others chisel away at it, and in the end he makes the decision to take it down completely. And in that moment, he completes his growth into embracing his loved ones and the fragile present he lives in.

That was a really long answer to a short question, but I hope that gives you an idea of in inner process throughout the song and show.

Sincerely,
Robert St. Laurence

Collected Stories: First Rehearsals @ New Rep

With RENT extended to October 2nd, it may be easy to forget that Collected Stories is opening just one week later! (Previews October 9th, Opening Night October 10th) This past Tuesday afternoon, staff, supporters, actors, and designers gathered for Collected Stories' First Rehearsals @ New Rep event.

A smaller production than RENT, this first rehearsal provided a much more intimate experience for its viewers, who were welcomed first by Director Bridget Kathleen O'Leary.

O'Leary described her own involvement with the play as an undergraduate student, compared to her perception of the play now. "I understood the concept of a mother...a maternal relationship," she explained, "I did not yet understand the relationship between a mentor and a mentee." O'Leary played the role of Ruth, soon to be performed in New Rep's production by Bobbie Steinbach.

As the designers spoke, the characters and their surroundings began taking form. Props Designer Joe Stallone is searching for (and happily accepting) donated books to line the front of the stage to create an old-shelf feel to even the boundaries of the stage itself. If you are interested in donated your books, please contact Joe Stallone at joe.stallone@verizon.net.

 

Meanwhile, Scenic Designer Jenna McFarland Lord showed viewers her beautiful model of the set, describing her visions for both warm and cool tones to balance the scene. 

 The decor of the apartment is trapped in the 60s, a time when Ruth felt life was at it best, and Lord plans to add little hints of the modern world and Lisa's presence in Ruth's life through small bouquets of flowers and other minimal touches. Lighting Designer Deb Sullivan complements Lord's work with the concept of using the cyc to portray a textural space, even movie-reel-esque in feel. Sound Designer David Reiffel furthers the experience with the use of speakers in key locations to bring sounds of the city streets to Ruth's window, and music to her record player. His take on the music was fascinating; his concept being to use both old and new interpretations of Miles Davis' work to replicate the relationship of the two characters. 

Costume Designer Tyler Kinney finished the presentation before the actors began their reading of the play. He and O'Leary spoke of a casual, put-together style for Ruth. He then displayed before and after images of "College Lisa" and "Successful, Sexy Lisa."

If this first rehearsal is any indication, Collected Stories promises to be an intimate, touching play with rich context, sets, lighting, and sound. Buy tickets now at http://newrep.org/collected_stories.php.