Collected Stories
In 1996, South Coast Repertory commissioned Donald Margulies to
compose a new work called "Collected Stories." An intense, intimate
portrait of two women writers who meet at opposite stages of their
career, it chronicles the development of their relationship and the
tragic collision that occurs six years later.
The SCR production of Margulies' play was an immediate smash
hit that received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. It
then traveled to New York and Off-Broadway where it became a
finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize, followed by a production at
the Geffen Playhouse which was filmed for PBS and broadcast around the
world.
Now thirteen years later, SCR has mounted a revival of this
provocative drama with Kandis Chappell reprising her award-winning
role as Professor Ruth Steiner. Sharing the stage is Melanie Lora
who performs the part of Lisa--her naive, ambitious, young graduate
student.
Regardless of form or content, two-person plays are
exceptionally demanding. First and foremost there has to be
chemistry between the two actors: electrifying, magnetizing
chemistry. In addition, the two are tied together symbiotically.
If the timing is off, if lines are muffed or dropped, each is
dependent on the other to cover the error and get on with it.
Have no fear. Under the concerted direction of Martin Benson,
Chappell and Lora turn in sizzling performances that deliver the
play's underlying premise with smoldering power and sensitive
foreshadows of the explosion to come.
All the action takes place in Ruth's Greenwich Village
apartment (beautifully designed by Thomas Buderwitz) from 1990 to
1996. An acclaimed, middle-aged, short-story writer, Ruth lives a
reclusive life except when on a lecture tour or teaching at the
nearby college where Lisa is one of her pupils.
Shrewd, brilliant, and brutally honest, she is a quintessential
New York writer who developed her skills in the 1950s. When Lisa
comes to her apartment for a tutorial, Ruth recognizes her innate
talent and agrees to hire her as her personal assistant.
What starts out as a awe-struck young writer who reveres time
with her mentor as "a religious experience," develops into a close
relationship that changes their lives forever. A bonding of mutual
respect and trust leads to sharing confidences and revealing painful
memories that were long ago buried.
Over time, under Ruth's tutelage, Lisa becomes the new voice of her
generation. Her first collection of short stories is published
to critical acclaim causing the young writer to agonize over what to do
next. "How can I top this?" she cries out in desperation. "Now
they'll want something bigger--like a novel, or my blood. I've
already written everything I know; I'll have to find something
outside myself to write about."
What Lisa writes about next is at the crux of Margulies' play.
"Collected Stories" probes the creative process itself: Can you
extrapolate slices of life, literature, memory, experience, and
history, then put them together into something new that you
attribute as your own?
And what price must be paid for fame and fortune, if you step on
someone, betray a trust, or hurt people in the process? There are
no answers to this ageless dilemma, only more unsettling questions and
diverse opinions. Margulies wisely leaves "Collected Stories" open to
the discussion that viewers are guaranteed to have as they leave the
theater.
Performances to this excellent revival continue at SCR, 655 Town
Center Dr, in Costa Mesa, Tuesday-Sunday, through June 14. For tickets
call (714) 708-5555, on line at www.scr.org, or at the box-office.