Dramaguide Written by Gary Cadwallader Dramaguide the Play
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Table of Contents The Play p. 2 The Playwright p. 3-4 The History p. 4-5 Delmore Schwartz p. 6 Intellectual Property p. 7 Further Reading p. 8 Especially for p. 9 Students Learning Connections & Standards p. 10-11 By Donald Margulies Director Paul Stancato Producers February 3 – March 5, 2017 Ruth & Ted Baum Dramaguide written by Gary Cadwallader Dramaguide The Play “Influence is simply a transference of personality, a mode of giving away what is most precious to one’s self, and its exercise produces a sense, and, it may be, a reality of loss. Every disciple takes away something from his master.” -Oscar Wilde The Characters Ruth Steiner – an established short story author and professor of literature Lisa Morrison – a graduate student in literature, and a fan of Steiner’s work The Setting Ruth Steiner’s Greenwich Village apartment in New York, September 1990 The Story “We’re all rummagers. All writers are. Rummagers at a tag sale. Picking through the neighbors’ discards for material, whatever we can get our hands on. Shamelessly. Why stop with our own journals?” - Ruth Ruth has invited one of her graduate students, Lisa, to her apartment for a “tutorial” on Lisa’s autobiographical short story, “Eating Between Meals.” When the ambitious Lisa learns that Ruth is looking for a personal assistant she begs Ruth for the job. The following year it is clear that Lisa was offered the position and they have become close. They discuss and debate current events, as well as the difficulties and insecurities of becoming a published writer. Lisa sheepishly admits to Ruth that “Eating Between Meals,” her story that had been rejected by every publication suggested by Ruth has been published in Grand Street Journal, a publication to which they had agreed not to submit the story. The news comes as a surprise to Ruth, who is offended that Lisa hadn’t shared the news earlier. Lisa changes the subject and asks Ruth about her relationship with author Delmore Schwartz. Ruth reluctantly tells Lisa the story, admitting she’s never written about it, nor discussed this relationship with anyone. Two and a half years later, Lisa is a newly published author and Ruth is reading aloud a review of Lisa’s first collection of stories. Lisa admits that she is struggling to find an idea for a new story, and stuck for inspiration. Ruth suggests that she look outside of her own life experiences for motivation. Two years later, Lisa reads from her new novel, Miriam’s Book, at the 92nd Street Y, a popular lecture hall in New York City. When Lisa arrives at Ruth’s apartment to learn why Ruth didn’t attend the reading, Ruth confronts her for appropriating her relationship with Schwartz as the basis for Miriam’s Book. Lisa defends her decision, but the relationship is harmed. 2 The Author: Donald Margulies Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (born 1954) is one of the most popular writers in the theatre today. In addition to Collected Stories, his most-produced plays include Sight Unseen (1991), Dinner With Friends (1999), God of Vengeance (2000), Brooklyn Boy (2004), Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (2007), Time Stands Still (2010), and The Country House (2014). Donald Margulies grew up in Trump Village in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, where his parents conveyed their love of theatre and film to Donald and his brother. He wrote about his childhood: “My parents were not intellectuals. They were not artists. My father sold wallpaper. My mother was a housewife until she went back to office work when I was ten. We were middle-class Jews who didn’t go to synagogue, but we did go to Broadway. My parents came of age during the Depression - they loved movies and they loved Broadway, and they instilled that love in my brother and me. Our family took a few memorable excursions to Broadway during my childhood. We spent a couple of weeklong school vacations seeing eight or nine shows, mostly musicals, at a time when a middle-class family could afford to sit in the balcony for not much more than the cost of a movie ticket. Those experiences stayed with me.” While at Dewey High School in Brooklyn, Margulies discovered he loved writing short stories. When he penned a story for his school’s literary magazine that contained an expletive, the principal refused to allow publication. He and his student co-editor contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, and the case against the principal and the New York City Board of Education went to court. Margulies won the case, and the New York Daily News ran the headline, “Four Letter Words OK in School Mag, Judge Rules.” Margulies wrote later that “….the story didn’t shock or impress many people. It was very much the work of a precocious seventeen-year-old. It wasn’t until a few years later that I tried my hand at playwriting.” Margulies began his college career at Pratt Institute, focusing on visual art. Longing to study both writing and art, he transferred to SUNY Purchase, where he graduated in 1977 with a BFA in Visual Art. While at Purchase, Margulies met Village Voice critic Julius Novick who encouraged him to pursue playwriting. Margulies calls Novick “my first champion in the theatre.” While an editor at Scholastic magazine, Margulies’ was hired in 1980 to write comedy for Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara’s HBO’s show, “HBO Sneak Preview.” Simultaneously, Margulies was commissioned by Jewish Repertory Theatre to adapt poet Delmore Schwartz’s story, “In Dreams Become Responsibilities,” into a stage play. This one-act opened in 1982, marking Margulies’ professional debut as a playwright. 3 The Author: Continued Two related one-acts, together entitled Resting Place, opened at Theatre for a New City later that year. The following year, his first full-length play, Gifted Children, opened at Jewish Repertory Theatre. This story includes a complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, and Margulies’ wife observed that it “was a template for Collected Stories.” Margulies is one of America’s preeminent playwrights, and his plays have been performed on and off Broadway, and performed at major theatres around the country and the world. His Pulitzer Prize- winning play, Dinner With Friends, was produced here at PBD in 2011. He continues to write while teaching playwriting at Yale University. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife, Lynn, and his son, Miles. History of the Play Collected Stories was inspired, Margulies has said, by the controversy surrounding David Leavitt's 1993 novel While England Sleeps, which had been “inspired by” the autobiographical writings of the English poet Stephen Spender. Spender (1909 – 1995) sued Leavitt and his publisher, Viking-Penguin, who settled out of court and agreed to stop selling the book. According to the lawsuit there were “17 offending passages” that were similar to situations in Spender’s book. In an excerpt from a 1994 Op-Ed in the New York Times defending his position, Leavitt wrote: “As far as I was concerned, I had simply written a novel - a historical novel - derived in part from an episode recorded in Spender's autobiography World Within World, and touched upon as well in his published journals and numerous other books about the period. This episode, to which Spender devoted a total of perhaps 10 pages of World Within World, was the germ of my novel, the seed from which it grew; but the novel as a whole resembled Spender's account about as much as a cherry tree resembles a cherry stone. Why did I choose to write about this episode? The novelist's usual reason: It had caught my imagination and wouldn't let go. Stephen Spender published World Within World when he was 41. I am 32 and I have never written an autobiography; but if I ever do, and if something in its pages grabs some young novelist's attention, I hope he'll feel free to take whatever he wants from the story. Indeed, I can't think what greater homage could be paid a writer than to see his own life serve as the occasion for fiction. I wouldn't try to dictate the way that writer portrayed me. Instead I'd give him my blessing; I'd even give him my encouragement; I'd tell him: "Write freely, in peace, without fear." 4 History of the Play: Continued In 1995 Leavitt signed with Houghton Mifflin, removed the “offensive passages,” and the updated novel was newly published. The revision included a preface written by Leavitt addressing the controversy. Collected Stories was commissioned by Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory, where it had its world premiere in 1996. It was directed by Lisa Peterson, and featured Kandis Chappell as Ruth and Suzanne Cryer as Lisa. Collected Stories, again directed by Lisa Peterson, opened off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage I in 1997. It featured Maria Tucci as Ruth and Debra Messing as Lisa. The following year the play had a second off-Broadway production, a remount of a production originally performed at HB Studios (the legendary acting school led by Uta Hagen). Directed by William Carden and produced at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the new production featured Hagen as Ruth and Lorca Simons as Lisa. Linda Lavin played Ruth in 1999 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, in a production co-starring Samantha Mathis as Lisa. Directed by Gilbert Cates, this production was produced for television in 2002, and broadcast by PBS Hollywood Presents. The play premiered at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1999, and starred Helen Mirren as Ruth and Anne-Marie Duff as Lisa.