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Primary Stages Turns 25
The off-Broadway company marks its twenty-fifth year by celebrating women playwrights
Primary Stages opens its 2009/10 season with Cusi Cram’s A Lifetime Burning
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Primary Stages knows how to pick winners. The Off-Broadway company has given world premieres to playwrights A.R. Gurney, Lee Blessing, Terrence McNally and John Patrick Shanley. And its foresight has been rewarded with numerous awards and nominations, including the Obie, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk. This year, it received its first Tony nomination for Dividing the Estate by Horton Foote.
Now turning 25, Primary Stages is celebrating that milestone by staging three productions written by women, who artistic director Andrew Leynse calls “three exciting voices in the theater.” All three productions concern women re-evaluating their lives. The first addresses the allure of false identity; the second discusses the impact we have on children; and the third examines marital mayhem.
The season opens with Cusi Cram’s A Lifetime Burning, running August 11 – September 5, and stars Jennifer Westfeldt, who won accolades for Kissing Jessica Stein. The play was inspired by a recent publishing scandal. Margaret Seltzer wrote an acclaimed autobiography of her life as a South Central ex-gang member—only to be unmasked as a white woman from an upper-class home. In Burning, playwright Cusi Cram has Emma (Westfeldt) receive a big advance for a heartbreaking autobiography Sun and Fire. (Catch the cheeky online review of the faux book by Melissa Kirsch, author of The Girl’s Guide to Everything). Cram also explains why the deception intrigued her.
The second work, The Night Watcher, running September 22 – October 21, is written and performed by actress Charlayne Woodard, who explores the nature of love. Though childless, she has mentored many children and reveled in her status as “Auntie.” The touching one-woman show is directed by Tony-winner Daniel Sullivan. Woodward reveals why she decided to chronicle her personal experiences at ojaiplays.org.
Finally, rounding out Primary Stages’ 2010 season is Happy Now? by Lucinda Coxon. Opening to critical praise in London, the play follows Kitty, a well-to-do professional woman, wife and mother, who is tempted to have a fling while on a business trip. Coxon reveals how we cope with the pressure of parents, kids and self-obsessed spouses—to great comic effect. The New York Times, seeing Happy Now? at Yale Rep, said the American debut was “nimbly directed by Liz Diamond, exceptionally well cast and skillfully acted.”
Clearly, the mission of founder Casey Childs, who wanted to produce plays and nurture emerging and established writers, has succeeded. Primary Stages has found its voice in a crowded theatrical landscape.