MCT’s “Collected Stories” puts family first

Sarah Day (foreground) and Laura Frye play Ruth and Lisa, two writers who develop a strong friendship over the course of “Collected Stories.” Photo credit Zane Williams Photography.

C. Michael Wright didn’t put the opening night of Collected Stories next to Thanksgiving on purpose. According to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s artistic director, the show, the latest he’s directing for the company, was scheduled entirely based on timing and logistics between MCT and Forward Theatre, where it will be staged in January. The two companies are partners in this production.

Yet with a play as focused on family relationships as Collected Stories is, it’s hard not to see some serendipity there. The play follows two characters, Ruth (Sarah Day), a reclusive Jewish writer in her 60s, and Lisa (Laura Frye), a WASP-y grad student in her late 20s, over six years. The two women may not be literally related, but Wright says their dynamic is nonetheless a family one.

“Ruth never got married, never had children, so she becomes a mother figure for Lisa, and Lisa becomes a daughter figure for her,” Wright said. “And Lisa came from a broken home. It gets deep – really deep – really fast because of that. … It’s almost like a love relationship, a different kind of love relationship.”

They begin as mentor and mentee. Lisa comes to Ruth’s Greenwich Village apartment to discuss a paper, and Ruth subsequently decides to take her on as an assistant. Their dynamic gradually shifts, with Ruth beginning to see Lisa as a confidant. But Lisa rise to fame breeds tensions between the two, and one final act threatens to sever their near-family bond.

Which woman bears responsibility for building that conflict, Wright won’t divulge – but not just to preserve dramatic tension. One of his favorite things about the play’s writer, Donald Margulies, is the way his characters and plot lines aren’t black and white.

“It’d be so easy to choose one of them as the villain, but I think… it’s up to the audience: Who did you side with, what did you think, who has the better argument?” Wright said. His goal is to provoke questions like that, which means playing up Collected Stories’ nuance and ambiguity.

Wright believes Day and Frye are perfectly suited to that task. While he cast the two actors independently – a big chance, he said, which paid off – the two have developed a chemistry mirroring that of their characters.

“What is best about these two women is that they’re really, really listening to each other,” Wright said. “They’re both really in the moment, always.”

C. Michael Wright says the two-person cast of “Collected Stories” makes it easier for him to move the entire show forward faster. Photo credit Mark Frohna.

Getting to be right in that moment with them is one of the things Wright says he loves about working with small casts. As he tries to explain the difference between that and directing large casts, he again slips into familial imagery: “I always feel like the parent with the child [directing], and if you’ve got too many kids to worry about nobody gets a lot of time.”

Wright said that more hands-on direction of Day and Frye helped greatly, both with the nuts and bolts of the process and in developing the play’s themes. He noted one in particular: the fragility of relationships, and how easy they are to alter for good or for ill.

“It’s so easy for someone to hurt us – or to tickle us,” Wright said. “And [Daye and Frye] are always finding that stuff. Every once in a while, one of them will just start laughing because the other one just pierced something. And I love that. I love when actors are explorers, so it’s not always your vision, it’s everyone’s vision.”

With any luck, that vision will be realized in MCT’s production, thanks to the efforts of Wright and his team – or, perhaps more appropriately, his theatrical family for the next few weeks.

Milwaukee offers plenty more to do this long holiday weekend, and Danielle McClune knows all about it. Check out Danielle’s Thanksgiving On Stage column and you’ll know all about it, too.