Stage Kiss - Goodman Theatre

IN THE ALBERT
NORTHERN TRUST INVESTS IN STAGE KISS
Goodman Theatre is pleased to continue its
longstanding partnership with Northern Trust as the
Major Corporate Sponsor of Stage Kiss. Northern
Trust was thrilled to team up with the Goodman
this season to support this clever new comedy by
MacArthur “Genius” Grant winner Sarah Ruhl.
give back to the communities that have supported
Northern Trust’s success for generations. Goodman
Theatre enriches the lives of so many and we are
happy to lend support to this fine organization”
said Sherry Barrat, Vice Chairman, Northern Trust
and a Goodman trustee.
“Since our founding in 1889, Northern Trust has
advanced a culture of caring and a commitment to
invest in the communities we serve. We strive to
tasy, and you’re constantly digging it out
of your psyche and opening it up and
displaying it. And so there’s always this
thin line between what’s real and what’s
fantasy. Actors experience it all the time.
Directors less so I think, but we do occasionally.
You start to think, “Am I in love
with this person...or am I just kissing
them every night of an eight-week run?”
Whatever piece you’re working on deeply,
you start to be affected by it because
you’re using your emotional imagination
with such depth. I think that it’s really
funny to put that out on the plate.
TP: What particular challenges does this
play present to you as a director?
JT: I think Sarah’s work is always challenging.
It’s very funny; there’s a sort of
vaudeville or burlesque quality to it, but
at the same time it has to be extremely
truthful. So you need to play both of
these instruments at once, and you’ve
got to balance both in a way so that one
doesn’t drown out the other. I think that’s
true of her work in general, but it’s very
true of this play. The other challenge is
that because this play is about the theater,
you don’t want to spend too much
time on the in-joke. Since we’re people
in the theater making a play about the
theater, there are things that we would
find hilarious that wouldn’t communicate
to the audience. But, on the other hand,
people love plays about the theater and
stories about the theater because it’s
such a human thing to do—to get up and
perform for each other. And many, many,
many people do it in different ways, so
it’s not as unfamiliar to a general audience
as we sometimes think.
TP: Where do you think this particular
play fits into Sarah Ruhl’s body of work?
JT: Sarah’s plays are different in that they
each have their own world. This one is
very much about theater, and about the
imagination, and it explores the agreements
we make, the world we build with
our imagination, and how we reach out
to that imagination to comfort ourselves
when we need it. And it’s also about the
theater. I mean, it really is about what it
means to be in the theater, or any line
of work in which you’re creating another
self. I think that’s what kind of makes this
world particular to itself. The language
in the other plays might be theatrical,
but this one really brings it right into the
phenomenon of the theater. In terms of
what’s similar to her previous work, I feel
like it’s very funny in the way that Sarah’s
plays are funny, and it’s sexy in the way
her plays are sexy. It’s about love and lust
and the forbidden. So all of that is really
juicy and delightful, but I do think it’s
really getting at this heart of the question:
What is the truth of relationships? Where
do we find compassion and comfort? And
who are we really connected to and why?
And I feel like that is similar to the rest of
her work.
TP: Sarah, how do you see this play fitting
into your body of work?
SR: Well, starting with Passion Play,
which was my first play, I became interested
in this whole bug-bear of what it is
to represent so-called reality, and what it
is to be an actor. I think maybe because
I started as a poet, and then became a
playwright, the whole impetus of theater—of
one person pretending to be
another person—seemed rather naughty
4