Leigh Silverman.When did you last see a lesbian playwrights name up in lights on Broadway? That's reason enough to cheer the opening of Lisa Kron's Well at New York's Longacre Theater, opening March 30. Equally unusual is the Broadway debut of Leigh Silverman, the 31-year-old lesbian director who shepherded Kron's invigorating in·vig·or·ate tr.v. in·vig·or·at·ed, in·vig·or·at·ing, in·vig·or·ates To impart vigor, strength, or vitality to; animate: "A few whiffs of the raw, strong scent of phlox invigorated her" play over the past six years through several workshops across the country, an acclaimed off-Broadway production, and an engagement in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . "Leigh's artistic fearlessness and humanity are what I value the most," says playwright-performer Kron. "You feel that you are in a warm bath of attention and care, but in retrospect you realize that you have also been pushed out of the safety zone." The theme is wellness--of individuals and society--but the play defies conventions. Departing from her trademark solo shows, Kron has written parts for other actors in Well, skillfully skill·ful adj. 1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient. 2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. and hilariously setting herself up to allow the other characters, particularly her homebound home·bound adj. Restricted or confined to home, as of an invalid. mother, to demolish her own show. 'The play is really emotionally satisfying and transformative at the end, and the audience's perspective has to completely change," says Silverman. "It's fun, as the director of this crazy piece of theater, to build everything up so you can destroy it." A playwright herself (Brandon Teena Brandon Teena[1] (December 12, 1972 - December 31, 1993), born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln, Nebraska, and known simply as Brandon, was a physiological female living as a transsexual man[2] who was raped and eventually murdered[3] ), Silverman says she derives her greatest pleasure from nurturing new work. "I love writers who play with form and give the audience the unexpected experience." She recently directed the Five Lesbian Brothers (Kron is one of them) in their latest, Oedipus at Palm Springs, and she's currently working on the upcoming musical Pretty Dead Girl as well as FLOTUS FLOTUS abbr. First Lady of the United States , a new play about Laura Bush. Now one of the few women directors to work on Broadway, Silverman's career has certainly kicked into high gear. On the personal front, Silverman says the best thing that's happened to her is getting married in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of in 2004 to Susie Page, her girlfriend of eight years. "I work so hard, and I'm never home," she reports. "I'm so lucky to have somebody in my life who is so supportive and willing to put up with me." |
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