ALTSCHUL: Earlier you said first and foremost, you are a playwright. LONERGAN: I'm sure she'd love something that was about her in her heyday, but I don't think she would enjoy this at all. LONERGAN: Mistakes. So it's easy to walk away from. From the moment Gladys Green opens her mouth which is the moment that the curtain rises on Kenneth Lonergans wonderful play The Waverly Gallery at the Golden Theater its clear that for this garrulous woman, idle conversation isnt a time killer. ALTSCHUL: Let's talk about "You Can Count On Me" and how that story developed. She was somehow connected in with real estate, as she always found apartments for everyone, her friends and family I mean. In ''The Waverly Gallery,'' which opened last night at the Promenade Theater, the octogenarian Gladys Green is played by the octogenarian Eileen Heckart, an actress whose career stretches well. ALTSCHUL: When did the idea kind of start saying, "I'm a play"? The high school that the girl goes to is based on my high school very closely. ALTSCHUL: And the gallery itself, there wasn't much going on there in the end. You know, kind of the rug's pulled out from under you before you're ready, and before it needs to be. Wisdom? It takes place in 1989, it's based on my grandmother and my family,. LONERGAN: And if you wanna do everything for them, you should direct it yourself (LAUGH) or shut up. "The Waverly Gallery" is narrated by Gladys's grandson, Daniel, the Lonergan stand-in, who has a penchant for wry, detached sarcasm. ALTSCHUL: And you were caring for her, in some ways, during that time? But it also is sort of the idea of an attempt to do a play in some kind of documentary theatricalization, 'cause it's very literal, and the events are not written in any way as to try to compress or bend the reality to make it more like a story. ALTSCHUL: Can you talk about "Manchester by the Sea"? Tuesday was a tough day for "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, who tested positive for COVID-19 for the third time in a little over a year. The Waverly Gallery, now revived on Broadway, is an early play by Kenneth Lonergan and as directed by Lila Neugebauer and upraised by Elaine May's toweringly fragile performance, it is as quietly. From the moment Gladys Green opens her mouth which is the moment that the curtain rises on Kenneth Lonergan's wonderful play "The Waverly Gallery" at the Golden Theater it's clear that for this garrulous woman, idle conversation isn't a time killer. I hope the plays are good and good enough to live beyond the first couple years when they appeared. You had early success in the film business. The Waverly Gallery is an insightful look into a passionate and feisty woman's final decline and the impact felt by the entire family. And it gave me an entry into the screenwriting world, and I rewrote other people's scripts. And I think the main thing about it is that the person is still as alive as you are, and they can't be relegated into the status of an invalid. ALTSCHUL: Well, there was a lot of beautiful things in that film to look at. She's got dementia, and it's about how she tries to hang on to what she's got, and how her family, her daughter and grandson and all them cope with this extremely difficult end of life. ALTSCHUL: Just getting those kinds of performances out of actors, it only happens when you've got somebody who is an actor's director who understands what it's like on both sides. (CHUCKLES). This natural, relaxed dialogue between characters? ALTSCHUL: Both of your parents were psychiatrists. LONERGAN:I don't know that, nobody does that anymore. (CHUCKLES) Or get anything right in life, 'cause everyone else is pursuing their own agenda, with perfect reason. And he saw him once and said, "Just don't tell me anything. No, she was really brilliant. But no word is randomly chosen here, starting with. That's what I'm there for. So there was an evening about faith, whatever it meant to you. This pseudonym is very simple and uncomplicated. And then I also noticed, not to be immodest, that I often had an idea about how the scene could be played out. Daniel's crystalline monologues of recollection aside, "The Waverly Gallery" often has the ostensible waywardness of recorded conversations. And if you get good actors, that's great. And my older brother was gonna move in, but then he moved to Brazil. Anyway, it seemed like this enormous thing that I really didn't know what to make of. And we ended up casting Casey. And it just sounds like a fascinating thing to do all day long. LONERGAN: I don't think she'd be too happy! But anyway, my father read something that I had written and he said, "Your dialogue is very good." Our Pet Policy. And she just had a very profound understanding of I hate to call it this how the creative process works. ALTSCHUL: You go to the original. The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. LONERGAN: Director really has to, you can't do anything else for at least a year. Joanne Woodward filled in for an ailing Eileen Heckart in the final four performances.[3]. Retrying. LONERGAN: And it makes it a story and not just a dirge. Such objections dissolve as soon as Gladys and her clan reassemble into groupings that convey both claustrophobic intimacy and tragic, unbridgeable distance. It's difficult, I imagine. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . And I'm sure she'd love that Elaine May was playing her. They include Gladyss daughter (and Daniels mother), Ellen (Joan Allen, who wrenchingly combines filial devotion and resentment); her psychoanalyst husband Howard (an impeccably tactless David Cromer); and Don (Michael Cera, doing confident but clueless), a young painter from Massachusetts who stumbles into Gladyss gallery one day and winds up showing and living there. But yeah, because I'm trying to make it resemble real life as much as I can, I think some of the people have said, "Well, nothing happens in that play, but the dialogue's very good." But it is a memoir play, I guess! LONERGAN: No, I mean the play is about her at a age she wouldn't wanna be seen at, and a state of mind she wouldn't want anyone to be witness to. I was just sitting there typing. Ill also admit that I looked forward to the curtain call and the reassurance it would bring that May, 86, isnt quite so fragile. A work of at least partial autobiography, this is a memory play about memory loss. I don't wanna know anything about you or your life or anything." LONERGAN: And that's probably why it's so hard to get anything done. David Zinns urban set, with its vistas of the city beyond, weighs heavily on the playing area. ", Michael Cera and Tavi Gevinson in the 2014 revival of Kenneth Lonergan's "This Is Our Youth. ALTSCHUL: Once you've written something and put it down on paper, does it then inhabit a separate space from your memory? We'll just set them up in this . Your parents had their hands full. You know? This is descriptive. The Waverly Gallery is a small play. Alzheimer's wasn't quite coined as the catch-all for most forms of dementia. And I don't know that I feel peeved or pleased when sometimes people say, "There's no stories in my plays," 'cause I try very hard to give you can't function without a structure. She started to talk at them, and it became harder and harder for her to be engaged in the world the way she wanted to be. When he read the script he suggested that I direct it. It was pretty clear where it was working and where it wasn't. Gladys Green, the proprietor of the gallery of the title, is a crusty old lady on the cusp of the downslide into Alzheimer's disease. But with no story, it's not interesting. I wasn't, like, a saint, spending all my time taking care of her. No, they mean something else? They wanna be alive. It's funny, though, because it's still attached to the real events that inspire it. Elaine May who has not been on a Theater stage for fifty years is just magnificent. Everything you write is culled from your own experience or the experience of people you meet or see in other films or plays, and it's translated. But in describing his domestic portraits and local landscapes, he sums up the essence of the play. Just you feel you do want it to stand on its own and not require your descriptions of it. That character's somewhat invented. (LAUGHTER) But it's nice to have someone who's supportive, but very, very truthful with you. And I want you to really bring them to life more. As a screenwriter (You Can Count on Me, Manchester by the Sea) and dramatist (This Is Our Youth, Lobby Hero), Mr. Lonergan has always portrayed human communication as an imperfect compromise. LONERGAN: Yeah, I think it's the best one I've done of the three [I directed]. ALTSCHUL: You're so well known for your natural dialogue between characters, it almost feels as though we're eavesdropping on a conversation. And there's not exactly a plot in "Waverly Gallery," but there's this progression. But I don't know whether this is grandiosity or what, or just a desire for the material to stay alive, but I try not to worry about that too much. We're kinda thinking this is the story." And everyone else in it is just as interested in their life as she is in her own. . She was all of our first all of our-- the first choice of all of us. ALTSCHUL: So let's go back a little bit in time, kinda early on. Packer must have felt a certain frisson at taking on "The Waverly Gallery," no less than her leading actor, Annette Miller, a veteran of 22 seasons at SS & Co, who plays the role of Gladys. LONERGAN: When he realizes that he's being more of a backseat driver as a playwright than he ought to be. But my other play, "The Waverly Gallery," had this great director, Lila Neugebauer. Mr. Ceras homey painter may be no Picasso. "[9], Ben Brantley in The New York Times called the play a "finely observed story of the predations of old age[it] isn't so much a proper play as an essayistic memoir given dramatic form. (LAUGHTER) So you can kind of write whatever you want. For whatever reason that passage wasn't actable. It is considered a "memory play". In her information and humor filled opening monologue, Ms. Heckart manages to not only fill us in on the family history but to give us a . (LAUGHTER) It was a bit too high concept for me. I mean, nobody knows why anybody's good at anything. ALTSCHUL: So "Margaret" is perhaps your least-seen movie, but also considered your master work. Or the locks on the doors, the gas on the stove, or just arrangements of who's gonna take so-and-so to the doctor, to the eye doctor, and that becomes a big part of your life. It tries to be a human story about people going through something very difficult and doing their best. What is it? The real estate wasn't sky-high in those days. It percolates somehow. So did Mr. Lonergan. ALTSCHUL: But she was an extraordinary woman. Daniel Day Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York. ALTSCHUL: What was your experience with that process? An octogenarian New Yorker, former lawyer and perpetual hostess for whom schmoozing and kibitzing have always been as essential as breathing, Gladys operates on the principle that if she can just continue to talk, she can surely power through the thickening fog of her old age. LONERGAN: Yeah. As the play continues, he's filled with guilt and remorse. Ill admit that several times I thought shed missed a line or fluffed one, but when I went back and read the script, there was everything shed said. $15.99 . And I thought, the other thing is that I still don't feel the need to direct theatre all the time. ALTSCHUL: Really the smartest person you've ever known? She just was very thoughtful and also very, very insightful. It's like doing a crossword puzzle. Why were the audiences drawn to that film? Do you think that had an influence on your ability to bring so much understanding and depth and character analysis? She had this incredible insight. And how the brain works and how people make the choices they make? The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001. I love this little scene." There's both a lot and very little happening in Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery. People really work hard to help take care of their loved ones everywhere, all over the world. And they kind of let the actors do what they're gonna do. And there's an opposite falseness on the other end of the scale to when things are just too heavy, too miserable, too relentless, too bleak. She also received a Drama League Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. She died two years after she moved in with my mother and out of her apartment where she'd been for 30 years. Well, I mean most of it's casting. Or if you combined people, it's very easy to pull details. LONERGAN: Well, it gives you backup. . Monologue: "He's taken an interest. 'The Waverly Gallery' is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. ALTSCHUL: "Waverly" opened to critically great reviews. They tried a bunch of different ideas for him. It's quite a full-time job all the time. As far as caring for elderly and people with dementia, aging people with Alzheimer's or any of these diseases, not much has changed today. I'm sure she'd get kick outta that. Mistakes? Or you know, it doesn't rain when you're in a bad mood. And it seemed to me, I really liked the characters. LONERGAN: Yeah, she went there all the time. ALTSCHUL: Yeah. It's just you have to invent less when you're using real life. The Waverly Gallery's opening monologue is so authentic, it's as if writer Kenneth Lonergan recorded the frenetic ramblings of a person slowly losing her memory for later use in his play about . I mean that's a pretty broad half the human race is a very broad topic! What happened? The Waverly Gallery opened October 25, 2018, at the John Golden Theatre. And when she whimsically describes the loneliness of Ellens dog, who just wants a little attention, you know exactly what Gladys really means. And she'd know when you weren't quite doing it the way it wanted to be done. People don't quite have to be as separated from the company of others as sometimes we separate them, in this culture anyway. Of course, Lonergan is talented, too. You know, can be really good. The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. ALTSCHUL: And that's just life experience, right? ", Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck in Kenneth Lonergan's drama, "Manchester by the Sea.". I think it's just really difficult. Find The Waverly Gallery stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Robert De Niro played a mobster who seeks help for his panic attacks from Billy Crystal in the comedy "Analyze This" (1999). Thus, when Gladys's deterioration escalates from eccentricity to complete deterioration, the younger generation can no longer just stay in touch. LONERGAN: I'm sure it did. ", Kenneth Lonergan directing Matt Damon and Anna Paquin in "Margaret. You wouldn't see anything bigger or smaller than real life, and yet if you can tell a story with a beginning, middle and an end in that aesthetic, then that's quite interesting to try to do. ALTSCHUL: It was 20 years ago that you were writing "The Waverly Gallery." ALTSCHUL: Right. ALTSCHUL: What about the process of writing? But no word is randomly chosen here, starting with. Do you know those characters? But I was there a lot. Because how can his ear be so good and his mind so sharp when Gladys is already so deaf theres some very funny business in and around her hearing aid and growing deafer, more senile every time we see her? LONERGAN: Oh yeah. Most plays are just talking! he Waverly Gallery, now revived on Broadway, is an early play by. She did a lot of work on housing issues. How her family daughter Ellen, son-in-law Howard and grandson Daniel deals with her decline is told by the grandson. This feels like a good choice?". Most of the stuff with Daniel Day-Lewis' character was really good, so I barely touched that. So when people say there's no story, there are no plot line, it's no beginning, middle and end. Even if you have the wherewithal to do it, it's almost impossible. In "The Waverly Gallery," the young writer Daniel Reed (Lucas Hedges) is overwhelmed with guilt regarding the care for his aging and increasingly demented grandmother Gladys (Elaine May), who. Playwright Kenneth Lonergan is so obsessed with telling Gladys' story and creating her . ', 'Tootsie', 'Rags Parkland' Lead the Pack", " 'Tootsie', 'Hadestown', and 'The Ferryman' Lead 2019 Drama Desk Award Winners", "2019 Tony Award Nominations: 'Hadestown' and 'Ain't Too Proud' Lead the Pack", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Waverly_Gallery&oldid=1136664953, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 14:23. And then other things start to happen. I think more the '50s. You know, had had some close friends who were older go through real difficult medical situations. Because Matt Damon and John Krazinski came to me with the idea for the story. And I think I just I would be a little more I would spend more time assuaging them and less time tryin' to convince them to get off my back. I showed her every single thing I wrote that I cared about, from the time I was in 10th or 11th grade to, I was about, well, 40 years old. This one person's father was a professor and his mother came from Ireland. Like, people, their good strengths come out not in a sentimental way, but in a real inspiring way. For a movie, if you're not gonna direct it you might as well say goodbye to the material forever, if you're the writer. LONERGAN: Not really. Whoops! Yeah, I'm sure that's true. ALTSCHUL: Oh my gosh. And it's nice to come in and save the day. And the intervals between scenes which feature vintage street photography projections (by Tal Yarden) feel ponderously long. The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. The Waverly Gallery. She was my first choice. In any case, the Gladys we meet in The Waverly Gallery the title comes from the small rented Greenwich Village space where she shows art of dubious distinction is conducting what might be called extreme improvisation. Or two? The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. The playwright's story of family relationships and dementia, now on Broadway in a revival starring Elaine May, Joan Allen and Lucas Hedges, recalls his grandmother's last years in decline. ALTSCHUL: So you take the script and there are specific characters that he gives you an assignment? But it wasn't, like, I was 25 or 26. The Waverly Gallery: A Play Kenneth Lonergan Samuel French, Inc., 2001 - Drama- 90 pages 0Reviews Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. I want to remember every detail, because . She is one of five stellar cast members, notably Lucas . [67], " 'Waverly Gallery', Eileen Heckart, Take Their Final Exit, May 21", "Woodward Subbed for Heckart at Lonergan's Williamstown Gallery", "Elaine May, Lucas Hedges & Michael Cera To Star In Broadway Premiere Of Kenneth Lonergan's 'The Waverly Gallery', "The Band's Visit Director David Cromer Joins Cast of 'The Waverly Gallery' on Broadway", " 'The Waverly Gallery' Begins Previews on Broadway September 25", " 'The Waverly Gallery', Starring Elaine May, Closes on Broadway January 27", "Picture of a Family in Crisis Hangs in 'The Waverly Gallery'", "Nominations for the 2019 Drama Desk Awards Announced; 'Oklahoma! She might be able to put her personal feelings aside. LONERGAN: Yeah, or even if they say you're good at something you're not good at, you think, "Oh, well maybe " It might encourage you to go in that direction a bit more. Which is how it turned out. A small Greenwich Village vanity gallery gives her something to do. That is what you want to do most of all. WAVERLY: Do you know what it's like to have a twin? ALTSCHUL: So it just had to sit there. For more detail on fees and restrictions, visit our website or give us a call. You know, you feel like there are these options and none of them lead to a good place. And so they basically come to you with their problems, and then also say, "And if you have other problems with the script, you know, let us know what you think, and maybe we should address those, too.". I'm Simon, though He called me Peter. I don't think it was too much to cope, I was. And she was very much towards what was towards the behavior, and not so much the words. I like these two characters. ALTSCHUL: I guess what I'm asking is, why write it? I thought maybe I would use them for something else someday. In that case I kind of knew what the main relationship was, what the ending would be, and what the structure of the events was going to be. Her apartment was a social hub in the '40s, '50s and '60s. I mean, there are some directors, great directors, who aren't particularly oriented towards the acting. As far as I'm aware. That could have just been something people just retreated from, but it didn't. The main person who helped me was Matthew Broderick's mother, Patsy Broderick. All My Sons Apr 22, 2019 Jun 30, 2019 . Let it sit back there. And you know, you have this information about the person in the back of your head while you're writing the person's dialogue. Al Roker Has An Understandable Reaction To Savannah Guthrie's Positive COVID Test. Who knows? I did two rewrites, studio rewrites, which were terrible. And so you just kinda get in there and you just try to same as with your own work, you try to think of a person who feels vivid to you. You try to put that person into scenes. But I don't know if I really have the temperament for it. Image Video. ALTSCHUL: Did you ever think you would be interested in being an analyst or a psychologist? THE WAVERLY GALLERY Playwright: Kenneth Lonergan Director: Scott Ellis Cast: Ellen Fine /Maureen Anderman Don Bowman/Anthony Arkin Howard Fine /Mark Blum Daniel /Josh Hamilton Gladys Green/ Eileen Heckart Alan George/ Stephen Mendillo Set Designer: Derek McLane Costume Designer: Michael Krass Lighting Designer: Kenneth Posner LONERGAN: Well, they bring so much to it. I have a film I'm trying to write. LONERGAN: It is difficult. This really painful final experience of hers happened right in my face, basically. When I was 5 years old I started to draw. The "lot" is contextual: The 86-year-old comedy dynamo Elaine May is returning to Broadway for the . She was a really good friend, so I always feel funny calling her a teacher or a mentor, but she that also. LONERGAN: Who knows? And I was so pleased that he had liked anything that I had done, that I then thought, "Oh, I'm very good at dialogue." ALTSCHUL: And at its core, what is it about? 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