A play is a play is a play, of course, but perhaps it is more of a play when it involves three fixtures of New York's avant garde theater scene, still more when it's a world premiere six years in the making. Such a play will come to Washington University Thursday and Friday, Feb. 4 and 5, when director Anne Bogart and actors Linda Chapman and Lola Pashalinski bring their new two-woman show "Gertrude and Alice: A Likeness to Loving" to Edison Theatre. Performances are at 8 p.m.
"Gertrude and Alice" examines the turbulent relationship between one of early modernism's most famous pairs, the writer Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas. Stein was a true American original -- expatriate, pioneer, salonniere, self-promoter and friend to a generation of writers and artists -- while Toklas served as Stein's muse, lover, secretary, housekeeper, publisher and, upon Stein's death, as the perpetuator of her artistic legacy.
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The search to uncover the real women behind their often self-created mythology has proven to be a labor of love for Chapman and Pashalinski, who began writing "Gertrude and Alice" in 1992. Based on Stein's published writings and a wealth of unpublished material (including Toklas' editing notes to Stein's manuscripts), the play depicts the two women's dedication to one another as well as their many struggles -- over art, over sex, over jealousy, money and fame. Most importantly, the work examines how Stein's writing directly arose from her daily life with Toklas.
Bogart joined the project two years ago after attending a public reading of the work-in-progress. "I am convinced that Gertrude Stein is my artistic mother," Bogart said. "It was immediately clear that I could happily spend much more time with the material and with Chapman and Pashalinski."
An Off-Broadway production of "Gertrude and Alice" -- produced by The Foundry Theatre -- is planned for April and May of this year.
Anne Bogart is co-founder and artistic director of the Saratoga International Theater Institute (SITI), New York, and head of the graduate directing program at Columbia University. She has directed dozens of productions for SITI and for New York's Via Theatre. Bogart has received numerous awards, including two Obie Awards and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Artistic Associate Grant. She has twice sat on the NEA's Opera Musical Theatre Panel.
Linda Chapman is the associate artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop. She has directed more than a dozen plays for other venues, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, P.S. 122, the Theater for the New City and the Thirteenth Street Theater.
Lola Pashalinski is a founding member of The Ridiculous Theatrical Company and the recipient of two Obie Awards for her roles in Charles Ludlam's "Corn" and "Der Ring Gott Farblonjet." She has performed in theaters throughout the country, including the New York Theatre Workshop, The Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Yale Repertory and others.
Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for students, and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, 935-6543, or through MetroTix, 534-1111. The performance is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in Arts and Sciences with support from Edison Theatre, the Performing Arts Department in Arts and Sciences, Olin Library Special Collections and the School of Art's Graduate Program.
