As an author, Ruth has had a long, though not particularly prosperous career, leading her to put aside her manuscripts and take up teaching. Lisa, meanwhile, is an eager twenty-something fresh out of college, ready to put her writing talents to good use. In Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories — which is the latest production to be put on by the Jewish Repertory Theatre of Western New York — their lives collide as Ruth hires Lisa to be her assistant, thus beginning their 6-year student-teacher relationship. The play explores the idea of who controls memory — the person who lives it or the person who writes about it.
Collected Stories will be performed at the Road Less Traveled Theater, located inside the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center at 639 Main Street. The show opens Thursday, May 28th and runs through Sunday, June 21st. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30PM; Saturdays at 4PM and 8PM; and Sundays at 2PM. Tickets are $32 for adults and $30 for seniors. To purchase tickets by phone, call 716.688.4114, extension 391.
JRT-vet Rosalind Cramer, professor emeritus at Daemen College, will play the role of Ruth, while Kelly Jakiel will make her JRT debut as Lisa. Jakiel was seen recently onstage for MusicalFare’s productions of Jamestown Girls and Sunday in the Park with George. Cramer has directed and acted in more than 250 productions, and is featured on the Western New York Walk of Fame.
Collected Stories was first produced in California by the South Coast Repertory in October 1996. In its first year, the play won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards for Best Production of a Play and Best Original Play. It was also shortlisted as a Pulitzer Prize finalist that year.