Alzheimer's wasn't quite coined as the catch-all for most forms of dementia. And then what happens? Mistakes? She was somehow connected in with real estate, as she always found apartments for everyone, her friends and family I mean. Sign In. I think more the '50s. And the more you can draw from your life, as they say, the less you have to invent. At 86, Ms. May in her first Broadway appearance in more than 50 years turns out to be just the star to nail the rhythms, the comedy and the pathos of a woman whos talking as fast as she can to keep her place in an increasingly unfamiliar world. LONERGAN: There's all these attachments. Where did you hone that? (LAUGHS). This one person's father was a professor and his mother came from Ireland. And all the characters are very closely modeled on my family. LONERGAN: Yeah, I think it's the best one I've done of the three [I directed]. I rented an apartment in the back of the building she owned. It's so much different and better, you can't even imagine! And then when she got older she became deaf and her mind started to fall away, and so it became harder for her to enjoy the main thing in life that she liked, which was to connect with people and to talk to them. LONERGAN: And if you wanna do everything for them, you should direct it yourself (LAUGH) or shut up. 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. But I didn't really feel like I had finished, I didn't feel safe with the material till she'd said it was okay. . People really work hard to help take care of their loved ones everywhere, all over the world. (LAUGHS) So then it's very simple to understand that you shouldn't talk! We're not all having the same experience all the time. I wrote a science fiction novel when I was 11 and 12, or 12 and 13, something like that. I feel like there's a falseness to the shrill nature of some comedies. You never know what to do until you're faced with a problem, then it's quite obvious what you wanna try to do, anyway. 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. And if they're anywhere near www you want them to do, it's really a good idea not to say too much. Image Video. Just the last couple years of her functioning where, you know, it's a very slow, gradual decline. I mean, nobody knows why anybody's good at anything. LONERGAN: I think because it was painful. But it worked out in the end. LONERGAN: I don't know what they mean exactly, because you know, I often find when I'm watching something, it's when they bring in the sensational event that I start to lose interest. ALTSCHUL: Oh my gosh. Gallery-Wav_Erly's near Broadway A little information about me About Let's get acquainted! Gallery is a moving chronicle of the deteriorating effects of aging, Apologia offers some riveting theatrics but is ultimately uneven, and Parsifal fails to achieves its lofty ambitions of examining issues of art, sex, religion, and politics, settling for cheap sitcom laughs. It's not like having a real job, but it's very difficult and absorbing and interesting. I mean, who knows? We're going to break down the Manchester By The Sea screenplay so that you can see how Kenneth Lonergan uniquely writes his scripts. Daniels crystalline monologues of recollection aside, The Waverly Gallery often has the ostensible waywardness of recorded conversations. 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. I'm sure she'd get kick outta that. She was my first choice. On the other hand, if the convention was to be more respectful of the screenplay, everyone would work around that just fine. They give you backup and depth. And I don't care.". Make them more approachable? Later Daniel says he never wants "to forget what happened to her. Al Roker Has An Understandable Reaction To Savannah Guthrie's Positive COVID Test. She is one of five stellar cast members, notably Lucas . Even if you have the wherewithal to do it, it's almost impossible. I wasn't, like, a saint, spending all my time taking care of her. She doesn't do it to make money, but it's a way to spend her time. You don't want them to be done once and forgotten. Is it a kind of a separation? 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. 2. I hadn't had a lot of life experience. It's very expensive to pay for someone else to do it. So that's how that came about. ALTSCHUL: You go to the original. Lucas Hedges in The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan directed by Lila Neugebauer. ALTSCHUL: So "Manchester by the Sea" was profoundly sad, disturbing, moving, emotional, let's just say very, very sad. And not something false about it. The two actors were just great. He writes speeches for the Environmental Protection . And that's about it. LONERGAN: That's a little hard to say. There's nothing wrong with them, and if they have some depth to them, you know, you read plays that are topical that are 30, 40, 50 years old and they're wonderful because they have something besides topicality to them. And funny, yreah. 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This feels like a good choice?". And it may never appear in the material, but you have it feeding everything that they say and do. Do you think that had an influence on your ability to bring so much understanding and depth and character analysis? LONERGAN: Yeah. I've always liked dialogue. Why were the audiences drawn to that film? It is considered a "memory play". [4][5][6] The play closed on January 27, 2019 after 109 performances.[7]. So, I had this idea about a brother and a sister, just started to think what it means to me. So I was there for her last two years. And I immediately thought of the whole film in a way in my head, when I was watching that play. "Yeah, I'm gonna live in grandma's building. 'The Waverly Gallery' is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, he is assessing the impact of such disjointedness on the helpless members of her family, who without even being aware of it sometimes find themselves adopting Gladyss fragmented worldview. Why not be the first? The landlord wants to close the art gallery and replace it with a restaurant. She's really funny. First published on November 11, 2018 / 10:16 AM. We'll just set them up in this . Most people don't like being in those facilities. Has a lot of freedom, but no foundation. LONERGAN: Who knows? LONERGAN: And that somehow got around to this brother and sister, one of whom was a religious person and the other of whom wasn't. LONERGAN: And that's probably why it's so hard to get anything done. Rendered through the retrospective gaze of Gladyss grandson Daniel (a first-rate Lucas Hedges), who lives down the hall from Gladys it recalls Tennessee Williamss guilt-drenched The Glass Menagerie. But Mr. Lonergans lens on the past is sharper and harsher. Kenneth Lonergan's new play, The Waverly Gallery, is a heartbreaking glimpse into the effect Alzheimer's has on a family. Select Post; Deselect Post; Link to Post; . For more detail on fees and restrictions, visit our website or give us a call. In a shattering moment, a teary Daniel hugs his mother tight, and you know that hes wondering if his relationship with Ellen might one day mirror that of Ellens with Gladys. And you kinda wanna say, "Where are you?" All of those things that you touch on in this are really, it's heavy. October 25, 2018 by Jonathan Mandell. LONERGAN: You know, they were having structural problems with the script. And Matt was gonna direct it and he was also gonna be in it. Like, you notice that after you talk they get worse. Dr. Liptzin is Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at Tufts University School fo Medicine and was Chair of Psychiatry at Baystate Medical Center for 25 years. 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. They wanna be involved. Ill also admit that I looked forward to the curtain call and the reassurance it would bring that May, 86, isnt quite so fragile. And then I was unable to write it for eight months. And the moments where there's, you know, laughter or that easiness or understanding. With its narrator Daniel (an always nuanced David Gow) recounting a familial past, The Waverly Gallery would seem to belong to the tradition sparked by Tennessee Williams with The Glass Menagerie. ALTSCHUL: I guess what I'm asking is, why write it? ALTSCHUL: But the film didn't scare people away. LONERGAN: No, no! ", Tony Awards 2022: Complete list of nominees and winners, "A Strange Loop" playwright Michael R. Jackson on his emotional autobiography, "A Strange Loop" earns a leading 11 Tony Award nominations, 2021 Tony Awards: Complete list of winners and nominees. Auditions drew a talented cast of newcomers and alumni. I was asked to come on two weeks before they were supposed to start shooting. And it just sounds like a fascinating thing to do all day long. And then I also noticed, not to be immodest, that I often had an idea about how the scene could be played out. LONERGAN: I think so. She ends most of her sentences with a practiced winning smile that now seems to be searching anxiously for affirmation. How are we gonna get her to go to the bathroom without embarrassing her? Let's start with my childhood: I had a happy childhood thanks to my parents. The cast included: The revival was directed by Lila Neugebauer. Although she'd be very happy for me. Which is how it turned out. But you're not there to express yourself. And one of my college friends was my roommate, so we split the rent. And I was able to write plays and do what I wanted for three years. It's been a box office hit. (LAUGHTER) But she's a genius, and she's incredible in the part, and I always wanted her to play this role. (LAUGHTER) I have a play I wanna write. The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. Including the last lines here I don't think you can really spoil anything, and it's a published play, but avoid if you want to see it blind." And it gave me an entry into the screenwriting world, and I rewrote other people's scripts. I have two plays that I directed 'cause I had a real specific idea of how I wanted them to be, the whole design. LONERGAN: Oh, I'm afraid that's true. It's very painful to put someone you love in a hospital or a nursing home, which is essentially a hospital. And everyone else in it is just as interested in their life as she is in her own. 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. and particularly his monologue at the end which was certainly powerful stuff. In this extended transcript of an interview with "Sunday Morning" correspondent Serena Altschul, the playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan talks about the origin of his 2000 play "The Waverly Gallery," currently presented on Broadway in a critically-acclaimed revival starring Elaine May, as well as his experiences, positive and negative, in the world of film. LONERGAN: I woulda walked them through it more. [10], On June 9, 2019, May won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Gladys in the Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery. But that doesnt stop Gladys talking, even in her sleep. (Got any coffee lying around?). That she has clearly already lost this battle makes her no less valiant. 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. Shes bluffing, fabricating, groping for a direction in what must often seem like a void. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. LONERGAN: Yeah, she was amazing. The Waverly is a pet-friendly community. Mostly they were having problems with Leonardo DiCaprio's character. WAVERLY: Do you know what it's like to have a twin? ALTSCHUL: Once you've written something and put it down on paper, does it then inhabit a separate space from your memory? ", Kenneth Lonergan directing Matt Damon and Anna Paquin in "Margaret. I grew up pretty easy circumstances. Lucas Hedges and Elaine May in The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Lila Neugebauer. Lots of talking. All My Sons Apr 22, 2019 Jun 30, 2019 . And she just had a very profound understanding of I hate to call it this how the creative process works. And it just went on and on and on. ALTSCHUL: Right. She . She'd always know what you were doing. Also present are what Daniel calls his clan of liberal Upper West Side atheistic Jewish intellectuals: his psychiatrist mother Ellen (Joan Allen), his psychiatrist stepfather Howard (David Cromer) and most crucially his grandmother Gladys (May), a former lawyer who now runs a Greenwich Village art gallery that never seems to sell anything. LONERGAN: "Waverly Gallery" is about the last couple functioning years in the life of a Greenwich Village gallery owner. (LAUGHS) Terrible ideas, terribly executed by me. Like, people, their good strengths come out not in a sentimental way, but in a real inspiring way. Although I think it's something I would be good at and that I would like and be interested in. And she died, so that was the end of that. And that's the other thing that I'm interested in, anyway, is that a lot of these big situations come down to practicalities, like who can be there at 5:00? The Waverly Gallery is his most literal presentation of that inadequacy. He was arrested and I watched from a distance, afraid to let anybody know that I even knew him. To me, anyway. ALTSCHUL: I mean, it's painful to think about and talk about and to watch. It takes place in 1989, it's based on my grandmother and my family,. And I'm sure she'd love that Elaine May was playing her. She wasn't, like, a hard-core political person, but she was always very active in politics. You do feel like the subject is something you really have to put on paper, and you don't know why all the 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. When I was 5 years old I started to draw. Or if you combined people, it's very easy to pull details. 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. Not to quote myself, but there's a moment in the play when the narrator, the grandson says, "It feels like there's some option, but you just can't figure out what it is.". A small Greenwich Village vanity gallery gives her something to do. I was just sitting there typing. We're kinda thinking this is the story." Let it sit back there. It is a memory play in both its structure and its subject. It takes place in 1989, it's based on my grandmother and my family, and it's about her last years trying to hold onto her life and her gallery as she kind of slips away. LONERGAN: You might be interested for five or ten minutes, but then the bottom drops out and you're just like, "What's gonna happen next? "The Waverly Gallery" THEATER REVIEW. It is considered a "memory play". ALTSCHUL: Yes. ALTSCHUL: Do you love being given a problem? LONERGAN: Oh, it just means make them better. The script covers a late 1980s year or so in the life of Daniel (the Lonergan stand-in, played with slumped and diffident grace by Lucas Hedges, who also starred in Manchester by the Sea). ALTSCHUL: So if you were to do something differently, you might have said, "Okay, guys." LONERGAN: Yeah, she went there all the time. LONERGAN: I thought it would be funny if he took him on and all sorts of terrible things happened afterwards! Find The Waverly Gallery stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. And I don't know how she does that. And this play particularly has a real strong presence as just flat-out memories. ALTSCHUL: Let's talk about "You Can Count On Me" and how that story developed. The show is able to balance the painful situation with the humor her family finds in the darkest times. LONERGAN: It's a long story. A powerfully poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. I mean, that kind of topic and the sadness, the grief, the loss. Tootsie Apr 23, 2019 Jan 05, 2020 . 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. ALTSCHUL: So it just had to sit there. ALTSCHUL: Well, there was a lot of beautiful things in that film to look at. It is considered a "memory play". It's quite a full-time job all the time. LONERGAN: Well, you know, a bunch of people. ALTSCHUL: So then from writing novels, plays, screenplays, you decide, "I'm gonna try directing." The Waverly Gallery, now revived on Broadway, is an early play by Kenneth Lonergan and as directed by Lila Neugebauer and upraised by Elaine Mays toweringly fragile performance, it is as quietly and ferociously sad as anything he has ever produced. You mighta walked them through it a little more? But that's actually the most complicated thing to do, is to have people simply talking. But it is a memoir play, I guess! And you know, you have this information about the person in the back of your head while you're writing the person's dialogue. A lotta the dialogue I thought needed work, so I tried to make the dialogue scenes better. But on the other hand, that's not what they're there for. ALTSCHUL: So the two rewrites were scrapped and . It is a lifeline. All my time taking care of their loved ones everywhere, all over the world and,..., her friends and family I mean, it 's very expensive to pay for someone to. 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