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January 30, 2004/Shevat 7 5764, Vol. 56, No. 19
A portrait of betrayal
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
As the constantly busy producing director of the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, Janet Arnold doesn't always have a lot of time to pursue one of her greatest passions - acting.
But with the debut of the AJTC's newest production, "Collected Stories," Arnold not only has a chance to be onstage, but to play a complex character that fascinates her.
"Collected Stories" was written by Donald Margulies, a Jewish playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2001 with his work "Dinner with Friends." "Stories" tells a tale of two women: Ruth Steiner, an older Jewish college professor, and Lisa Morrison, her young, non-Jewish prot‚g‚.
"(Margulies') Jewish characters are always struggling with something," Arnold says. "They always have a sense of loss or unfinished business."
In Ruth's case, the struggles are primarily internal. While in her youth she was part of a group of Jewish intellectuals that included poets like Allen Ginsburg, in her later years she is a loner, reluctant to open up to anyone.
Along comes Lisa, an ambitious student writer who becomes Ruth's prot‚g‚. Over the course of several years, the relationship between the two grows.
"You can see the change in their relationship," Arnold comments. "As Ruth mentors Lisa, they also become friends. Lisa starts gaining prominence as an author, which is a little tough on Ruth, but she's happy for her."
Like any relationship, the friendship between the two women is not without sources of tension: Ruth envies Lisa's youth and bright future, while Lisa envies Ruth "for her rich Jewish background," says Arnold. "She feels like Ruth has so much more experience to pull from than Lisa, who has a WASP background."
In a rare display of trust, Ruth tells Lisa one of her most personal memories - her 1950s love affair with the talented yet doomed Jewish poet Delmore Schwartz. What Lisa does with this knowledge destroys their relationship and raises fascinating questions about friendship, trust and the ownership of intangible goods like memory and imagination.
For Arnold, who began her career as an English teacher at Glendale High School, "Stories," with its sensitive and nuanced portrayal of the complexities of the student-teacher relationship, hit very close to home.
"It has a lot of meaning for me," she says. "I feel I mentored some kids in the same way that my English teachers influenced me to also become an English teacher."
Still, one need not be an educator to grasp the emotions in the play.
"It's about any close friendship that turns on you," Arnold says. "For Ruth to allow anyone into her life was a big deal for her. And here, she fully accepted Lisa as a contemporary and a dear friend and was betrayed."
Arnold was thrilled to be able to bring her life experience to the part of Ruth in this production.
"I only get to be on stage once a year or so, so it's always exciting to me, and especially to play this character who I feel so attached to." In fact, Arnold's old college literature texts from her days as an English education major will serve as props.
"Stories," which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1997, was filmed as a TV movie for PBS in January 2002, starring Linda Lavin as Ruth and Samantha Mathis as Lisa. Another play by Margulies, "Sight Unseen," was produced by AJTC in 1994.
Details
- What: "Collected Stories"
- Who: Arizona Jewish Theatre Company
- When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14-29
- Where: Viad Corporate Center, 1850 N. Central Ave., Phoenix
- Cost: $25-$29
- Call: 602-264-0402
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