A TRIO OF BERKSHIRE CREATIVES ARE BRINGING A NEW PLAY TO DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL THIS SUMMER
July 24
By Anastasia Stanmeyer
Photos By Olivia Douhan
THE BACKSTORY to True Art is nothing short of inspiring—with a hefty helping of serendipity. The new play, which opens at Dorset Theatre Festival in Southern Vermont on August 23 and runs through September 7, is a suspenseful comedy about a wide-eyed art history major who takes a job at a prominent museum and soon discovers that her infamously no-nonsense boss isn't the only potential shark in the pond of curators, board directors, and dealers.
The boss’s name is Jodi, and she is played by none other than Tony®-nominee Jayne Atkinson, who is best known for the role of Karen Hayes on 24, as well as her roles in Madam Secretary and House of Cards, among others. She is no stranger to the stage, including the one at Dorset Theatre. Atkinson first performed there in 2018 in a co-production with WAM Theatre of the acclaimed one-woman show Ann, a portrait of legendary Texas Governor Ann Richards. She returned last summer in the world premiere of Lia Romeo’s Still, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Hold and co-headlined by Emmy®-nominated Tim Daly. The play was picked up by Off-Broadway’s DR2 Theatre, where it had an extended run through May 23.
Now we have True Art, written by Jessica Provenz and directed by Michelle Joyner. All three—Atkinson, Provenz, and Joyner— live in the Berkshires. “It's a small community, and we've worked together in many ways,” says Provenz.
Provenz has taken part in workshop readings for Joyner at the Great Barrington Public Theater, and the two have wanted to do a project together. Joyner directed a group of actors that included Atkinson for two fundraisers to support the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington. That was when Joyner became determined to do a play with Atkinson. In December 2022, Joyner reached out to Provenz and said she was looking for plays that were centered on a female protagonist. Provenz had just the thing and sent her the script to True Art.
“My attraction to the play—aside the fact that it's funny, and it's compelling, and it's about a subject that's interesting— was the idea of looking at a woman in a power position who is toward the end of her career,” says Joyner. “What did it take her to get there? How does she retain that power? How much does she have to become like a man to do so? It's not the plot of the play, but is definitely the undercurrent of this character's journey.
“That was the hook for me, of telling that story in the auspices of a very entertaining play that's about art and provenance and the veracity of a piece of art. What makes something authentic? How does an audience perceive a piece of art based on what they know its history is and its importance is, and how much does that influence how much we like it? I think those are all things that we all think about. Jessica said to me that at a museum, you always look at the card next to the painting to see if it is an important painting. Who painted it? How much should I like it? Those questions also are very interesting to me—how much an audience is influenced by what they think is the right way to perceive a piece of art.”
Joyner told Atkinson about the play, and Atkinson knew right after reading it that she wanted to be in it.
“I could really sink my teeth into this character,” says Atkinson. “It’s very different. And it's very interesting what Michelle talks about, a woman in a leadership role. What do you have to put aside to be that? What don't you do? What do you decide is your true north? You have to be laser-focused. That's a fascinating thing to look at because there's a younger woman in the play who has a whole other way of looking at the world. This is very exciting. I feel like I'm serving the play.”
Provenz was touched by Atkinson’s words. “Jayne is such a generous person,” she says. “It’s so interesting because the character is very different than Jayne. Her nickname is ‘Dragon Lady,’ and she's got this reputation. It’ll just be really, really fun to see somebody who is so delightful sink her teeth into that. Jayne is very warm, and we’re gonna have to knock that out of her.”
“Don’t worry,” says Atkinson with a smile. “That's why I do what I do, because I don't want to play the same thing all the time. I’m just gonna have a lot of fun.”
Atkinson had nothing but glowing words to say about working with Joyner, who is supportive and knowledgeable about actors because she is one herself. (Joyner was the girl that Sylvester Stallone drops off the side of a mountain in Cliffhanger, played the victim of a global pandemic in Outbreak opposite Dustin Hoffman, was Jim Belushi's love interest in Traces of Red, among other movie and TV roles. She was also featured at home in Great Barrington with her husband Robert Egan in the Holiday 2023 issue of Berkshire Magazine.) Most importantly, Joyner is open to what an actor has to say. “I need that at this point in my life in a director,” says Atkinson. “You can't come and practice on me.”
“Thank you, Jayne,” says Joyner. “I look at theater as tremendously collaborative, much more than television and other places you might act. It’s the collaboration between the writer and the director and the actors and the designers. It's all very intrinsic to the whole, and very necessary. I really try to keep that in mind.”
Atkinson continues with her praise, turning to Provenz: “Jessica also is interested in my perspective on the play. I think that's very wise, because I've done a lot of plays. A lot of playwrights have actually asked me what I think. So, this is really wonderful, respectful, juicy collaboration. If you're going to do a summer play, and you're going to do this together, let's have those ingredients between us. We’re making a beautiful meal together. ”
“All the actors will be creating these roles for the first time, and that’s a different animal than doing a play that's been done by sometimes hundreds of other actors,” adds Joyner. “To create a role is a big responsibility, because you want to fulfill the playwright’s vision. For a new play development, we are really serving Jessica. We're serving the play, we’re serving the words. It’s not necessarily serving me and my vision. When you put a new play on for the first time, it's a big responsibility to do the work and the words justice. It's not the time to be recreating Hamlet in outer space, or whatever it is that you're trying to do to make something original!”
Jodi in True Art is not without humor or humanity. “She did not have children; she did not get married. Her goal was to become the head curator of this museum,” says Joyner. “She reached her goal, now she's aging out, and people are ready to just discard her. That's a very human and real scenario for a lot of women who have sacrificed a lot. What does that do to your soul? What does that do to your psyche? What does that do to the way you treat the women coming up behind you? We always wonder about the glass ceiling; we always wonder about helping the next generation forward and reaching out a hand, and kind of marvel when we see that not happening and wonder why. A lot of those issues are complex and embody this character as well.”
Premiering a play can be a very scary thing for a playwright. Provenz premiered Boca in 2021 at Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, which will have a sixth production at Florida Rep in Fort Myers in February 2025. She's also written a timely and political new play, The Millionaires, which she wants to workshop in front of an audience in the fall, before the election. (Her 12-year-old son is in it.) For True Art, Provenz wanted to go somewhere beyond her backyard but still get the attention of engaging audiences. Her agent, Chris Till, who also represents Romeo, told Provenz that if not the Berkshires, then he recommended 266-seat Dorset Playhouse. “I talked to Michelle,” says Provenz, “and she said, ‘Well, Jayne just did a show there,’ and it all just kind of fell into place very, very seamlessly.”
Atkinson sent the script to Dorset Theatre Executive Artistic Director Will Rucker. “We had just finished Still and had a happy collaboration,” Rucker recalls. “Jayne said, ‘Michelle and Jessica have asked me if I'm interested in this. I think the play really has legs. I think if it's something you want to do, I would be happy to come and do it.’ Then I read it and agreed with Jayne. I thought it was already in really good shape. When I talked to Michelle and Jessica, they were interested in continuing to work on it and to include Jayne in that process.
“That’s what we like to do here, which is bring plays to life, to do full productions of world premieres. We have a history of devoting part of our summer mainstage season to untested works. One of the best things that can happen for those new works is when really talented teams with vision are coming in with the project. That’s certainly the case with True Art. I do think the play is funny, and I think it's a four-hander with intrigue and comedy. I’m excited to nail the world premiere.”
True Art began with Provenz’s desire to write a well-made play—a page-turner one might say, where, at the end of every scene, you catch your breath and wonder what happens next. She set her sights on a script for four actors in one setting, in a world-class museum. Ironically, a lot of the play takes place in an office in the bowels of the museum.
“If I had to say what it's about, I'd say it's about the underbelly of the art world—the people who are pulling the strings and facilitating everything that you see on the exterior,” says Provenz. “I don't want to say too much about the plot, but it is about the provenance of a lost masterpiece. The initial impulse came from a reading of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Blink is about how some people spend a lifetime immersed in a field, whereas others can size up a situation in a second. I found that really compelling. So I wanted to write a play about two women at different ages at different points in their career that have a different reaction to a found masterpiece.”
As Provenz, Atkinson, and Joyner talked about the play, I could feel the wheels turning in their heads and ideas igniting and flourishing. I could sense that the play was still evolving, and they were possibly getting as much out of this hour-long interview as I was. I could also sense their passion of artistic collaboration that comes with a new play.
Atkinson says she feels protected by staging True Art at Dorset Theatre. They’re “putting this on its feet,” as she puts it. “We're gonna learn about it, and we've got a short rehearsal period. They do a lot of wonderful work up there. I think it's a wonderful landing place to premiere the play.”
“I went to Dorset for the first time last season to see Still,” adds Joyner. “From the Berkshires, it's very manageable. I was also very impressed with the space, the mechanics of the theater, and the scope of talent that they have every year. The other thing about Dorset is their sidewalks are made out of marble, because it was a marble quarry town. The whole town just kind of shimmers with this otherworldly quality.”
The artists will work hard and fast to get to opening night. Rehearsals begin August 2 and stretch across three weeks. Atkinson is planning to stay in a house with her husband, actor Michel Gill, and their dogs. They’ll be close enough to the playhouse so that she can walk there.
“What a better way to run through lines than by strolling down the street to rehearsal,” says Rucker, whose favorite part of his job is organizing the creative teams for play developments. He and Joyner are putting together the designers who will work with her, and then they will get to work on the rest of the casting for the show.
“The second most important thing I do here is set people up for success,” says Rucker. “This is what I tell directors who have worked here. After a several seasons, I have knowledge of how our theater works, knowledge of the pitfalls. I try to get people to talk in advance about what they need, and then making sure they have it, and then doing the best we can with our very dedicated summer staffers to manage expectations and do things quickly and hopefully not too expensively. The teams really bond during the creative process because you have to work so quickly. Stars like Jayne are working alongside assistant stage managers who may be right out of college and doing this for the first time. I think that’s what makes it special. It’s an ecosystem that’s working towards the same thing.”
In the case of Still, which premiered last summer, two of Dorset Theatre’s board members loved the play so much that they made donations for the expressed purpose of supporting the production at the DR2 Theatre. That is an extension of the passion and support from the community for the Dorset Theatre, located about an hour’s drive from North Adams.
Join Anastasia Stanmeyer, Editor-in-Chief of Berkshire Magazine, at 11:30 a.m. on July 22, when she moderates a discussion on live theater for the Berkshire OLLI course, “Making a Difference: Women Leaders in the Berkshires." The talk will feature a panel that includes Joyner, Yina Moore from Adams Theatre, and Amy Brentano from The Foundry.
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