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Letter to Laura Gordon I’m a longtime fan. I get to see what you do a bit more closely than other fans because I work with you in the same company of artists. This in no way decreases the pitch of my fandom; rather it intensifies it. I get to see not only what you do, but also the choices you make, the rigorous discipline of your work and the fertile imagination that you tap in the process of creating roles and directing plays. I am going to reminisce a bit. I start in media res – the res being your career at Milwaukee Rep, the media a cold winter evening in the year ’03. You had departed Milwaukee before dawn that day and flown to Cleveland with your husband, Jonathan Smoots, on the saddest of journeys, promising to return in time for the performance of the show COPENHAGEN we were doing together with Torrey Hanson. That production remains one of my favorite experiences in the theater for many reasons, foremost among them was the intensity of our collaboration in rehearsal. All plays require an emotional closeness and reliance of one actor upon another, but few to the degree the three of us, under Joe Hanreddy’s guidance, were called upon to use in a situation in which we were onstage all the time, dissecting our histories, ferreting out possible betrayals and working toward the hope of reconciliation – all set in a trialogue whose vocabulary was the jargon of nuclear physics. The understudy was ready to go on for you, just in case. As I recall, you were excused from the performance as a matter of course. I don’t know quite how you gave that evening’s performance as fully, clearly and brilliantly as you did each performance throughout the run of the play. That you did so is not remarkable, however, to anyone who has worked with you. What shines so brightly in my memory is the joy I felt in my complete certainty that you would.
I may say that I am as big a fan of your directing as I am of your acting. SKIN TIGHT by Gary Henderson, which you directed for Renaissance Theaterworks, was the first of your productions I remember seeing. It made an indelible impression on me in a number of ways. First was how effectively you made use of the wonderfully intimate, but somewhat eccentric space at the Off-Broadway Theatre. Next were the simple theatrical solutions to the challenges of telling the complete history of a very close relationship – the trappings domestic, the resonances epic. Then there was an approach as unselfconscious as were the two actors – even when they had no clothes on. As I recall, I attended your opening night, and was determined to
sit where I could occasionally glance in your direction to see you
react to the performance. I couldn’t take my eyes off the play.
It gave me great satisfaction to congratulate them for their wonderful
work that night – two actors with whom I had performed when
they were much younger. And promising. Well, a hefty measure of their
promise was realized that evening, and I knew you had done much to
help it shine forth.
I have been a fan of your acting since the first play we acted in together, seventeen (my God!)seasons ago. DANCING AT LUGHNASA, the first play Joe directed as Artistic Director of The Rep. You played my mother. Well, you had to be there, so to speak. In the course of the action, the five Mundy sisters, of whom you were the one never allowed to cook (ironic, considering your own expertise in the catering field, not to mention numerous wonderful holiday dinners you’ve hosted), erupt into a pagan dance. You were the one dancing on the table, whirling a cloth of some kind and your “whinbush” head of hair. You were gorgeous in that part, which is no surprise, but what I’m such a fan of is your willingness to be gorgeously hideous in a role (Nell in ENDGAME), or feckless (Mrs. Lind in A DOLL’S HOUSE), or wicked (Maureen in THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE), or gorgeous and wicked (Queen Elizabeth in MARY STUART), or, for that matter, sightless (the title role in MOLLY SWEENEY), and even genderless (“Andy” the sailor in MOBY DICK). You understand the importance of bringing all of yourself to a role, and yet burying yourself in it. It is what makes acting ensembles such as ours more than the sum of their parts – the pursuit of excellence without regard for the trappings of personal success.
That you are embarking on a play entitled THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS, your first solo piece at The Rep, is delightfully ironic. One of my nicknames for you is “The Valedictorian.” (“Little Miss Perfect” is another.) It figures. You are always first in the cast to know your lines. Your attendance record at our company’s weekly Artistic Staff Meetings is by far the best. You do all the assigned reading. When we are working on a new play you are the first to transcribe textual revisions in your script (Gerry Neugent: “Now wait . . . where does new page 78b go?” Torrey Hanson: “Go check Laura’s. That’s what I do.”). This valedictory thing began when you were a student at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. I get a charge out of knowing that you were a National Champion of Forensics in prose interpretation and in the Oral Interpretation Pentathlon. And, especially, out of knowing what satisfaction you took in thumping our mutual friend and former colleague, Andrew May, in the finals! I wonder whether, after such triumphs, you ever departed your default demeanor of calm collection to indulge in the sort of impromptu dance you used to spring into while watching a Cleveland Browns defender intercept John Elway. I have not attended any of the classes you have taught at Carthage College, nor the workshops you have conducted for The Rep’s acting interns over the years, but I can imagine how your students describe their experience in your classroom. Probably . . . like, awesome. Lastly, I’m a big fan of those you keep company with at home. My old friend and frequent cast mate, Jonathan, and, of course our favorite four-legged visitor, Toby. Lucky dogs, both of them. Cheers,
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