Westport Country Playhouse Announces Pulitzer Prize-nominated Drama “Collected Stories” as December 12 Script in Hand Playreading

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of the Pulitzer Prize finalist, “Collected Stories” by Donald Margulies, on Monday, December 12, at 7 p.m.  The reading will be directed by Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Tickets are $20 each. 

“I’m a huge fan of Donald Margulies’ work,” said Keefe. “I find these characters immensely compelling and satisfying.”

“Collected Stories” is about the conflict between an established artist and her adulatory fan who becomes a protégé, disciple, colleague, and friend – and finally threatening rival.  It tells what happens when the student surpasses the teacher, by cannibalizing the teacher’s own life story.

The cast includes Maria Tucci as Ruth Steiner, a role she originated in the Off-Broadway production. She appeared in Westport Country Playhouse’s Script in Hand playreadings of “Over the River and Through the Woods,” “The Bread Winner,” and “Morning’s at Seven.”  She earned a Tony nomination for Broadway’s “The Rose Tattoo.”  Zoë Winters will play Lisa Morrison.  She was in Westport Country Playhouse’s “Room Service,” and a Script in Hand playreading of “Pack of Lies.”  She won a Footlight Award for “The Imaginary Invalid,” and has appeared on television’s “Ugly Betty” and “Gossip Girl.”   All artists are subject to change.

Playwright Donald Margulies won a Pulitzer Prize for “Dinner with Friends,” Pulitzer Prize nominations for “Sight Unseen” and “Collected Stories,” Obie Awards for “Sight Unseen” and “The Model Apartment,” a Tony Award nomination for “Time Stands Still,” and five Drama Desk Award nominations. He is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

Director Anne Keefe served as artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse with Joanne Woodward in 2008, and as associate artistic director from 2000-2006, also with Ms. Woodward. She co-directed with Ms. Woodward the Westport Country Playhouse production of “David Copperfield,” and directed many Script in Hand playreadings.

Script in Hand sponsors are Marc and Michele Flaster; Script in Hand partners are Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler; Script in Hand Corporate Sponsor is Northwestern Mutual. The series is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation. 

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).