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Get to Know the Company of MTC's RIPCORD- Holland Taylor, Rachel Dratch & More!
May 17, 2024
Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Ripcord, the new play by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce, begins previews Tuesday, September 29, 2015 for a Tuesday, October 20, 2015 opening night at MTC at New YorkCity Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Manhattan Theatre Club is proud to present Ripcord, the new comedy by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Lindsay A Bear
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Under the direction of Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce, it will begin performances on September 29th
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And we dropped by the rehearsal room to meet the company, led by Emmy Award winner Holland Taylor
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and Drama Desk Award winner Mary Louise Burke. Enjoy. How much fun are you two having working on this play
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So far, we're terrified. because the parts are so big and it's such everyday speech
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that learning it has been how cheeriery. Yeah, it's been a challenge
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but it's also it's so much fun. It is. She's so funny
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It is. And David Hydey's... I'm in danger of cracking up and very serious
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and actually a very critically serious moment. I'm really actually in danger
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I've already, you know, we don't go before an audience for another third
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weeks. I thought, I'm actually frightened already about this given moment in rehearsal that I can't
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get through without dropping my head and just, you know. And it makes me feel honored because, you know, she's a mistress of coming
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Well, we cannot be, we cannot get along. We cannot, I cannot be smiling. I cannot have a smile
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playing about my lips when I'm dealing with this woman whom I'm actively dislike
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Fortunately, I like her and I don't believe she doesn't like me
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So I have a lot of carte blanche. She even tells me
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She even tells me that she doesn't believe it. And it's like, no, I don't. I don't
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I say, I just don't think that's true. I think we're a fine match
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Well, David Lindsay Bear carries the fighting match of it, the sparring match to absurd lengths
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There are two scenes we can't mention, actually. because they're so absurd and extreme and believable
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I mean, completely believable. That's the thing is that the battle is a very serious human duel
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and it's actually a philosophical duel in the end. They don't think of it that way, but it is a way of life
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a duel of ways of life, which is going to survive, and which is going to go down
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She's already shorter, so I think she's going to go down. I cannot wait
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I been reading all the synopsis about it this play How exciting is it for you to be working on his play and how excited are you to have him direct your play You go first Okay I excited No I very excited
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I know David's work, but I love this play. I think it's so funny and ingenious and wonderful
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and go figure, so is he. So it's been nice to be able to spend time with him
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I'm equally excited. I've been a fan of his, obviously, for many, many years
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And so to be in the same room with him working on something, it's a dream come true
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And I knew he would know the comedy in the play, but more importantly, he has dug in and found those penny-drop moments and the more serious stuff in the play so that it pops in a way that makes me very happy as a playwright
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Now, tell me how you came about to write the play. Well, there were a couple seeds for the play
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One is I wanted to write a good part for Mary Louise Burke, who has been in five of my other plays
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This is her sixth. And I wanted to write a play that might be similar to some of my older plays
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plays. You know, I'd written a couple naturalistic plays in a row, rabbit hole and good people
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and a couple of people said, remember when you wrote funnier plays like Kimberly Kimbo and Fuddy Mears
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And then I'd winced a little bit, and I thought, can I even write that kind of play? And so I started thinking I was going to write one of those plays, and I sort of wrote one of those plays
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and then it went in a different direction entirely. When you read the play, I was talking to some of the actors already, and they said
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it all seems so conversational, but then all the underpinning is under that, which of course has to do
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with the great writing. What would your reaction when you first read it? When I first read the play, I thought it was hysterically funny, and I still think that
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But I also found it really moving. These characters finding connection, especially characters finding connection late in life
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And I think what's cool about it is the issues that come up for people late in life
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are the same issues that we all deal with throughout our life. It's just they're sort of more focused because of the amount of time they have left
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versus the amount of time before them. So I found it surprisingly, I guess, relevant, not just for, you know, older women
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Sure. And let's talk about your incredible cast you put together, starting with your two leading ladies
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I mean, wow. Yes, yeah. Well, we have Holland Taylor and Mary Louise Burke, which is like, I don't know what that's like
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I was going to say Sodom and Gomorrah, but that's not right. But two iconic
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It is, actually, yeah. Like there will be firestorms and things. It an amazing wonderful Here the thing about the two of them When actors have to fight on stage it is so great when they really get along because then they trust each other and they can go at hammer and tongs
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And from the first moments they were together, we saw that. They completely got each other
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And now as we're in our second week of rehearsal, they're also completely absorbing these characters
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So it's really quite wonderful to see them attack each other. Yeah. Look, they're both incredibly funny and deeply moving
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but their energies are so different so to see them go in the ring together it is like watching a prize fight
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the two of them don't you know neither one knows who's going to bob and who's going to weave
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and they're always there for each other it's really thrilling yeah how excited are the two of you
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to be working on this play very excited this is like you know
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Manhattan Theater Club David Lindsay Bear David Hyde Pierce and the actresses
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and everything so I'm very excited about it yeah it's it's an honor
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to be working with a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and an incredible director, David Hyde Pierce, and with this theater itself and all
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the amazing actors who are in it. It's a blast so far. We've been rehearsing a week and a half
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It's been a ball of fun. We're having a great time. And yeah. Let's talk about the rehearsal room
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I know that David sets it up with theater games. It's like a playground for you to be creative in
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What's the whole rehearsal room been like? Well, we haven't done too many theater
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Have we done a lot of the theater? We had to do one improv thing. Yeah
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Yeah, I mean, mainly we've just been traditionally going through it. Yeah
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I would say that it's David Hyde Pierce has, there are two Davids
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have set up an incredibly safe environment, which is really helpful for actors that allows us to take lots of
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make lots of choices and feel free. David Hyde Pierce also brought in a ping pong table
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Oh, that's right, the ping pong table. We've sort of been playing ping pong, yeah
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Which has been... I forgot about the ping pong table. It's been lots of fun, which kind of echoes what David Lindsay a beer
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They both have two last names too. David High Pierce, David Lindsay of Air. Within the play, which is the setting up of this, the two families sort of, within the bet
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are sort of going back and forth with each other. And I think David Hyde Pierce you got it DHP Yeah DHB was a genius move to bring in a ping pong table to sort of play doubles and singles
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So when you first read the script, tell me what went through your mind and why you wanted to play these roles
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Well, for me, I've done 24-hour plays a bunch of years, and I always luck out and get put in David Lindsay-Aver's play
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So I've done, you know, six maybe of his 10-minute plays, and I always love his work so much
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and I saw good people. And so being in one of his, you know, full-length plays has always been on my bucket list
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If I may use the term. I hate that term. But no, it was like one dream thing to be in one of his real plays
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So, you know, I didn't even have to read it before I knew I wanted to do it. But then when I did read it, luckily I liked it
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That's always good. This is crap. No, I loved it. I finally get the big one
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Yeah. So, yeah, so it was a no-brainer if I may use another common term
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Here we are. This is like what, your second week of rehearsal? How long have you been in rehearsal? Tell me
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Yeah, I think we're, yeah, coming up on 10 days. But it's been really wonderful so far
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We get to play ping pong in rehearsal. That's good. Really? Yeah. I don't play
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David Heid Pierce brought a ping pong table. I think it adds the level of competition that happens in the play
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and the back and forth of the witty rep artist. by David Lindsay A Bear. It's really great
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Let's talk about when you first read this play, what went through your mind and why you wanted to do it
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Well, I thought it was hilarious to start with. And then I also was drawn to
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there's sort of an emotional undercurrent that kind of comes up through it
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And so both those things together was sort of appealing to me
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It's also kind of has that has what a lot of good playwrights
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that I've sort of had the opportunity to work with have, which is you sort of read it on the surface and you think
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oh, this sounds just like regular conversation. And then as you begin to keep working on it, you go, oh, wow
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there's so much going on here. You kind of can't, you don't see it on first glance
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You almost take for granted all this incredible stuff that's underneath the text
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And for you. For me, kind of the same thing. I mean, when I first read it, I was like, this is so entertaining
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so many hijinks, lots of surprises, which is great. But underneath it is just this beautiful heart
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I mean, the play has so much. much heart and love inside of it, that that's always what I'm drawn to, something that will
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really, you know, resonate with people about families and friends and how they deal with life
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