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01/27/2016 05:00 AMWhile the Legacy Theatre is not yet ready to open its doors in the Stony Creek Puppet House in Branford, the professional theater company is still working to bring the arts to the shoreline. This February, Legacy Theatre is bringing the work of New Haven-based playwrights Mariah Sage and Bruce Seymour, who are married with a four-year-old son, to the Branford Arts Center.
On Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13, The Tongue That Tells Me So will star Sage and Keely Baisden Knudsen, the founder and artistic director of Legacy Theatre. This isn’t the first time the duo is working together—they actually have a history that dates back to their first day of college at New York University.
“We know each other’s work very well,” said Knudsen. “They had a reading that I couldn’t attend and she asked if I could read the part with her in front of her husband and I just fell in love with it.”
Knudsen then suggested producing the play and Legacy Theatre’s managing director, Greg Nobile, introduced Knudsen to Yvonne Gordon at Branford Arts Center Gallery and Art Workshop. They are excited to partner to bring theater to the art gallery. When Knudsen visited the gallery, she came upon one of Gordon’s pieces called The Magician’s Sun and was reminded of several themes from the play.
A talk-back after each performance
“The piece will be the play’s logo and the backdrop for the reading,” said Knudsen. “It’s a very minimal set and the art piece will be behind us on the wall.”
Knudsen noted that what makes this reading so special is that there will be a talk-back after each performance that will allow audience members to discuss the play and ask questions.
“It is so rare to have the playwrights right there in front of you,” said Knudsen. “It’s a very exciting opportunity for people and very evocative.”
Sage is also excited about the partnership with the Branford Arts Center. As a co-founder of Theater 4, Sage has been part of many performances in non-theater venues.
“This is our first venture with Legacy and we’re really excited that it will start in an art gallery,” said Sage. “It will be very interesting to see how the environment and the works on walls can influence how audience members hear the story and what they take away from it. There is a mystical element and some of that mysticism is in that image as well, so it will be fun to hear what people really make of it. Having the playwrights there enhances the conversation tremendously and hopefully people will want to stay around after the performance to talk and discuss.”
Inspired by Macbeth
The Tongue That Tells Me So was inspired by one of Sage’s favorite plays, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and the title is a line spoken in that play. Sage says the play features two women, Anne and Simone, and follows Anne’s journey from a young, precocious girl through college, eventually becoming a mother and physician. Simone is a mentor to Anne.
“Simone is there to help Anne at every step to get what she wants and during the scope of the play, you find out who she is and what she wants in return,” said Sage. “This poses the same questions as in Macbeth: Can you really have it all? And how far do you go for love? Especially for the love of a child?”
The work began when Seymour was taking a playwriting class at Yale School of Drama. Sage described the process of co-writing, which started with a lot of discussions before Seymour put the ideas onto paper for the first draft.
“He gave it to me and I sat on our deck and read it front to back,” said Sage. “I came in so excited and with some ideas. We’ve gone back and forth with the ending—we’re on draft 26. From that point on, we took turns writing and changing things. We are very open to each other’s changes and ideas.”
Seymour and Sage then presented their work in a reading in August. After feedback from the audience, more changes were made.
“We shaped the piece a little more,” said Sage, who teaches acting at the college level and founded Present & Perform, a performance training program. “At this point, it’s really exciting. We love talking about it together. It’s been really fun and very intellectually stimulating.”
While Seymour has been published in a number of literary journals and penned several short stories and novels, Sage’s interest in writing wasn’t sparked until later in her career. Sage has known she wanted to be an actress since she was in her 3rd-grade play. She only discovered her love of writing while getting her MFA in acting at Brown University.
“Writing was a big part of that program and I produced a number of my works when I was there,” said Sage. “Since graduating, my focus has been more acting, teaching, and producing so this has been thrilling to come back to writing and to do that with my partner is really exciting.”
What: The Tongue That Tells Me So
When: Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m.
Where: Branford Arts Center, 1229 Main Street
Tickets & Information: $25; legacytheatrect.org