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“It seems I had underestimated Mr. Gray as a dramatist.” This was the reaction of Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic of The New York Times, when he attended a Manhattan production of “Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell,” which will have its local debut at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor this Saturday.
“Though it would be preferable, of course, to have him with us, his writing turns out to have a cohesive theatrical life of its own,” continued Mr. Brantley about the 2007 production.
That entire review was particularly satisfying for Kathleen Russo, Mr. Gray’s widow, who, with Lucy Sexton, conceived the show. “An important motivation was that his writing would be highlighted in a way it never had been before,” Ms. Russo said. “Spalding was so overwhelming as a performer that the audience would be captivated by him on stage and not pay as much attention to the words. Now, there is more attention paid to the words because other people are saying them.”
Mr. Gray’s career was words, and it can be said that his career blazed a trail for generations of theatrical performers. During interviews for her one-person show, “Wishful Drinking,” now playing in New York, Carrie Fisher has been quoted saying Mr. Gray influenced her, and the playwright and actor Eric Bogosian has probably been the most consistent emulator of Mr. Gray’s solo theater presentations. “He is considered the grandfather of monologues,” said Ms. Russo about her husband. “Rambling Jack Rose was for him the biggest influence, as were George Carlin and Richard Pryor. It was still new, it was rarely being done when he started out, this melding of stand-up comedy and serious theater.”
“I really put Spalding’s monologue work and writing in the category of great art,” said Murphy Davis, artistic director of the Bay Street Theatre. “He’s always moved me on a deep level. He was able to take his personal experiences and his thoughts about life and translate it so that it becomes universal and we can all empathize. Spalding was one of the first people who did it in a very profound and effective way. His influence is huge when you consider people like Anna Deavere Smith and John Leguizamo. He truly inspired other people and set that genre of theater in motion.”
Spalding Rockwell Gray was born on June 5, 1941, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was 26 when his mother committed suicide, and that prompted him to move from the West Coast, where he had been teaching poetry at the Esalen Institute, to New York City where he renewed an interest in theater and acting. He managed to get small parts in several movies and on “Saturday Night Live.” A breakthrough was writing and performing an autobiographical monologue titled “Swimming to Cambodia,” which was inspired by his supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1984 film “The Killing Fields.” It received the National Book Award and Mr. Gray was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Among his subsequent works were “Monster In a Box,” “Tales of Terror,” and “Life Interrupted.” A typical stage setting saw Mr. Gray dressed casually and sitting at a table with a microphone and a glass of water. He also continued to appear in movies, perhaps most memorably as a haughty New York Times editor in Ron Howard’s “The Paper” with Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. Another important milestone in Mr. Gray’s career was that he co-founded the Wooster Group, one of the more well-regarded experimental theater organizations in New York.
While Mr. Gray was no stranger to depression for much of his life, his problems were exacerbated by the severe injuries he sustained in a car crash in Ireland in June 2001. Numerous treatments could not slow down an expanding whirlpool of depression, though he continued to write, especially in his journals. Mr. Gray disappeared after stepping onto the Staten Island Ferry in January 2004, and his body was found in the East River two months later. He and Ms. Russo had been married for 10 years, had two sons, and lived in Sag Harbor.
Working with Ms. Sexton, the director of “Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell,” Ms. Russo came up with the idea of combining excerpts from various autobiographical monologues, performed by five actors who would also speak from Mr. Gray’s journals and unpublished works. In this Saturday’s production, the roles will be filled by Mercedes Ruehl, Kathleen Chalfant, Michael Cunningham, Hazelle Goodman, and Ain Gordon.
Among those involved in the production there is a sense of the work finally finding its way home. “Spalding had come down to the theater and we were chatting in the lobby about when he could schedule something at Bay Street, and then he had the accident in Ireland and everything was put on hold,” Mr. Davis recalled. “When Kathie called me about this production and then I read the script, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. It has Spalding’s incredible insight and wit and I loved it. It feels good to be presenting it in a place that he and Kathie had such a strong response to, that being Sag Harbor. It feels like we’re getting to honor him, and I hope there is more of that down the road.”
The play has been on the road regularly around the U.S. since the Manhattan production debuted more than two years ago. By no means is the Sag Harbor stop the end of the line. “There is more to come,” Ms. Russo said. “Dates have been set up for next year, including Minneapolis and Philadelphia. These are opportunities for other voices to take on these roles. With actors so far, it’s been a matter of them saying that they’re honored to say these words, because of the quality of the writing and Spalding’s influence on the theater.”
She is especially looking forward to the Bay Street performance.
“It’s really the perfect space and the perfect cast,” said Ms. Russo. “You don’t necessarily have to be a Spalding Gray fan to go to this, because the stories are so universal.”
It remains to be seen if there is an even wider audience for a presentation based on Mr. Gray’s life and work, which were so deeply intertwined. Rights to “Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell” have been sold to a dramatic publisher, so the production is now available to regional and college theaters. With a collaborator, Ms. Russo is preparing a book of excerpts of his journals, to be published by Knopf in anticipation of what would have been Mr. Gray’s 70th birthday in June 2011. And just completed is a 90-minute documentary, “Everything Is Going Fine,” directed by Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winner for the film “Traffic”). The film is a compilation of monologues that will premiere in Park City, Utah, on January 23.
All this begs the question of what Mr. Gray would think about the stories he left to tell that are now being told, beginning with this Saturday’s performance?
“He’d be very happy that the work would be going on,” stated Ms. Russo. “We used a quote from him at the memorial service in Sag Harbor: ‘The biggest thing I fear about death ... is that I won’t be able to talk about it.’ We all know how he died, by suicide, but this is a very life-affirming piece. It celebrates his life and work and explains much about what happened. People come away with a lot of understanding of a unique talent and person.”
“Stories Left To Tell” will be presented at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 28. Tickets can be purchased online at baystreet.org or by calling 725-9500.
on Nov 23, 2009