By Amanda VanNostrand.
Act II Playhouse is currently taking its viewers back to the 90s through Collected Stories. This show displays the relationship and raw realities between two women, and it is one for anyone interested in honing their creativity and inner female friend.
Collected Stories is the journey that two women – a professor and her admiring student – take together from 1990 to 1996. Lisa is a student who greatly admires (an understatement) her professor, Ruth Steiner, and after writing a somewhat impressive story, she is invited to Ruth’s Greenwich Village apartment to discuss. Ruth is a well-known short story writer, and Lisa is beyond ecstatic to have earned the privilege to accompany her to discuss writing. Lisa eventually becomes Ruth’s assistant and their relationship evolves from student/teacher to employee/employer to friend/colleague. Through the years Lisa receives recognition and success as Ruth watches from the sidelines, both coaching and cheering her on. The times become awkward as Ruth realizes that her age is inhibiting the limits of her career while she witnesses Lisa flourish and prosper in different ways than she has. Stories are shared, and the two women examine their capacities to write, befriend, and exist as respectable humans alongside one another.
Stevens). Photo by Mark Garvin.
The characters are the most striking piece of this show, and the two actresses are more than up to the task of portraying them. Sarah Paton plays the part of Lisa Morrison and she makes Lisa completely loveable. Paton is adept at realizing Lisa’s growth from graduate student to grown-up writer and loving friend. She consistently brings out Lisa’s quirks and idiosyncrasies, making her a character that is real and raw, and truly enjoyable to spend time with. Susan Riley Stevens plays the part of Ruth Steiner. As an older character she seems more set in her ways throughout the span of these six years, but her challenge (and triumph!) is opening the window through her tough exterior to reveal the hidden sweetness, inner romantic, and longing friend within. Stevens does well in characterizing Ruth and she and Paton work well together in these coinciding roles.
Collected Stories spends most of its time with these two women but upon examining the show’s inner workings, the audience will revel in multiple messages: the power of writing what you know; the sacrifices teachers make for students, whether intentionally or unintentionally; forgiveness; the curse of age and its contrast (and difficult relationship) with youth. This show moves at a somewhat slow pace but does well with examining these realities and may even inspire audience members to dwell on and tell their own stories.