Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

WELL: Emily Ackerman on 'Life Imitating Art'

posted by Emily Ackerman (the actress playing Lisa Kron in Well)

Talk about art imitating life—I knew there was a reason I wanted to do this play. This is a picture of me at ten years old in a dress that my mother made for me. At my request, it was very specifically modeled after a dress that Laura Ingalls wore on Little House on the Prairie. Please note that there is a bonnet tied around my neck. I often wore it in public.

This is all of the neighbor kids dressed up for a 4th of July parade. Again, Laura Ingalls had a very strong influence in our costuming choices. I am the one in the middle mugging for the camera and wearing a red bandanna on my head. I was also hogging that basket which was full of candy.

Dressing up was a very large part of my childhood, and if I could wear a costume over regular clothes, I would always wear a costume. Here I am wearing what I called my "princess dress." This dress was always worn with that green towel around my neck as a cape. In my opinion, it matched the dress, and was the only towel/cape that would do.

Lisa Kron In Her Own Words

posted by David Dower

I had the great fun of sitting down with Lisa for a wide-ranging chat about her experience creating and performing Well. Here are three sections of that conversation, so you get a sense of the playwright in her own words and voice.

Here’s Lisa on the central preoccupation of her play: what she calls “the challenge of empathy.” Download “WELL & The Challenge of Empathy”.mp3 

Here’s Lisa on the humbling experience of having to portray herself as someone who over simplifies things. Download “Lisa the Simplifier”.mp3 

Here’s Lisa on Zelda Fichandler’s capacity to zero in on the core action of the play. Download “Zelda Zeroes In”.mp3

First Rehearsal for Well

posted by David Dower

Playwright Lisa Kron was at Arena for the first rehearsal of Well.

So, too, was Zelda Fichandler by the way. She stopped by the Kreeger Theater where 33 Variations was teching so that she could congratulate Technical Director Jim Glendinning and Assistant Properties Master Lance Pennington on 30 years of service to Arena Stage. 30 years. Congratulations, guys, and thank you for everything you’ve done thus far. I look forward to what we’re going to do next!