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Theresa Rebeck, Marisa Smith, and NJ Rep's Theatrical Sandbox by the Jersey Shore · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:02
  Maddie Orton: Hi, I'm Maddie Orton, and this is the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 0:06
  Maddie Orton: Theater aficionados will likely be familiar with the plays of Theresa Rebeck, the most broadly produced female playwright of our time and creator of the hit TV show Smash.
• 0:15
  Maddie Orton: For the upcoming show Samantha Inside Out at New Jersey Repertory Company, though, Rebeck is not the writer but the director, a role she has increasingly enjoyed over the last several years.
• 0:25
  Maddie Orton: Samantha Inside Out is a one-woman show by playwright Marisa Smith, a multi-hyphenant in her own right, who co-founded the publishing company Smith and Krauss, which specializes in monologues.
• 0:36
  Maddie Orton: The two women are longtime friends and collaborators, and it was a treat talking with them about the ins and outs of the theater business.
• 0:43
  Maddie Orton: I know you'll enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
• 0:46
  Maddie Orton: Take a listen.
• 0:58
  Maddie Orton: Nice to be here.
• 0:59
  Maddie Orton: So let's start a little bit with the show.
• 1:02
  Maddie Orton: What is Samantha Inside Out all about?
• 1:05
  Theresa Rebeck: Marisa, you take that one.
• 1:07
  Marisa Smith: Okay.
• 1:07
  Marisa Smith: Um, Samantha Inside Out is about a woman who, in the course of the show, we watch this high school teacher of a certain age completely go through a journey and and change her life in front of our eyes.
• 1:23
  Marisa Smith: And uh she takes us through her whole life, and she at the end she's pointed in another direction.
• 1:28
  Marisa Smith: And hopefully you've laughed and you've cried and you've gone through a lot of emotions and love her, which you will, because the actress is completely lovable.
• 1:36
  Marisa Smith: So it's about a woman who changes her life in the course of an evening.
• 1:39
  Maddie Orton: And should we shout out who who our uh lead actor is?
• 1:42
  Marisa Smith: Elizabeth Hefflin is Samantha, and as I said, she's lovable and funny and is just a joy to work with.
• 1:49
  Marisa Smith: A playwright's dream, really, a playwright's dream.
• 1:52
  Maddie Orton: And you are the playwright.
• 1:53
  Marisa Smith: Right.
• 1:54
  Maddie Orton: Where did the idea for this originate?
• 1:56
  Marisa Smith: Uh, life, being a woman, watching women, chatting with women, being in a book group, you know, just life and this and observing what goes on, in particular with women as it as they relate to men and their children and the world and getting older.
• 2:12
  Marisa Smith: And yeah, and I was, I mean, most of my plays come out of some essential anger, although I don't seem like a very angry person.
• 2:21
  Maddie Orton: I think that's probably a common feeling for a lot of women.
• 2:25
  Maddie Orton: I I feel like I'm a pretty angry person.
• 2:26
  Maddie Orton: I don't seem like one.
• 2:27
  Maddie Orton: I don't know if I can say that, so that's pretty fair.
• 2:30
  Maddie Orton: I was thinking about that stage in life.
• 2:34
  Maddie Orton: Our character is a, she's a mother, she's a wife, her kids are grown and have flown the nest.
• 2:41
  Maddie Orton: She's, I assume, later in her career.
• 2:43
  Maddie Orton: That particular moment in time is interesting that you are reimagining who you are as a person, right?
• 2:51
  Maddie Orton: Is that sort of part of the moment that she's going through?
• 2:53
  Marisa Smith: Yes.
• 2:54
  Marisa Smith: I mean, Samantha is because circumstances have changed.
• 2:57
  Marisa Smith: And also, you know, with time you get perspective and you hopefully get wisdom if you've managed to remain self-aware and observant.
• 3:06
  Marisa Smith: And often our observations come when there's a crisis.
• 3:10
  Marisa Smith: Then we really have to look at the truth square on or or not.
• 3:15
  Marisa Smith: But it's I think it's always better to look at it straight on.
• 3:18
  Marisa Smith: And that's what Samantha does.
• 3:19
  Marisa Smith: She has a crisis and she's she looks at her life and she she doesn't lie to herself.
• 3:24
  Marisa Smith: I mean, we as we get older, you know, we lie to ourselves a lot.
• 3:27
  Marisa Smith: We have to watch that.
• 3:28
  Marisa Smith: We we are in denial a lot, we lie to ourselves, and and you we really it it's it's not a good idea, I don't think it's a good idea.
• 3:35
  Marisa Smith: Of course, all the therapists would be like out of business if we didn't lie to ourselves.
• 3:39
  Marisa Smith: You know, we'd put everybody out of business.
• 3:42
  Marisa Smith: But so she looks at her life dead on, and she tells the audience about her life.
• 3:47
  Marisa Smith: And it is not my life.
• 3:49
  Marisa Smith: Everyone asked me that.
• 3:50
  Marisa Smith: It is it is not.
• 3:51
  Marisa Smith: There are aspects of it, of course, that are autobiographical, but it's it's really an amalgam of many women's lives.
• 3:57
  Marisa Smith: I'm very, very curious about everybody's life.
• 4:00
  Maddie Orton: And I've been accused of being extremely nosy, and I'm sure I've lost a few friends, but well, that is the common sort of, I think probably thing that writers come up against, right?
• 4:09
  Maddie Orton: And you're both writers, obviously, Teresa, you're an exceptional prolific playwright yourself.
• 4:15
  Maddie Orton: Is that sort of a struggle where people are wondering if you're picking their brain a little bit?
• 4:21
  Maddie Orton: Are you always taking notes when you're in book club and things like that?
• 4:25
  Maddie Orton: Are you always listening to the conversation?
• 4:27
  Marisa Smith: Teresa, that's for you.
• 4:28
  Marisa Smith: You've been at it.
• 4:29
  Marisa Smith: Teresa's had a long career and been at it much longer than I.
• 4:33
  Marisa Smith: So I'm giving that to you.
• 4:35
  Theresa Rebeck: Every writer faces this question uh in general, because I do know that in different conversations, every now and then you find yourself hearing something really good and then saying to the person you're talking to, can I have that?
• 4:51
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh sometimes you forget to ask, Can I have that?
• 4:55
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh also every now and then I just write about my family.
• 4:59
  Theresa Rebeck: There was one point when I wrote something about my son, and I forgot to tell him I was including it, it was when he got arrested for smoking pot in Central Park, and I put it in something, and we were walking down the street, and I was talking about this piece of writing that I was doing, and I had completely forgotten that it came from his adventures in Central Park.
• 5:23
  Theresa Rebeck: And he he looked at me and he said, You didn't, and I was like, Oh, I forgot, but you know, I would never do anything really mean, but we all we all do it.
• 5:34
  Theresa Rebeck: Every every writer I know does it.
• 5:36
  Theresa Rebeck: Every now and then somebody gets mad at me about it.
• 5:39
  Theresa Rebeck: Um, and I think, well, uh, it's true, nobody has to be related to a writer, but you know, my my family is pretty used to it by now.
• 5:50
  Theresa Rebeck: They they just are used to it.
• 5:52
  Maddie Orton: I mean, I I find that in so many places in life, truth does seem to be stranger and more interesting than fiction, so I could see that being compelling as a writer.
• 6:00
  Maddie Orton: I think for me it is.
• 6:02
  Theresa Rebeck: Yeah, for me it is.
• 6:04
  Maddie Orton: And the play takes place uh around a holiday party at the head of the college's house.
• 6:12
  Maddie Orton: Samantha's husband is a professor, a pompous professor, which, you know, shocker never happens, I'm sure.
• 6:19
  Maddie Orton: Teresa, you worked in in several university settings, I believe.
• 6:23
  Maddie Orton: Yes.
• 6:23
  Maddie Orton: Does that sort of inform your direction of the piece?
• 6:26
  Theresa Rebeck: Yes, I am familiar with college professors, but Marisa is more familiar with college professors.
• 6:31
  Theresa Rebeck: Her father was a college professor, and so she grew up very much in that environment, and her command of uh the world, her command of describing the world, her command of describing the people who inhabit the world is unparalleled.
• 6:46
  Theresa Rebeck: I've actually never written about uh the university life, and now that I've seen somebody really do it well, I don't know if I'll ever try.
• 6:54
  Maddie Orton: Oh gosh.
• 6:55
  Theresa Rebeck: So I'm really excited to be working on this.
• 6:58
  Theresa Rebeck: One of the things that is absolutely charming to me about the piece is that you just don't ever see these people.
• 7:05
  Theresa Rebeck: She's she's hiding from the uh the academic party um in the college professor's house.
• 7:12
  Theresa Rebeck: And that certainly is what I always felt like when I was at a party in a college professor's house.
• 7:18
  Theresa Rebeck: And so it's very familiar to me and sort of uh the relief of that the party's over there and I'm hiding up here is very, very that's familiar to me.
• 7:30
  Maddie Orton: I love the idea that this is it's a one-woman show.
• 7:34
  Maddie Orton: Of course, these characters exist around her, probably, I guess, literally downstairs.
• 7:39
  Maddie Orton: But why did you decide, uh, Marisa, to make it all within the confines of Samantha's voice?
• 7:47
  Marisa Smith: Well, the play started as a 10-minute play, and um I gave it to Teresa, and she really, really encouraged me um to turn it into a full length.
• 7:58
  Marisa Smith: And and I listened to her because Teresa is the first professional who told me that I was a playwright when I gave her my first play, number many years ago.
• 8:08
  Marisa Smith: And she's been really my mentor and my role model for many things.
• 8:12
  Theresa Rebeck: And that's that's very accurate.
• 8:14
  Theresa Rebeck: I read it.
• 8:14
  Theresa Rebeck: I've read many of her plays over the years, and I read this 10-minute version of it.
• 8:19
  Theresa Rebeck: It was called Dino Woman, um, so which I thought was a pretty funny title.
• 8:24
  Theresa Rebeck: Um, but um, and it had a lot of Maurice's gifts well on display, you know, the wit and the anger and the darkness and the light.
• 8:35
  Theresa Rebeck: I really liked it.
• 8:36
  Theresa Rebeck: And I said, I think you should turn this into something longer, and then she did, you know.
• 8:42
  Theresa Rebeck: So I I think that's actually what happened.
• 8:44
  Theresa Rebeck: Like if we had spoken about this idea, I don't know, but it was the perfect form for this content, I think.
• 8:52
  Theresa Rebeck: Yeah, you know.
• 8:53
  Marisa Smith: So I I did what you suggest.
• 8:55
  Marisa Smith: And I love writing monologues, so this was fun.
• 8:57
  Marisa Smith: It's much harder, though, to write a full-length monologue than a 10-minute one.
• 9:02
  Maddie Orton: Yeah, I would imagine because you're creating, I assume, and I I've never written a full-length play much was a full-length monologue, but are you creating sort of scenes within the piece and these beats for this one person to sort of channel?
• 9:18
  Maddie Orton: And I assume she has to motivate it the whole time without having a specific person she's literally talking to.
• 9:25
  Maddie Orton: How how do you sort of create that circumstance for her in a way that is grounded but kind of fantastical in a way because this is happening and and um and interesting and engaging?
• 9:36
  Maddie Orton: That seems so challenging.
• 9:38
  Marisa Smith: Well, it's a process.
• 9:39
  Marisa Smith: I mean, initially I sort of just spewed out a lot of stuff.
• 9:43
  Marisa Smith: Okay.
• 9:44
  Marisa Smith: And I it went in different directions and and it was just way overblown and overwritten and too much.
• 9:50
  Marisa Smith: And we did have in the summer, we did a workshop of the play, and that's when it really started to take shape, and that's where you know Teresa's skill as a director comes in to help me shape it and guide it and make sure that there is a forward-moving engine to it.
• 10:05
  Marisa Smith: It's a process of winnowing for me, because I overwrite to to winnow it down, find the engine, and get it on the track.
• 10:17
  Maddie Orton: Teresa, I of course know you as a playwright.
• 10:20
  Maddie Orton: I've seen and read many of your plays.
• 10:23
  Maddie Orton: I have a couple on my bookshelf downstairs.
• 10:26
  Maddie Orton: How did you get into directing?
• 10:28
  Maddie Orton: Have you been doing this for a long time?
• 10:31
  Theresa Rebeck: Uh yes, I actually I have.
• 10:33
  Theresa Rebeck: Uh, I was working, I was doing a lot of work at the Alley Theater in uh in Houston, and the artistic director there, Greg Gregory Boyd, uh, said to me, you know, you should be directing.
• 10:45
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh he gave me a job.
• 10:49
  Theresa Rebeck: He hired me to direct All My Sons and uh with the company there.
• 10:56
  Theresa Rebeck: And I knew the company very well by that point because I had been in residence as a playwright for uh quite a number of years.
• 11:04
  Theresa Rebeck: And I had a couple people say to me, Well, actually, Alan Rickman, who uh became had become a friend over the years, he said, Well, why don't you start with something easy?
• 11:15
  Theresa Rebeck: I mean, it was something you know, I was just like, Yeah, it is kind of hard, but it was I can't even remember how he put it.
• 11:22
  Theresa Rebeck: Well, no, he said, at least just starting with something easy.
• 11:25
  Theresa Rebeck: He was very ironic.
• 11:27
  Theresa Rebeck: And I I hadn't even thought about that, but it was great training to dive into I I I really think Arthur Miller is is a personal hero of mine.
• 11:40
  Theresa Rebeck: And I would still argue at this moment that All My Sons is the great American play.
• 11:47
  Theresa Rebeck: It is the one that really is about America and so deeply psychological.
• 11:52
  Theresa Rebeck: So it was a great, it was a great launch.
• 11:55
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh since then, I've you know, I started directing um my own plays.
• 12:01
  Theresa Rebeck: A lot of people say that you're not supposed to do that.
• 12:04
  Theresa Rebeck: There's really no reason a playwright can't direct their own work.
• 12:07
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh then I started directing plays of playwrights I admire like Marisa.
• 12:15
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh I'm very suited to it.
• 12:17
  Theresa Rebeck: You know, oddly, one of the things that happened over the years is that, you know, you spend a lot of time writing a play and rewriting it, and then talking to artistic directors and doing readings and doing one thing or another, you know, and it's very really a heavy lift.
• 12:33
  Theresa Rebeck: When you finally get, you know, that can take years to get a play from what you wanted to do, what your starting point to, what where it's finally moving into production.
• 12:44
  Theresa Rebeck: And it became more and more frustrating to me that at that moment they basically say, Okay, thanks.
• 12:50
  Theresa Rebeck: We'll see you later, you know.
• 12:51
  Theresa Rebeck: And I I think that is just a ridiculous waste of my knowledge and my talent and my passion.
• 12:59
  Theresa Rebeck: And I think I would say that about any playwright.
• 13:03
  Theresa Rebeck: And I do know other playwrights who, you know, a lot of it seems to be going on a lot more in like England and Australia that this is a natural, a natural course of events.
• 13:15
  Theresa Rebeck: So I'm not quite sure why it's such a challenging idea to so many people.
• 13:19
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh I find it really fulfilling.
• 13:22
  Theresa Rebeck: I I love it.
• 13:23
  Maddie Orton: Yeah, I've always wondered that because I, for what I do, I sort of am there from the beginning to the end.
• 13:30
  Maddie Orton: And I I suppose I'm a little bit of a control freak myself.
• 13:33
  Maddie Orton: So I think that I would have such a difficult time creating this and and living and breathing these characters and then handing it off and trusting somebody, although I know that that's the process, and that in so many ways other people imbue it with new and different meaning.
• 13:49
  Maddie Orton: But I would think that it must feel kind of nice to be able to shepherd those characters to the stage in the way you specifically see it.
• 13:57
  Theresa Rebeck: Yes, I think that is ultimately what happened for me.
• 14:03
  Theresa Rebeck: And um, a lot of times I feel like there are a couple of directors who I like to work with.
• 14:11
  Theresa Rebeck: And there are times when I don't want to direct my own play, I want to dip in and out, and uh and uh, and if it's a director I truly trust, like I uh there's a director out there named Moritz von Stulpenegel, who I've worked with many times, and I trust him, and you know, I also trust his common sense in terms of the way he talks to me, not just in the way he talks to the actors.
• 14:35
  Theresa Rebeck: But sometimes you find yourself in a situation with a, you know, over the years, with a director who just doesn't isn't right on the same wavelength, and then it's just incredibly painful and incredibly difficult.
• 14:49
  Theresa Rebeck: Uh and I just got tired of that.
• 14:53
  Theresa Rebeck: Yeah, I didn't want to do that anymore.
• 14:57
  Maddie Orton: So and so in this project, you are not the playwright, you are solely directing, which must be a sort of completely different artistic tool set for you.
• 15:08
  Maddie Orton: How does that feel in in terms of your experience?
• 15:12
  Maddie Orton: Do you do you enjoy that having just this one piece to look at?
• 15:17
  Theresa Rebeck: I do.
• 15:18
  Theresa Rebeck: I mean, when you're a director, there's still plenty of creative choices that come into play.
• 15:25
  Theresa Rebeck: Sure.
• 15:25
  Theresa Rebeck: I I really like working with designers.
• 15:28
  Theresa Rebeck: Like that's another thing that happens to playwrights is you just get kind of in general, depending on who you're working with, you get just cut out of the design process.
• 15:35
  Theresa Rebeck: And sometimes that's ridiculous, you know.
• 15:38
  Theresa Rebeck: Um, and I've had moments in other productions where you suddenly are looking at somebody else's design choices and just thinking, this is all wrong.
• 15:48
  Theresa Rebeck: And that didn't happen when you're directing.
• 15:51
  Theresa Rebeck: Um, and I also I really enjoy talking to designers.
• 15:55
  Theresa Rebeck: I feel like they bring a whole different point of view on things that it's really invigorating to think things through.
• 16:02
  Theresa Rebeck: And then also I I enjoy like examining, like, we have a really, I feel like we have a really good set.
• 16:09
  Theresa Rebeck: And I've never worked with this set designer.
• 16:11
  Theresa Rebeck: She works kind of exclusively at, you know, she's on staff at New Jersey rep.
• 16:15
  Theresa Rebeck: She's really good.
• 16:17
  Theresa Rebeck: She, you know, it's very, it's a very tight space, and she understands how to just work with that space.
• 16:24
  Theresa Rebeck: And so that that becomes kind of deeply amusing to go, oh, we could do this, we could go over there, and to kind of examine the world of the play and it's spatially.
• 16:36
  Theresa Rebeck: And so there's that aspect of it that I think is really fascinating.
• 16:40
  Theresa Rebeck: And then your relationship with the actor and the way the actor's process gets engaged is also really fascinating and moving to me.
• 16:50
  Theresa Rebeck: You know, we we do have this enormously talented and very experienced actress, Elizabeth Hefflin.
• 16:55
  Theresa Rebeck: She's she's somebody who has spent her entire career working doing regional theater.
• 17:02
  Theresa Rebeck: So she was, she was, she worked at the alley for I think like 15 years, doing and she would do six plays a year at the alley, and then she went to the University of Delaware.
• 17:12
  Theresa Rebeck: They have a rep company there, where she's been for 20 years, I think.
• 17:15
  Theresa Rebeck: And that's actually what how I know her.
• 17:17
  Theresa Rebeck: I did a couple shows with her down there.
• 17:19
  Theresa Rebeck: So she has an enormous well of professionalism and knowledge, and so being in relationship to a person's psyche and talent is different for a director than a playwright, you know, and so that can be very exciting to me.
• 17:37
  Theresa Rebeck: I love actors.
• 17:38
  Theresa Rebeck: I'm like one of those people who not everybody does.
• 17:41
  Theresa Rebeck: I really I just think they're incredible.
• 17:48
  Maddie Orton: Marisa, you are also a multi-hyphenate.
• 17:50
  Maddie Orton: You are the co-founder of Smith and Krauss Publishers, which I did not realize was founded initially to create monologue work.
• 18:00
  Marisa Smith: That was those were our first books.
• 18:02
  Maddie Orton: Which by the way, I also have on my bookshelf.
• 18:06
  Marisa Smith: At the time, uh you know, ancient history.
• 18:10
  Marisa Smith: Um, the only monologue books around really were those little staple-bound books.
• 18:14
  Marisa Smith: So anyway, so yes, my ex-husband and I started Smith and Crauss Publishers in 1990 with monologue books.
• 18:23
  Marisa Smith: And we just did it out of our house.
• 18:24
  Marisa Smith: It was a real mom and pop thing.
• 18:26
  Marisa Smith: And I met Teresa because we published Teresa, and that's how I met her.
• 18:30
  Marisa Smith: Because I don't know how I knew this, or it came to my attention somehow that actors were using a lot of Teresa's scenes and monologues in class.
• 18:39
  Marisa Smith: And I I can't remember the sequence of events, but it's it Teresa is very popular with um actors who are studying theater and studying acting.
• 18:48
  Marisa Smith: She really is.
• 18:49
  Marisa Smith: I mean, there are very few.
• 18:50
  Marisa Smith: I mean it's true.
• 18:51
  Theresa Rebeck: Actors like me like me.
• 18:54
  Theresa Rebeck: You know, I think it's because I actually my work is tends to be more Chicovian than not, you know.
• 19:00
  Theresa Rebeck: And I think a lot of uh there are a lot of contemporary playwrights who are doing something more cerebral.
• 19:06
  Theresa Rebeck: And act that's not like in the when actors are looking to work, they're looking to engage more than just their brain.
• 19:13
  Marisa Smith: So interesting.
• 19:14
  Marisa Smith: So yes, that's how I met.
• 19:16
  Marisa Smith: I was Teresa's editor to some extent.
• 19:19
  Maddie Orton: When was this?
• 19:20
  Maddie Orton: Do you remember?
• 19:21
  Maddie Orton: Um It was in the 90s.
• 19:24
  Marisa Smith: Was it in the 90s?
• 19:25
  Marisa Smith: Oh oh also at the time we did a we did a book called The Best Women's Plays of the Year.
• 19:31
  Marisa Smith: We did that for many years, and Teresa, I think, was in one of the initial volumes.
• 19:35
  Marisa Smith: So that's you know, that's how we met.
• 19:37
  Marisa Smith: And now I'm I'm a con I'm the consultant at Smith and Cross, and my younger son is running the company, which is a riot.
• 19:47
  Maddie Orton: Congratulations, that's it.
• 19:48
  Marisa Smith: Yeah, which is really fun.
• 19:49
  Marisa Smith: So I work, I work with him.
• 19:50
  Marisa Smith: He's sort of my boss.
• 19:54
  Maddie Orton: I have I have two sons, and I feel like they're also my boss, but you know, in a not financially helpful way.
• 20:01
  Maddie Orton: Um that's that's really terrific.
• 20:04
  Maddie Orton: It says fun.
• 20:05
  Maddie Orton: When did you start working as a playwright?
• 20:08
  Maddie Orton: When did you move to that piece of your career?
• 20:10
  Marisa Smith: I think my first play was like in 2005 or something.
• 20:13
  Marisa Smith: It was a lark.
• 20:14
  Marisa Smith: It was a complete lark.
• 20:15
  Marisa Smith: I told the boys, I have two sons, that I was writing a play, which was a big mistake because the minute I said I was, I realized I had to finish it because I had to, you know, be a good mom.
• 20:24
  Marisa Smith: And it was called Book Group, and it was kind of about my book group.
• 20:28
  Marisa Smith: And I decided to study my book group like a sort of an anthropological study.
• 20:34
  Marisa Smith: I was a little bored a little bit, tiny bit.
• 20:37
  Marisa Smith: And I just so I decided I was really gonna like study them.
• 20:40
  Marisa Smith: Like, and then one day I got a gift, you know.
• 20:43
  Marisa Smith: I I got a gift, I can't really say what it is.
• 20:45
  Marisa Smith: But the one of the women came in and I just thought, uh-oh, there's the beginning of that play of a play.
• 20:49
  Marisa Smith: That's the beginning of a play.
• 20:50
  Marisa Smith: And that's the one I gave to Teresa, and she said your play, right?
• 20:53
  Marisa Smith: And one thing led to another.
• 20:54
  Maddie Orton: That's so terrific.
• 20:54
  Marisa Smith: I mean, it was a complete surprise.
• 20:56
  Marisa Smith: I I mean, I had acted, but like, who hasn't?
• 20:59
  Marisa Smith: But I had acted, so I did I did know about the theater, and I majored in theater.
• 21:05
  Marisa Smith: I mean, I was a theater nerd.
• 21:07
  Maddie Orton: What a terrific friendship and collaboration, though, to be able to lean on each other in those ways and grow together.
• 21:14
  Maddie Orton: That's so fantastic.
• 21:15
  Marisa Smith: Oh, it's really you need a circle, you need supporters.
• 21:20
  Marisa Smith: I mean, you're in this alone, you know.
• 21:22
  Marisa Smith: I love to read Teresa's stuff.
• 21:25
  Marisa Smith: I love it, you know, and and she reads my stuff, and you need the support.
• 21:31
  Marisa Smith: It's a very lonely kind of thing to some extent.
• 21:34
  Marisa Smith: You need people who are your little support group.
• 21:37
  Maddie Orton: It's been several years.
• 21:39
  Maddie Orton: You've been creating more work.
• 21:41
  Maddie Orton: And how does it feel to be somebody who was previously on the publishing side reading these pieces to now seeing your work up on its feet directed in front of audiences?
• 21:50
  Maddie Orton: Oh, it's a it's great.
• 21:52
  Marisa Smith: I mean, it's a you know, it's a second act.
• 21:54
  Marisa Smith: It's a great, it's a great thing.
• 21:55
  Marisa Smith: It's really fun.
• 21:56
  Marisa Smith: I mean, I love it.
• 21:57
  Marisa Smith: It it really gave my life a whole nother.
• 21:59
  Marisa Smith: Dimension, a big boost.
• 22:01
  Marisa Smith: I got back to theater.
• 22:03
  Marisa Smith: You know, I had sort of left, I'd left acting because I knew, you know, for that I wasn't going to go forward with that.
• 22:09
  Marisa Smith: And then, you know, we published a lot of theater books, so I was sort of on the fringes of theater.
• 22:13
  Marisa Smith: But then it got me back in the sandbox.
• 22:15
  Marisa Smith: I mean, that's really what it did.
• 22:17
  Marisa Smith: Because that's what the theater is.
• 22:18
  Marisa Smith: In the best of all worlds, it's like a great sandbox.
• 22:21
  Maddie Orton: Yeah.
• 22:22
  Maddie Orton: That's right, Teresa?
• 22:24
  Marisa Smith: But it rarely happens that way.
• 22:26
  Marisa Smith: Usually it's like it's like uh tornado, storm, whatever.
• 22:32
  Marisa Smith: But when it's when it's great, it's great.
• 22:34
  Marisa Smith: And right now it's great.
• 22:36
  Maddie Orton: And to bring it full circle to NJ Rep, one of the things that I love about that company is it really does, from an outsider's perspective, seem to be that way.
• 22:46
  Maddie Orton: It seems to be a real haven for creators, actors, designers to come and make something really exceptional, which for people from New Jersey like myself, is so nice to have in your backyard.
• 22:59
  Maddie Orton: I love it there.
• 23:02
  Theresa Rebeck: You know, everybody, Maurice, when Marisa said, Oh, they're interested in doing this play because we had done a workshop, I thought, well, great.
• 23:08
  Theresa Rebeck: And then she and you know, there's one of the producers there is a really interesting man named Evan Bergman.
• 23:16
  Theresa Rebeck: We like Evan so much.
• 23:17
  Theresa Rebeck: And he's directed some of Maurice's plays there.
• 23:20
  Theresa Rebeck: And both Maurice and Evan said to me, it's very small, but you're gonna love it.
• 23:25
  Theresa Rebeck: Yeah, and when I showed up, I was like, wow, it really is small.
• 23:29
  Theresa Rebeck: And I do love it.
• 23:30
  Theresa Rebeck: That was absolutely 100% true.
• 23:33
  Theresa Rebeck: It's very protected.
• 23:34
  Theresa Rebeck: The people are really serious, really talented, and it's no bullshit.
• 23:40
  Theresa Rebeck: I'm sorry, I hope I'm allowed to say that.
• 23:42
  Theresa Rebeck: It's really just so this is a Jersey podcast, please.
• 23:44
  Theresa Rebeck: If you don't, you it's so focused on the thing that we, you know, it is, you know, it's one of those things I sometimes I say to people when I get to do a new play and I get to direct it, like I this happened to me when I did my play Dig at primary stages in New York.
• 24:00
  Theresa Rebeck: It's like this is what we dreamed of when we decided when we were in graduate school, we didn't dream about endless auditions, we didn't dream about doing an episode of Law and Order.
• 24:11
  Theresa Rebeck: I mean, all of these things are part of the job.
• 24:14
  Theresa Rebeck: I I don't mean to make fun of anything, but this is what we dreamed of is discovering a whole character, a world that telling a story this way, and to find yourself in the middle of like this small tiny town in New Jersey where that dream is all there is is really wonderful, you know.
• 24:36
  Theresa Rebeck: I uh we've been having a wonderful time, and uh and then like there was one night we all live in a house down there together.
• 24:42
  Maddie Orton: Oh, that's terrific.
• 24:43
  Theresa Rebeck: And we're all living in this house, and it's like a nice house, it's a really nice house, you know, and so it's kind of great.
• 24:48
  Theresa Rebeck: Like you go to the it's very close to the theater, you go to the theater, you rehearse, you go back.
• 24:53
  Theresa Rebeck: Sometimes we go out to dinner, sometimes we, you know, have leftovers, whatever.
• 24:58
  Theresa Rebeck: And uh one night, all of a sudden, all these things showed up, and like my agent called, and she was like, Oh, these people want this, and they they need it right away, and this other thing is going on.
• 25:09
  Theresa Rebeck: I mean, it just was all of a sudden, I was so mad because I was like, This is what I'm doing now.
• 25:15
  Theresa Rebeck: I'm just doing a play in this very protected space, and it's so good for my my soul and my instrument.
• 25:24
  Theresa Rebeck: And I didn't want to think about you know, politics and people and who needed what and you know, anyway.
• 25:31
  Theresa Rebeck: So I just love it there.
• 25:33
  Theresa Rebeck: It's very it's a very profoundly good space.
• 25:36
  Marisa Smith: It's an ideal, ideal setup, it really is.
• 25:39
  Marisa Smith: I mean it is ideal.
• 25:41
  Maddie Orton: I I think people also might not realize the tremendous talent that comes through that theater as well.
• 25:47
  Maddie Orton: The three of you, as well as I'm trying to think of who I've seen, you know, Wendy Malik, Dan Loria, Gary Cole.
• 25:53
  Theresa Rebeck: Richard Kind is on social.
• 25:57
  Maddie Orton: It's really crazy.
• 25:57
  Maddie Orton: And I'm always so elated when I get to see a show there or cover a show there because it is always such a treat.
• 26:05
  Maddie Orton: Yeah.
• 26:06
  Marisa Smith: Well, it's what theater should be, really.
• 26:08
  Marisa Smith: I mean, it's a it's a real company and it's a family, and uh they because they work with the designers work together all the time, they have their own language, they're shorthand.
• 26:18
  Marisa Smith: Uh it's their own culture.
• 26:20
  Marisa Smith: So it reminds me of when I used to do Summerstock, which I loved as a as a you know young adult.
• 26:26
  Marisa Smith: Uh it it's that wonderful, you're doing it for the sake of of the of the theater, of the art, of the of the play, you know.
• 26:34
  Maddie Orton: That sounds idyllic.
• 26:35
  Maddie Orton: I really look forward to it.
• 26:36
  Maddie Orton: And congratulations to both of you for having this experience and getting this show up.
• 26:41
  Maddie Orton: It sounds like it'll be a really great time.
• 26:43
  Maddie Orton: It's really funny.
• 26:46
  Theresa Rebeck: It's very moving, but it's I always feel like that's important for people to know.
• 26:49
  Theresa Rebeck: It's really funny.
• 26:50
  Theresa Rebeck: Um I feel like there's not enough comedy that gets, you know, and that's what audiences we all need a lift.
• 26:58
  Theresa Rebeck: I love comedies that have real muscle underneath them, and this is one of those plays.
• 27:04
  Maddie Orton: Thanks to Teresa Rebecca and Marisa Smith for joining me.
• 27:07
  Maddie Orton: Samantha Inside Out will run from February 19th through March 15th at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.
• 27:14
  Maddie Orton: For more information on the show, visit njrep.org.
• 27:17
  Maddie Orton: If you like this episode, be sure to give us a review, subscribe, and tell your friends.
• 27:22
  Maddie Orton: A transcript of this podcast, as well as links to related content and more about the arts in New Jersey, can be found on jerseyarts.com.
• 27:29
  Maddie Orton: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 27:35
  Maddie Orton: The show is co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 27:41
  Maddie Orton: This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by yours truly, Maddie Orton.
• 27:45
  Maddie Orton: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Cerna Diaz.
• 27:49
  Maddie Orton: Special thanks to New Jersey Repertory Company.
• 27:51
  Maddie Orton: I'm Maddie Orton for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 27:54
  Maddie Orton: Thanks for listening.