Secrets are at heart of this Southern drama
The last time a particular barnyard animal landed in a play's title, it was Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" So just who, or what, is the "Goatwoman of
First-time playwright Christine Whitley, whose "Goatwoman" has its world premiere at Shakespeare & Company this weekend, laughs at the reference to Albee. But she says her tale does play on the idea of some mystery in her lead character's identity. The action follows Charlotte, the "goatwoman," as she tries to start her life over in a new town outside Nashville with a new husband and her 16-year-old son.
"While she's living on the land, she discovers she has this affinity for healing goats," the playwright explains from her home in New York. "Her neighbors give her the nickname and begin to turn to her for advice when their animals become ill." Charlotte also runs a consignment shop in town on behalf of a charity, but when she's accused of pocketing some of the money meant for the charity, her legal problems start to mushroom.
"She's holding tight to a deep secret," Whitley says. "She's worked hard to create this new identity, and when she's threatened with exposure it rocks her sense of reality."
Whitley says she drew on her own experience growing up in Nashville. "I think the sense of place is very important," she says, "and I took the Southern ideal of women and cultural attitudes about men and women and exaggerated them for the story."
Charlotte, says Whitley, is obsessed with her appearance. "Hair and makeup are really important to her," she says, "but they're just a mask for lots of deeper stuff going on."
Although this is the first time she's written a play, Whitley says she had no doubt about finishing it. "I was an actress for years," she says, "but when my career as an actor completely tanked, it made me think about this material. I heard the characters really loudly and I think writing it as an actor, and playing all the parts myself, made it easier to get the conversations to work."
Whitley, who is also a voice teacher, says she wasn't at all tempted to perform in her own play, however. "I don't want to tie the play to me in that way," she says. "I would find it unattractive for me to be in a play I've written. It's better that it has a life beyond me."
Tonight through Aug. 31. Tickets: $36 through Thursday; $48 after Thursday. 413-637-3353, www.shakespeare.org.
Notes
Stagesource brings its 2008 Boston Theatre Conference, "Raising Our Standard," to the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown Aug. 9. In addition to offering sessions on fight choreography, dialects, and self-producing plays, the conference features a panel discussion with artistic directors Peter DuBois (Huntington Theatre Company), Diane Paulus (American Repertory Theatre), and Curt Columbus (Trinity Repertory Company). Registration required: $45. 617-720-6066, www.stagesource.org. . . . Lyric Stage Company producing artistic director Spiro Veloudos is tapping into his Greek roots to direct "Opa!," a new musical described as "life and love on a forgotten Greek island," at New York's Ninth Annual International Midtown Theatre Festival through Wednesday. Tickets: $18. www.midtownfestival.org.
