How embarrassing, I thought, how hormonal.
Its extremely simple, Herzog says when I ask her why.
You just never put a two-and-a-half-year-old child onstage.
STAGE CALL“This play grabbed me. It just got its hooks in me,” says McAdams.Mary Janebegins performances on April 2 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Alexander McQueen dress.Fashion Editor: Max Ortega.
Im wary of having written a play about a Madonna whos defining femininity as motherhood, Herzog says.
A few days later, I meet the woman who will embody this rich role, Rachel McAdams.
But now the family is ready for an adventure.
PREP WORKPolo Ralph Lauren cardigan. Tory Burch skirt.
Every time I meet a stranger on this street, Im like, Where doyouthink I should live?
she says, laughing.
PREP WORKPolo Ralph Lauren cardigan.
Its Me, Margaret,the lauded Judy Blume film adaptation from last spring.
It comes up from the soles of her feet.
Mary Janemarks a departure for McAdamsher first play in 25 years.
I started in theater as a kid.
She acted through high school and attended the conservancy program at York University in Toronto, studying drama.
Theater is a deep-seated love, and shes been looking for a way to return to it.
But this play grabbed me.
It just got its hooks in me.
(My kids are wondering, Whats Mommy doing in the basement blowing through those funny straws? )
That exposure opened her up to the lived reality of parents caring for sick children.
You are suddenly part of a completely different world, she says.
That world can be very full, but it can also be very cut off.
When I mention that story to Herzog, she tells me she considers it something of a biblical text.
Herzog has always written about her own life in one way or another.
ButMary Janemight be the most personal excavation yet.
Herzog had a daughter who was born with profound health challenges, and that daughter died last year.
It was almost as though I knew I was going to need it, she says.
In most ways, she adds, the specifics ofMary Janedo not mirror my real-life experience at all.
At the end of our interview, I ask Herzog if theres anything else she wants to add.
I think theres a deficit out there in terms of disability consciousness, she tells me.
Pity is what allows you to be like: Thats not me.
When I wrote the play, my daughter was alive.
And so my concern now is just that people continue to see it in that light.
When rehearsals start in late February, there are icebreakers, stories told about past jobs.
We just kind of hung out together as a cast and sat around talking, says McAdams.
Amid all the granular preparations, theres a more profound shift taking place.
I understand the role physiologically a bit more, McAdams says.
Her center of gravity is different from mine.
Shes definitely more tired than I am, and that presents itself differently in her body.
What if Im not good?
What if it all goes up in my face?
Produced by Boom Productions.
