Terry Berliner on Merrimack Rep's 'Full Season of Women'

Having just celebrated its 40th anniversary with a gala in June, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre is now poised to launch its 2019-20 season with seven plays all written or co-written by women. It's a lineup that stretches from close to home (with the world premiere of "The Lowell Offering," by husband and wife team Andy Bayiates and Genevra Gallo-Bayiates), which explores the story of America's first magazine written entirely by woman contributors (in Lowell, MA, in 1840!) to the full-of-music "Nina Simone: Four Women," by Kristina Ham, to the oh-so-British stylings of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's second revisitation to the world of Jane Austin's novel "Pride and Prejudice," with the holiday play "The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly."

Add in the season opener, "Tiny Beautiful Things" - Nia Vardalos' stage adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's book - which opens Sept. 11 and runs through October 6, as well as the East Coast premiere of another play with music, Lauren Yee's "Cambodian Rock Band" (featuring the work of the band Dengue Fever, no less!), and the comic lightness of Audrey Cefaly's "Maytag Virgin," and you've got a well-rounded season that spans worlds of female experience and female voices.

But wait - there's still more, in the form of the season's recently-announced capper, "Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End," a play from the sister scribes who brought you "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins," Allison Engel and Margaret Engel.

EDGE caught up via email for a chat with MRT's Interim Artistic Director, Terry Berliner, who joined the MRT staff recently after the departure of Sean Daniels, after much of the season had been programmed. Berliner filled us in on the late-breaking addition of "Erma Bombeck," gave us tantalizing insights into the season's slate of offerings, and reminded us why this moment in time, fraught as it is, has the potential to be a golden one for women's voices.

EDGE: The upcoming season at MRT will feature a slate of plays entirely written or co-written by female playwrights. What was the impetus for that? Was it connected to, for instance, the #MeToo movement, or perhaps the wave of female lawmakers who came into office in the 2018 midterms?

Terry Berliner: MRT strives to represent a diverse group of theatre makers. The decision process for these selected plays predates my tenure. And, I would be remiss if I even attempted to explain the why of it or take credit for the decision. I will say that I feel blessed to have inherited such a season. I'll thank Bonnie Butkus, Sean Daniels, the MRT board and staff, and anyone else across the country who recommended a play to us and who played a part in the decision.

Why women now, you ask? Because we've been here all along, and now our stories are finally finding their well-deserved place on the stage and in the canon. Welcome to 2019!

EDGE: One of the plays audiences will have to look forward to is "Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End," by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel, which celebrates the groundbreaking humorist. This play replaces "Lullaby," written by Michael Elyanow, which MRT now plans to produce during the 2020-21 season. Was it just too delicious a prospect to do a whole season focused on female playwrights? Was that the impetus for the change?

Terry Berliner: No, actually that was not the impetus. When looking at the season from a business perspective, numbers were crunched and reality set in. We also needed a breath of comedy and levity. We wanted to end our season on a high and heartfelt note. So, we did. We stream-lined our budgetary line items and took care of the theatre's future by choosing a play that economically fit our reality and artistically filled a void that we didn't yet have in the season, a comedy with heart.

EDGE: The authors of "Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End," also wrote the one-woman play about Molly Ivins, "Red Hot Patriot." Is "At Wit's End" similarly structured, as a monologue by the title character who mulls over her life and career?

Terry Berliner: Erma, in "Erma Bombeck: Wit's End," finds her unique voice through the life that she found herself living. Not, necessarily a life that she chose. At least that's the way it is conveyed in the play. Her story is a story about a woman finding her voice, finding her audience, and finding her raison d'etre.

Is it a coincidence that we are choosing to end this season filled with women playwrights at MRT with this work about a woman finding her voice? I never thought of it like that. But, now that I do, it's radically important to me and a real reminder that sometimes that which must, does align.

EDGE: Another of the upcoming season's seven scheduled productions also has roots in the career of a female writer: "Tiny Beautiful Things," adapted by Nia Vardalos from the book by advice columnist Cheryl Strayed.

Terry Berliner: Again, I cannot take credit for the choice of this play, but I feel blessed that our audience can dig into this beautiful story. "Tiny Beautiful Things," is another play about a woman finding her voice by coincidentally... or not... falling into the most important job she could ever have. Strayed, via her pseudonym, Sugar, helps one person at a time, by listening, hearing, and honestly responding. By helping those around her, she helps herself. If you ask yourself, "What is my purpose in this life?" and you discover that your purpose is to help others, well, you've discovered, as did Strayed, or Sugar, in "Tiny Beautiful Things," that that is the greatest gift of all.

EDGE The new play "The Lowell Offering" strikes a little closer to home, geographically as well as thematically; it's about the first magazine to be devoted entirely to women writers – a publication that originated in Lowell, MA, in 1840. Can you say a little about this world premiere production?

Terry Berliner: "The Lowell Offering," a world premiere for MRT, by Andy Bayiates and Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, is a love letter to Lowell, Massachusetts. It explores two divergent women's lives: Harriet Farley and Sarah Bagley. It gives us a deep and historical look inside the struggles of the mill workers. It resonates today because we live in a world where we have choices, just as Harriet and Sarah did back then. They each make different choices for their lives, and these choices lead them down radically different paths. I suspect that "The Lowell Offering" will be a play that speaks to many and resonates deeply.

EDGE: Lauren Gunderson – who is the top-produced playwright in the country right now – co-wrote another of the new season's plays together with Margot Melcon, "The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley," which brings characters from "Pride and Prejudice" back to life in a new holiday story (as did an earlier play by the duo, "Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley"). There's been something of a trend in sequels and re-envisionings of classics in theater, such as Lucas Hnath's play "A Doll's House, Part 2," or Bruce Norris' play "Clybourne Park," a sequel/spinoff to Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." Do you have a sense as to the reason for the popularity of such follow-ups?

Terry Berliner: I remember when I saw reading "Gone With the Wind" and I could see the end coming; I purposefully slowed down because I wasn't ready to let go. I had fallen in love with the characters and the world they inhabited.

Sequels allow us to relish, yet again, in another adventure with characters who feel like they are a part of our fabric. "The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley," is a delicious new play that lets us live downstairs with a group of characters that feel like family. This is a wonderful holiday play, filled with actors who will bring a smile to your face and a beautifully crafted, well-written script that will make you hope for a part 3.

EDGE: The new season also includes two plays with music: "Nina Simone: Four Women," by Christina Ham, and "Cambodian Rock Band," by Lauren Yee (the MRT production of which is also the play's East Coast premiere). I love both Nina Simone and Dengue Fever, so seeing these two plays on your schedule really is a thrill!

Terry Berliner: As artists it is our duty, our responsibility, to give space to fellow artists who are radically underrepresented on our stages across the country. We must create space for those whose voices have been muffled or silenced. Both of these plays pulsate with the power and conviction of the human spirit to overcome the horrific.

"Nina Simone" and "Cambodian Rock Band" shine a bright brilliant light on atrocities of our past. And by shining this sort of light they both release the history into the world to reverberate, like throwing a rock in a lake. They will change the frequency of everything they touch. They will make us, think, feel, and be surprised by what we didn't know, and what we could not imagine.

EDGE: Audrey Cefaly's "Maytag Virgin" rounds out the season. It's a comedy about two people in middle age, both of whom have lost a spouse. This seems like a nice tonic to balance out the themes and tones of the season as a whole.

Terry Berliner: "Maytag Virgin" is a play that deeply explores the human heart. It allows us to understand another person's fears and to connect compassionately to another person's pain. This delicate play is as small as the love between two people and as large as a rushing river that we must cross to retrieve what we have lost. MRT's winter love story is a tale about healing the world, one person at a time, through vulnerability, truth, and love.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre's new season kicks off Sept. 11 with "Tiny Beautiful Things," adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos from the book by Cheryl Strayed, and directed by Jen Wineman. For more information about the season, and to purchase tickets, please go to https://mrt.org/show/2019-20-season-shows