THE SCRIPT IN THE CLOSET Comes to La MaMa in March

"The Script in the Closet," a new farce written and directed by Joyce Griffen, follows the misadventures and jealousies of a Pulitzer Prize-winning, husband-and-wife writing team who discover untitled pages of a mystery screenplay on their shared laptop.  The source is a script fragment that has been concealed in their linen closet by a pair of visiting performers. It has been partially transcribed by their son's governess.  The esteemed couple--and everyone else in their family circle--begins sneakily adding to the script.  Suspicions, accusations and jealousies pile up as the wife assumes her husband has taken a new writing partner--a move tantamount to infidelity.  La MaMa E.T.C. will present the play's world premiere March 1 to 17 in its Downstairs Theatre, 66 East Fourth Street.

 

The comedy plays on the humorous aspects of the creative process, the eccentricities of authors and the challenges of the literary world.  Jealousy goes hand-in-hand with creativity, and just about everybody in the play is infected with it.  Lionel and Lynn, eloquent to a fault, are enormously successful writing together, but when Lynn discovers new writing in their ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment, she assumes it's Lionel's and that he must have found a lover to write with.  Their elder son, Carlton, moves home from L.A. to escape the clutching jealousy of his fiancee, Gladys, and falls into bed with the governess.  Every suspicion between Lionel and Lynn is reinforced by their close friends, Valerie and Noah, who fortify the misunderstandings as a duty of good-fellowship.  (Lynn and Valerie have a sort of Lucy and Ethel friendship; Lionel and Noah mostly bond with a snifter in hand.)  Every possible mistaken intention befalls these extravagant characters, whose erudition is played to comic effect.

 

Playwright/director Joyce Griffen is also an actress, screenwriter, jazz singer and audiobook narrator. She has been a member of the Harlem Dramatic Writing Workshop (based at Columbia University) for more than a decade.  Her screenplays include "Po' Robin and Uncle Bey," a period piece set in the antebellum South, and "MIRAS," a Broadway story. The latter was a semifinalist in the International Screenwriters Association 2021 competition. Her writings for the stage include two works about Madam C.J. Walker, the African-American entrepreneur and philanthropist who was the nation's first self-made female millionaire. One is a large-cast musical that was presented as a staged reading at the Museum of the City of New York. The other is a solo show that Griffen has performed at The Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Friends School and Philadelphia's Freedom Theatre. 

 

Griffen has acted prolifically in productions of New Federal Theatre (including "From the Mississippi Delta" with La Tanya Richardson and the lead in "Cotillion" by John O. Killens) and The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (including the company's 50th anniversary production of "Rosalee Pritchett" at Theatre 80 St. Marks). She appeared as a Soubrette in La MaMa's Cotton Club Gala.

 

She began her performance career as a dancer, first studying and performing with Syvilla Fort's repertory company, later touring with the Stanze Peterson Modern Dance Company.  When she branched out into acting, she joined the popular Prince Street Players children's theater company, scoring a leading role in their four CBS TV specials, "The Mother Goose Go Go!" She performs regularly as a jazz vocalist at popular venues and has toured as far away as Istanbul, Turkey, where she spent a year singing in that city's top nightclubs and cabarets. "Love's Languages," her latest jazz vocal CD, is available at iTunes, Uohnit.com and other Internet sites.   Her latest audiobook release is "She Who Finds a Husband" by E.N. Joy, available on iTunes and Amazon. 

 

She began directing at the request of famed playwright Ed Bullins. Her directing credits include "Spinning into Butter" at the Schoolhouse Theatre in Croton Falls, "Zora Speaks" at the Theater at Riverside Church and "Chuleta" by Lillian Santos at Ensemble Studio Theater.

 

The actors are Ruth Kavanagh and Mark DeRocco as the writing couple, Lynn and Lionel; Isaiah Stannard as their son, Carlton; Kristin Johansen and Tom Staggs as their close friends, Valerie and Noah; Jada Delgado as Carlton's jealous fiancée, Gladys; Charlotte Jones as the governess and a Russian call girl; Tina Harper and Patrick Huang as the visiting performers and Carrie Wilder as the housekeeper.

 

Set and costume design are by Joyce Griffen.  Lighting design is by Alex Moore. Set Design Assistant is Jen Varbalow.  Sound design is by Boris Nazarov.

 

Technical help for this production is supplied by the Roundabout Theater's Theatrical Workforce Development Program, in partnership with IATSE. 

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