Wardrobes that span decades in 4000 Miles

In Amy Herzog's play 4000 Miles, life unexpectedly throws Leo and Vera together. They are drastically different, with Leo in biking attire and casual jeans and Vera in the effortless wardrobe she's collected throughout her time living in the West Village of New York City. Costume designer Jan Chambers has crafted distinct ensembles that reflect the unique lives of the play's characters.

Vera's closet is full of items she's collected over the years. She's lived in the same apartment since the 1950s, so her wardrobe is as eclectic as the fashion trends of the decades Vera has experienced. Vera dresses comfortably, but Jan made sure she has some pizazz. Jan says, "Vera is not your Midwestern grandmother." Because she has a visitor, she is dressing up more than usual. Vera also attends two funerals during the play, but Jan said she wears a lot of black anyway. "She's a New Yorker," Jan explains. 

Costuming Leo proved to be a challenge, as he's been on a 4000 mile bicycling trip from Seattle to New York. When he arrives at Vera's door, the only clothes he has are the items he could carry in a bag. His wardrobe is that of an unrestricted nomad on a bicycle, including jeans, a rain jacket, a V-neck sweater, and other casual clothing he could bring from place to place.

Amanda, played by Sehee Lee, is an art student Leo brings home one night. Jan said she and director Desdemona Chiang really enjoyed putting her outfit together. Amanda wears platform shoes, fishnet tights, purple streaks in her hair, and a coral leather jacket. She's young, quirky, and has the edginess of a New York City art student.

See Jan's costume renderings come to life below! 

Jan's design for Leo, as worn by Schuyler Scott Mastain. Photo by Curtis Brown.

Jan's design for Vera, as worn by Dee Maaske. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

Jan's design for Bec, as worn by Arielle Yoder. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

Jan's design for Leo, as worn by Schuyler Scott Mastain. Photo by Curtis Brown.

Jan's design for Vera, as worn by Dee Maaske. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

Jan's design for Amanda, as worn by Sehee Lee. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

Jan's design for Vera, as worn by Dee Maaske. Photo by Curtis Brown.

Jan's design for Leo, as worn by Schuyler Scott Mastain. Photo by Jon Gardiner.

See Jan Chambers' designs onstage in 4000 Miles through April 19th!

Click here for more info or call our box office at 919.962.7529.

Reflecting the Richness of Vera's Life: Jan Chamber's Scenic Design for 4000 Miles

Preliminary sketch by scenic designer Jan Chambers.

4000 Miles takes place in Vera Joseph's apartment in the West Village of New York City. Vera is 91 years old and has lived in the same apartment since the 1950s. Vera has lived a rich, vibrant life, so it only makes sense that her living space should reflect the adventures she's been on, relationships she's had, and experiences she's been through. This was the challenge of scenic and costume designer Jan Chambers.

Jan explains that over the years, Vera, played by Dee Maaske, has collected pieces that represent her fascinating life. Jan calls Vera's decorating style "intellectual bohemian," as there is no defining color scheme, however an abundance of photos, posters, furniture, and knickknacks give us a feel for Vera's passions and her extensive life experience.

"She's not a fancy person, but she's elegant in her own way."

Scenic model by Jan Chambers.

Jan says that in order to create a believable living space for Vera, she envisioned the spaces of some friends and relatives. "I am definitely channeling people I've known." The landlords of a friend in New York have lived there for decades. One is an artist and the other, a psychologist. Their apartment is filled with eclectic items representing their respective fields and passions, leaving no wall uncovered. It has a thrift shopper appeal that Jan was looking to create in Vera's apartment.

Vera's apartment may seem cluttered, but Jan explains that Vera knows exactly where everything is. She says Vera has fallen into a routine. "She probably eats the same thing for breakfast everyday." Vera's apartment has not changed much over the years, and Jan's design reflects the living space of an older character who has fallen into a pattern, but retains her vibrancy. 

Visual inspiration for Vera's apartment.

Stage left and upstage, you'll notice model cars and airplanes. These are placed intentionally as they remind us of Vera's late second husband, Joe. Although Joe died 10 years prior, he and Vera traveled together and shared the same political beliefs, thus the books about Marxism on the shelves and in baskets, and posters of Cuba and Mexico. Jan explains,"The more masculine sense given by the model cars and airplanes lets us remember that Joe is still with us in some way." 

Jan also loves that 4000 Miles is a story of a grandmother and grandson. "I'm making my son bring his grandmother as a date!"

We invite audience members, young and old, to enjoy 4000 Miles with us as this wonderful dramatic comedy opens Wednesday evening.

4000 Miles opens April 1st and runs until April 19th. 

Click here for more info or call our box office at 919-962-PLAY (7529)

A Journey Across 4000 Miles

 By Jiayun Zhiang

Social psychologist Edward T. Hall has suggested four types of spatial distance between individuals. The first, intimate distance, ranges from actual contact to about 18 inches. The second, personal distance, ranges from 1.5 feet to 4 feet. The third, social distance, spans about 4 to 12 feet; and the last, public space, extends beyond 12 feet. As social animals, it seems that humans may protect our boundaries playfully or gently––sometimes less so––and at other times must overcome distances that may be physical, psychological, or emotional.

Playwright Amy Herzog.

Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, begins with a significant physical distance: the 4000 miles of a cross-continental bicycle trek from Seattle to New York. But there is also emotional separation between 21-year-old Leo, in his self-absorbed grief, and Vera, his 91-year-old grandmother, who although tiny and frail is fiercely independent and vivacious. At the heart of this beautifully rendered and subtly orchestrated piece, the characters face the aches and pains of growing up and growing old. They struggle with death, guilt, physical limits, and emotional frustrations as they slowly mend rifts between families, friends, and lovers. 

“I did feel very strongly about writing an older character with the dimensions that I observed in my grandmother, because I think there’s a way that older people can just disappear. I feel my own grandmother’s fight to remain present and relevant in a very pronounced way.”—Amy Herzog 

Herzog's grandmother, Leepee Joseph at the Occupy Wall Street protest.

 Herzog, a Yale School of Drama graduate, often fleshes out family stories in her work. For example,
her play After the Revolution (2010) followed her discovery of the 1950s targeting and blacklisting of her father’s stepfather, Julius Joseph, who had passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II. The play recounts the painful reconciliation undertaken by law school grad and activist Emma Joseph between her politics and family legacy after she learns that the grandfather for whom she named her legal defense fund was not who she had believed him to be. Herzog’s grandmother Leepee Joseph, a long-time left-wing activist and the model for Vera in 4000 Miles, did not completely agree with this portrayal of her husband. “I thought what my husband had done was perfectly legitimate,” she commented. “My grandmother would say her politics didn’t go into me,” Herzog said in an interview with Alexis Soloski from The New York Times, “but the fact that I come from a very political family is very influential for me.” Interestingly, Ms. Joseph, who was also present Soloski’s interview, responded that: “Oh, no question about that. But I didn’t see any politics in 4000 Miles.”

“I’ve always been interested in not just the politics, but the trappings of being a deeper political person … The word I’ve used before is ‘scaffolding.’ The kind of scaffolding people build for themselves in terms of their own belief systems is a subject of enduring interest to me.”—Amy Herzog

Herzog returns to family stories in 4000 Miles, this time by pairing a “transcendentalist, hippie” cousin and the “very New York, older person’s existence” of their common grandmother. This seemingly unlikely intergenerational connection sets the play in motion, and Herzog’s merging of the personal and the political further animates the backstory. Grandmother Vera, a widowed Lefty, despite her solitary life, is proud to be progressive and always creates a sense of community. Her college-dropout grandson, Leo, arrives unannounced at her Greenwich Village apartment, distressed after witnessing his best friend’s death in a bike accident. At her advanced age, Vera has much experience coping with her own losses; when she fully opens up to Leo, he is able to realize that the grieving process need not be borne alone. What started out as an overnight stay lasts for a month during which these two characters, equally sensitive and dignified despite their differences, share laughs, memories, and feelings that cross the boundaries of generations. Herzog’s own bicycle ride from New Haven to San Francisco on a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser after completing her undergraduate degree at Yale in 2000 added another layer of inspiration to the writing of this play. Herzog also spent 6 months living with Leepee Joseph in her Greenwich Village apartment, where together they transformed their relationship.

“I have a cousin who lives a kind of transcendentalist, hippie kind of life. And he lost a friend about two summers ago, actually in a rafting accident. I really adore this cousin, and I was thinking about this experience that he was going through — of being so young and suffering such a major loss. And I was also interested in just the way he’s chosen to live his life kind of outside the mainstream. My grandmother has this very New York, older person’s existence that I’m also really interested in. We’re very close. So starting with those two characters I invented this play, which was not at all based on any events or anything like that, but it was inspired by those two people.”—Amy Herzog

Herzog with her grandmother and inspiration for the character "Vera." 

Herzog's skillful technique and nuanced style turns this character-driven piece from drama into a poem in dramatic form. As such it graces the audience with swift confrontations tinged with the gentle flow of everyday life’s trivial matters, and poignant revelations punctuated by awkward pauses and humorous ambiguities. She approaches her characters with great attention to detail, yet this simplicity clearly conveys underlying complexities.

Although a resolution is not in sight toward the end of this 4000-mile trek, director Desdemona Chiang encourages audience members to call their grandparents or grandchildren right after the production, because, if I may add, 4000 Miles is that kind of stage where we could find intimacy to be rewarding and revealing, and compassion could be used to measure spatial distance in all human relationships.

PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog.

April 1-19th. Directed by Desdemona Chiang. 

Click here or call 919-962-7529 for tickets and more information.

Desdemona Chiang on bridging generational gaps in 4000 Miles

Director, Desdemona Chiang.

At first, Leo and Vera seem to be an unlikely pair. Leo is 21-years-old, while Vera stands at 91 years young. Leo enjoys riding his bike cross-country, while Vera calls her neighbor daily to assure her she's still alive. Vera, played by Dee Maaske, is Leo's grandmother, but much time has passed since they last saw one another. After a heart-shattering loss, Leo, played by Schuyler Scott Mastain, shows up at Vera's door. His original plan to stay for one night turns into three weeks and a once improbable duo end up finding solace in one another.

Director, Desdemona Chiang, said she wanted to direct 4000 Miles because she loves plays that "explore family dynamics and human relationships." She definitely got what she bargained for with Leo and Vera. With two distinct characters lacking similarity at first, Desdemona wants the emphasis of the play to be placed on the fully developed relationship between Vera and Leo. She says it is the intricate moments between them that make 4000 Miles "both ordinary and utterly exceptional."

"It is a sweet, funny, and poignant story of two people who, as a result of an unexpected tragedy, find themselves connected and changed forever. "

Desdemona wants to ensure that the audience doesn't see Vera for her age, but for her vigor. She appreciates 4000 Miles for placing a character of Vera's age in a prominent role. Desdemona explains, "Americans are notoriously ageist—we usually regard the elderly as a social inconvenience and the discussion of death and dying to be uncomfortable, so oftentimes this particular demographic of people goes socially unacknowledged and ignored. It’s so satisfying to be working on a play that puts a 91 year-old woman at the center of the story." She said Vera reminds her of her own feisty, sharp, unapologetic grandmother.

Costume designs, by Jan Chambers, will be contemporary and will provide further insight into the

contrasts between Leo and Vera. As a twenty-something "neo-hippie," Leo will be dressed in either casual jeans and sweatshirts, or bicyclist attire. Vera will be dressed in flowing, comfortable pieces to reflect the routine she has fallen into.

Commerce Street in the West Village.

The play is set in Vera's apartment in Manhattan's West Village. Desdemona explains that she and scenic designer, Jan Chambers, sought to create an environment that told the story of Vera's everyday life before Leo showed up on her doorstep. She explains, "The placement of furniture, books, dishes,and other household items are very deliberate, and speak volumes about the kinds of life patterns she has developed over the years, and how that pattern gets disrupted (in both good and bad ways) when Leo arrives."

The mood onstage will be set by lighting designer, Xavier Pierce. Desdemona said they will utilize the lighting to "establish rhythms and the storytelling inside transitions in between scenes." Desk and floor lamps will contribute to the sense of intimacy between the characters.

4000 Miles has been challenging at times for Desdemona because she wants to maintain the beautiful simplicity of the relationship between Leo and Vera . She explained that in our current theatrical world, it can be tempting to create the "the bright flashy thing, the big social statement, or the jazz hands dance number," but that in 4000 Miles, the nuanced, fully-developed relationship matters most.

"This is play that doesn’t set out to change the world, yet the worlds of these two individuals are irrevocably changed."

What's Desdemona's goal? She said, "My hope is that by the end of the show, audience members will be gathered in the lobby calling their grandmothers or their grandchildren."

We invite you to experience the refreshingly honest, 4000 Miles, onstage April 1-19!

Click here for more info or call our box office at 919.962.PLAY (7529).

More On What We Have In Store Next Season

By Joseph Haj, Producing Artistic Director

Joseph Haj

We are excited to open the Mainstage Season with the brilliant new comedy by Christopher Durang, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Three siblings collide. Vanya and Sonia, who have spent their lives caring for the estate of their late parents, and movie star sister Masha who comes swanning back in true Chekhovian fashion. If you enjoy Chekhov, you’ll love it. If you hate Chekhov, you’ll love it even more. And if you don’t know a thing about Chekhov, nothing bad happens...it’s a hysterical ride.

Then our rotating repertory moves from the metaphor of the sea in The Tempest and Metamorphoses to that of the forest with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Characters enter the woods pursuing their ambitions—and reckon with forces they never imagined and beyond their control in magical and dangerous circumstances, before coming out of the forest forever changed.  

Midsummer, one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, is the theatre’s first “fairy tale” following lovers who escape to the woods and encounter a Faerie King and Queen, in a tale rich in music, magic and comedy. Sondheim’s musical masterpiece Into the Woods brilliantly imagines the lives of classic fairytale characters – Cinderella, Rapunzel, witches and giants – reminding us we need to be careful what we wish for. Performing them in rotation, sharing a scenic world, allows us to explore two plays, written 400 years apart, that use the forest as metaphor in similar ways, describing how we sometimes need to get lost in order to find ourselves.

Then we turn to Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind. Written in 1955, it’s the story of a racially mixed cast rehearsing a new play with hopes of taking it to Broadway. Misperceptions and stereotypes abound as a veteran African American actress grapples with choosing between her chance to play the lead in a Broadway show, and the cost of compromising her principles. Crackling with the wit and daring of Clybourne Park, Trouble in Mind is an ‘edge of your seat’ comedy that asks hard questions and offers no easy answers.

Next, a classic from two master playwrights. Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. It’s bracing, electric and incredibly current. Set in a small Norwegian town where the town leaders have invested a significant amount of money developing public baths in hopes of drawing tourists to the area, a doctor discovers the waters of the baths have been contaminated by textile mills further up the river, and must be shut down. Expecting to be hailed as a hero, instead he and his family are ostracized for threatening the town’s economic viability. This play, originally penned in the 1880s by Ibsen, and re-told in the 1950s by Arthur Miller, still rings true today. 2015 is the centennial of Miller’s birth, so this production celebrates one of our major American playwrights with one of his rarely seen works.

And we’ll close our Mainstage Season with the Pulitzer Prize-nominated 4000 Miles. When 21 year-old Leo suffers a major loss, he seeks solace with his feisty 91 year-old grandmother. They infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other in this unsentimental look at the funny, frustrating, life-changing relationship between a grandson facing the rest of his life and a grandmother slowly forgetting hers. A keenly observed look at the sort of inter-generational relationship we rarely see onstage.

See you in September for this exciting season!

Joe Haj