A Well Made Segment
“10 Minutes to Curtain” Transcript

CHARLIE MILLER: Hey everyone—I hope you had a happy Halloween. A lot of us at the Denver Center spent our Halloween inside of a dark theatre preparing for the next show of the season: Well by Lisa Kron. The segment that you’re about to see deals with Well, a play about the creation of a play. It’s self-aware…what we like to call “meta-theatrical.” Because of this, I was inspired to create a “10 Minutes to Curtain” segment that mirrors the structure of the play. To give you a taste of the play by imitating the play itself. It’s complicated, I know, but bear with me because it’s going to be an interesting theatrical exploration. We start with Kathy Brady…

KATHLEEN BRADY, “Ann Kron”: Well, Well is a brilliantly crafted piece of chaos. (Laughs)

KATE LEVY,  “Lisa Kron”: It’s a story about Lisa, me, and my life-long relationship with my mother and with wellness and illness and my mother’s wellness and illness.

KATHLEEN BRADY: The only thing that I’ve been able to come up with to explain this particular piece is that it’s like an artichoke—and it starts out as a full, beautiful, large artichoke and the leaves keep getting pealed away until the heart appears.

KATE LEVY: Lisa Kron is a writer of one-woman plays, and this piece is very autobiographical. In this piece, she decides to introduce other characters, so my mother is on stage with me.

KATHLEEN BRADY: Her mother doesn’t quite understand the rules…

KATE LEVY: It unravels…people breaking character, my mother interrupting, my mother telling stuff that I had planned for later in the play, it’s sort of sabotaged throughout. No one is trying to sabotage it—well life happens. And that’s the great fun of it.

CHARLIE’S MOM: This seems perfectly clear to me, Charlie. I’m already interested in the play and I would buy a ticket. Why are you making this so complicated?

CHARLIE MILLER: Mom, don’t worry—it will all come together in the end.

CHARLIE’S MOM: I don’t know…

KATHLEEN BRADY: Charlie, you listen to your mother—she knows what she’s talking about.

CHARLIE’S MOM: See!

KATE LEVY: Charlie, I think your mom’s right—I mean, I knew what you were trying to do but now I…I’m kind of at sea…um—you might need to rethink this.

MELISSA MARANO, DCTC Marketing Director: I don’t know…I don’t know if this is going to sell the show, Charlie. I think it’s much funnier than this, it’s a really funny show.

DOUG LANGWORTHY, Dramaturg: Well, I think the audience is going to love that the episode’s structure follows the play’s structure. There’s a play within a play within a play and you’ve captured that beautifully.

KENT THOMPSON, Artistic Director: Yeah, but you know, how many layers do you need to confuse the audience? I think if they’re confused before they come in the theatre we’ve got a problem. Charlie, you need to rethink…

KATE LEVY: I gotta tell you, Kent is right. Yeah, I know and he’s the big cheese, so you know he’s right about everything, but he really is right about this.

KATHLEEN BRADY: What are you thinking?

KENT THOMPSON: Charlie, you’ve got to start over!

CHARLIE’S MOM: Charlie, you should listen to your boss. You’ve got to let this go. You could lose your job…and your health insurance!

KATE LEVY: I’m going to go…okay? You know…yeah, uh…

MELISSA MARANO: Mom and daughter fighting…it’s fun on stage! I mean, it’s just good.

DOUG LANGWORTHY: And you’ll get a play within a play—

KENT THOMPSON: Forget everything you just saw, just come and see the show—you’ll have a good time!