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Read about The Psych Drama Company’s Producing Artistic Director in the Boston Globe VIP Lounge:
Read about The Psych Drama Company’s Producing Artistic Director in the Boston Globe VIP Lounge:
01/16/25 -- By Juliet Pennington
Read The Story Here:
Brookline resident Wendy Lippe is a clinical psychologist with a private practice and a clinical assistant professorship at Boston University. She is also a theater professional who is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association. In 2010, she combined the two pursuits and founded The Psych Drama Company (www.thepsychdramacompany.com). “I wanted to reach people and connect with audiences in as meaningful a way as possible,” she said in a recent phone call. “We’ve experimented with many ways of doing that, having produced everything from Shakespeare to works from the American greats, like Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams.” The nonprofit theater company’s latest production, Sarah Ruhl’s “Stage Kiss” is, Lippe said, a “departure” from what the company has done in the past. “We were going to do Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night,’ but the world right now is so heavy and dark, that we decided it was time for a comedy with dramatic elements that warm the heart,” she said, referring to “Stage Kiss” as Ruhl’s “love letter to actors that takes the psychology of the ‘showmance’ and elevates it tenfold.” The immersive production (“We break the fourth wall, so the audience has the option of getting involved in the show,” she said), directed by Second City alum and Boston University graduate Rani O’Brien, is at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Blackbox Theatre Feb. 13-23. It’s no coincidence that “Stage Kiss” is opening on the eve of Valentine’s Day, said Lippe, the company’s producing artistic director — who is also a cast member in the latest production. “It asks important questions about the nature of love and loving, and it helps us to be curious about the love relationships we choose and why we choose them; that we make different choices for love relationships at different stages in our lives,” she said. “As a clinical psychologist, I am very invested in our society becoming less judgmental and critical and more curious and compassionate. I think that this particular play holds the potential of helping us move away from defensive and simplistic categorization of love relationships, such as ‘this is a toxic relationship,’ ‘this is my soulmate’ … these are really empty, vague terms and they are quite binary, whereas human love relationships are so layered and complicated and filled with dialectical tensions.” We caught up the Great Neck, N.Y., native to talk about all things travel.
If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go? Iceland. It’s January and the perfect time to see the Northern Lights. And now that I’ve discovered this amazing glass house surrounded by the Northern Lights on Airbnb, it’s definitely time to go.
Do you prefer booking trips through a travel agent or on your own? For faraway exotic destinations, I always use a travel agent. For European travel, that’s all me.
Thoughts on an “unplugged” vacation? Overwater bungalows anywhere in the world. You can quite literally unplug from your laptop or cellphone and roll from your desk or bed into the ocean in two seconds. My vacations always involve some amount of work, so this is ideal.
What has been your worst vacation experience? Flying home from Italy with my mother on 9/11. We were halfway home when we learned the airplane was headed back to Rome. We couldn’t get back into the US for another two weeks.
What is your favorite childhood travel memory? Summer trips to the Jersey Shore with my family to visit my grandparents. We always loved going to Brigantine’s Castle, the live haunted house.
Do you vacation to relax, to learn, or for the adventure of it all? All of the above. Different vacations meet different needs. The Devil’s Pool at the edge of the precipice of Victoria Falls, the DMZ in South Korea, and Ravello on the Amalfi Coast are all equally wonderful, but in very different ways.
What book do you plan on bringing with you to read on your next vacation? Two plays: Edward Albee’s “At Home at the Zoo” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives.”
If you could travel with one famous person/celebrity, who would it be? Patrick Swayze … don’t ask.
What is the best gift to give a traveler? Frequent flyer miles.
What is your go-to snack for a flight or a road trip? Some chocolate and some protein.
What is the coolest souvenir you’ve picked up on a vacation? A 5-foot-tall art nouveau sculpture from Prague.
What is your favorite app/website for travel? Tripadvisor.com.
What has travel taught you? Perspective. You have to get out of the box in which you exist in order to actually see the box for what it is — and for what it isn’t. Similarly, travel paradoxically takes us out of ourselves and simultaneously connects us more deeply to ourselves.
What is your best travel tip? Just go. Don’t obsess about it. Life is too short and there is so much to experience in this big, beautiful world.
You can access the link to the article here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/16/lifestyle/vip-lounge-wendy-lippe-iceland-patrick-swayze/
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Photo Courtesy of: Joseph Heroun of Heroun & Co.
Latest News
Stage Kiss cast members Wendy Lippe and Kenny Kelleher are featured in a new article by Edge Media Network! Check out the article below or find it here: https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/337885
Grab Your Valentine: ‘Stage Kiss’ Opens this Week
02/11/25
Psych Drama Company's production of "Stage Kiss," Sarah Ruhl's comedy about two actors caught between past and present – and reality and romance – opens this week at the Plaza Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. It's the perfect show for a Valentine's Day outing!
"Stage Kiss" is among the Pulitzer-nominated Ruhl's most provocative and emotional plays, delving into the "showmance" of two actors caught up in the passions of a vintage play about love and death – and caught up in their own unresolved, decades-ago romance.
The play "allows us to work with the psychologically powerful and meaningful themes of love, loss, memory, and fantasy, but it does so with levity, humor, quirkiness and joy," says star Wendy Lippe – who is also the Founding Artistic Director of Psych Drama Company.
The innovative immersive production brings the play's passions to the audience by bringing the audience into the midst of the action. All the world's a stage in this exploration of love and art, and it's on the stage that reality and performance start to merge.
"The deeper meaning at the heart of this particular immersive conceptualization is that Ruhl's 'love letter to actors' is really a 'love letter to all of us,'" Lippe adds. "Aren't we all actors in our lives and relationships whether we perform on stage or not? And in an age of utter chaos and confusion over what is real, we are all dealing with the tension between artifice and authenticity; and we are all searching for what feels real and true, just like the characters in the play."
Says Lippe's co-star, Kenny Kelleher, "'Stage Kiss' is doing a pretty damn good job of lifting our spirits in this mess of a time right now.
"It's always great to have another world to disappear into when your own is uncertain. And just like we experience this play and hope that the characters come out better for it by the end of their stories, I hope, from deep down, that we all do, too."
Grab Your Valentine: ‘Stage Kiss’ Opens this Week
02/11/25
Psych Drama Company's production of "Stage Kiss," Sarah Ruhl's comedy about two actors caught between past and present – and reality and romance – opens this week at the Plaza Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. It's the perfect show for a Valentine's Day outing!
"Stage Kiss" is among the Pulitzer-nominated Ruhl's most provocative and emotional plays, delving into the "showmance" of two actors caught up in the passions of a vintage play about love and death – and caught up in their own unresolved, decades-ago romance.
The play "allows us to work with the psychologically powerful and meaningful themes of love, loss, memory, and fantasy, but it does so with levity, humor, quirkiness and joy," says star Wendy Lippe – who is also the Founding Artistic Director of Psych Drama Company.
The innovative immersive production brings the play's passions to the audience by bringing the audience into the midst of the action. All the world's a stage in this exploration of love and art, and it's on the stage that reality and performance start to merge.
"The deeper meaning at the heart of this particular immersive conceptualization is that Ruhl's 'love letter to actors' is really a 'love letter to all of us,'" Lippe adds. "Aren't we all actors in our lives and relationships whether we perform on stage or not? And in an age of utter chaos and confusion over what is real, we are all dealing with the tension between artifice and authenticity; and we are all searching for what feels real and true, just like the characters in the play."
Says Lippe's co-star, Kenny Kelleher, "'Stage Kiss' is doing a pretty damn good job of lifting our spirits in this mess of a time right now.
"It's always great to have another world to disappear into when your own is uncertain. And just like we experience this play and hope that the characters come out better for it by the end of their stories, I hope, from deep down, that we all do, too."
Stage Kiss Trailer is Live! Check it out on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQGnSLiykWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQGnSLiykWA
The Psych Drama Company Presents "Stage Kiss" by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Acclaimed New York City Director Rani O’Brien
Boston, MA – The Psych Drama Company is thrilled to announce its latest production, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. This delightfully surreal romantic comedy will play at the Boston Center for the Arts (539 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116) with previews on February 13th and running February 14th through February 23rd, 2023. Press night to be held on February 14th - please contact Director of Marketing ([email protected]) for details.
In Stage Kiss, art and life become dangerously intertwined as two actors with a shared past are cast as romantic leads in a rediscovered 1930s melodrama. What begins as a scripted love story soon unravels into chaos as the characters find themselves unsure of where the play ends and their real lives begin. Brimming with both humor and heart, Stage Kiss offers a clever exploration of romance, reality, and the complexities of human connection.
This production is helmed by renowned NYC-based director Rani O’Brien, whose extensive credits include work with celebrated institutions such as The Second City, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Lark, Pacific Symphony, and McCarter Theatre Center. O’Brien, who holds an MFA in Directing from Boston University, brings a fresh vision to Ruhl’s work, blending her skill in both comedy and drama to capture the nuanced layers of Stage Kiss. For more about Rani O’Brien and her work, visit www.raniobrien.com.
The talented cast includes Wendy Lippe as “She” and Kenny Kelleher as “He,” with Melissa Myers as Angela/Millie/Maid, Julia Trueblood as Millicent/Laurie, Eric Cheung as Husband, and Zachary Ryan Murphy as the Director. Produced by Christopher Crossen-Sills and The Psych Drama Company, Stage Kiss promises an evening filled with laughter, love, and unexpected twists.
Performance Dates:
February 13 - 23, 2023
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116
Directed by Acclaimed New York City Director Rani O’Brien
Boston, MA – The Psych Drama Company is thrilled to announce its latest production, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. This delightfully surreal romantic comedy will play at the Boston Center for the Arts (539 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116) with previews on February 13th and running February 14th through February 23rd, 2023. Press night to be held on February 14th - please contact Director of Marketing ([email protected]) for details.
In Stage Kiss, art and life become dangerously intertwined as two actors with a shared past are cast as romantic leads in a rediscovered 1930s melodrama. What begins as a scripted love story soon unravels into chaos as the characters find themselves unsure of where the play ends and their real lives begin. Brimming with both humor and heart, Stage Kiss offers a clever exploration of romance, reality, and the complexities of human connection.
This production is helmed by renowned NYC-based director Rani O’Brien, whose extensive credits include work with celebrated institutions such as The Second City, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Lark, Pacific Symphony, and McCarter Theatre Center. O’Brien, who holds an MFA in Directing from Boston University, brings a fresh vision to Ruhl’s work, blending her skill in both comedy and drama to capture the nuanced layers of Stage Kiss. For more about Rani O’Brien and her work, visit www.raniobrien.com.
The talented cast includes Wendy Lippe as “She” and Kenny Kelleher as “He,” with Melissa Myers as Angela/Millie/Maid, Julia Trueblood as Millicent/Laurie, Eric Cheung as Husband, and Zachary Ryan Murphy as the Director. Produced by Christopher Crossen-Sills and The Psych Drama Company, Stage Kiss promises an evening filled with laughter, love, and unexpected twists.
Performance Dates:
February 13 - 23, 2023
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116
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The Psych Drama Company combines psychological insight with dramatic art
to explore the timeless complexities of the human soul.
The Psych Drama Company is a 501(c)3 certified non-profit organization.
© 2020 The Psych Drama Company/Pandora’s Box Productions, Inc.
to explore the timeless complexities of the human soul.
The Psych Drama Company is a 501(c)3 certified non-profit organization.
© 2020 The Psych Drama Company/Pandora’s Box Productions, Inc.