THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603010059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
WHILE WRITING her monologues for female characters, Abbie Korman had no clue she was crafting epiphanies.
An epiphany - a revelation - is a key element in effective fiction. She learned this later, in a writing class.
Meanwhile, Korman was having her own flashes of insight. As she wrote, she found a message for herself in the six monologues, collectively called ``Threads,'' premiering Sunday at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts.
``All of these characters - and they're all such different people - have something to say to me,'' Korman said.
There's 8-year-old Molly, whose best friend has just moved away; she's dealing with the loss, and finding a way to befriend her new neighbor.
There are two 40ish sisters. Liz visits Julie in the middle of the night, bringing with her the batch of brownies their mother never let them have as kids.
And there is the house cleaner in her late 50s who watches a little girl get beaten in a store for breaking a lamp. Something snaps. Trapped in marriage to a nasty drunk, she sees her situation as like the child's - and rebels.
``They're all saying: `You've got power. You are in control of your life, and your life is what you make it,' '' Korman said. ``This whole project has been very cathartic for me. I feel like it has transformed me. I feel I have owned a piece of myself that was very buried. And I have sort of resurrected it. I think every one of those characters helped to resurrect it.''
In producing ``Threads,'' the Virginia Beach mother and former TV talk-show producer learned to trust others - and squelch her impulse to control. She gave her collaborators the freedom to interpret her work, which runs nearly two hours in this staging.
She handed over her first-ever script to theater veterans Karen Buchheim, who directs, and actress Ann Heywood, who plays all six roles. She did the same with folk musician Kay Warnalis Zentz, who devised songs and sounds inspired by Korman's characters; Zentz also has enlisted her women's drumming circle to play. The writer's sister, artist Jodie Frieden, sculpted clay figures that interpret each story; her work will be displayed in the lobby of VBCA's Price Auditorium.
In each instance, ``we didn't talk it over. I didn't give any directions. For me, that was the beauty of it,'' Korman said. ``To say, `Here, this is not just my piece. It's yours, also.' And to trust that they would do something I would like. I'm excited to see what they've done.''
Korman, 38, was taking a break at a coffeehouse Monday morning. Her two boys were with a sitter at home in Alanton. Tall and slim, looking young in jeans and a ponytail, Korman relished a calm hour in the hectic week leading to curtain.
Aside from the flurry of activity, her life has been relatively serene. ``I like knowing I have my space to sit down and just be with myself,'' she said. ``And I spent so many years not being with myself.''
``My whole way of being has really changed,'' she stressed, as if this were a fresh reflection. ``God, I'm so proud of myself!''
Korman wrote the pieces from 1990 to 1992, when son Adam was a baby. She would write on a computer upstairs while he napped.
In 1993, she began putting together her female team. ``I went into this saying, `I'm really going to connect with all these women.' And, I ended up connecting with myself,'' she said.
There are many threads in Korman's life. Talk is one - from talk shows to women's discussion groups to stage dialogue.
Raised in Norfolk, the former Abbie Friedman studied at the University of Maryland at College Park, earning a B.A. in radio, television and film. While in school, she interned at the CBS affiliate station in Washington, D.C., and got a job there after graduation as a newsroom production assistant.
She was 21 and impressed by the glamorous news figures she met. Promotions came fast. In a year, she became production coordinator, then a producer for a morning talk show. She was a Type A woman on a hot career track.
``I was doing it because it was impressive, not because I loved it,'' she said.
In the early 1980s, talk shows still had a wholesome agenda, she noted. Plus, ``I do like to talk to people,'' Korman said. ``And I also like to listen to other people talk.''
In 1981, she moved to Baltimore to produce ``People Are Talking'' - Oprah Winfrey's first talk show. She left because her boss was ill-tempered. Back in D.C., she produced Charlie Rose's first talk show.
But Korman's attitude began to change. She became less ambitious and yearned for a more soul-satisfying lifestyle. Seeking something new, she became an assistant buyer for a men's clothing store. ``And I hated it. Hated it. Hated it.''
More jobs came and went, from television production to public relations.
When she heard her high school and college boyfriend had moved to D.C., she gave him a call. She and Rob Korman, a dentist, were married within a year, in May 1986. They moved to Virginia Beach.
She worked a while, then became pregnant with Adam, who will be 5 in June. Michael will be 1 in July.
While pregnant, she took a creativity course at Old Dominion University. The final assignment was to write a monologue about someone unlike herself. She wrote a piece called ``So Long, Ma,'' about a woman in her 20s bidding farewell to her self-centered, alcoholic mother. She performed it in class.
``And I loved, loved, loved doing it! That's when I was really writing every day in my journal,'' she recalled. ``God, I really loved writing that monologue. I loved creating that person. And this woman was so very different from me.''
Without meaning to, Korman arrived at a cohesive series of monologues that start in childhood and wind up in old age.
For a first effort, ``I feel like Abbie has been very careful about what she has written,'' said director Buchheim. ``She has done an excellent job of evoking these characters - and taking us right away, in a short period of time, along with them.
``I've admired her work a lot, as I've gone through it so many times. I haven't found anything put in there for no reason, or that meant nothing.
``It was carefully woven.''
Actress Heywood has really immersed herself in each part, Buchheim said, adding: ``She's found a real difference between each of the characters. And I lose Ann. I don't see Ann doing this character. I just find the character before me.''
As Korman's women come to life, Buchheim said, ``every single one has something so rich about her. I can find a little part of each one of them in myself.''
Inspiration for the characters came from many corners. Korman based Molly on herself after her best childhood friend moved from their Suburban Park neighborhood. Having two sisters gave her fodder for portraying the sisters in her late-night brownies piece. She also gathered ideas from women she met at retreats and in discussion groups.
In the late 1980s, she volunteered to help abused and neglected children through the Virginia Beach Court Appointed Special Advocate Program. Her first encounters with abuse fed the story of the little girl whose mother beats her in a store.
Proceeds from the Sunday performance will benefit the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program. The subsequent show March 29 will benefit the arts center's education program.
Korman was looking forward to rehearsal last Monday night.
It ``will be the first time I see them,'' she said, beaming. ``And that's fine. Again, it's that trusting thing. Once it's up there, it'll be a creation not just of mine but of all of us.
``It's going to take on a life of its own.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Vicki Cronis
[Photo of the women collaborating on the "Threads" production.]
Heywood pauses while performing a monolouge in which a young woman
confronts her estranged mother, who has cancer.
by CNB