Wendy Lippe and Kenny Kelleher Swoon for Psych Drama Company's Immersive 'Stage Kiss'

There's something seductive and wild about a Sarah Ruhl play, whether it's the electrifying feminist lens of "Eurydice" (recently the basis of Matthew Aucoin's opera of the same name, which was nominated for a Grammy last year), the discontents of our digital age with "Dead Man's Cell Phone," or a novel spin on the domestic comedy with "The Clean House."

The Pulitzer-nominated playwright's "Stage Kiss" is among 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. 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.

Psych Drama Company's immersive production of "Stage Kiss" brings those passions to the audience by bringing the audience into the midst of the action. Stars Wendy Lippe (also the company's founding artistic director) and Kenny Kelleher talked all about it with EDGE.

EDGE: What is the appeal of doing a Sarah Ruhl play?

Wendy Lippe: I think it's important that, as a company, for 15 years, we were committed to exclusively producing some of the most important and challenging dramatic works from Shakespeare and the American greats. I don't know of many theater companies that have dedicated themselves exclusively to productions of this kind. But the times we are living in demand that our company broaden the landscape of the works we do. Ruhl's "Stage Kiss" 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. I hope that our production honors the impressive emotional range of Ruhl's text, and that we integrate the comedy and drama in a way that captures a very human and universal journey.

EDGE: The Psych Drama Company chose this play in particular rather than going ahead with a production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" as originally planned, because the world is, to quote something you said, "so heavy and dark" right now. Is the play lifting your spirits and those of your castmates?

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 of "He" and "She" come out better for it by the end of their stories, I hope... from deep down...that we all do too. For all that's good in this damn world.

Wendy Lippe: To quote Nietzsche, "We possess art lest we perish of the truth." Theater is the ultimate source of comfort, healing, and soothing for me, and "Stage Kiss" is no exception.

EDGE: This immersive production breaks the fourth wall – could you explain a bit about how the audience will participate?

Wendy Lippe: With this production, we are taking our critically acclaimed immersive style to new levels. Audience members will have the option to actively participate in the show...on stage! And our cast members sit amongst the audience members, as though everyone is at an audition or a rehearsal. 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." We are creating a shared identification with audience members. 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.

EDGE: "Stage Kiss" is about a "showmance" – a romance that develops between actors. In real life the two main characters are being played by the two of you, Wendy and Kenny. So how is the show's plot resonating or departing from your own experience as actors bringing the production to life?

Kenny Kelleher: In terms of a "showmance," the main difference here is that the characters of "He" and "She" have a 20-year history in their relationship; and Wendy and I didn't know each other at all before starting work on this show. I think we have somewhat of an easier time because we're meeting with a totally clean slate. Although, just as our two characters had an intense time 20 years ago at the beginning of their relationship, Wendy and I are working together so closely... physically and emotionally... that the beginning of our relationship has also been intense. As an actor, I'm trying to make the boldest, most exciting choices so I can kind of echo a long, full relationship with Wendy onstage.

Wendy Lippe: Kenny just answered that question in a way that expresses how I feel better than I could. And I would add that our comfort with each other, both emotionally and physically, is unusual for two people who have met for the first time in a theatrical production. It's just there.

EDGE: Wendy, as a clinical psychologist, actress, and artistic director, can you say something about the psychology of the "showmance?"

Wendy Lippe: There is a line in the play when "She" asks "He," "Were you ever unambivalent – about anything?" Thankfully, the text accurately reflects that it is only possible to be unambivalent (about anything) for a period of time. Ambivalence is part of life and all lasting human relationships. And, in romantic relationships, after the honeymoon phase, the relationship either breaks with the transition to the "real" or it survives, and even thrives, with the integration of the reality of who the other person is, as opposed to the fantasy of who the other person is. With the "showmances" I have myself experienced, and those of others I have witnessed, they come to embody "ambivalence on steroids." They have the fantasies and projections inherent in the honeymoon phase of a romantic relationship augmented by the fictional world of the play, and the exciting process of discovery in rehearsal and performance; all of this leads to very positive and intense emotional and physical feelings. And thus, with the transition to the "real," the "showmance" is challenged by the typical loss of the fantasy of who the other person is, as in any romantic relationship, but it also has to survive the loss of the fictional and exciting world of the play in rehearsal and performance. That's a lot to grieve! So, the positive and negative aspects of ambivalence are doubled, or even multiplicative, with "showmances." And, of course, some "showmances" survive this more complicated and layered transition to the "real" and others don't.

EDGE: Kenny, this is your first major theatrical role, if I understand correctly. What are you discovering about the process of rehearsal and production of a play on this scale?

Kenny Kelleher: This is the first time I've played a romantic lead guy in a story like this, yes. When I got the part, I was immediately excited as fuck. There was maybe a second of, "I hope people believe me in this part," but I quickly moved past that. I'm getting to express so much of myself that I don't on a daily basis... and maybe didn't even realize lives so close to the surface all the time. Kenny's a single dude, but I get to flirt and get teased and experience all kinds of really high emotions in this story, and I'm having the best time with it. Rani O'Brien, our director, is so great at making space that I can just try stuff and just let myself all the way out. And Wendy and I are fully there with each other in rehearsal and having back and forth that is so damn fun. I also think that my total lack of hangups about baring so much onstage has to do with putting in a shit ton of work on myself, and knowing myself better than I ever have or planned on. It's so exciting for me onstage and, most importantly, in my life.

EDGE: What's next on the horizon for The Psych Drama Company?

Wendy Lippe: How does Noel Coward's "Private Lives" sound for exploring relational ambivalence and the transition to the "real" with levity and playfulness?

And a collaboration with a new company, PsyArc; we are currently working on an adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that I wrote, using immersive audiovisual and AI technologies.

Psych Drama Company's immersive production of "Stage Kiss" plays Feb. 13 - 23 at the Plaza Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. For tickets and more information, follow this link.