Azuay Community Theater play ‘The Waverly Gallery’ treats aging with humor and compassion

By John Olson

Azuay Community Theater will close its 2023-24 season of six plays with the award-winning Pulitzer Prize finalist dramatic comedy The Waverly Gallery, by the Academy award winning screenwriter and playwright Kenneth Lonergan. ACT’s Bob Fry is directing the play, which will be performed August 15-18 in the company’s theater at 14-48 Antonio Vega Muñoz in El Centro.

Rehearsal photo L-R: Wes Elliott, Gregory Hattaway, Kate Marin, Bob Hay.

The Waverly Gallery is a powerful, poignant and humorous play about Gladys Green, a feisty 85-year-old whose landlord is planning to evict her tiny Greenwich Village art gallery at the same time as she is showing early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. Gladys used to be the life of the party – she’d meet new people and soon, she knew everything about them and invited them over for dinner. And she knew her way around New York. If you ever wanted anything done in New York, you called Gladys. But now she’s hard of hearing, her memory’s getting worse, and her family doesn’t know what to do about her decline.

The play explores Gladys’ fight to retain her independence and identity, and the impact of her decline on her family. Her grandson Daniel, who narrates the play, is especially close to Gladys – not only emotionally, but physically as he lives in an apartment in the building where she lives and where the gallery is located. ACT veteran Teresa Drake is playing Gladys, and Gregory Hattaway, who moved to Cuenca with his family two years ago and has appeared in a number of ACT productions, will play Daniel.

The Cast: Top L-R: Teresa Drake, Gregory Hattaway. Lower Row l-R: Bob Hay, Kate Marin, Wes Elliott.

Ellen, Gladys’ daughter (played by Kate Marin), grapples with the emotional toll of her mother’s illness, balancing love and frustration. Howard, Ellen’s husband (Bob Hay), is as supportive as he can be, but has a gift for saying the wrong things at the wrong times. Also supporting the family is the struggling artist Don Bowman (Wes Elliott), who Gladys takes under her wing by displaying his art. Don, in turn becomes a surrogate caregiver for Gladys.  The interactions between Gladys, her daughter Ellen, and grandson Daniel, reveal the complexities of caregiving and Lonergan portrays their love, frustration, and vulnerability.

The Waverly Gallery captures bittersweet reality of aging and illness with a balance of humor and pathos. Lonergan focuses on universal themes—family bonds, memory, and loss—making Gladys’s story relatable to audiences regardless of their personal experiences. Lonergan’s compassionate writing ensures that Gladys’s decline is portrayed with dignity and authenticity, inviting viewers to reflect on their own lives and relationships. The play is certain to strike a chord with anyone who has had a loved one having dementia.

Rehearsal photo: Teresa Drake, Gregory Hattaway.

The Waverly Gallery premiered off-Broadway in 2000, and Eileen Heckart won the Drama Desk, Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award and the Drama League Award for her portrayal of Gladys. It was revived on Broadway in 2018, with an all-star cast including Elaine May as Gladys, Lucas Hedges as Daniel, Michael Cera as Don, Joan Allen as Ellen, and David Cromer as Howard. Elaine May won the Best Actress Tony Award and the production was nominated for Best Play Revival. Playwright Kenneth Lonergan won the Academy Award for his original screenplay of Manchester by the Sea, and it was recently announced that his play Hold on to Me, Darling will be produced in New York this fall with Adam Driver in the lead.

Performances of ACT’s The Waverly Gallery will be Thursday, August 15 and Friday, August 16 at 2 pm; and Saturday, August 17 and Sunday, August 18 at 4 pm. Tickets are $15 and advance reservations may be made at www.actseats.com. Tickets may be purchased at the door on the days of performance subject to availability.