Kathryn Grody
Timothy Near, Director
Deep into her third and final act of being a person, Kathryn Grody investigates an eclectic, devastating and hilarious potpourri of shocking discoveries as she finds herself at 79 becoming…not quite old, but elder. “Old starts at 95!” she declares. Another boomer that didn’t think the aging process would apply to them, Grody enters elderhood with equal parts empowerment and utter bewilderment. Marching onward through crumbling democracy, a boiling planet and an increasingly dead roster of friends and colleagues, she is buoyed by discovering parts of herself she didn’t know were in hiding, perhaps waiting for this period to bloom. Mother, artist, wife, grandmother, friend and accidental influencer, Kathryn Grody is astonished with her life, your life, and the stunning, deeply funny, heart breaking impermanence of it all.
“A Radical, Rollicking Rumination on the Optimism of Staying Alive”
Kathryn Grody corrected the cosmic error of her Los Angeles birth by finding a home at New York’s Public Theater almost 50 years ago, where Joe Papp and Gail Merrifield Papp became mentors for life. Her distinguished theater career includes her Obie Award-winning The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Top Girls, and the Drama Desk Award-nominated A Mom’s Life, all at the Public: The Model Apartment (59 e 59 theater) and 20th Century Blues (Signature Theater) Her film credits include The Lemon Sisters, with Diane Keaton and Carol Kane, and The Sunset Gang, with Uta Hagen, and the Execution of Private Slovik, with Martin Sheen on television along with various after school specials. Kathryn and her husband became unlikely social media familiars during the COVID-19 pandemic (2.3 million followers and counting.) She had the honor of recording Gail Merrifield Papp’s memoir, Private/Public: My Life with Joe Papp At The Public Theater for Audible in 2023, and had the world premiere of THE UNEXPECTED 3RD-A Radical, Rollicking Rumination on the Optimism of Staying Alive, this past fall at People’s Light Theater in Malvern, Pennsylvania, directed by her collaborator for 50 years, Timothy Near, and recently filmed the shorts Wolly Bolly and Double Happiness. The latest adventure is a podcast for Lemonada, that she records with her youngest son, Gideon, and her husband of 47 years, called Don’t Listen To Us…She is a Usual Suspect with the New York Theatre Workshop, where she will be sharing this solo work in the spring, at their Brick Festival. She is on the boards of Dances For a Variable Population, and Downtown Women For Change, and is a proud ambassador with the International Rescue Committee.
Timothy Near, Director
Timothy Near is an award-winning freelance director, three-time artistic director and Obie Award-winning actress. She has directed over 80 plays and musicals at theatres across the U.S. including La Jolla Playhouse, New York’s Public Theatre, The Guthrie, Berkeley Rep, Center REP, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and The Mark Taper Forum. In her 21-year tenure as Artistic Director of San Jose Rep, she produced over 120 plays and 20 world premieres, including plays by Lynn Nottage, Lynn Redgrave, Keith Glover, Phillip Gotanda and Holly Near. Twice as artistic director, she contributed to the campaign, design and completion of new mid-sized theatres. In addition to an Obie Award for her performance in Still Life in NYC, she was a regular guest on Sesame St. She directed Kathryn Grody’s play, A Mom’s Life at the Public Theatre in NYC and at The Tiffany Theater in LA. She directed the world premiere of The Unexpected 3rd at People’s Light Theatre and is so happy to be revisiting this play with her here at MSC’s One For All solo festival. www.timothynear.com
Thank You’s from Kathryn Grody:
They say it takes a village, and nowhere is that truer than in birthing a new play. I’d like to thank all the various midwives who helped 3rd come to life: Madeline Oldham and Johanna Pfaelzer at Groundfloor, Berkeley Rep, Ann Citron at the Rosendale Theater-MJ Bruder at Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Megan Carter of Mechanical Raven Productions and Andrea Kulchevska, Heather Moosnick, and of course, Zak Berkman, theatrical producer angel bar non, who invited us to the Kiln to begin baking in March of 2024, and here we are cooking away across the country. And of course to my patient collaborator of 50 years, Timothy Near, for her never ending, always inspiring script development…and to my son, Gideon, for story ideas, essential and brave critical feedback, editing, fierce encouragement, social media sharer extraordinaire, sharing my work so much further and wider than I ever imagined, and lovingly insisting that his mom could and should dance ever onward. I’m eternally moved and so grateful.