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PORTSMOUTH SUNDAY HERALD: FRONT PAGE
September 15, 2002
By Larissa Mulkern

From the Page to the Stage

An essay written by a local attorney and published in the New York Times Magazine is leaping from the printed page to the live stage in the Big Apple.

Laurence J. Gillis, an attorney by profession, writer at heart, can't be more thrilled.

"I was staggered," said Gillis, who lives in Rye with his wife, Marcia.

"It was like walking into a store, buying a lottery ticket and walking out a millionaire," he said describing how he felt when the Sunday New York Times first accepted his essay, "The Fiber-Optic Confessional," for publication in a weekly segment called, "Lives."

Recent news that a New York City theater company chose the piece for adaptation to the stage further floored the occasional free-lance writer. The Gillis byline may ring a bell with editorial page readers, where the Herald and other newspapers have published his letters and essays.

The "Confessional" essay is based on Gillis' nine-month experience working as a customer service representative for an insurance company in Boston. In it, he explores his isolation, and his interaction with his initially reluctant voices at the other end of the telephone headset.

"The phone lines have become our fiber-optic confessional. I am the priest. You volunteer that you used to think the relationship with your significant other was 'right'; now you know better. ... You tell me about the alcoholism, the delinquent kids, the shame. You cry on my telephonic shoulders," Gillis writes in the column.

"You are the voice of the heartland, and through you I can hear all of America. I listen more and more, and in a very real way, you have become my family. Without you, I am truly alone."

The column struck a chord with theatrical director Daniella Topol and theater artist Brigitte Viellieu-Davis, who are adapting seven "Lives" essays into a theatrical production to be performed in December by the Epiphany Theatre Company at the Chelsea Playhouse in New York City.

Topol said the two read all the "Lives" pieces published since 1996.

"His stuck out," she said. "The resounding theme in these stories was the intimacy between strangers and the strangeness between those you're intimate with. His piece is a reflection of our contemporary culture, of our way of communicating, how we rely on communication through faceless mediums, like the phone or computers or chat rooms," Topol added.

Topol said the "Lives" production will run from Dec. 5 to 22 at the Chelsea Playhouse. The director trained at the Carnegie Mellon Institute. In her correspondence with Gillis, she explains discovering the theatrical potential of adapting "Lives" stories when she and Viellieu-Davis created an intergenerational theater company with the Actors Fund Home in New Jersey, an assisted living community for retired entertainment professionals.

In their search for material suitable for older and younger actors working together, they found the "Lives" stories held great potential for moving, physical performances. Their first "Lives'-based play was performed in late 2001 and in March of 2002.

Then, the Epiphany Theatre Company founded by Carnegie Mellon alumni invited them to write a second "Lives" play.

"As we searched through past 'Lives' columns, we found your piece and immediately knew that it would be wonderfully exciting to adapt for the stage," Topol wrote in her request to Gillis last month.

He welcomed the reaction.

"It was a good piece and related to the work I was doing at the time. I could feel it was right. It was a truthful piece," he said.

Gillis wrote "Confessions" on a laptop computer during his train/bus commute from Rye to Charlestown, Mass., when he worked as an instructor at a number of area colleges.

"I had two hours a day of writing time; if you want to practice writing, practice every day," he said.

During this arduous commute, Gillis also launched a fictional series of stories based on a Walter Mitty-like character, "Commuter Man," and also started his autobiography.

Lately, since he's returned to lawyering - he's a staff attorney for the N.H. Division for Children, Youth and Families - his writing time is nil. So he's applied to the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., a renowned writing community, for a spot in its writer-in-residence program.

In the meantime, he readies himself for seeing his piece performed in New York for the nonprofit company.

"I think I'll be the fat guy with a glow-in-the-dark smile on my face. I had difficulty believing it was accepted by the Times. I have more trouble believing my writing will be adapted to the stage and produced in New York City - the center of the known universe!"