Tribute To A Jewish Mother
Playwright Trish Vradenburg's "Surviving Grace" is the wise-
cracking, heartrending story of a Jewish family coping with
Alzheimer's' disease.
ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
Special to the Jewish News
r
or playwright Trish Vradenburg, writing the Off-Broadway, semi-autobio-
graphical show Surviving Grace was both difficult and cathartic.
In the comedy/drama, currently at New York's Union Square Theater, daughter
Kate Griswald (Illeana Douglas), a sitcom writer, bridles at the criticism of her
loving but sometimes overbearing mother, Grace Griswald (Doris Belack). But
when the mother is stricken with Alzheimer's, Kate offers unconditional love and
support.
"Every part of writing the play was like a cleans-
ing experience," says Vradenburg, who based
Grace on her own mother, Bea Lerner, who died
in 1991. "I have written a lot of things, but I
never cared about anything as much as this.
Basically, I get to see my mom each night."
It isn't really a play about Alzheimer's, Doris
Belack, the Jewish actress known for her role as
Judge Margaret Barry on Law & Order, told
Playbill. It's "about Alzheimer's as a catalyst that
brings a resolution of the mother/daughter rela-
tionship."
In the play, Grace is given an experimental
Doris Belack and
drug,
and for a brief time her disease goes into
Illeana Douglas in
remission.
"Unfortunately, that part was fiction,"
"Surviving Grace."
says Vradenburg. "My mother died before there
were any notable medications [for Alzheimer's].
My fantasy was that you could clear up the disease
with drugs. Today, they do have drugs that make a difference, but they didn't in
the early 1990s."
Born and raised in New Jersey, Vradenburg began her writing career after grad-
uation from Boston University, taking on assignments for
the New York Daily News and various magazines, including
Ladies' Home Journal. She went on to write scripts for TV
shows like Kate and Allie, Designing Women and Family Ties.
Her play The Apple Doesn't Fall ... was produced in Los
Angeles and then on Broadway.
Surviving Grace opened at the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., before coming to
New York.
The play, says Vradenburg, also is a way of honoring her
mother, a former president of the New Jersey chapter of the
Zionist Organization of America. Judaism has remained an
Playwright 7i-ish
important part of Vradenburg's life. Raised with a
Vradenburg
Conservative background, "I have always had a Jewish home
and values, and when my kids were growing up, we had
Friday night Shabbat dinners."
Daughter Alissa, 31, is a Harvard Law School graduate and a talent manager;
son Tyler, 28, is an actor/producer/writer.
Her husband of 33 years, George Vradenburg III, currently the adviser to Steve
Case, chairman of the board at AOL Time Warner, converted to Judaism. "It was
always important to my mother that I many someone Jewish, so [George]
became Jewish and we have a great marriage," she says.
Vradenburg is the sister of Michael Lerner, the editor of the liberal Jewish mag-
azine Tikkun; she is the publisher.
For many of the performances of Surviving Grace, the playwright sits in the
back of the audience, watching and listening. "Sure, there is a lot of anxiety in
having a play so personal being performed," she says. ',Tut it's wonderful and very
worthwhile."
For infbrrnation and tickets, call (212) 3074100.
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