Kreitzer discovered a biography of Miller in 2006 and was captivated.  "Lee Miller was a truly breathtaking beauty who got out from being in front of the camera as fast as possible. She approached Man Ray to learn how to make photos then opened a photo studio during the Depression. During World War II she convinced the British edition of Vogue to have a 'war photo department,' and she staffed it, doing incredible work at great personal risk."

 

Cooper is equally smitten with this extraordinary woman. "Lee Miller's life story is so richly drawn in this piece, it really speaks to me as a director and as a woman with my own complex relationship to art and love and life." For all Miller's flaws, and rough-and-tumble life experience, Cooper's view is that "she was just such a hero in terms of living life fully, expressing herself fully, and exposing herself authentically."

 

"Absolutely!" echoes Kreitzer.  "Here is someone who should be a national heroine, and yet she is largely unknown. She would not be told what to do; she would not be told what the rules were for women. She had a restless intelligence, always looking for the next thing."

 

One of Park Square Theatre's Artistic Associates, Kreitzer has seen her play performed twice before, but is clearly excited by the prospect of seeing it produced in her hometown. For her part, Cooper enjoys the opportunity to collaborate the play's creator. "My experience with playwrights is that they often don't fully know what they've made until they've seen an audience and an artistic team interact with it, so a production with the writer as collaborator is such an amazing opportunity to dig deeper into the piece and stretch broader in terms of its clarity and resonance. Great theater brings us inside the character's worldview and helps us see what they are reaching for. That's what Carson's writing does so well. Personally, I find great inspiration and exaltation in our relentless human attempt to close the distance between our noble reach and our frail grasp."

Kreitzer's choice of structure and abstract setting were inspired by the surrealist art that infused Miller's life. An ensemble of actors, including Gabriele Angieri, Patrick Bailey and  John Reidlinger,  float in and out around Annie Enneking's Lee Miller, portraying the various famous men who hoped to possess, control or exploit Miller's beauty and talent. Mo Perry, another strong woman, plays the other female roles. "After an evening with this great cast, I hope our audiences fall in love with the woman as so many did with her image and her art," says Cooper. "I hope they are inspired to imagine and reach for a life lived bravely and fully."