Wendy Lippe and Kenny Kelleher Swoon for Psych Drama Company's Immersive 'Stage Kiss'

There's something seductive and wild about a Sarah Ruhl play, whether it's the electrifying feminist lens of "Eurydice" (recently the basis of Matthew Aucoin's opera of the same name, which was nominated for a Grammy last year), the discontents of our digital age with "Dead Man's Cell Phone," or a novel spin on the domestic comedy with "The Clean House."

The Pulitzer-nominated playwright's "Stage Kiss" is among Ruhl's most provocative and emotional plays, delving into the "showmance" of two actors caught up in the passions of a vintage play about love and death – and caught up in their own unresolved, decades-ago romance. All the world's a stage in this exploration of love and art, and it's on the stage that reality and performance start to merge.

Psych Drama Company's immersive production of "Stage Kiss" brings those passions to the audience by bringing the audience into the midst of the action. Stars Wendy Lippe (also the company's founding artistic director) and Kenny Kelleher talked all about it with EDGE.

EDGE: What is the appeal of doing a Sarah Ruhl play?

Wendy Lippe: I think it's important that, as a company, for 15 years, we were committed to exclusively producing some of the most important and challenging dramatic works from Shakespeare and the American greats. I don't know of many theater companies that have dedicated themselves exclusively to productions of this kind. But the times we are living in demand that our company broaden the landscape of the works we do. Ruhl's "Stage Kiss" allows us to work with the psychologically powerful and meaningful themes of love, loss, memory, and fantasy, but it does so with levity, humor, quirkiness and joy. I hope that our production honors the impressive emotional range of Ruhl's text, and that we integrate the comedy and drama in a way that captures a very human and universal journey.

EDGE: The Psych Drama Company chose this play in particular rather than going ahead with a production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" as originally planned, because the world is, to quote something you said, "so heavy and dark" right now. Is the play lifting your spirits and those of your castmates?

Kenny Kelleher: "Stage Kiss" is doing a pretty damn good job of lifting our spirits in this mess of a time right now. It's always great to have another world to disappear into when your own is uncertain. And just like we experience this play and hope that the characters of "He" and "She" come out better for it by the end of their stories, I hope... from deep down...that we all do too. For all that's good in this damn world.

Wendy Lippe: To quote Nietzsche, "We possess art lest we perish of the truth." Theater is the ultimate source of comfort, healing, and soothing for me, and "Stage Kiss" is no exception.

EDGE: This immersive production breaks the fourth wall – could you explain a bit about how the audience will participate?

Wendy Lippe: With this production, we are taking our critically acclaimed immersive style to new levels. Audience members will have the option to actively participate in the show...on stage! And our cast members sit amongst the audience members, as though everyone is at an audition or a rehearsal. The deeper meaning at the heart of this particular immersive conceptualization is that Ruhl's "love letter to actors" is really a "love letter to all of us." We are creating a shared identification with audience members. Aren't we all actors in our lives and relationships whether we perform on stage or not? And in an age of utter chaos and confusion over what is real, we are all dealing with the tension between artifice and authenticity; and we are all searching for what feels real and true, just like the characters in the play.