Westport Playhouse Preparing for Social Drama ‘Grounded’

“Grounded” is a dark, isolated, legal and social drama by George Brant. It’s about war, sacrifice, personal ethics and clashes with the system.

But director Liz Diamond beams. “I’m so enjoying this opportunity,” she said in a phone interview last month.

“Grounded” runs July 11 to 29 at the Westport Country Playhouse.

Diamond is the chair of the directing program at the Yale School of Drama, where she has taught for the past 25 years.

WCP Artistic Director Mark Lamos (who was artistic director at Hartford Stage from 1980 to 1997) had been after Diamond to direct something at Westport for years. “Mark and I have been theater friends for many years,” she says. “I used to love his work at City Opera, and would make pilgrimages to Hartford Stage in the ’80s when he was this feisty young director.

“Last year, I got this call asking if I knew this play. I did know about it, but I hadn’t seen it or read it. So I read it, and felt like I was reading spoken word poetry. I found the story fascinating. Military culture is unknown territory for me. This was an opportunity to learn.

“I think Mark thought a woman director would be good for this piece. I’m glad he thought of me.”

Diamond, in turn, thought of someone who would be ideal to play the conflicted drone pilot in “Grounded”: “I’ve had my eye on Elizabeth Stahlmann since she took her first class at the Yale School of Drama. I’d seen her do all kinds of stuff,” the director says — including Shylock in a YSD production of “The Merchant of Venice.” Stahlmann just graduated from Yale in June. Before attending Yale, she did several tours of Shakespeare plays with The Acting Company. In Connecticut, she played the title roles in “Orlando” and “Phaedra’s Love” at the Yale Summer Cabaret.

“I thought this would be an incredible opportunity for her,” Diamond continues. “I did audition her, to make sure my hunch was right. She’s probably younger than the pilot is in the play, strictly speaking, and we needed to be sure she had the emotional weight of a woman who’s risen through the ranks.” Stahlmann passed the audition. “Nobody won my heart the way she did,” Diamond said.

“Grounded” had a well-received production directed by Julie Taymor at the New York Public Theater in 2015. “That one had high-tech design and projections,” Diamond explains. “I think I’m leaning towards a more minimalist, spare approach. The play takes place inside the pilot’s head, describing what happens to her. This is the story of the transformation of a soul—a young, patriotic American soldier who has been cracked wide open.”

Stahlmann, in a phone interview directly following the one with Diamond, said she has been preparing for the role by “looking at this person from a lot of different perspectives. Her age is not so much a question for me as her status, her sense of entitlement, ownership, that ease of commanding a room. This is the mindspace of someone who makes split-second decisions.

“I thought that doing a one-woman show would be more lonely than it is, but I have a whole room of people here in Westport who are my eyes. When I drop a line or something, it’s because I haven’t fully visualized it yet.

“Liz Diamond is so good at investigating a play like this,” Stahlmann concludes. “She’s good at creating a complex world. Life is complicated.”

Next season, Diamond will direct a very different sort of war play at the Yale Repertory Theatre. In the ’80s and ’90s, she directed the premieres of several early works by Suzan-Lori Parks, including “The America Play” and “The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World.” At the Rep, Diamond will tackle Parks’ recent success, “Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3),” an epic family drama that takes place during the Civil War.

Diamond admits to a fascination with social and political conflict, whether onstage or from watching the news. “It’s hard to say what came first, these plays or what’s going on in the world, but it’s been on my mind.”

Regarding “Grounded,” Diamond says, “We’ve been at war [in Iraq] for over a decade. Obama dramatically increased the use of drone warfare. I’m impressed that Mark [Lamos] was so committed to doing this play, and impressed that the Westport Playhouse is so committed to Elizabeth Stahlmann.”

GROUNDED by George Brant, directed by Liz Diamond and starring Elizabeth Stahlmann, runs July 11 to 29 at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Ct., Westport. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., with 2 p.m. Wednesday matinees on July 19 and 26 and and 3 p.m. Saturday matinees on July 22 and 29. Tickets are $30-$70. westportplayhouse.org.