There’s a juicy Jewish role in “Intimate Apparel,” an award-winning drama now having its Bay Area premiere run at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. But Jewish actress Lisa Anne Morrison, who co-stars in the play, didn’t get that part.
“I play Evangeline Van Buren, a wealthy Manhattan socialite,” she says. “She’s very conscious of society, very un-Jewish. I think my character is probably Catholic, trapped in an awful marriage.”
The Jewish role is that of Mr. Marks, an Orthodox fabric salesman betrothed to a Romanian Jewish girl he’s never met. But the love of his life is Esther, an illiterate past-her-prime African American seamstress who sews ladies undergarments and other intimate apparel. Hence the title.
“He wears a yarmulke and tallit,” says Morrison of Mr. Marks. “Esther goes to touch him and he pulls away. She thinks it’s because of her color, but it’s because of his religion.”
Set in New York circa 1905, Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” touches on issues of race, labor, feminism and love. It struck a nerve with audiences, winning the New York Drama Critics and Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Play last year, and was called “note perfect” by Variety Magazine.
Morrison’s Van Buren is like a character out of an Edith Wharton novel: a desperate housewife unable to conceive who tries to regain her husband’s affections by purchasing some of Esther’s custom petticoats. Tame by today’s standards (Morrison models it in the show), Esther’s trashy lingerie is positively Tyra Banks for its time.
“She is very comfortable with Esther,” adds Morrison of her character. “She’s used to having black people work for her. I have an intense attraction [to Esther], which grows. I even make a move on her.”
Morrison compares the play to the work of Chekhov, complete with all the attending social constraints.
“There are ways you’re supposed to do and say things,” she notes, “with all this raw emotion underneath that has to be covered up. Each character is very much bound. [Mr. Marks] is bound by his religion.”
The play is the latest production from TheatreWorks, now in its 36th season. Morrison is no stranger to TheatreWorks audiences, having co-starred in last years’ comic production “Shakespeare in Hollywood.”
She’s also a veteran of California Shakespeare Theater, having starred in productions of “Measure for Measure” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” For much of the last 10 years, she lived and worked in Los Angeles, finding work as a TV actress, landing guest roles on shows like “JAG” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”
Morrison grew up in Danville, attending services and Hebrew school at Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek and high school at Monte Vista in Danville. Her love of theater led her to attend Cal Arts near Los Angeles.
“There was a casting director there,” she remembers. “I was her Jewish actress. She called me in for everything Jewish.” Another of her only-in-L.A. stories includes her Passover seder attended mostly by Jewish scientologists.
About 18 months ago, she moved back to the Bay Area, which is as good a theater town as any in America. But Morrison had reasons to come home beyond the career-related.
“My fiancé lives here,” says the now-Oakland-based actress. “We were doing the long-distance thing. My parents are thrilled.”
TheatreWorks’ “Intimate Apparel” plays 7:30 pm Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays with 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 18, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets: $20-$52. Information: (650) 903-6000.