INTERVIEW: ‘The Bookstore’ is centered on friends who love literature
Photo: The Bookstore stars, from left, Arielle Goldman, Janet Zarish and Ari Derambakhsh. Photo courtesy of Hunter Canning / Provided by Berlin Rosen with permission.
New Jersey Repertory Company’s The Bookstore has transferred to 59E59 Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, bringing this delightful tale of found family and love of books to the off-Broadway scene. The show is by Michael Walek and directed by William Carden. Performances continue through Feb. 15.
The play centers on the character of Carey (Janet Zarish), who owns an indie bookstore in New York City. She has a knack for recommending the perfect book, according to press notes, and she finds a group of friends who have a similar love for literature.
Recently Carden exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox and shared his thoughts on directing The Bookstore and his own love of books. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Has the show changed since its New Jersey premiere?
It’s a rare opportunity to come back to a play after a year and a half with the same cast and design team. Michael, the playwright, was with us for rehearsals as well, so we were able to approach the play with fresh eyes, changing or letting go of choices and moments we weren’t happy with and finding new ones. We made small edits and rewrites to the script. Because we had a wider stage we had to reconfigure the set and re-stage the play; this helped us explore the life of the play in a new way. As a result, this production is a deeper and more substantial rendering of the play.
Are you a fan of indie bookstores? What’s your favorite one?
I love indie bookstores because they support and are in dialogue with the community they serve. Our relationship to literature is individual and personal, and the shared tastes within the store reflect the public that surrounds them. Stories lead us to understanding what makes us human; they quicken our sense of what it means to be alive. These stores fulfill that need in an organic way, sort of like farm-to-table literature. They help us step out of the hyper-stimulated short form world we’re living in. You can walk in and open your mind. I don’t like picking favorites but the Three Lives & Company Bookstore in the West Greenwich Village was one of the inspirations for the play, so I feel very at home there.
Do you feel the show is also pointing out that bookstore culture can go away if not supported?
I don’t think bookstores or the culture they support will ever go away. Economically they may struggle. The latest statistics show that 49% of the U.S. population read a book in 2022. That’s down from 61% in 1992. On the other hand, if you look at what’s happening across the country, the number of indie bookstores has been growing at a surprising rate. It feels like there is an enduring need for the experience they offer.
What do you think the play says about friendship and like-minded people coming together?
Carey, the bookstore owner in the play, has a line: “Curiosity is really the only thing that matters in life.” I think that’s what brings these characters together. I don’t think they are like-minded as much as they share curiosity and a love of literature as a place where that curiosity can grow. It’s Carey’s demanding spirit that challenges and inspires them. The play is about the gifts she gives them that they won’t fully understand until way after she’s gone. She becomes a quiet ghost that will flicker in their minds forever. In that sense, it’s more than friendship.
What’s it like working with this cast?
I loved working with this cast. They are all passionate, skilled and generous actors. The audience falls in love with the characters Michael Walek has created because Arielle Golman, Ari Derambakhsh, Quentin Chisholm and Janet Zarish make them so funny, vulnerable and human. Janet as Carey is giving a luminous performance that can only come after years of dedication to this craft. I feel very lucky to have them all onboard.
What’s your favorite book?
When I first read Moby Dick it blew me away. I’d never read Middlemarch, Carey’s favorite book, until I worked on this play, and now it’s up there, too — and recently Clare Keegan’s exquisite short novels Small Things Like These and Foster. I don’t like picking favorites because so many books have opened my eyes and left an indelible mark. Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin …
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Bookstore, directed by William Carden, continues through Feb. 15 at 59E59 Theaters in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
