Lots of Life in ‘6 Women With Brain Death’

SAN DIEGO —  It began as an antidote to boredom, to hear Valerie Fagan describe the genesis of “Six Women With Brain Death Or Expiring Minds Want to Know,” the 2-year-old show she helped create at 24 as an actress and writer--along with four other actress-writers and two men. Fagan and Rosanna Coppedge, 36, another of the original actress-writers, are stepping in to replace Seraiah Carol and Melinda Gilb in the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s long-running version of the show this week. As they talked about the change they jumped in to complete each other’s thoughts much in the way the cast does in this ensemble piece about the absurdities of life and love in the over-informed 1980s.

“We were touring ‘Side by Side by Sondheim’ and were picking up tabloids just so not to go crazy on long bus rides,” Fagan began. “I think something happens when you get six women together talking.”

“It’s amazing what comes out,” Coppedge said. “We’d come in and get our little casseroles and beers . . . .

“And Mark (Houston) and Ross (Freese) would sit and let us go. It was like group therapy,” Fagan said. “The same thing happened when we got together with the women in this cast. They didn’t even know us and before we knew it we were sharing our first experiences about putting on bras and what our mothers would do.”

The San Diego Repertory production will hit its 100th performance Feb. 17, making it not only the longest running production of “Six Women” since its Kansas City debut, but the longest running show in the Lyceum Theatre to date. While the show is only being extended at two week intervals, which technically makes the new closing date Feb. 14, the actress’ contracts are good for another six weeks and the Rep is trying to get Mayor Maureen O’Connor to declare Feb. 17 “Six Women With Brain Death Day.”

Fagan and Coppedge, who will both be making their West Coast debuts with this show, won’t be reprising their original roles--with the exception of Coppedge doing “Too Fat to be Prom Queen,” a number the full-figured Coppedge described as hitting “very close to home.” But they say they both feel “great” about doing something totally different and are particularly delighted with the show as it has evolved under the direction of Sam Woodhouse, producing director of the theater.

“Look at the set. That says it all,” said Fagan, gesturing to set designer Rob Murphy’s wacked-out depiction of the inside of a giant exploded mind. “The first time I walked in and saw the set, I knew he captured what we were trying to say.”

Now there is talk of moving “Six Women” off-Broadway. It would be a big step for a small show that started as a way to kill time on a bus.

“When we first started,” said Coppedge, “we said, ‘Look. We may only be doing this in someone’s living room but it’s OK because we’re trying things.’ When we got to the workshop we were so nervous because we were wondering if people would think this was funny or did we just think it was funny because we were sitting and drinking beers when we wrote it.”

“During the first show, I was talking on stage and saying, ‘God, I can’t believe they’re laughing,’ ” said Fagan.

Sold-out audiences are still laughing at the Rep. And more importantly, said Coppedge, they are coming out of the theater thinking.

“The people with brain death are the people with tunnel vision who never question the things people said years ago,” Coppedge said. “There’s no huge message at the end of it. But if people come out of it and raise questions, then we’ve accomplished what we want to accomplish.”