About the Play:

The Butterfly Collection is a full-length dramatic comedy by Theresa Rebeck. When a spirited young writer's assistant invades a New England family, long-seeded tensions are dragged out into the open. Over the course of three tumultuous weeks, fathers, sons, lovers, and spouses square off in a ferocious battle of wits and wills that may claim them – or restore a tenuous happiness. The Butterfly Collection is a delicious play by the author of Spike Heels and The Family of Mann.

The Butterfly Collection is an intelligent and funny ensemble drama. A family of artists are both cruelly destructive and fiercely protective of each other. Enter Sophie, a talented and passionate writing student, who takes a job as a personal assistant in the gorgeous New England home of Paul, a celebrated Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He is suffering from writer's block and is having trouble finishing his latest work (years in the making) and is threatened by his publisher with having to return his $300,000 advance. The home turns into a hornet's nest when his two sons, an actor and an antiques dealer, respectively, and the actor's girlfriend are together for the first time in ages. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy toward his father, the actor son attempts to seduce Sophie, but Dad has plans of his own. The writer's elegant but feisty wife and a son's girlfriend, meanwhile, attempt to make things better. Bitter, funny chaos ensues.

The Butterfly Collection premiered in 2000 at Playwrights Horizon off-Broadway in New York City.

Cast: 3 women, 3 men

What people say:

"Rebeck's characters and their relationships ring true. There are fathers and sons in competition, siblings in rivalry, and lovers cheated upon. In addition, the state of the theatre is dissected, the closeness of art and life are illuminated, and the beauty of words and fiction is celebrated. It all makes a powerful package and a satisfying and rich play." — Backstage

"Paul, a novelist and the main character in Theresa Rebeck's The Butterfly Collection, is ... driven by his work, obsessed with crafting the right phrase, with selecting the right word. And when he can't find it, you see the terror in his eyes. ...This is the beauty and strength of Rebeck's writing. She has conjured up a contemptible yet fascinating character, through which she examines the very natures of genius and art." — New York Post

About the Playwright:

Theresa Rebeck is a leading American playwright, screenwriter and author. Her plays include Bad Dates, Omnium Gatherum (co-written, Pulitzer finalist), Spike Heels, and Mauritius, which won Boston's prestigious IRNE and Elliot Norton Awards. Her work in television includes NYPD Blue for which she has won the Peabody, the Writer's Guild, and the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar awards. She holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.