Mercedes Ruehl and Xanthe Acquah Storey to star in East Hampton reading
The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton will present a staged reading of Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories” at LTV Studios in Wainscott on November 28.
By Yuki Melnyk ·
Mercedes Ruehl and Xanthe Acquah Storey will perform in a premiere staged reading of Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories” on Saturday, November 28. The event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott and is presented by The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton.
The production is directed by Andrew Warner and arranged through Concord Theatricals. Ruehl, who won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her role in “The Fisher King,” plays Ruth Steiner. Storey, a London-born actor, portrays Lisa Morrison. The play is set in the early 1990s and focuses on the relationship between an established author and a literature student.
Ruehl and Storey have a professional connection that predates this production. Storey trained at HB Studio in New York under Ruehl while earning her degree. Warner, the director, also trained at HB Studio under Ruehl and Jonathan Lynn. Warner has worked for nearly 18 years in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.
Storey is known for her performance as Young Merle in the 2024 series “Mr Loverman,” which received a BAFTA. She has also written, directed, and produced the short film “The Prophecy of Self-Fulfilling.” That film premiered at the Birmingham Film Festival in 2025 and had its U.S. debut at the East Village New York Film Festival in April 2026. Storey received a Best Young Filmmaker nomination for the work at this year’s Forward Film Festival.
“Collected Stories” was commissioned by South Coast Repertory and first produced there before its 1997 run at the Manhattan Theatre Club. The play received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Margulies, the playwright, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2000 for “Dinner With Friends.” He has also received two Obie Awards, a Tony Award nomination, and recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Margulies currently serves as a professor of English and theater and performance studies at Yale University. His other plays include “Sight Unseen,” “Brooklyn Boy,” “Time Stands Still,” and “The Country House.”
