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65-481: In "Visitor from New York", Hannah Warren is a Manhattan workaholic who flies to Los Angeles to retrieve her teenage daughter Jenny after she leaves home to live with her successful screenwriter father William. The bickering, divorced couple is forced to decide what living arrangements are best for the girl. Conservative, middle-aged businessman Marvin Michaels is the "Visitor from Philadelphia", who awakens to discover

130-751: A BAFTA Award , a Grammy Award , and a Tony Award . She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022. In 1955, May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the Compass Players , an improvisational theater group. She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957, they both quit the group to form their own stage act, Nichols and May . In New York, they performed nightly in clubs in Greenwich Village alongside Joan Rivers and Woody Allen , as well as on

195-419: A 1978 feature film directed by Herbert Ross . The cast includes Alan Alda , Jane Fonda , Walter Matthau , Bill Cosby , Richard Pryor , Elaine May , Maggie Smith , and Michael Caine . Smith won an Oscar for her performance playing an actress who is nominated for, but does not win, an Oscar. Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by

260-464: A Grammy. After performing their act a number of years in New York's various clubs, and then on Broadway, with most of the shows sold out, Nichols could not believe their success: We were winging it, making it up as we went along. It never even crossed our minds that it had any value beyond the moment. It was great to study and learn and work there. We were stunned when we got to New York... Never for

325-604: A Play . The win made May the second-oldest performer behind Lois Smith to win a Tony Award for acting. In 2022, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave May an Honorary Academy Award for her "bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director, and actress". Elaine Iva Berlin was born on April 21, 1932, in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jewish parents, theater director and actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida (Aaron) Berlin. As

390-455: A child actor in the Yiddish theater, as men hung on her every word. Every guy who knew her was in love with her. You'd have been stupid not to have been. As an integral member of their group, May was open to giving novices a chance, including the hiring of a black actor and generally making the group "more democratic". And by observing her high level of performance creativity, everyone's work

455-535: A child, May performed with her father in his traveling Yiddish theater company, which he took around the country. Her stage debut on the road was at the age of three, and she eventually played the character of a generic little boy named Benny. Because the troupe toured extensively, May had been in over 50 schools by the time she was ten, having spent as little as a few weeks enrolled at any one time. May said she hated school and would spend her free time at home reading fairy tales and mythology. Her father died when she

520-601: A cult classic. Vincent Canby cited the two-reelers of the 1930s and Depression-era screwball comedies when he called it "a beautifully and gently cockeyed movie that recalls at least two different traditions of American film comedy... The entire project is touched by a fine and knowing madness." May received a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of the shy botanist in the project from which she fought studio exec Robert Evans , unsuccessfully, to have her name removed. May quickly followed her debut film with 1972's The Heartbreak Kid . She limited her role to directing, using

585-459: A director's cut in 1980. In 2019, May worked with The Criterion Collection to create the newest director's cut. The film has gained appreciation by many critics and audiences in recent years. In Herbert Ross 's California Suite (1978), written by Neil Simon , she was reunited with A New Leaf co-star Walter Matthau, playing his wife Millie. In addition to writing three of the films she directed, May received an Oscar nomination for updating

650-521: A high school diploma to apply, which she did not have. After finding out that the University of Chicago was one of the few colleges that would accept students without diplomas, she set out with seven dollars and hitchhiked to Chicago. Soon after moving to Chicago in 1950, May began informally taking classes at the university by auditing , sitting in without enrolling. She nevertheless sometimes engaged in discussions with instructors and once started

715-420: A huge fight after saying that Socrates' apology was a political move. Mike Nichols , who was then an actor in the school's theatrical group, remembers her coming to his philosophy class, making "outrageous" comments, and leaving. They learned about each other from friends, eventually being introduced after one of his stage shows. The director Paul Sills brought May to Nichols and said, "Mike, I want you to meet

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780-513: A level of invention, a depth of reflection, and a tangle of emotions in Ishtar which are reached by few films and few filmmakers." May acted in the film In the Spirit (1990), in which she played a "shopaholic stripped of consumer power"; Robert Pardi has described her portrayal as a "study of fraying equanimity [that] is a classic comic tour de force." She also contributed to the screenplay for

845-564: A long street in desperate search of a parking lot, Neil Simon's California Suite which opened most joyously and triumphantly at the Eugene O'Neill Theater last night, will come as a vast relief." Less enthusiastic was the critic for New York Magazine who wrote: "Sleazily written, shoddily constructed, and without a scintilla of Neil Simon's usual slick adroitness with a gag line, this grab bag of skits...suggests that California life may have scrambled Mr. Simon's brains." Simon adapted his play for

910-507: A moment did we consider that we would do this for a living. It was just a handy way to make some money until we grew up. His feelings were shared by May, who was also taken aback by their success, especially having some real income after living in near-poverty. She told a Newsweek interviewer, "When we came to New York, we were practically barefoot. And I still can't get used to walking in high heels." The uniqueness of their act made them an immediate success in New York. Their style became

975-696: A much-needed vacation together. Things begin to unravel quickly when Beth is hurt during a tennis match, and Mort accuses Stu of causing her injury. California Suite originally was produced by the Center Theatre Group . Directed by Gene Saks , it opened on April 23, 1976, at the Ahmanson Theatre , where it ran until June 5. Tammy Grimes portrayed Hannah, Diana, and Gert; George Grizzard portrayed William, Sidney, and Stu; Barbara Barrie portrayed Millie and Beth; and Jack Weston portrayed Marvin and Mort. The play opened on Broadway at

1040-762: A nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay , while the latter won her the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay . May returned to acting in Woody Allen 's Amazon Prime series Crisis in Six Scenes (2016) and on Broadway in the revival of the Kenneth Lonergan play The Waverly Gallery (2018) the latter of which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in

1105-473: A prostitute named Bunny unconscious in his bed after consuming a bottle of vodka. With his wife Millie on her way up to the suite, he must find a way to conceal all traces of his uncharacteristic indiscretion. The "Visitors from London" are British actress Diana Nichols, a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress , and her husband Sidney, a once- closeted antique dealer who increasingly has become indiscreet about his sexual orientation. The Oscar

1170-522: A screenplay by Neil Simon , based on a story by Bruce Jay Friedman. The film starred Charles Grodin , Cybill Shepherd , Eddie Albert , and May's own daughter, Jeannie Berlin . It was a major critical success, and holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2000, it was listed at No. 91 on AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list. May followed the two comedies by writing and directing the gangster film Mikey and Nicky , starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes . Budgeted at $ 1.8 million and scheduled for

1235-403: A six-minute-long, mostly improvised, "mother and son" sketch, which they performed later that night. May helped remove the stereotype of women's roles on stage. Producer David Shepherd notes that she accomplished that partly by not choosing traditional 1950s female roles for her characters, which were often housewives or women working at menial jobs. Instead, she often played the character of

1300-477: A sophisticated woman, such as a doctor, a psychiatrist, or an employer. Shepherd notes that "Elaine broke through the psychological restrictions of playing comedy as a woman." May and Nichols had different attitudes toward their improvisations, however. Where Nichols always needed to know where a sketch was going and what its ultimate point would be, May preferred exploring ideas as the scene progressed. May says that even when they repeated their improvisations, it

1365-407: A summer 1975 release, the film cost $ 4.3 million and was not released until December 1976. May ended up in a legal battle with Paramount Pictures over post-production costs, at one point hiding reels of the film in her husband's friend's Connecticut garage and later suing the company for $ 8 million for breach of contract. May worked with Julian Schlossberg to get the rights to the film and released

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1430-399: A team, when she wrote the screenplay and he directed The Birdcage . It "was like coming home, like getting a piece of yourself back that you thought you'd lost," he said. He adds that May had been very important to him from the moment he first saw her, adding that for her "improv was innate," and few people have that gift. Director Arthur Penn said of their sudden breakup, "They set

1495-590: A year later. In 1964, May married her psychoanalyst, David L. Rubinfine; they remained married until his death in 1982. May's longtime companion was director Stanley Donen , from 1999 until his death in 2019. Donen said he proposed marriage "about 172 times". After her marriage to Marvin May, she studied acting. She also held odd jobs during that period, such as a roof salesman, and tried to enroll in college. She learned, however, that colleges in California required

1560-518: Is Emma Stone for her role in Poor Things (2023); she had previously won the award for her role in La La Land (2016). The record for most wins is four, held by Katharine Hepburn . Frances McDormand has won thrice, while thirteen other actresses have won the award twice. Meryl Streep has received the most nominations in this category—seventeen—and has won twice. Deborah Kerr holds

1625-443: Is an honor that could revive her faltering career, but Diana knows she doesn't have a chance of winning. She is in deep denial about the true nature of her marriage of convenience , and as she prepares for her moment in the spotlight, her mood fluctuates from hope to panic to despair. The "Visitors from Chicago" are two affluent couples who are best friends. Stu Franklyn and his wife Gert and Mort Hollender and his wife Beth are taking

1690-437: The 3rd Academy Awards , held in 1930, only one film was cited in each winner's award regardless of how many they were eligible to be considered for during that span. The current system, in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, was introduced for the 4th Academy Awards . Starting with the 9th Academy Awards , held in 1937, the category was limited to a maximum five nominations per year. In

1755-519: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actor winner. The Best Actress award has been presented 97 times, to 79 actresses. The first winner was Janet Gaynor for her roles in 7th Heaven , Street Angel , and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans . The most recent winner

1820-622: The Broadway stage. They also made regular appearances on television and radio broadcasts. They released multiple comedy albums and received four Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Comedy Album for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in 1962. Their collaboration was covered in the PBS documentary Nichols and May: Take Two (1996). May infrequently acted in films, including Luv , Enter Laughing (both 1967), California Suite (1978), and Small Time Crooks (2000). She became

1885-904: The Eugene O'Neill Theatre on June 10, 1976 and closed on July 2, 1977 after 445 performances and four previews. Directed by Saks, the same cast (and Leslie Easterbrook as Bunny) as in the Ahmanson Theatre opened on Broadway. Later in the run, Marge Redmond replaced Barrie (on January 7, 1977), Kenneth Haigh (on February 28, 1977) and then David McCallum (on May 2, 1977) replaced Grizzard, Rue McClanahan replaced Grimes (on April 4, 1977) and Vincent Gardenia replaced Weston (on June 13, 1977). The play's national tour, lasting from Oct. 1, 1977-June 3, 1978, starred Elizabeth Allen as Hannah, Diana, and Gert; Robert Reed as William, Sidney, and Stu; Warren Berlinger as Marvin and Mort; Patti Karr as Millie and Beth; and Bea Swanson as Bunny. During

1950-401: The "next big thing" in live comedy. Charles H. Joffe , their producer, remembers that sometimes the line to their show went around the block. That partly explains why Milton Berle , a major television comedy star, tried three times without success to see their act. Critic Lawrence Christon recalls his first impression after seeing their act: "You just knew it was a defining moment. They caught

2015-640: The 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Heaven Can Wait (1978). May reunited with Nichols for a stage production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in New Haven in 1980. She contributed (uncredited) to the screenplay for the 1982 megahit Tootsie , notably the scenes involving the character played by Bill Murray . Warren Beatty worked with May on the comedy Ishtar (1987), starring Beatty and Dustin Hoffman . Largely shot on location in Morocco ,

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2080-443: The 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. The following individuals received two or more Best Actress awards: The following individuals received three or more Best Actress nominations: Winners are in bold . The following were nominated for their portrayals of the same fictional or non-fictional character in separate films (including variations of

2145-455: The actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. In the first three years of the awards, actors and actresses were nominated as the best individuals in their categories. At that time, all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. Despite this, at

2210-547: The anthology play Death Defying Acts ), After the Night and the Music , Power Plays , Taller Than A Dwarf , The Way of All Fish , and Adult Entertainment . In 1969, she directed the off-Broadway production of Adaptation/ Next . May made her film writing and directing debut in 1971 with A New Leaf , a black comedy based on a short story which she read in an Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine called The Green Heart which

2275-464: The author Jack Ritchie would later retitle A New Leaf. The unconventional romance with Walter Matthau as a Manhattan bachelor faced with bankruptcy, also starred May herself as the awkward botanist-heiress, Henrietta Lowell, who Matthau cynically woos and marries to salvage an extravagant lifestyle. Director May originally submitted a 180-minute work to Paramount , but the studio cut it back by nearly 80 minutes for release. The film has since become

2340-405: The box office. Her style of humor, in writing or acting, often has more to do with traditional Yiddish theater than traditional Hollywood cinema. Following the break-up, May wrote several plays. Her greatest success was the one-act Adaptation (1969). Other stage plays she has written include Not Enough Rope , Mr Gogol and Mr Preen , Hotline (which was performed off-Broadway in 1995 as part of

2405-409: The drama Dangerous Minds (1995). May reunited with her former comic partner, Mike Nichols , for the 1996 film The Birdcage , an American adaptation of the classic French farce La Cage aux Folles . Their film relocated the story from France to South Beach , Miami. It was a major box office hit. May received her second Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay when she again worked with Nichols on

2470-543: The first female director with a Hollywood deal since Ida Lupino when she directed the 1971 black screwball comedy A New Leaf . Experimenting with genres, she directed the dark romantic comedy The Heartbreak Kid (1972), the gangster film Mikey and Nicky (1976), and adventure comedy Ishtar (1987). May later earned acclaim writing the screenplays for Warren Beatty 's Heaven Can Wait (1978), and Mike Nichols' The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998). Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colors each earned her

2535-485: The following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County ; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since

2600-570: The freedom they had during the workshop. May became prominent as a member of the Compass's acting group, a quality others in the group observed. Bobbi Gordon, an actor, remembers that she was often the center of attention: "The first time I met her was at Compass... Elaine was this grande dame of letters. With people sitting around her feet, staring up at her, open-mouthed in awe, waiting for 'The Word'." A similar impression struck Compass actor Bob Smith: May would hold court, discussing her days as

2665-424: The height of their fame, they decided to discontinue their act that year and took their careers in different directions: Nichols became a leading Broadway stage and film director; May became primarily a screenwriter and playwright, with some acting and directing. Among the reasons they decided to call it quits was that keeping their act fresh was becoming more difficult. Nichols explained: Several things happened. One

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2730-451: The new intellectual culture which they saw growing around them. They felt that young Americans were taking themselves too seriously, which became the subject of much of their satire. Nichols structured the material for their skits, and May came up with most of their ideas. Improvisation became a fairly simple art for them, as they portrayed the urban couple's "Age of Anxiety" in their sketches, and did so on their feet. According to May, it

2795-545: The only other person on the campus of the University of Chicago who’s as hostile as you are: Elaine May." Six weeks later, they bumped into each other at a train station in Chicago and soon began spending time together over the following weeks as "dead-broke theatre junkies." In 1955, May joined a new, off-campus improvisational theater group in Chicago, The Compass Players , becoming one of its charter members. The group

2860-413: The original). Elaine May Elaine Iva May (née Berlin ; born April 21, 1932) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and director. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols before transitioning her career, regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films. She has received numerous awards , including

2925-478: The production was beset by creative differences among the principals and had cost overruns. Long before the picture was ready for release, the troubled production had become the subject of numerous press stories, including a long cover article in New York magazine . Some of the opposition to the film came from David Puttnam , the studio head, making Ishtar a prime example of studio suicide. The advance publicity

2990-476: The qualities of their act, which according to one writer made them a rarity, was that they used both "snob and mob appeal", which gave them a wide audience. Nachman explains that they presented a new kind of comedy team, unlike previous comedy duos which had an intelligent member alongside a much less intelligent one, as with Laurel and Hardy , Fibber McGee and Molly , Burns and Allen , Abbott and Costello , and Martin and Lewis . What differentiated their style

3055-567: The record in this category for most nominations (six) without a win —albeit in 1993, she was an Honorary Oscar recipient . At the 41st Academy Awards , Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn received the same number of votes and thus tied for Best Actress (the only time this has occurred). Italian actress Sophia Loren became the first actor, in any category, to win for a foreign language performance in Two Women (1960). Nominees are currently determined by single transferable vote within

3120-500: The run, Don Murray replaced Reed. A bus and truck tour, which cut "Visitors from Chicago" and ran from Aug. 31-Dec. 2, 1978, was headlined by Carolyn Jones as Hannah, Diana and Millie. The cast also included James Drury as William and Marvin, Peter Bailey-Britton as Sidney and Aurelia De Felice as Bunny. In his review in The New York Times , Clive Barnes wrote "For those of us who imagine Los Angeles as nothing but

3185-443: The satirical comedians of their era. When Nichols and May split up, they left no imitators, no descendants, no blueprints or footprints to follow. No one could touch them." Author Gerald Nachman Nichols said that for him personally the breakup was "cataclysmic", and he went into a state of depression: "I didn't know what I was or who I was." It was not until 1996, thirty-five years later, that they would work together again as

3250-673: The standard and then they had to move on." To New York talk show host Dick Cavett , "They were one of the comic meteors in the sky." They reunited for a Madison Square Garden benefit for George McGovern for President in June, 1972. The event, titled "Together Again for McGovern," also featured two musical groups that had recently broken up, Simon and Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary , as well as singer Dionne Warwick . May has also acted in comedy films, including Enter Laughing (1967), directed by Carl Reiner , and Luv (1967), costarring Peter Falk and Jack Lemmon . The latter film

3315-440: The urban tempo, like Woody Allen did." They performed nightly at mostly sold-out shows, in addition to making TV program and commercial appearances and radio broadcasts. Their relatively brief time together as comedy stars led New York talk show host Dick Cavett to call their act "one of the comic meteors in the sky". Woody Allen said, "the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level". Technique Among

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3380-561: Was "struck by her piercing, dark-eyed, sultry stare. It was really unnerving", he says. Nichols remembers that "everybody wanted Elaine, and the people who got her couldn't keep her." Theater critic John Lahr agrees, noting that "her juicy good looks were a particularly disconcerting contrast to her sharp tongue." "Elaine was too formidable, one of the most intelligent, beautiful, and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again." Richard Burton May's sense of humor, including what she found funny about everyday life,

3445-520: Was 11 years old, and then she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where May later enrolled in Hollywood High School . She dropped out when she was fourteen years old. Two years later, at the age of sixteen, she married Marvin May, an engineer and toy inventor. They had one child, Jeannie Berlin (born 1949), who became an actress and screenwriter. The couple divorced in 1960, and she married lyricist Sheldon Harnick in 1962; they divorced

3510-632: Was different from others' in the group. Novelist Herbert Gold , who dated May, says that "she treated everything funny that men take seriously... She was never serious. Her life was a narrative." Another ex-boyfriend, James Sacks, says that "Elaine had a genuine beautiful madness." Nevertheless, states Gold, "she was very cute, a lot like Debra Winger , just a pretty Jewish girl." May was considered highly intelligent. "She's about fifty percent more brilliant than she needs to be," says actor Eugene Troobnick. Those outside their theater group sometimes noticed that same quality. British actor Richard Burton , who

3575-418: Was founded by Sills and David Shepherd . Nichols later joined the group, wherein he resumed his friendship with May. At first, he was unable to improvise well on stage, but with inspiration from May, they began developing improvised comedy sketches together. Nichols remembered this period: From then on it became mostly pleasure because of Elaine's generosity. The fact of Elaine—her presence—kept me going. She

3640-414: Was improved. "She was the strongest woman I ever met," adds Compass actor Nancy Ponder. In giving all her attention to acting, however, she neglected her home life. Fellow actress Barbara Harris recalled that May lived in a cellar with only one piece of furniture, a ping-pong table. "She wore basic beatnik black and, like her film characters, was a brilliant disheveled klutz." Group actor Omar Shapli

3705-508: Was largely negative and, despite some positive reviews from the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post , the film was a box office disaster. The film Ishtar has been positively re-evaluated in the 21st century by multiple publications including the Los Angeles Times , Slate , Indiewire , and The Dissolve . Richard Brody of The New Yorker called Ishtar a "wrongly maligned masterwork" and raved, "There's

3770-794: Was married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time, agreed with that impression after he first met May while he was starring in Camelot on Broadway. Nichols was personally asked to leave the Compass Players in 1957 because he and May became too good, which threw the company off balance, noted club manager Jay Landsman. Nichols was told he had too much talent. Nichols then left the group in 1957, with May quitting with him. They next formed their own stand-up comedy team, Nichols and May . After contacting some agents in New York, they were asked to audition for Jack Rollins , who would later become Woody Allen 's manager and executive producer. Rollins said he

3835-476: Was not rote but came from re-creating her original impulse. Such improvisational techniques allowed her to make slight changes during a performance. Although May had a wider improvisational range than Nichols, he was generally the one to shape the pieces and steer them to their end. For their recordings, he also made the decision of what to delete. Team break-up Audiences were still discovering May and Nichols in 1961, four years after they arrived. However, at

3900-468: Was not well received by critics, although Lemmon said he enjoyed working alongside May: "She's the finest actress I've ever worked with," he said. "And I've never expressed an opinion about a leading lady before... I think Elaine is touched with genius. She approaches a scene like a director and a writer." Film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster notes that May is drawn to material that borders on dry Yiddish humor. As such, it has not always been well received at

3965-446: Was simple: "It's nothing more than quickly creating a situation between two people and throwing up some kind of problem for one of them." Nichols noted that after coming up with a sketch idea, they would perform it soon after with little extra rehearsal or writing it down. One example he remembered was inspired simply from a phone call from his mother. I called Elaine and I said, "I've got a really good piece for us tonight." They created

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4030-622: Was stunned by how good their act was: Their work was so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were, actually as impressed by their acting technique as by their comedy... They were totally adventurous and totally innocent, in a certain sense. That's why it was accepted. They would uncover little dark niches that you felt but had never expressed... I'd never seen this technique before. I thought, My God, these are two people writing hilarious comedy on their feet! By 1960, they made their Broadway debut with An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May , which later won

4095-407: Was that I, more than Elaine, became more and more afraid of our improvisational material. She was always brave. We never wrote a skit, we just sort of outlined it: I'll try to make you, or we'll fight—whatever it was. We found ourselves doing the same material over and over, especially in our Broadway show. This took a great toll on Elaine. "Nichols and May are perhaps the most ardently missed of all

4160-553: Was the fact that their stage performance created "scenes," a method very unlike the styles of other acting teams. Nor did they rely on fixed gender or comic roles, but instead adapted their own character to fit a sketch idea they came up with. They chose real-life subjects, often from their own life, which were made into satirical and funny vignettes. This was accomplished by using subtle joke references which they correctly expected their audiences to recognize, whether through clichés or character types. They thereby indirectly poked fun at

4225-437: Was the only one who had faith in me. I loved it... We had a similar sense of humor and irony... When I was with her I became something more than I had been before. Actress Geraldine Page recalled they worked together with great efficiency, "like a juggernaut." Thanks in part to Nichols and May, the Compass Players became an enormously popular satirical comedy troupe. They helped the group devise new stage techniques to adapt

#198801