Maura Malloy played Marilyn Monroe in the New York International Fringe Festivalhit, A Beautiful Child.  Presented by The Courthouse Theatre Company and Michael Howard Studios, A Beautiful Child is based on a nonfiction piece by the same name from Capote’s collection "Music for Chameleons." In 1955, Capote and Marilyn Monroe attended the funeral of Constance Collier, Marilyn's acting coach. Afterward, the two friends spent the day together touring the streets of Manhattan, from midtown to the South Street Seaport. Capote tells of their exploits on that afternoon, presenting a wry, insightful, and very human portrait of the actress who at this point in her career had become in his words "a platinum sex explosion." A Beautiful Child was selected to be part of the FringeNYC Encore series, one of twelve shows from the 11th Annual New York Fringe Festival to have extended runs in late August and September 2007. Here, Maura describes her journey as Marilyn:

“It’s often just enough to be with someone. I don’t need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You’re not alone.” ~Marilyn Monroe

My director, Linda Powell, chose that quote for our program insert, and it reminds me of why I fell in love with this story. When I first read A Beautiful Child, I knew very little about either Truman Capote or Marilyn Monroe. I fell in love with the relationship Capote wrote about. The dialogue was delicious, witty, intelligent and quick. It moved from charming replies to sinister threats smoothly and truthfully. I was hooked.

The stage production of A Beautiful Child began three years ago, during the third year of my M.F.A. Acting career at the University of Virginia. As part of my graduate thesis, I had to create a one woman show. I needed Marilyn Monroe material for a particular character in a string of vignettes, and I was stumped. My ideas of Marilyn Monroe were based mainly on photos and especially on the Marilyn look-alikes of my generation. Neither held my interest. My friend, Ben Bolling (B.A., 2001), suggested I read Capote’s A Beautiful Child, and I was fascinated. Completely. Who was this woman?

Two years later, Michael Howard – my acting coach in New York – came into class one day encouraging us to work on short stories to widen our scene study options. A Beautiful Child immediately sprung to mind. Written almost entirely in dialogue, it already was a perfect little one act play and a useful exercise for two actors.

That is how it began. I had specific things I was working on in class, as did Joel Van Liew (my Truman Capote). It was always about the work. At that point, there was no thought of a full production. But as we work-shopped more and more scenes in class, the project grew. When we decided to mount a staged reading of the piece in its entirety, Joel and I asked our classmate, Linda Powell, to direct us. From there, we submitted the idea to the 11th Annual New York International Fringe Festival.

Throughout the whole process of producing this show, the largest challenge for me was balancing the role of producer with the role of performer. By assembling a creative team that Joel and I trusted (including publicist, Laura Bonner (B.A., 2002) and our associate producer, Jane Mayer (B.A., 2005), I was able to turn off the producer switch every night and focus on the art. And I think that was key to our success – surrounding ourselves with individuals invested in their part of the whole process.

As an actress, portraying Ms. Monroe was daunting, to say the least. And, had I been a fan of hers prior to reading Capote’s story, I doubt I would have ever attempted this project. I am so clearly not a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, and Joel is so clearly not a Truman Capote look-alike. We are the anti-icons in a sense. To me, that worked for this piece. Since we never set out to do imitations, the performance encourages the audience to see them as human beings; “to get beyond the iconic haze and see the real people” as my director says. I actually could not watch Monroe on the screen. Watching her films gave me more a sense of the icon, the character audiences became obsessed with, but not the woman. So I read biographies, I learned about the men in her life, and most importantly, I constantly went back to Capote’s story. His words were my guide. Her icon is undeniable – and the choreography and the costume helped me get into her body. But Capote didn’t write about the icon, he wrote about a million women all in one. And I think that was closer to Marilyn than any stereotype the public had of her. She was delicate and vulnerable but also hostile and brash; she was smart and funny but also unassuming and brokenhearted.

At least that is the Marilyn that Capote wrote about in A Beautiful Child. So that is the Marilyn I set out to play every night. She was a blast.