Stretch finds Woods – Nixon's longtime and loyal secretary – in her final days as she "observes the presidential election of 2004 from her Alliance, Ohio nursing home. She connects the past with the present while thinking about power, loyalty, and lying," according to press notes. New Georges artistic director Susan Bernfield penned the work centering on the secretary who infamously erased several crucial minutes of Nixon's Watergate tapes. The title of her play was inspired by the 1974 grand jury photograph of Woods as she demonstrated her accidental erasure, dubbed by the press as the "Rose Mary Stretch."
Emma Griffin (Five Course Love) directs the play, featuring music by Rachel Peters. Stretch will run through May 26 at the Living Theater. An official opening is set for May 5.
Griffith has appeared in the Broadway productions of Park Your Car in Harvard Yard and A Texas Trilogy. Her additional stage credits include The Countess, Crocodiles in the Potomac, Black and The Holy Terror.
Tickets, priced $20, are available by phoning (212) 868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com. The Living Theater is located at 21 Clinton Street in Manhattan.