By Elyse Trevers
She looks familiar. You recognize her but can’t quite place the name or her roles. A character actress, Maddie Corman, (“Divorce,” “Law and Order,” Curb Your Enthusiasm”) usually played a supporting part until her husband’s dark secret was uncovered; suddenly she found herself in an unwanted leading role. Corman is forced to hold her family and life together and maintain a semblance of stability for her children as she becomes “accidentally brave.”
Nightly, with some matinees, at the intimate DR2 Theatre, Corman shares her life and her excruciating pain and anguish when her husband is arrested and the life she knew was upended. In an 80-minute one-woman play, the actress immediately wins over the audience with her openness and sincerity.
She describes driving to Brooklyn to finish filming a TV show when she gets a call from her hysterical daughter. The police were in their home, taking her husband and his computer. Daddy, director Jace Alexander (“Law and Order,” etc,) had been watching child pornography.
She barely has a chance to process the revelation when the news goes out and is plastered all over the media. Corman now has to deal with outraged friends and family.
She is so open about her situation that it’s impossible not to admire her courage and honesty. Using a simple setting, sometimes photos, sometimes questions from prying and even well-meaning friends and acquaintances flashed on a screen, she shares the confusion she feels. Every night, she relives her pain for the audience and wins us over. By the end of the play, Corman has a roomful of fans and supporters.
Corman could easily have turned her story into a vehicle to blame her husband, yet through her skillful storytelling, it becomes a shared experience of enlightenment for the audience. When she tells of visiting her husband for family week at the rehab center he attends, the audience reacts viscerally, sharing her anger. Later we understand her compassion, especially for other spouses and families whose lives have been impacted by addictions.
The actress finds herself having to be strong and trying to reconcile with her spouse while creating stability for her children. She is “accidentally brave” because she has to be; it is thrust upon her. Her choice to dramatize and share her pain and maybe reach others is ‘intentionally brave.’
