Listen To Me - A Play

Published in Connecticut Dressage Association CENTERLINE, This Edition’s Member Profile, Aug/Sept 2025

This interview with Patricia covers the creation and performance of LISTEN TO ME, a play that combines equestrian choreography, storytelling, and art.

The idea was born from Patricia’s lifelong love of theater and horses. Years ago, inspired by Picasso’s Rose Period paintings—filled with circus scenes and horses—I imagined a performance that could bring those images to life. Fast forward to 2025, when David Kaplan, my longtime collaborator, discovered a photo of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas beneath those very paintings. That moment reignited our vision. Stein had owned the artwork and was a friend of Picasso. David called me, and the creative spark turned into a full production—blending equestrian choreography, theatrical storytelling, and visual art into something truly unique.

CDA:  CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THIS PLAY, THE CONCEPT AND CREATIVE VISION?

Patricia:  In my life I have always had a love for theater and horses. As an acting student at the Yale School of Drama, I met David Kaplan, who was in the directing program. That was 40 years ago, and we have been fast friends ever since, collaborating in many projects together. I had had the idea, seeing the paintings of Pablo Picasso from the Rose Period, that a theatre piece with horses could be created around these amazing images. It was a happy time for Picasso. He was spending time with a circus and painted many horses and harlequins and circus people. Also, in the Spanish Civil War, he painted his terrifying and very large painting Guernica, which also was filled with horses.

This project never materialized at that time, but fast forward to 2025. David Kaplan was directing LISTEN TO ME, a play written by Gertrude Stein in 1936, starring Kathleen Turner as Gertrude Stein. In his research, he found a photograph of Gertrude Stein and her friend Alice B. Toklas, in their living room in NYC, sitting in armchairs, and above them were the Picasso paintings of the horses and circus!  So that is how the vision came about. Gertrude Stein was a friend of Picasso and owned these paintings!  David called me, very excited, and so we began collaborating.

CDA:  WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE RIDING CHOREOGRAPHY, AND THE ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES YOU USED?

Patricia:  In the past, I have ridden and created choreography for countless horse pieces: from the DANCING WITH HORSES company in NYC, to CARMEN with CT Opera Theatre. For this production, David wanted the horses to be actors, rather than dancers in a quadrille style choreography. My goal was to recreate images from the paintings for a moment in time, that the audience may recognize. We had a group of 4 horses that worked together, in formation. They were the Harlequins from the paintings. Jillian Nielsen, a talented costume designer and dressage rider, made beautiful costumes for both horses and riders, matching the color palette of the paintings. I played the role of Lillian, friend to Gertrude, and my horse needed to work alone, not get attached to the group, and deal with my large costume beautifully designed by James
Glavan. I also had a microphone, so he had to be comfortable with sound, wind and sometimes feedback.
I created the choreography on CT based riders and horses. Keeping in mind to be able to simplify in Romania depending on what kind of horses we had.

CDA:  WHAT WAS ROMANIA LIKE AND WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES OF PERFORMING IN THIS LOCATION?

Patricia:  I had never heard of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania and had no idea that it was the 3rd largest in the world coordinating 200 events (theatre, music, dance, opera, circus) in 10 days.  They wanted to honor Kathleen Turner in their Walk of Fame (like Hollywood star) and ran her film PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, which is her favorite.  They also had Bill Murray, Wole Soyinka, and 4 others who were similarly honored.  So. when we were invited to perform LISTEN TO ME in Transylvania, I could not believe it would happen!

I was very stressed primarily because communication with Romania was not as prompt as I am used to. When told that we needed 5 horses, they said “No problem! This is Romania, the land of horses.  We have 50 of them!” However, it took many months to have a conversation with the horse director, and I never did learn what kind of horses we would get until we arrived.

As it was, they were show jumpers. Most were German or Romanian warmbloods. My horse, Bacardi, even competed at Aachen. The Harlequin horses were all mares and fabulous, as was Bacardi. They were super calm and unfazed by weather, costumes, sound system, or actors running around on the ground. They were very stiff, and not the upper-level dressage horses I had at home, so I adapted choreography to their needs, and I could not have been happier (or relieved) at how wonderful they were.

Transylvania is beautiful, with rolling hills and lovely towns.  Sibiu is an ancient, beautiful town, very European. The performance was set up in the large field outside the barn, for 2 sold out performances. We had a lot of trouble with wind, as it was often so strong, that the backdrop would flap, but again horses were unfazed.  We were picked up every morning by new Mercedes vans and taken to the barn, then returned to the Golden Tulip, a very nice 4-star hotel with a great restaurant.  Everyone was treated beautifully. I was so impressed by the people and the beauty of this land. 

CDA:  WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU HAVE PREPARING THE RIDERS TO PERFORM COMPLEX ROUTINES WITH SHORT REHEARSAL TIME?

Patricia:  I aimed to be as prepared as possible for every eventuality. I had my daughter Francesca Edwards, herself a Grand Prix rider, who had done the choreography in CT and would lead it. I was fortunate to get my friend and coach Rodrigo Matos (he was head rider at the Portuguese School of Equestrian Arts and toured as a rider in the horse spectacular APPASSIONATA). With 2 solid lead riders, I made the quadrille choreography a bit like “follow the leader”, so the 2 riders from Romania, could learn it in 4 days.  We traveled there before the actors came, to rehearse the new riders and meet our horses. Andrea was a talented young jumper who learned things quickly, and Christian, was a jousting medieval games type rider with a great sense of humor. Christian had a talented bay Lipizzaner mare, who was so good at all the movements but proved to be too herd bound, and spooky, so we had to replace her, as it was dangerous to the actors on the ground.

We worked for hours on foot, to save the horses physically and mentally, and then rode the patterns.  We worked intensely and when the actors joined us, we had costumes, set, and sound to deal with for 3 days. 

Finally opening night came and was terrific, with everything going smoothly. The second performance had some heavy rain.  But all in all, it was a highly successful event.

CDA: ANY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

Patricia:  LISTEN TO ME is going back into rehearsal in November to add another 20 minutes of Gertrude Stein’s text, and then there is the possibility of performing it in NYC at the Armory on Park Avenue. When Kathleen Turner received her award, she gave a speech and ended it with “We will be back next year, Romania!”  So, who knows?  We may even go back to the festival next June.