STORY BY DR. JOSHUA SHERMAN
Love and Memories
While preparing for the New England premiere of her new play, Dying Is No Excuse, EMMY ® Award Winner Renée Taylor shares her most cherished Vermont memories
COURTESY RENÉE TAYLOR
Renée Taylor might be best known for her role as the hilarious Sylvia Fine on The Nanny, but her legacy extends far beyond that iconic character. From her early days performing in New York’ s Bon Soir nightclub( where her opening act was a young Barbra Streisand), to being OSCAR-nominated for co-writing the film Lovers and Other Strangers, Taylor’ s multi-decade career spans film, television, theater, and literature.
This summer, the beloved icon returns to the stage with a story rooted in love, laughter, and legacy. Her play, Dying Is No Excuse, premieres at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Massachusetts— a mere stone’ s throw from the Vermont border. The play, written and performed by Taylor and directed by the legendary Elaine May, will run from August 7 through August 30. Written and performed by Taylor herself, the production is a deeply personal, sad and funny journey through her extraordinary life and love story with her late husband and longtime creative partner, Joseph Bologna.
“ I thought I was just going to share our love story, like Joe told me to,” Taylor says, reflecting on the process of writing Dying Is No Excuse.“ But it was much more. I learned more about him. It was a wonderful, cathartic experience.” The act of writing, for Taylor, has always been both sacred and improvisational. To that end, Dying Is No Excuse emerged almost instinctively.“ I just sat down and wrote it,” shares Taylor. Unlike many writers who agonize over structure, Taylor’ s decades of storytelling on stage and screen have gifted her with an intuitive sense of rhythm and emotional arc. The result is a work that flows with rawness and clarity of memory, sculpted by the hand of a master comedian who knows how to turn pain into punchlines and joy into lasting meaning.
For Taylor, this production also marks a kind of homecoming back to New England – a region that nurtured her creativity, grounded her marriage, and gave her and her late husband, actor-writer Joseph Bologna, space to become the artists they always dreamed they could be.
“ Vermont is so peaceful,” Taylor recalls.“ It was so beautiful. It was nature. It was real. And the people were real.”
Taylor and Bologna first retreated to Vermont early in their relationship, when they were still trying to figure out what kind of writers they could be.“ Joe had gone skiing in Vermont when he was in college, and he said,‘ I’ m going to take you to this place— you’ re going to love it,’” Taylor says with a smile.“ He said,‘ We’ ll pick wildflowers, we’ ll see a moose, we’ ll make cheese.’ And the funny thing is, we did. But we really hardly ever left the house. We were just there writing.”
It was in Vermont that they wrote Lovers and Other Strangers, among other plays and screenplays.
Even now, years after Bologna’ s passing, Vermont remains a sacred place for Taylor. His ashes are buried beneath an apple tree near the house they rented in the Green Mountain State.“ When I goback to Vermont, I visit Joe’ s tree,” she says quietly.“ And I remember how
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