With ‘Dilaria,’ Ella Stiller Brings a Sharp Female Story to Off-Broadway

If your first introduction to Ella Stiller is from the audience at the intimate DR2 theater near Union Square, where she’s making her off-Broadway debut in “Dilaria,” you might be guarded when you meet her in person. But Stiller takes any trepidation as a compliment.  “ There was one night, I was talking to a girl who was so kind and lovely and she said to me, ‘you are such a good actor, because I hated your character so much,’” says Stiller of a recent post-performance interaction. “And the next girl I talked to immediately said, ‘oh no, I loved her. I loved Dilaria, and I hate her. I want to be her, and I want to be nothing like her,” adds Stiller. “To me, that’s the rewarding thing to hear: that you can’t decide.” In person, Stiller is convivial, engaged, easy-going. She transforms onstage into Dilaria: cruel, obsessive, manipulative. Mean. “She does all the least socially acceptable things,” she says of the narcissistic character, a recent college grad who quickly has the 90-seat audience — and onstage, her best friend — walking on eggshells. After noticing the social media engagement that a former classmate’s death receives online, Dilaria decides to exploit the situation

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from WWDRecent Stories https://ift.tt/MmHKirC