Tom Stoppard on Leopoldstadt, and Geena Davis talks with Michael Schulman
b'Tom Stoppard has been a fixture on Broadway since his famous early play, \\u201cRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,\\u201d travelled there in 1967. Stoppard is eighty-five years old, and has largely resisted the autobiographical element in his work. But now, in \\u201cLeopoldstadt,\\u201d a play that has just opened on Broadway, he draws on his family\\u2019s tragic losses in the Second World War. Stoppard talks with the contributor Andrew Dickson about his latest work.\\xa0\\nAnd the Oscar- and Emmy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, best known for her role in \\u201cThelma and Louise,\\u201d talks with the staff writer Michael Schulman about her life and career. Davis ascribes much of her early experience on- and offscreen to a certain level of politeness, a character trait ingrained in her from childhood. \\u201cI learned politeness from minute one, I\\u2019m sure,\\u201d she tells Schulman. \\u201cThat was my family: very old-fashioned New Englanders.\\u201d She reflects on her childhood, her iconic roles in the eighties and nineties, and her \\u201cjourney to badassery\\u201d in her new memoir, \\u201cDying of Politeness,\\u201d out this month.'