Shakespeare lady's 15 minutes

Margaret Holloway doesn't exactly do street theater, but she does do theater on the street—at the corner of Grove and Church, to be exact. Most days she can be seen there doing Shakespeare, Racine, and as of late, publicity. She has been promoting her new filma, God Didn't Give Me a Week's Notice, which York Square Cinema will screen this Sunday morning along with two recently recovered documentaries made about her in the past. When I met up with her, she was telling a downtown businessman all about this. He had loosened his tie and was listening to her almost as animatedly as she was talking; he began bobbing in place with his head cocked to one side. "I didn't see you yesterday, Margaret!" he kept interrupting. "It's great to see you again."

In New Haven, after all, it's hard not to see Margaret. She is one of the most visible people in the Yale and New Haven communities, with a large fan base to boot. Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., who is sponsoring the screening, watches her recite every Sunday morning while he eats his Bruegger's bagel. Besides his family, DeStefano has admitted to her, she's the only one he gives money to. Rabbi James Ponet, also sponsoring the benefit, says he "marvels at the humanity she embodies, the struggle she wages, the dignity she maintains." Her struggle is one against a rare illness, a form of schizophrenia from which she first suffered while enrolled in the acting department of the Yale Drama School and which has left her homeless for much of her life since.

Sunday's film, however, focuses on her acting abilities and her theories about theater, as developed in her dissertation. It is a tribute to the great works that have inspired her, to the professors who have taught her, but above all, to her favorite actor: Christopher Walken. "That guy's for real," she told me. "Jack Nicholson, who's got all those Oscars, he's enigmatic. Dustin Hoffman, who has his Best Actor Oscar, he's pragmatic. And Al Pacino, who has his Best Actor Oscar already, he's erratic. Chris Walken is a poet. He deserves at least as many Oscars as the rest of them."

Sunday's benefit will be the community's tribute to Margaret, however, and right now she isn't looking much past that. "When you suffer, and you have all of these battle-axes to carry, and battles to fight...I'll be going through my catharsis on Sunday. This is my 15 minutes that Andy Warhol promised us all. I can no longer say to myself that this one did this to me, or that one, or that I didn't get to be known. I won't be able to carry that crucifix after these movies get shown."

When I asked if she thought of the benefit as some sort of ending, she replied, "Well when I came out here yesterday General Counsel—that's what I call Richard from Yale's General Counsel—he told me, `You'll continue to fight. We know you, Margaret,' he said. `After you do this you'll be out there fighting again. Don't be scared. You'll be fighting for something, you will continue, we know you.'—General Counsel said that to me."

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