from the New York Times:
When Spalding Gray committed suicide, most likely by throwing himself off a Staten Island ferry on a cold January day nearly two and half years ago, he left behind an array of grievers: fans, colleagues, friends and family. People were stunned by the loss of this unusual performer, a man who had been artfully befriending audiences through his confessional monologues since 1977. But Mr. Gray’s family — his wife, Kathie Russo; his stepdaughter, Marissa, now 19; and his 9- and 12-year-old sons, Theo and Forrest — had to face a different tragedy: the disappearance of a husband and father. Ms. Russo was suddenly left to keep their family together as well as to shape her own unexpected legacy as Spalding Gray’s widow.
“I wanted to do something around Spalding’s 65th birthday, which is on June 5,” Ms. Russo, 45, recently explained at a Greek restaurant in the West Village. “So I thought, ‘Let’s do a reading of his work for one night at P.S. 122’ — that’s where he started all his monologues — ‘and I’ll put it together.’ “
