Hortense

Leigh had previously cast Jean-Baptiste in his stage play “It’s a Great Big Shame!,” and it felt like an easy yes to make her Hortense.

Pansy is an even more specific character than Hortense.

On “Secrets & Lies,” since I’d done a play with him before, I knew I’d have to choose a career for Hortense.

She nimbly braids together the stories of Hortense Odlum of Bonwit, which moved locations but basically disappeared by 2000; Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel, shuttered since 2019; and Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, which after slow decline was delivered a definitive death blow by the pandemic.

"The government is indulgent when it comes to Israel's crimes. They are being biased and they are showing it," said Hortense La Chance, a 32-year-old cook.