Artist Joseph Cornell lived a magical life of the mind in his mother’s basement in Queens, caring for his invalid brother and collecting castaway items he used to create his assemblage boxes. Cornell’s correspondence and journals — filled with observations and obsessions — reveal his desire to capture through his work the intense feelings of a hidden moment. Playwright Charles Mee, discussing his play, wonders how it would be if Cornell’s boxes could speak: “About art, about America, about compassion and longing and loneliness and heartbreak.”

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