Download 2013–2014 season - Asolo Repertory Theatre

2013–2014 SEASON
November 12–December 29, 2013
CAST
in order of appearance
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MICHAEL DONALD EDWARDS
MANAGING DIRECTOR LINDA DIGABRIELE
PROUDLY PRESENT
Music by JEROME KERN
Book and Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Based on the novel Show Boat by Edna Ferber
Directed by Rob Ruggiero
Orchestrations
Choreographer
Music Direction
Additional Musical Arrangements
Dan DeLange
Noah Racey
F. Wade Russo
Michael o’flaherty
Set Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Michael Schweikardt
Amy Clark
John Lasiter
Kevin Kennedy
Fight Director
New York Casting
Hair/Wig & Make-up Design
Sound Effects provided by
Bruce Lecure
Stuart Howard & Associates
Michelle Hart
Jay Hilton
Production Stage Manager
Dramaturg
Kelly A. Borgia*
Lauryn E. Sasso
nicholas ward
Assistant Director
MUSICIANS
in alphabetical order
Assistant Stage Manager
rebecca Goldstein-Glaze*
Assistant Music Director
Associate Lighting Designer
Assistant to Choreographer
Stage Management Apprentice
Stage Management Apprentice
Literary Apprentice
Rodney Bush
Jeffrey Small
griffeth whitehurst
Moria Sutherland
mary mcElroy
Austen Anderson
Show Boat will be performed with one intermission.
CO-PRODUCERS
Gerri Aaron • Howard and Diana Armbrust • Robert and Beverly Bartner • David and Betty-Jean Bavar • William Evans • Rita and Ron Greenbaum
Katherine Harris and Anders Ebbeson • The Huisking Foundation, Charlie Huisking • Elenor and John Maxheim
Mrs. Carol Phillips, in loving memory of Howard Phillips • Richard and Gail Rubin • Marty and Paulette Samowitz, Samowitz Foundation • Joyce and Robert• Tate
•
Joel Blum*.........................................................................................Captain Andy Hawks
Elisa Van Duyne*.....................................................................................Ellie May Chipley
Denis Lambert*.............................................................................................Frank Schultz
Dorothy Stanley*.................................................................................Parthy Ann Hawks
Daniella Dalli*............................................................................................Julie LaVerne
David Sattler*................................................................................................Steve Baker
Griffeth Whitehurst.......................................................................................Pete Gavin
E. Faye Butler*......................................................................................................Queenie
Bruce Sabath*...........................................................................................Windy, the pilot
Ben Davis*.................................................................................................Gaylord Ravenal
Dan Kennett............................................................................................Sheriff Ike Vallon
Marissa McGowan*................................................................................Magnolia Hawks
Michael James Leslie*...............................................................................................Joe
Dereck D. Seay......................................................................................Willy, a stagehand
dan kennett, Dereck D. Seay.................................................................Backwoodsmen
Brigid Kegel, Brittany Proia*, Katie Weidmaier........................................Town Girls
Brigid Kegel....................................................................................................A Governess
Lilly Mae Stewart...........................................................................................Young Kim
Brigid Kegel, Katie Weidmaier...............................................................................Nuns
Denise Lute*.....................................................................................................Mrs.O’Brien
Bruce Sabath*.................................................................Jim Greene, director of floor show
Jeff M. Smith .....................................................................................Jake, a piano player
Nicholas Ward*...................................................................................Charlie, a doorman
Katie Weidmaier.................................................................................Lottie, a young lady
Brittany Proia*...................................................................................Dottie, a young lady
Denise Lute*.........................................................................................................Old Lady
Brittany Proia*............................................................................................Kim, an adult
Daniel Belnavis, Candace C. Culcleasure, Troy Jackson, Johnathan Shepherd,
Brigid Kegel, Dan Kennett, Denise Lute*, Brittany Proia*, Bruce Sabath*, David
Sattler*, Dereck D. Seay, Jeff M. Smith, Nicholas Ward*, Griffeth Whitehurst,
Katie Weidmaier..................................................................................................Ensemble
in memoriam
SPONSORED BY
TERI BOOTH...................................................................................................................Reeds
Rodney Bush........................................................................................................Keyboard 2
CARLANN EVANS....................................................................................................Violin/Viola
TJ Glowacki.......................................................................................................Upright Bass
Vic Mongillo............................................................................................................Trumpet
Don Parker............................................................................................................Trombone
F. Wade Russo.....................................................................................Conductor/Keyboard 1
Tom SUTA...............................................................................................................Percussion
dan pardo.........................................................................................Keyboard Programming
jim stenborg..................................................................................................Music Copyist
william thomas..............................................................................Keyboard Programming
Special thanks to Rex Willis for the use of a guitar.
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS 13-14 SEASON SUPPORTERS
MAJOR SEASON supporters
This Production originally produced by Goodspeed Musicals, Michael P. Price, Executive Director
Directed by Rob Ruggiero
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Directors are members of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; Designers are members of the United Scenic Artists Local USA-829;
Backstage and Scene Shop Crew are members of IATSE Local 412.
The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.
Show Boat is presented through special arrangement with R & H Theatricals: www.rnh.com.
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Margie and Chuck Barancik • Robert and Beverly Bartner • David and Betty-Jean Bavar • Doug Bradbury
Carole Crosby, Ruby E. and Carole Crosby Family Foundation • Christine and John Currie • Nona Macdonald Heaslip
The Huisking Foundation, Charlie Huisking • Stanley Kane in honor of Janet• Kane • Carolyn Keystone and Jim Meekison • Lee and Bob• Peterson
Mary Ann Robinson • Charles O. Wood, III and Miriam M. Wood Foundation • William A. Yandow • Jeanne and Bob Zabelle • Judy Zuckerberg and George Kole
•
VIRGINIA B. TOULMIN
FOUNDATION
in memoriam
SEASON SPONSORS
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
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Scenes & Musical Numbers
WHO’S WHO IN THE CREATIVE TEAM
Between 1887 and 1927 along the Mississippi River and Chicago
act one
Scene 1 - The Levee at Natchez on the Mississippi, 1887
Cotton Blossom............................................................Stevedores, Gals, & Show Boat Troupe
Captain Andy’s Ballyhoo............................................Cap’n Andy, Parthy & Show Boat Troupe
Where’s the Mate for Me............................................................................................Ravenal
Only Make Believe...................................................................................Ravenal & Magnolia
Ol’ Man River...............................................................................................Joe & Stevedores
Scene 2 - The Kitchen Pantry on the Cotton Blossom
Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.......................................Julie, Queenie, Magnolia, Joe & Ensemble
Scene 3 - The Auditorium & Stage on the Cotton Blossom
Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’..............................................................................................Queenie
Ol’ Man River (Reprise)......................................................................................................Joe
Scene 4 - The Fore-deck of the Cotton Blossom, three weeks later
Life Upon the Wicked Stage...................................................................................Ellie & Girls
Scene 5 - The Upper Deck of the Cotton Blossom, that night
You Are Love...........................................................................................Ravenal & Magnolia
Scene 6 - The Levee at Greenville, the next morning
Finale...............................................................................................................The Company
act two
Scene 1 - Various Locations on the River & in Chicago, 1892-1899
‘Til Good Luck Comes My Way.................................................................Ravenal & Gamblers
Why Do I Love You?..................................................................................Magnolia & Ravenal
Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’ (Reprise)................................................................................Queenie
‘Til Good Luck Comes My Way (Reprise)...................................................Ravenal & Gamblers
Why Do I Love You? (Reprise)...................................................................Magnolia & Ravenal
Scene 2 - A Chicago Boardinghouse
Scene 3 - St. Agatha’s Convent, the same time
Alma Redemptoris Mater................................................................................................Nuns
Only Make Believe (Reprise)......................................................................................Ravenal
Scene 4 - The Trocadero Nightclub, a Rehearsal two weeks later
Bill.................................................................................................................Julie
Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man (Reprise).........................................................................Magnolia
Scene 5 - A Chicago Street
Scene 6 - The Trocadero Nightclub, New Year’s Eve, 1899
Goodbye My Lady Love........................................................................................Ellie & Frank
After the Ball.......................................................................................Magnolia & Partygoers
Scene 7 - Kitchen Pantry of the Cotton Blossom, 1927
Ol’ Man River (Reprise)......................................................................................................Joe
I Still Suits Me..................................................................................................Joe & Queenie
Scene 8 - The Deck of the Cotton Blossom
You Are Love (Reprise)...............................................................................................Ravenal
Finale...........................................................................................................Company
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KELLY A. BORGIA* SIXTH SEASON (Production
Stage Manager) Other Asolo Rep credits include: 1776;
The Heidi Chronicles; The Games Afoot; Noah Racey’s
Pulse; My Fair Lady; Yentl; Hamlet, Prince of Cuba; Bonnie
& Clyde; Boeing, Boeing; Las Meninas; The Life of Galileo;
The Perfume Shop. Regional theatre credits include: 1776
(ACT); The Whipping Man; Boeing, Boeing; Deathtrap;
Superior Donuts; Noises Off!; The Pavilion (Dorset Theatre
Festival); Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Once on this Island;
Betrayal (Hangar Theatre); Beauty and the Beast; The
Full Monty (Northern Stage); The Miser; Picnic; am Sunday;
Speed-the-Plow (CenterStage, Baltimore). Off-Broadway:
Hurricane: A New Musical (2009 New York Musical Theatre
Festival), Cato (The Flea Theatre). Proud Member of Actor’s
Equity Association.
RODNEY BUSH FIRST SEASON (Assistant Music Director/
Keyboard) is thrilled to be working on his first production
at Asolo Repertory Theatre. Since graduating from Berklee
College of Music he has worked at The Boston Conservatory
as a music director and accompanist. Some credits:
Urinetown; I Love You Because; Kiss of the Spiderwoman;
Zombie Prom; The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Berklee:
Ragtime; Songs for a New World. Rodney resides in New
York City, where he works as a music director, vocal coach,
and pianist.
AMY CLARK FIRST SEASON (Costume Designer) A Night with
Janis Joplin (Lyceum Theatre); The Mountaintop (Actors
Theatre of Louisville); Chaplin (St. Petersburg, Russia
and The Barrymore Theatre). Drama Desk, Outer Critics
Circle, and Hewes Nominations. On Your Toes (City Center
Encores!); The Little Mermaid (Paper Mill Playhouse); Other
Desert Cities (The Pittsburgh Public Theatre); Unlock’d (The
Duke); Muckrakers (Barrington Stage Co.); The Mountaintop
(TheatreWorks); Lord of the Flies (Barrington Stage Co.);
Show Boat (Goodspeed Musicals); Monster At The Door
(The Alley Theatre); The Thirty Nine Steps (Hudson Valley
Shakespeare Festival); Comedy of Errors and Taming of
the Shrew (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). Currently
designing Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. Holds
MFA from NYU Tisch School for the Arts. Awarded 2012
Theatre Hall of Fame Emerging Artist Fellowship. DAN DELANGE FIRST SEASON (Orchestrations) has scored
for songwriter Paul Williams, The Jim Henson Company,
Julie Andrews, Rosie O’Donnell, composers Jerry Herman,
Harvey Schmitt, Charles Strouse, and Mark Hollman.
His work has been heard on Broadway, National Tours,
and at regional theaters from coast to coast including
36 productions at Goodspeed Musicals. Graduate of
Interlochen Arts Academy and Oberlin Conservatory of
Music. DanDeLangeOrchestrations.com.
REBECCA GOLDSTEIN-GLAZE * SECOND SEASON (Assistant
Stage Manager) last worked at Asolo Rep on Venus in Fur.
Off-Broadway work includes: The Piano Lesson, Angels
in America (Signature Theatre Company); No Place to Go,
Measure for Measure, Tales of an Urban Indian, Yellow
Face, Stuff Happens (The Public/NYSF); The Foreigner
(Roundabout); The Sacrifices (SPF); Almost an Evening
(Atlantic); Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (Page 73); The Duchess
of Malfi (Red Bull); Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Beowulf
(Irish Rep); Cactus Flower (Westside Theater); Regional
work with Steppenwolf, Goodman, Pasadena Playhouse,
Emelin Theater, Colorado Shakespeare Festival. She has
also worked numerous large-scale events both in NYC
and on the road. Graduate of Illinois State University.
Proud member of AEA.
OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II (Book & Lyrics) started writing lyrics
for the Columbia University Varsity shows while studying law.
He withdrew from school after his second year to pursue a
career in theatre. He breathed new life into operetta with such
classics as Rose-Marie, The Desert Song, The New Moon,
and Song of the Flame. With Jerome Kern, Hammerstein
wrote eight musicals including Sweet Adeline, Music in
the Air and their masterwork, Show Boat. The Rodgers &
Hammerstein partnership began with Oklahoma! (1943)
followed by Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I,
Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song, and his last
musical, The Sound of Music featuring his song Edelweiss.
Hammerstein II died at his farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania,
in August of 1960.
MICHELLE HART ELEVENTH SEASON (Hair/Wig & Makeup Designer) is a licensed cosmetologist and certified
professional make-up artist. Hart designs for Asolo Rep and
FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training productions.
Other credits: Sarasota Ballet, Florida Studio Theatre, West
Coast Black Theater Troupe, Banyan Theater, Ruth Eckerd
Hall, Venice Theatre, Dorset Theatre, and Open Stage
Theatre (where she won the Award for Best Hair). She has
also done hair and make-up for Joan Rivers, Doris Roberts,
Martin Short, Jane Russell, Arlene Dahl, Soledad Villamil, and
Jane Pauley. Music video and short film credits are Second
Chance by Shinedown, Reverse Cowgirl by T-Pain, and Grief
Splattered Canvas. Her work has also been exhibited at SCF
Fine Art Gallery in 2009 & 2013.
STUART HOWARD & ASSOCIATES (Casting) Stuart
Howard and Paul Hardt are very happy to continue their
casting work for Rob Ruggiero, and to return to Asolo
Rep with Show Boat. Along with casting for Broadway,
Off Broadway, National/International Tours and Regional
Theatres their favorite projects have been Gypsy with Tyne
Daly, West Side Story and the upcoming The Nutty Professor
directed by Jerry Lewis.
KEVIN KENNEDY SEVENTH SEASON (Sound Designer) recent
credits include Darwin in Malibu, Glengarry Glen Ross,
Deathtrap, 1776, Pulse, and Bonnie & Clyde (Pre-Broadway)
at Asolo Rep; This Wonderful Life at Asolo Rep, Syracuse
Stage, The Cleveland Play House, and The Laguna
Playhouse; Nilo Cruz’s Hurricane for the Ringling International
Arts Festival; Tales of The City and 1776 at ACT; The
Rocky Horror Show at The Old Globe; Hugh Jackman In
Performance, The Nutty Professor, and Kinky Boots PreBroadway; and Sister Act, Bonnie & Clyde, Leap of Faith,
Soul Doctor, and Kinky Boots (2013 Tony for Sound) on
Broadway. Kevin is also the Assistant Designer with the
North American Tour of Mamma Mia and toured as the
Sound Engineer with the Alan Parsons Project.
JEROME KERN (Music) Between 1915 and 1919 Kern
worked in collaboration on Very Good Eddie; Oh Boy!;
Oh, Lady! Lady!; Leave it to Jane; and Zip Goes a Million,
which are credited with laying the foundation of the modern
American musical comedy. In the 1920’s his works included
Sally, Sitting Pretty, Dear Sir, Sunny and The City Chap,
culminating in the 1927 American operetta masterpiece
Show Boat (written with Oscar Hammerstein II.) This led to
more operatic works including Sweet Adeline, The Cat and
the Fiddle, Music in the Air, and Roberta. Kern’s final stage
musical, again with Hammerstein, was Very Warm For May
(1939) and included his masterpiece All the Things You Are.
Kern died in New York City in 1945, while preparing to begin
work on Annie Oakley.
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WHO’S WHO IN THE CREATIVE TEAM
JOHN LASITER SECOND SEASON (Lighting Designer) returns
to Asolo Rep after designing Ella. He designed High for
Broadway and its national tour last year. His Off-Broadway
credits include Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn,
Alarm Dog Repertory Company, Blue Light Theater Company,
and Music Theatre Group. Regional work includes Actors
Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Arizona Repertory Theatre,
Centerstage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland
Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Florida Stage, George
Street Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, Guthrie Theater,
Goodspeed Musicals, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The
Muny, and more. His opera and dance credits include Eos
Orchestra, The Curtis Institute of Music, Glimmerglass
Opera, Manhattan School of Music, Opera Delaware,
Opera Carolina, Ballet Memphis, Danzantes LA and
New Mexico, among others. www.johnlasiter.com
BRUCE LECURE FOURTH SEASON (Fight Director) Past Asolo
Rep credits include: Hamlet, Prince of Cuba; Deathtrap;
You Can’t Take It With You; Macbeth; Hamlet Redux.
Bruce has directed fights in productions at The Shakespeare
Theatre, The Paper Mill Playhouse, Coconut Grove
Playhouse, Caldwell Theatre Company, Florida Grand Opera,
GableStage, Stage West, Opera of Omaha, and many others.
Mr. Lecure holds the title of Professor and Head of Movement
Training in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University
of Miami. He is a Certified Teacher and Fight Director in
the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and a past
President of the Association of Theatre Movement
Educators (ATME).
VICTOR MEYRICH FORTY-FIFTH SEASON (Production Manager)
is a graduate of Carnegie Tech and worked at New York
Shakespeare Festival, Brandeis, University of California
Institute of Repertory, APA, American Conservatory Theater,
and again in New York. As head of production and technical
staffs, he is responsible for the overall technical operation of
Asolo Rep and serves as consultant for the FSU Center for
the Performing Arts. He has been a member of the Asolo
Rep family since 1969. NOAH RACEY SECOND SEASON (Choreographer) Last seen
at Asolo Rep as lead/creator of Noah Racey’s Pulse.
Noah debuted on Broadway in the 2001 revival of Follies,
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Associate Choreographer), Never
Gonna Dance, and Curtains. Choreographer of Town Hall’s
Broadway By the Year series; Brooklyn to Hollywood; All
Singin’, All Dancin’. Musical premieres: It Shoulda Been You
(George Street Playhouse) and Turn of the Century (Goodman
Theatre). Associate Director for High School Musical and
High School Musical 2 and Assistant Director/Choreographer:
Shenandoah (Ford’s Theatre). Choreographer of 2008-09
White Christmas national tour, Cinderella and Guys and
Dolls at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre; Show Boat, and
Annie Get Your Gun at Goodspeed Musicals (Connecticut
Critics Circle Outstanding Choreography Awards). Boston
Conservatory graduate and strong proponent for arts
funding in public schools.
ROB RUGGIERO SECOND SEASON (Director) directed Ella at
Asolo Rep in 2007. On Broadway Rob directed Looped
(starring Valerie Harper in a Tony nominated performance)
and High (starring Kathleen Turner). Off-Broadway he directed
All Under Heaven (also starring Ms. Harper), as well as
conceiving and directing the original musical revue Make Me
a Song: The Music of William Finn (Drama Desk/Outer Critics
Circle Nominations). Rob’s work has been seen at major
regional theaters around the country, including Actors Theater
of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Play
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House, The Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, The Muny, The
Pittsburgh Public Theater, and The Repertory Theatre of St.
Louis, among others. Mr. Ruggiero has directed numerous
musicals at Goodspeed where originated this adaptation
of Show Boat, and he recently returned to direct a critically
acclaimed revival The Most Happy Fella. This new adaptation
of Show Boat is now available to be licensed through the
Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Rob recently was
named Producing Artistic Director of TheaterWorks where he
has directed almost 50 shows. www.robruggiero.com
F. WADE RUSSO FIRST SEASON (Musical Director/Conductor/
Keyboard) conducted Show Boat (directed by Rob Ruggerio)
at Goodspeed Musicals where he most recently conducted
Hello Dolly! Other conducting credits include on Broadway:
assistant conductor, By Jeeves (Sir Alan Ackbourn, director).
National Tour: The Boyfriend (Julie Andrews, director).
Regional Theatre: Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Repertory
Theatre of St. Louis, Goodspeed Musicals, Huntington
Theatre, Barrington Stage, Lyric Theatre of Boston,
Weston Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Juilliard School, and the
O’Neill Theatre Center. Recipient of St. Louis Critics Award,
Best Conductor for Sunday in the Park with George, Rob
Ruggerio director. He has taught at Circle in the Square
Theatre School, the National Theatre Institute (O’Neill
Theatre Center), the Juilliard School, and is currently at
the Boston Conservatory.
LAURYN E. SASSO EIGHTH SEASON (Dramaturg) received her
BA in Theatre Studies from Wellesley College and her MFA in
Dramaturgy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
She has studied with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox,
Massachusetts and the National Theater Institute at the
O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Previously
she has worked at Perishable Theatre in Providence, Rhode
Island, and with the SPF Summer Play Festival in New York
City. This season she is the co-adapter for Romeo & Juliet
and is serving as dramaturg for Romeo & Juliet, Show Boat,
and all rep season productions.
MICHAEL SCHWEIKARDT FOURTH SEASON (Set Designer)
Past Asolo Rep credits include: Deathtrap, Barnum and
Ella. Recent credits include the world premiere of the new
Duncan Sheik/Kyle Jarrow musical Whishper House at San
Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and Ella, a musical about jazz
legend Ella Fitzgerald, which is appearing in cities all across
the country. Critically acclaimed productions of Carousel,
The Most Happy Fella, 1776, Big River, Camelot and Annie
Get Your Gun for Goodspeed Musicals; American premiere
of Frank McGuiness’ Gates of Gold, The Bird Sanctuary,
Oklahoma! starring Kelli O’Hara and Will Chase celebrating
the Oklahoma State centennial; and national and international
tours of James Taylor’s One Man Band. Upcoming
productions include Il Trovatore for Sarasota Opera.
Online portfolio: www.msportfolio.com
JEFFREY SMALL FIRST SEASON (Associate Lighting Designer)
Off Broadway: Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis, Love in the
Time of Hanukah, and TapeFAces (Ars Nova NYC). Regional:
The Westport Country Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival,
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Goodspeed Musicals, Long
Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Pittsburgh
Public Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera, City Theatre Company,
Bloomington Playwright’s Project. Events: US Open’s Arthur
Ashe Kid’s Day, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, New Year’s
Eve in Times Square. www.jeffreylsmall.com
WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST
DANIEL BELNAVIS FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Charlie) is so excited to be
making his Asolo Rep debut, especially
with this historic and important show.
Daniel is a proud graduate of the University
of Michigan’s Musical Theatre Department.
His recent credits include Curtis Taylor Jr.
in the Japanese tour of Dreamgirls and Big Moe in a regional
production of Five Guys Named Moe. Many thanks to family
and friends for their constant support and to Asolo Rep for
this opportunity.
JOEL BLUM* FIRST SEASON (Captain Andy
Hawks) is thrilled to be making his Asolo
Rep debut. He played Frank in Show Boat
on Broadway (and in London) receiving a
Tony nomination. Other Broadway credits:
42nd Street, The Debbie Reynolds Show,
Steel Pier (Tony Nomination), A Christmas
Carol, The Music Man, among others. He’s won a Barrymore
Award in The Tin Pan Alley Rag; a Helen Hayes nomination
for Meet John Doe; a Drama Desk nomination for Golf, The
Musical; and a Broadway World Award for Billy Elliot. On
television Joel has appeared in Law & Order, The Sopranos,
Ed, The Tonight Show, Bob Hope Specials, Liberace Special
and The Sonny & Cher Show.
E. FAYe BUTLER* FIRST SEASON (Queenie)
recently completed a successful run of
Pullman Porter Blues at the Goodman
Theatre, Arena Stage, and Seattle
Repertory Theatre. National and Regional
Tours: Mamma Mia, Dinah Was, Nunsense,
Nunsense 2, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Cope….
Regional Theatres: Arena Stage, Signature Theatre,
Centerstage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Arkansas
Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Northlight Theatre,
Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre,
Court Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse,
Sacramento Theatre, Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre, Yale
Repertory Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse. Recipient of six
Joseph Jefferson Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, three
Black Theatre Alliance Awards, Barrymore Award, Ovation
Award, RAMI Award, After Dark Award, Excellence in the
Arts, Sarah Siddons Society Leading Lady Award, LuntFontaine Fellowship. Inducted into the Women in the Arts
Museum in Washington DC. www.efayebutler.com
CANDACE C. CULCLEASURE FIRST SEASON
(Ensemble/Understudy Both Nuns) This
is Candace’s first performance with Asolo
Rep. Ms. Culcleasure worked on the crew
for the Off-Broadway production, Sleep
No More. Thank you Show Boat cast,
family, and friends. God is good!
www.culcleasure.com
DANIELLA DALLI* FIRST SEASON (Julie
LaVerne) has most recently appeared
in The Denver Center’s world premiere
production of Sense & Sensibility. Other
credits include Mrs. Anderssen, A Little
Night Music at Indiana Rep; Eponine,
Les Misérables at The Fulton Theatre;
Irene Molloy, Hello, Dolly! at The Maltz Jupiter Theatre;
Lady of the Lake, Spamalot at Maine State Music Theatre;
The King and I with Kansas City Starlight and A Cappella
Humana at Delaware Theatre Company. Thanks and love
to God, and my husband Franklin. www.danielladalli.com
BEN DAVIS* FIRST SEASON (Gaylord Ravenal)
recently seen as Billy in Anna Nicole the
Opera (BAM, NY City Opera); Brom Broeck,
Knickerbocker Holiday (Lincoln Center).
Broadway credits include Mr. Lidquist, u/s Carl
Magnus; Fredrik, A Little Night Music; Javert
& Enjolras, Les Misérables; Trevor Graydon,
Thoroughly Modern Millie; Marcello, Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme
(2003 Tony Honor). Tour: Galahad in Spamalot. Regional: Emile
de Becque, South Pacific (The MUNY); Captain von Trapp, The
Sound of Music (Paper Mill Playhouse); Antipholus of Ephesus,
Boys From Syracuse (DC Shakespeare); and Ravenal, Show
Boat (Goodspeed Musicals). Film/TV: Mozart’s The Magic Flute
directed by Kenneth Branagh, 30Rock, and Numb3rs. For Dad.
Visit www.benjaminjaydavis.com
TROY A. JACKSON FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Queenie/Understudy Old Lady/
Understudy Mrs. O’Brien) is excited to take
part in her first production at Asolo Rep.
Regional theatre credits include Motormouth
Maybelle, Hairspray; Bloody Mary, Big River;
Effie, Dreamgirls; and Ronnie, Hair, among
others. She is also a part of the legendary Blues Brothers Show
at Universal Studios Florida where she appears as Mabel. She
would like to dedicate her performance to her late grandfather,
who was a man of many talents. www.TroyAJackson.com
BRIGID KEGEL FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Mother Superior/Understudy
Dottie/Understudy Lottie) is delighted to make
her Asolo Rep debut. Recent credits include
Philia, A Funny Thing…Forum; Olive Ostrovsky,
25th Annual…Spelling Bee; Celeste #1/Elaine,
Sunday in the Park with George; Bet, Oliver!;
Zerlina, Don Giovanni; and Sally Brown, Snoopy! The Musical.
Brigid has also appeared in both Carousel and How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying with the Orlando Philharmonic.
She holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College.
Brigidkegel.weebly.com
DAN KENNETT FIRST SEASON (Sheriff Ike
Vallon/Ensemble/Understudy Windy/
Understudy Steve Baker/Understudy Jim
Greene) is thrilled to be making his professional
theater debut at Asolo Rep.
He recently graduated from the University
of North Carolina School of the Arts and
is excited to now find himself in sunny Sarasota. Dan would
like to thank the teachers at UNCSA, everyone at HardenCurtis Associates, and all of his friends and family for their
everlasting love and support. www.DanwKennett.com
DENIS LAMBERT* FIRST SEASON (Frank Schultz)
New York credits include the Broadway revival
of A Chorus Line, the City Center Encores!
productions of Pipe Dream, Finian’s Rainbow
and Yank! at the York Theatre. Denis’ work at
regional theatres includes roles at the Kennedy
Center, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Dallas
Theater Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Walnut
Street Theatre, Forestburgh Playhouse, Detroit’s Gem Theatre,
the Charlottetown Festival and Music Theatre of Wichita. He has
toured the country three times with White Christmas, A Chorus
Line, and The Producers. He is a graduate of the University
of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). www.
denislambertonline.com
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
7
WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST
MICHAEL JAMES LESLIE* FIRST SEASON (Joe)
is a Cornell Law graduate who made his
theatrical debut in the first Broadway revival
of Hair. He was the last Lion in the original
Broadway production of The Wiz, repeating
that role on tour. Michael originated the
role of The Voice of the Plant in Little Shop
of Horrors in Los Angeles, London (Olivier Award for Best
Musical) and the recent Broadway production and National
Tour. He was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for the
Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2005 and in 2010 for Best
Featured Actor in a Musical or Revue for Marriott Lincolnshire
(Once on this Island).
DENISE LUTE* FIRST SEASON (Mrs. O’Brien/
Old Lady/Ensemble/Understudy Parthy
Ann Hawks) apprenticed at Asolo Rep in
1971! Bill Shroder, of the Siesta Key Actors
Theatre, cast Denise in her first professional
job, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Lee
Strasberg made Denise a member of
the Actors Studio, and she has been honored to work with
many of its prestigious members. Recent NY theatre: Bug,
Anna Christie. Regional: Tennessee Playboy, Show Boat
(Rob Ruggiero), Mame, The Big Knife, The Constant Wife,
Communicating Doors, Doubt, Copenhagen. Recurring
television roles include Judge Metzger on Ed and Katie
on The Guiding Light. She has also appeared on all three
Law & Order series.
MARISSA McGOWAN* FIRST SEASON
(Magnolia Hawks) Asolo Rep debut!
Marissa recently originated the role of
Stella Purdy in the Marvin Hamlisch/Rupert
Holmes musical The Nutty Professor
directed by Jerry Lewis. Broadway credits
include A Little Night Music revival with
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury (Original Cast
Recording), Bonnie & Clyde (Original Cast Recording), Les
Misérables (Revival and National Tour) where she performed
both the roles of Eponine and Cosette. Favorite regional roles
include Maria (The Sound of Music), Guinevere (Camelot),
Philia (...Forum), and Johanna (Sweeney Todd). Television:
Major Crimes (TNT). BFA Syracuse University. Thanks to
Rob and love to Jon and my incredible family.
www.marissamcgowan.com @blondemcg
BRITTANY PROIA* SECOND SEASON (Adult
Kim/Ensemble/Understudy Magnolia
Hawks/Understudy Julie LaVerne) Asolo
Rep credits include: Alice Sycamore (You
Can’t Take it With You), Fran/April (The
Heidi Chronicles), and Aggie Wheeler in The
Game’s Afoot. Brittany received her MFA
from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (April
2013). Conservatory credits include Amalia (The Robbers),
Madame Khokhlakov (The Brothers Karamazov), and Dawn
(Lobby Hero.) Recently she has performed with Nebraska
Shakespeare in Twelfth Night and Titus Anronicus and with
The Ozark Actors Theatre (Into the Woods.) She holds a
Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from NYU. Sincere
thanks to my family, my inspiring professors, Michael and
Rob for this incredible opportunity. www.brittanyproia.com
8
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST
BRUCE SABATH* FIRST SEASON (Windy/Jim
Green/Ensemble/Understudy Captain Andy
Hawks) played Larry in the Tony Awardwinning Broadway revival of Company.
Other New York performances include Hello
Again (Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle
award nominations-Best Revival), Platinum,
The Sphinx Winx, Jerusalem Syndrome, Prince Hal and Fleet
Week. Regionally Bruce has been featured at Cincinnati
Playhouse (Merrily We Roll Along and Company), Caldwell
Theatre as Nixon (Frost/Nixon), Geva Theatre, Florida Studio
Theatre, Human Race Theatre, Depot Theatre, Schoolhouse
Theater, Arts Center of Costal Carolina, Forestburgh
Playhouse, and West Virginia Public. On TV you’ve seen
Bruce on Boardwalk Empire, Onion Sports Dome, and PBS
Great Performances – Company. www.BruceSabath.com
DAVID SATTLER* FIRST SEASON (Steve
Baker/Ensemble/Understudy Gaylord
Ravenal) is pleased to make his debut
with Asolo Rep. Credits include Danny
(European Tour of Grease), Billy (Chicago),
Chad (All Shook Up), Bobby (Urinetown),
Tony (West Side Story), Billy (Carousel),
Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Sid (Pajama Game), Tommy
(The Who’s Tommy), Frank (Annie Get Your Gun), Stone
(City of Angels), Gabey (On The Town), Conrad (Bye Bye
Birdie), Joe Hardy (Damn Yankees), John (Miss Saigon),
Narrator (Blood Brothers), Pharaoh (Joseph…) and
Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf (Into The Woods). Other credits
include Fulton Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Pioneer
Theatre, and Paper Mill Playhouse. Thanks to family
and friends for their love and support.
DERECK SEAY FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Pete/Understudy Jake)
starred in Footloose (Ren) and Cats
(Munkustrap) at The Little Theatre on
the Square, The Wedding Singer (George)
at Wagon Wheel Theatre, as well as
Joseph...Dreamcoat (Joseph), and
Rent (Roger) at Theatre Winter Haven in Winter Haven, FL;
Brigadoon (Charlie) and Aida (Radames). Proud graduate
of The University of Michigan.
JOHNATHAN SHEPHERD FIRST SEASON
(Ensemble) is excited to be making
his first appearance at Asolo Rep. He
recently made his professional debut as
John Thomas in the Western Playhouse
production on Miss Saigon.
JEFF M. SMITH FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Frank/Understudy Both
Backwooodsman) has always wanted to
be a performer at sea! He was born and
raised in West Texas and graduated from
Texas Tech University (Music-Theatre).
Jeff recently wrapped up touring the nation
with West Side Story. Some regional favorites include Cats
(Gateway Playhouse), Damn Yankees (Ogunquit Playhouse),
Man of La Mancha (The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina),
West Side Story (Ogunquit Playhouse). A big thanks to CLA
and to Asolo Rep for having him in this wonderful production.
www.jeffmsmith.net
DOROTHY STANLEY* FIRST SEASON (Parthy
Ann Hawks) is excited to make her Asolo
Rep debut in Show Boat, and thrilled to
return to Sarasota where she appeared at
the Sarasota Opera House in Dames At
Sea and the tours of Cabaret and Billy
Elliot at the Van Wezel. Her regional credits
include the Syracuse and Arena Stages, St. Louis and
Connecticut Repertory Theatres, Paper Mill, Weston, Cape
Playhouses, the Denver Center, and Goodspeed Musicals.
She and Joel Blum were Frank and Ellie in Hal Prince’s revival
of Show Boat 20 years ago. Now we’re the old folks! Thanks
to Rob Ruggiero for bringing us back together.
LILLY MAE STEWART FIRST SEASON (Young
Kim) is eight years old, and is a third grade
gifted student. Performances include Fiddler
on the Roof, Les Misérables, Annie and
How to Eat Like a Child. She loves ballroom
dancing, cartwheeling, hula hooping,
reading, rock climbing and violin. She is
pictured on national Tervis displays. She is a funny girl, who
easily laughs at herself! www.LillyMaeStewart.com and
www.backstage.com/kathryndutton-mitchell/
GRIFFETH WHITEHURST SECOND SEASON
(Ensemble/Assistant to Choreographer/
Understudy Sherriff Vallon/Understudy Willy)
was last seen performing the role of George
in Freefall Theatre’s production of Spring
Awakening. Regional: S’Wonderful (Straz
Center as Harold), 1776 (Asolo Rep as the
Leather Apron) He graduated from the University of Tampa
in 2012 with a degree in Performing Arts. University credits
include Black (Wild Party); George Gibbs (Our Town); Lance
(Die Mommie, Die!); Songs For A New World; Pippin and
Candide. Griffeth also performed as Lance in Die Mommie,
Die! at the Orlando Fringe Festival in 2010. This is his second
production with Asolo Rep, and he is thrilled to be back.
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of
Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
ELISA VAN DUYNE* FIRST SEASON (Ellie May
Chipley) is honored to perform at Asolo
Rep. Her Broadway credits include 42nd
Street, Beauty and the Beast, 110 In the
Shade, and Finian’s Rainbow. Favorite
roles include Irene Roth, Crazy for You;
Velma, Chicago; Milly, Seven Brides…;
Young Little Edie, Grey Gardens; and Elsa Schraeder, The
Sound of Music. Other regional theatre works include shows
at Paper Mill Playhouse, Kennedy Center, and Walnut Street
Theatre. She has appeared on TV in Celebrity Ghost Stories,
As The World Turns, The Late Show with David Letterman
and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She is a Boston
Conservatory graduate. Love to my family.
NICHOLAS WARD* FIRST SEASON (Charlie/
Ensemble, Assistant Director/Understudy
Joe) is so thrilled to be joining the Asolo
Rep family in this beautiful production of
Show Boat. Nicholas grew up in a small
town called Niceville, FL and currently
resides in NYC. Some of his favorite roles
include New York City Center’s Encores!, Pipe Dream,
National tour of Show Boat, European tour of Porgy and
Bess, Booker T. Washington in Ragtime, the Voice of the
Plant in Little Shop of Horrors, Judah in Joseph and The
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tenorio in Man of La
Mancha and Fred in Smokey Joe’s Café’. Sending love
and thanks to friends and family for their endless support.
KATIE WEIDMAIER FIRST SEASON (Ensemble/
Understudy Ellie/Understudy Ethel) is
excited to be a part of her first season
at Asolo Rep. Some of her recent credits
include Roxie in Chicago, Kate/Chutney in
Legally Blonde and the Ghost of Christmas
Past in A Christmas Carol at the historic
Woodstock Playhouse. She is a proud graduate from the
University of Michigan and would like
to thank her family, friends, and Ben for all of their love
and support. KatieWeidmaier.com
marissa mcgowan & ben davis, PHOTO BY daniel kelly
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
9
WHO’S WHO IN THE MUSICIANS
TERRI BOOTH SEVENTH SEASON (Reed Doubler) is happy to
be back here at Asolo Rep after playing 1776 and the world
premiere production of Noah Racey’s Pulse last season.
She has recorded background/scene change music for
straight shows as well as played in the pit for other Asolo
Rep Productions such as Fanny Brice, America’s Funny Girl;
Barnum and Backwards in High Heels.
VICTOR MONGILLO FIFTH SEASON (Trumpet) has been a music
educator for the past 25 years and is currently Director of
Bands at Pine View School for the Gifted. Past Asolo Rep
credits include Biff in 1940’s Radio Hour, Palace Trumpeter in
Plexiglass Slipper and pit musician for 1776, Barnum, Beehive,
A Tale of Two Cities, Swingtime Canteen, Guys and Dolls and
The Music Man.
CARLANN EVANS FOURTH SEASON (Violinist) This will be
Carlann’s fourth show with Asolo Rep. She performed in
Bonnie & Clyde (2010), Yentl (2011) in which she collaborated with the composer Jill Sobule, and last year she
played in 1776. Carlann is a member of the Sarasota
Orchestra, Musicians Out of the Box, teaches extensively,
and loves performing other genres of music. She is happy
to be back with Asolo Rep.
DON PARKER THIRD SEASON (Trombone) a Sarasota native,
was awarded a BM degree in trombone performance from
the Swinney Conservatory of Music at CMU. He toured with
many shows, including the famous RBBB circus Blue Unit as
Trombonist and Assoc. Conductor. This is Don’s third show with
Asolo Rep, past credits being 1776 and Barnum. Don performs
freelance with groups including the Sarasota Jazz project
Big Band, The Jazz Legacy BB, and The First Brass Choir.
TJ GLOWACKI THIRD SEASON (Upright Bass) has played
bass with several National tours including Thoroughly
Modern Millie, Grease, Wicked, West Side Story, Anything
Goes, A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins, Barry Manilow and
Andrea Bocelli. His previous work at Asolo Rep includes
Noah Racey’s Pulse and Stephen Schwartz’ Working
The Musical. He is a member of the Southwest Florida
Symphony Orchestra and currently teaches at The Patel
Conservatory, Hillsborough Community College, and St.
Petersburg College.
THOMAS E. SUTA SEVENTH SEASON (Percussion) BM, MM
The New England Conservatory of Music; Timpanist with the
Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. Performed with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. Show work: Asolo Rep, Tampa
Bay Performing Arts, Sarasota Players, Manatee Players,
Florida Studio Theatre. Commissioned to compose The Eye
of Ra for the Sarasota Youth Opera. Faculty State College of
Florida since 1985.
from director rob ruggiero
Show Boat
reviving the Great
American Musical
Show Boat has moved and entertained audiences since it
was first produced back in 1927. The musical is based on the
1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber and has seen
many productions for close to a century. It is a powerful story
spanning nearly four decades, and takes us on a journey into
the lives of those living and working on the Cotton Blossom,
a Mississippi River show boat. The play’s dominant themes
of racial prejudice, family struggles, and enduring love have
touched the lives of many audiences over the years, and the
show itself helped redefine the musical in its time.
It is certainly a daunting task to take on this monumental
classic. When Goodspeed Musicals first approached me to
direct Show Boat in 2011, I – at the time – actually knew very
little about it. Preparing for that production, I soon became
totally consumed and moved by this powerful story and
extraordinary piece of musical theatre. Now, as I prepare to
re-stage the show here at Asolo Rep, I continue to be humbled
and impressed at how this show affects all of us and how
“not old” it feels.
What interests me most is telling the story of this intimate
show business family, a family that reaches beyond any
biological connection to a place that represents a very deep
connection and love. This family crosses lines of race and
class, which in its time was even more provocative and
dangerous than it is now. I was particularly surprised to
encounter how assertively Show Boat deals with race issues.
For me, these relate back to the family issues of the play and
are not some huge political statement. It’s very personal.
Our version of Show Boat is based on the 1946 published
script, but we have made (with the support and approval
of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization) a number of
adjustments, edits, and changes. Show Boat has never been
performed the same way twice – it’s a piece of repertoire that
has always invited interpretation and choice. I really wanted
to focus our production on the story of this show business
family. I found particular inspiration in both the novel and
1936 movie as I searched for authenticity. This Show Boat
is more intimate and story-centric, possibly one of the most
intimate versions to date.
The support of the R&H Organization was instrumental as I
searched for solutions that both served the story and honored
the history of the show. They provided access to rare archival
materials, offered suggestions, advice, guidance, and most
importantly trusted and encouraged my vision for Show Boat.
So… what is distinct about this Show Boat? Here are a few
highlights to watch for:
E. faye butler, michael james leslie, joel blum, daniella
dalli, marissa mcgowan & ben davis, PHOTO BY daniel kelly
10
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
First, this will be a more concise and streamlined production
– one that is very focused on story and relationships, while
maintaining its entertainment value. I hope audiences will
leave with a very personal connection to this extended family,
these characters and how life on the Cotton Blossom (and
away from it) changes them.
*Adapted with permission from materials originally appearing
on www.goodspeed.org.
Yes, there will be a boat. One thing we all felt was imperative
was “you can’t do Show Boat without a boat” and we’ve
worked hard to meet that challenge. Working with my longtime collaborator, set designer Michael Schweikardt, solving
the design has been both an inspiring and epic undertaking.
We had two major tasks: how to articulate the boat onstage,
and then how to articulate the change to Chicago and the
Trocadero. Michael has worked tirelessly to design a beautiful
set that has been skillfully brought to life. At times, using the
theater itself as the interior of the boat was also key.
One of the most exciting and original changes will be found
in how we are approaching the top of Act Two. With the
support and approval of R&H, Alice Hammerstein, and the
Ferber estate, I was invited to present an alternative solution
to this section in particular. Our Show Boat combines and
re-structures existing materials in a new and original way
to move the story forward.
Finally, casting is something that is critical in producing a
successful Show Boat. I wanted a great acting company as
well as a great company of singers. Though the music must be
served, of course, I didn’t want the show to be just “sung,” but
rather lived. Asolo Rep searched very diligently with our casting
director to find the right actors to support this particular vision.
Captain Andy is the heart of any Show Boat, and the
entertaining and funny Joel Blum will fill those shoes. His
other half, the strong and protective Parthy will be played
by the uniquely amusing Dottie Stanley. The key roles of
Magnolia and Ravenal are being brought to life by the quirky
and wonderfully talented Marissa McGowan matched with
the authentically charming Ben Davis. Naturally, the choice
of Joe is very important as well. We chose the powerful and
sublime Michael James Leslie. His (and our) Queenie will be
experienced through the maternal strength and humor of E.
Faye Butler. The song and dance team of Frank and Ellie
will be played by the delightful “triple threat” couple, Denis
Lambert and Elisa van Duyne, and the pivotal role of Julie
by the beautiful and layered Daniella Dalli.
I feel very fortunate to be able to collaborate with this level
of talent here at Asolo Rep – and this cast is exceptional.
The entire company of 25 actors will certainly bring a very
special passion to our version of Show Boat.
Come aboard for this unique and intimate journey!
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
11
about the legend
edna ferber,
iconic author
Though Edna Ferber’s writing career spanned more than 50 years
and propelled her to fame before her death in 1968 at age 82,
she sprang from humble beginnings. The daughter of Hungarianborn Jewish shopkeeper Jacob Ferber and his American wife
Julia, Edna was born in August 1885 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The family – consisting of Edna, her parents, and older sister
Fannie – moved at least three times during Edna’s youth, living
in Chicago and Iowa before settling in Appleton, Wisconsin
when Edna was a teenager. As a high school senior, Edna briefly
entertained the idea of becoming an actress, but that dream was
discarded after graduation. She got a job as a reporter for the
Appleton Daily Crescent shortly after finishing high school, and
spent the next two years working for the paper. She enjoyed the
work and soon found she had a way with words.
It was impressive that Ferber got the job with the Crescent as
female reporters in the early 1900s were rare. Her biographer,
great-niece Julie Gilbert, relates the circumstances of her hiring
in Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle, A Biography. “She’d known
that it was unheard of for a girl to be a reporter. ‘Never been done
before,’ they told her – unanimous heads shaking. But she’d been
hired…” Even in those early days, it was apparent that Ferber’s
natural bent tended towards fiction rather than journalism. She
was eventually fired from the Crescent for blurring fact and fiction
in some of her stories. Gilbert notes, “Edna had been told that
her services were no longer required…Appleton rumor still has it
today that the chief reason was because she wrote fiction in lieu
of journalism – that she bent the facts to suit herself. It was a most
fortuitous firing, although she didn’t know it at the time.”
Her dismissal from the Crescent was soon to be forgotten,
for in 1905 at the age of 20, Ferber left Appleton for Milwaukee
and a better job at the Milwaukee Journal. She spent her years
on the Journal honing her writing skills and building connections
that would serve her later in life. She’d begun to dabble with
fiction writing while she was still working in journalism, but had
difficulty believing she could abandon her steady job to become a
full time novelist. She recounted her internal struggle in her 1938
autobiography, A Peculiar Treasure. “Though I had sold all the
short stories I had written I was still afraid that this golden gift would
be snatched from me. It didn’t seem possible that one could earn a
living just by sitting home cozily in front of a typewriter and bringing
people to life on paper.”
Stability was key to Ferber, and seeking it had become habitual
early on. Jacob was chronically ill in Edna’s youth, and the
Ferber women – particularly Julia and Edna – had been thrust
into roles that were atypical for women in the early years of the
20th century. This had a profound effect on Edna, imbuing her
with a sense of determination and drive that never left her.
Gilbert recounts the development of the family’s dynamics.
“Since [Edna’s] graduation…she had been working to support a
family whose father could eventually barely eat bread no less win
it. The roles had been defined early. Jacob was the invalid – sweet,
soft, and needy. Julia was the man of the family – productive,
seemingly tireless, and emotionally muscular. Fan was goodydomestic-shoes – tame, pretty, a household genius. Edna was
goody-work-shoes – smart, industrious, adventurous. Hers was
the most complicated role. She was never allowed, nor permitted
herself, to be a daughter. With Julia as head of the household, she
suffered a reversal, and became the ‘No. 1 son’ to her mother’s
masculine stance. ‘Ed can do it.’ ‘Ed will do it.’ ‘Good for Ed!’ was
the hum all around her. They even called her Ed, as though she
were a tough little guy.”
While Ferber always had great affection for her father, and spent a
significant amount of time caring for him while her mother ran the
family business, his illness created a strain between Edna’s parents.
Gilbert notes that Julia “had terrible contempt for her albatross
husband; a contempt which both Edna and Fan caught and carried
with them…Women were potent; men not so much.” This seed,
planted early, would grow into a recurring theme in Ferber’s works,
which almost always featured strong female protagonists and at
least one weaker or subordinate male character. Her first novel,
Dawn O’Hara, was published in 1911 and was written during
Ferber’s own bout with illness. She’d returned to Appleton from
Milwaukee in 1909, suffering from severe anemia. Fannie and Julia
were simultaneously caring for Edna and Jacob, who by this point
was blind and near death – he passed away that September. While
Edna was recovering from her illness, and later from the emotional
loss of her father, she began to work on Dawn O’Hara.
Show Boat the currents of time
Show Boat’s action spans forty years, ranging from 1887 to 1927. Although the story itself is a fiction,
the characters and motifs reflect the changing times of the real historical periods the piece occupies.
Events in plain text are part of historical record. Events in bold take place in the play only.
Shortly before writing Show Boat, which was published
in 1926, Ferber embarked on yet another phase of her
career – that of playwright. Her introduction to writing for
the stage came via none other than one of the most
celebrated playwrights in the history of American theatre –
George S. Kaufman. In his biography of Kaufman, George S.
Kaufman: An Intimate Portrait, Howard Teichmann relates how
the iconic collaboration began. “It was Beatrice [Kaufman’s
wife] who brought them together. Bea had bought a volume
containing ‘Old Man Minick,’ one of Miss Ferber’s better short
stories, and had recommended it to George to read. He did.
When he was convinced it could be made into a play, she
urged him to write the author.” The play, simply called Minick,
was a success in 1924 and it kicked off a collaboration that
would last nearly twenty five years and give rise to half a dozen
plays, including the hits The Royal Family, Stage Door, and
Dinner at Eight.
Ferber had begun laying the groundwork for Show Boat
while she and Kaufman were working on Minick. But her
original concept had nothing to do with itinerant actors on the
Mississippi River. She related the novel’s origins to Gilbert. “…
Show Boat wasn’t meant to be called Show Boat at all, for the
excellent reason that when I first contemplated writing it I had
The idea of the boats, once presented, captivated Ferber. A
child of the Midwest, she had seen the Mississippi River just
once in her youth, but it had left a deep impression, and now
Ames had called it to the forefront of her mind. She began work on
the novel in 1924, visiting a show boat called the James Adams
Floating Theatre to conduct research. The man who played the
juvenile leads on that boat, Charles Hunter, proved an invaluable
resource. She interviewed him for a full day during her visit to the
boat, and corresponded with him for much of the following year
and half during her writing process. The hard work and attention to
detail paid off for Ferber – the novel was a best-seller.
The book’s journey to the stage began shortly after it was released.
Composer Jerome Kern had become fascinated with the novel
almost immediately, but it took him and book writer/lyricist Oscar
Hammerstein II some time to convince Ferber to allow them to
adapt it into a musical. Familiar with the then-traditional frivolous
revue-style shows that dotted Broadway in the 1920s, Ferber felt
that the more serious subject matter of Show Boat wouldn’t be
a good fit for the stage. In the end it was Alexander Woollcott, a
fellow writer and member of the Algonquin Round Table with whom
Ferber had an often-contentious relationship, who got the ball
rolling. Woollcott and Ferber were attending an opening night and
Kern approached Woollcott in the lobby at intermission, asking if
Woollcott might introduce him to Ferber. Woollcott obliged, and the
connection was forged.
Despite any initial reservations she had about turning her novel
into a musical, Ferber grew to love the piece that Kern and
Hammerstein created, and the score became some of her favorite
music. She told Gilbert that, “I must break down and confess to
being one of those whose eyes grow dreamy and whose mouth is
wreathed in wistful smiles whenever the orchestra – any orchestra
– plays ‘Ol’ Man River.’…I never have tired of it. I just happen
to think that when Jerome Kern wrote the Show Boat score he
achieved the most beautiful and important light-opera music that
has ever been written in America.”
Edna Ferber was successful as a journalist, novelist, and
playwright, and her work was both critically acclaimed and
achieved popular success. Though Show Boat may be one
of her better remembered pieces, the impact of Edna Ferber’s
legacy on the American literary landscape is as indelible as it is
undeniable.
-LS
1889
1893
The Cotton Blossom docks at The Levee at Natchez, MS.
Construction on the Rand-McNally building is finished in Chicago, IL.
At 10 stories tall it is the first steel framed skyscraper in the world.
February The financial collapse of railroad companies
March 3 Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller,
1890
who was rendered both deaf and blind at the age of 19 months, how
to communicate.
The 1890 census shows the U.S. population to be
approximately 62 million.
October 3 Florida A&M University opens its doors in Tallahassee,
1892
Florida. It opens with two teachers and 15 students as the State
Normal College for Colored Students.
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
A string of novels and short stories followed Dawn O’Hara,
many of which were quite successful. She became well
known for her popular heroine, Emma McChesney, who
featured in several of her works. But her first notable critical
success as a novelist was 1924’s So Big, which told the
story of a woman who becomes a teacher in a rural farm
community. The heroine marries a farmer who falls ill and dies,
leaving her to run their farm and raise their son alone. The
piece won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 and has been adapted
for the screen multiple times. Several more well-known novels
followed over the subsequent decades, including 1929’s
Cimarron, 1952’s Giant, and 1958’s Ice Palace, all of which
have been adapted into films.
never heard of a show boat. It was to have been a novel entirely
laid around the old Chicago Clark Street gambling days.” It was
Ferber and Kaufman’s producer on Minick, Winthrop Ames, who
first mentioned the idea of show boats to her – jokingly suggesting
running away and joining a show boat troupe as an alternative to
working on Minick in New York’s sweltering August heat.
1887
There are now 121 Edison Power stations in the United States
supplying electricity to their customers.
12
The novel, which follows a young woman embarking on a
career as a journalist, was published by Frederick A. Stokes.
He’d received it from the agent that Ferber had sent it to,
Flora May Holly. Ferber had heard of Holly from other female
reporters at the Journal, and knew that she had successfully
represented the work of fellow female journalist turned novelist
Zona Gale several years earlier. She did equally well by Ferber,
and it seemed as though before Edna knew it, her career
path had shifted yet again – though she would still continue
her journalistic pursuits by covering the 1920 Democratic and
Republican conventions for the United Press Association, her
focus was now primarily on fiction.
Kim Ravenal is born aboard the Cotton Blossom.
causes the “Panic of 1893” – an economic depression in
America that lasts until the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.
May Thomas Edison displays his motion picture device,
the Kinescope. The first public movie theatre opens the
following April.
September The Duryea Motor Wagon Company
demonstrates the first gasoline powered automobile
built in America, the “Lady Phaeton.”
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
13
theatrical innovation
Show Boat
in theatre history
In 1927, Show Boat hit the stages of New York City like a
thunderbolt. Here was a never before seen style of musical
play where plot, character, and song all combined into one
cohesive storytelling experience. In contrast to the light
comedies and variety shows that came before it, Show Boat’s
realistic portrayal of social issues such as racial status and
miscegenation showed how powerful musical theatre could
be. However, to our modern sensibilities the structure of Show
Boat seems familiar and recognizable. While its themes may
still challenge us, and its music still move us, understanding its
explosive impact on the culture of 1927 requires examining the
theatre of the time, and what came before it.
In 1866, The Black Crook opened at the 3,200 seat theatre
at Niblo’s Garden in New York. This five-hour-long spectacle
based musical entertainment was created when an unfortunate
event occurred at the New York Academy of Music, resulting in
a timely pairing of artists. A Parisian ballet troupe had recently
been hired to perform at the Academy, but the day they
arrived in New York a fire ravaged the building, burning it to the
ground. Desperate for work they approached William Wheatley,
the actor-manager of Niblo’s, to see if he had anything for
them. Thrilled at the prospect of having an entire troupe of
dancers to complement his actors and singers, Wheatley
produced an entertainment where song and dance numbers
were interwoven with a unified plot. Prior to this production,
there were two primary methods of incorporating music into
theatrical pieces. Light comedies consisted of a series of
songs and sketches, sometimes loosely connected, but with
no real through-line. Opera had been combining music and
story for many years, but were more frequently dramatic than
comedic, and at the time were almost exclusively written in
languages other than English. The success of The Black Crook
in “stealing” from both forms and combining song, dance,
story, music, and comedy is why it is often considered to
be the forerunner of the American musical. It was extremely
successful, running for a then-unheard of 474 performances.
Many shows tried to imitate it in the following years, attempting
to capitalize on its success.
For the next two decades the form of these “musical
entertainments” would be refined in New York, and their
popularity would continue to grow. Modern conveniences
such as street lamps and advances in transportation allowed
an increasing number of patrons to attend performances
in the evenings, and helped theatre companies bring their
shows to new audiences around the country. But while
America was refining, London was innovating, and the next big
advancement in musical theatre was brewing in the minds of
the writing team of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Although
their works are usually classified as comic opera, Gilbert
and Sullivan’s creations would have a profound effect on the
future of musical theatre. Many of the modern conventions
we consider to be staples of musical theatre were pioneered
by the creative duo, including the use of lyrics and music to
advance a coherent story, pairing a tenor and soprano as
the love interests and using their love story as the backbone
of a show, quickly spoken patter songs sung by a comedic
character, and satirical commentary on current social issues.
In 1878, H.M.S. Pinafore opened in London. Though not their
first collaboration, it was their first international hit, beginning
a string of commercial and artistic successes for the pair that
would last for over twenty years.
In the beginning of the 20th century, musicals were still
following the form set by Gilbert and Sullivan, emulating their
style in order to capitalize on their popularity. However, the
music in these subsequent shows was modernized as popular
songs and the musical style of ragtime began to increasingly
influence Broadway productions. Racial boundaries were also
beginning to change, and 1898’s A Trip To Coontown became
the first Broadway show to be produced and performed by an
entirely African-American troupe. This show, however,
was still in the style of the then-popular “Minstrel Shows,”
which often portrayed African-Americans as dull, lazy,
superstitious buffoons. A more positive portrayal of AfricanAmericans, and their integration into shows with Whites,
was still decades away.
With the outbreak of World War I large numbers of
Americans sought out theatrical entertainment, as the
horrors in the newspaper headlines rapidly increased
the appeal of light, witty, and upbeat musical comedies.
The popular appeal of these shows, the eagerness of
audiences to attend them, and the commercial viability
of the productions created an explosion of theatre during
the war years that allowed America to become the leading
innovator of the western theatrical world. After twenty
years of following the British rule of Gilbert and Sullivan,
American theatre was now being brought into London
and changing the landscape of drama. A new crop of
American writers and musicians began to dominate both
cities, and enduring favorites like George and Ira Gershwin,
Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart first made a name for
themselves through the 1910s and 20s.
“
[Show Boat] discarded the old model of
allowing songs to lead while the story
followed, and gave a compelling narrative
the music it needed to express itself..
”
At the same time another shift began that would eventually
split the theatrical world into two distinct factions. The
earlier musical comedies continued to draw strong
audiences, but a new form of entertainment known as
a revue show began to gain popularity. Drawing from
influences of vaudeville, burlesque, jazz, and circuses,
revue shows were a series of acts – usually sketches,
songs and demonstrations of talent – that soared in
popularity in the 1920s. The most popular of these revues
was an annual variety show known as The Ziegfeld Follies.
Founded by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1907, the show grew to
become a yearly spectacular. Huge casts, enormous sets,
lavish costumes, and rows of dancing girls drew audiences
to the Follies every year on Broadway. The show also
drew performers from famous names of the time – stars
such as Josephine Baker, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, and
W.C. Fields all took part in various editions. As different as
the revue shows were from the musical comedies of the
previous decades, the common theme they shared was
lightness. They were both comedic, and never ventured
Original hand-drawn program and production photo from the Ziegfeld
Theatre’s 1927 production of Show Boat.
- continued on page 16
1895
May 18 The Supreme Court rules on Plessy v. Ferguson, a landmark
February 14 The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
premieres at the St. James Theatre in London to immense acclaim.
November 25 Oscar Hammerstein I opens the Olympia Theatre,
the first theatre in Times Square New York. He is the grandfather of
Show Boat writer and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
1896
April 6 The first Modern Olympic Games begin in Athens, Greece.
14
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
Supreme Court case that allows states to segregate African-Americans and
create “separate but equal” facilities. This practice would remain standard until
the law was repealed in 1954 in the case of Brown v. The Board of Education.
1899
November 6 Famous American actor William Gillette’s adaptation of Sherlock
1900
The 1900 census shows the population of the United States
is approximately 76 million.
February The Brownie camera is introduced by the Eastman Kodak
company. It is cheap, portable, and popularizes home photography.
Holmes – A Drama in Four Acts debuts on Broadway at the Garrick Theatre.
1901
December 31 Magnolia debuts at Chicago’s Trocadero Nightclub on
U.S. Steel becomes the first billion dollar company in America.
It is headed by J.P. Morgan.
New Year’s Eve.
October President Theodore Roosevelt invites African-American
leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. Many in the South
react angrily to the visit, and racial violence increases in the region.
1903
W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk is published. It is a powerful
argument for the right of African-Americans to be able to vote, be
educated, and be treated with tolerance and justice. It will become
a cornerstone of American literature.
December 17 Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully fly their
first powered airplane a distance of 120 feet.
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
15
life afloat
- continued from page 16
into more dramatic material. All of this changed with the
opening of Show Boat in 1927.
what life was like
on a real river boat
Show Boat began as a novel in 1926, written by Edna Ferber.
It was adapted into a musical by composer Jerome Kern
and writer and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. After writing the
music for the first act, Kern and Hammerstein took their show
to Florenz Ziegfeld. Wowed by the power of the show, and
the seriousness of its themes, Ziegfeld agreed to produce the
show and considered it the opportunity of a lifetime. Perhaps
even more shocking at the time than the seriousness of its
plot – a first for the musical theatre format – audiences were
introduced to the first racially integrated cast on Broadway.
The show possessed a then-unheard of frankness in its
portrayal of relationships between the races. It even featured
the first serious instance of interracial marriage ever portrayed
on Broadway. Wildly innovative for its time, Show Boat was
also a critical and commercial success from its opening night. It
would go on to run for a substantial 572 performances. It would
be adapted into four different movies and seven different radio
programs, and it is continually produced by theatres around
the world to this day.
“Decent folks as you’d ever want to see. Married
couples, most of ‘em…What do you think I’m
running? A bawdy-boat?”
– Capt. Andy Hawks, Show Boat
The arrival of Show Boat
forever changed the texture
of the American musical. It
discarded the old model of
allowing songs to lead while
the story followed, and gave a
compelling narrative the music
it needed to express itself. It is
a show featuring characters in
situations of such heightened
energy and emotion that they
have no option but to sing.
Show Boat added immediacy
to the musical, and its effects
are not only still felt, but
celebrated. As much as the
modern musical has evolved
since 1927, it is still very much
a part of Show Boat’s
Clockwise from bottom left: Paul Robeson, Irene Dunne, Hattie
continuing legacy. -AA
McDaniel, and Helen Morgan in the 1936 film of Show Boat; Helen
Morgan as Julie in the 1936 film; and Edna Ferber’s original masterpiece.
December 30 Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre is consumed by a fire
during a matinee performance. Over 605 people die. To this day it is
still the deadliest building fire in the history of America.
1907
Florenz Ziegfeld premiers the first of his yearly Ziegfeld Follies revue
shows at the Jardin de Paris.
1908
October 1 Henry Ford introduces the Model T automobile to the
American public. It is the first “affordable” automobile, and helps to
make car travel common for middle class Americans.
16
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
When Edna Ferber began writing Show Boat she had never
experienced what life aboard one of these unusual vessels
was like. In order to get an accurate feel for the daily life on
board, she visited the James Adams Floating Theatre, a
show boat that sailed the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding
tributaries from 1914–1941. She observed the routines of
the cast and crew, and spent the better part of an entire day
interviewing the juvenile lead Charles Hunter, who also served
as director and sometimes as playwright. She related the
conversation to her biographer, great-niece Julie Gilbert. “He
talked for hours…tales of the river. Stories of show boat life.
Characterizations. Romance. Adventure. River history. Stage
superstition. I had a chunk of yellow copy paper in my hand.
On this I scribbled without looking down; afraid to glance
away for fear of breaking the spell.”
One of the aspects of life on board that quickly became
clear to Ferber was that – despite the reputations these
boats sometimes had in the river towns as magnets for lewd
behavior, the troupes on board were usually quite wholesome.
On the James Adams, there was a strict moral code in force
and the enterprise was a family affair. The captain – the
James Adams who lent his name to the boat – was a former
circus performer who decided that in his retirement he would
take up a second career as a showman on the water. His
sister, Beulah, starred in most of the productions and was
married to her co-star, Hunter. Adams’ brother, Selba, was
also involved, serving as business manager for the boat for
over 15 years of its run.
Ferber managed to capture and reflect this family dynamic in
Show Boat, centering her novel around the Hawks family –
Captain Andy, the irrepressible showman who oversees the
Top: The traditional American paddle steamer, one of many inspirations
for the Show Boat setting. Bottom: The James Adams Floating Theatre,
at home on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay from 1914-1941.
Cotton Blossom, his wife Parthy whose strictness and
sharp business sense ensures that the boat actually turns
a profit, and their daughter Magnolia who becomes the star
attraction in all of their productions. But beyond the Hawks
family, Ferber also wrote of the extended family of the show
boat, and caught something of the indefinable bond that
grows between performers who have played long runs
together. In this passage, from early in the novel, she
encapsulates the essence of that life in a few short sentences.
“Julie was cooking a pot of coffee over a little spirit lamp.
They used the stage as a common gathering place. Bare of
scenery now, in readiness for next night’s set, it was their living
room. Stark and shadowy as it was, there was about it an air
of coziness, of domesticity…Sometimes George at the piano
tried out a new song for Elly or Schultzy or Ralph, in preparation for to-morrow night’s concert. The tinkle of the piano,
the sound of the singer’s voice drifted across the river. Up in
the little town in a drab cottage near the waterfront a restless
soul would turn in his sleep…wondering about these strange
people singing on their boat at midnight; envying them their
fantastic vagabond life.”
-LS
All dramaturgical information in this playbill written, edited,
and compiled by Lauryn E. Sasso and Austen Anderson.
1910
1914
The 1910 census shows the population of
the United States is approximately 92 million.
February 2 Charlie Chaplin makes his film debut in the
comedy short Making a Living.
1911
July 28 Austria-Hungry declares war on Serbia and begins World War I.
May 30 The first Indianapolis 500 is held, with
the winning racer averaging 75 miles per hour.
1915
1912
January 12 The United States House of Representatives rejects
a proposal to give women the right to vote.
April 16 The Titanic sinks, taking the lives of
over 1,500 of its passengers.
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
17
creating the look
from set designer
michael schweikardt
“
Florence Klotz (October 28,
1920 – November 1, 2006) was
a Broadway costume designer
for over 60 years. By the end
of her life she had won six Tony
Awards for costume design, as
well as countless other accolades
for her work.
The costumes in our production
of Show Boat are based on her
Tony and Drama Desk Award winning costumes for
the Broadway revival of 1994. Prior to winning a Tony
for that production she had won the Tony Award for
her costumes in Follies (1972), A Little Night Music
(1973), Pacific Overtures (1976), Grind (1985), and
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993).
She also designed Elizabeth
Taylor’s dress for her sixth
wedding (to John Warner)
in 1976, after Taylor and
Klotz had become close
friends while working on
the film version of A Little
Night Music. -AA
Members of the cast of the 2011 rendition of
Show Boat at Goodspeed Musicals.
from costume
designer amy clark
“
Designing Show Boat has been the job of a lifetime – so
far. It’s the most interesting, most challenging, and most
satisfying thing I’ve done in a very long time. It’s a lot of
show and that comes with more than a little pressure.
The show is named Show Boat, after all, so the design
of the title piece needs to be impressive.
When I first began designing the boat, I had to answer
all sorts of questions. What should the boat be? How
much room could it take up? How could it move out
of the way when the scene shifts to another location in
the show? What angle of the boat should the audience
see – should they be looking at the stern, the side,
the bow? It was just a laundry list of questions that
I answered one at a time. Then I studied the source
material, Edna Ferber’s novel, Show Boat, and that
was a revelation. It became immediately clear to me that
the boat itself was a home, a character, and a member of
the family. I took Ferber’s description of the boat to heart
and ultimately rich, layered detail became my focus.
“
show boat:
how the costumes &
sets come together
Early set sketches and models from the
pre-production phase of Show Boat.
The challenge of Show Boat is that it is literally
based on Florence Klotz’s original design for the
1994 Broadway revival. My approach really started
by trying to establish a color palette and graphic
energy to support the different groups of people we
interact with as the story unfolds. I felt it was important
that the troubadours, the family, the show people, and
the pedestrians had a specificity to them that was
trackable because we cover so much ground in this
show rather quickly.
Show Boat is really a designer’s dream because we
have the opportunity to support the history of a family
over 40 years. We live with them through love, sorrow,
wealth, poverty, and three major historical silhouettes.
The opportunity to really establish a passage of time
and the psychological development of a character is
a real gift in this story.
“
February 8 Controversial silent film, The Birth of a Nation,
premieres. The film portrays African-Americans as violent and
dangerous, and dramatizes the Ku Klux Klan as heroes against
black oppression. It was the highest grossing film in America for
over twenty-five years.
February 12 The first stone of the Lincoln Memorial
is put into place.
1917
A worldwide outbreak of the Spanish Flu begins. It will kill over
50 million people, 6% of the world’s population, by 1920.
1919
January 16 The eighteenth amendment is ratified making alcohol
illegal in the United States and beginning the era known as Prohibition.
April 6 U.S. Congress declares war on Germany and America
enters World War I.
18
1918
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
June 28 The Treaty of Versailles is signed, officially ending World War I.
December 26 Babe Ruth’s contract is
sold to the New York Yankees for a sum of
$125,000, the largest amount ever paid for
a baseball player at the time.
1920
The 1920 census shows the U.S.
population to be approximately 106 million.
August 18 The nineteenth amendment
is ratified, giving women the right to vote.
August 27 The first commercial radio
station in the United States begins airing.
1922
January 11 The first successful insulin
treatment of diabetes is made by Frederick
Banting.
May 30 The Lincoln Memorial is dedi-
cated and presented to President Warren
G. Harding on behalf of the American people.
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
19
putting it in perspective
the origin
& history of
miscegenation
Early in the action of Show Boat an accusation of
miscegenation is brought against two of the members of
the Cotton Blossom’s acting troupe. This is a term that might
not be very familiar to our ears. A combination of two Latin
words, miscere “to mix” and genus “kind,” miscegenation
was a word coined to describe the mixing of races through
marriage or intercourse. It has almost always been used in
a negative context, and often in conjunction with laws that
prohibit marriages between races. In 1863, when the word
was first used, it squarely targeted the fears of many Civil
War-era Americans – namely that the White population would
begin to mingle with and marry the newly freed Black slaves.
Twenty four years separate the birth of the word and 1887 –
the year the accusation is made in the play. It is in the context
of those years, the period immediately after the Civil War, that
we can come to better understand the gravity and seriousness
with which the charge of miscegenation is leveled at the
characters in Show Boat.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, a period known as
Reconstruction began in the American South. Reconstruction
was a politically fractured endeavor, with many sides having
differing opinions as to what should be done with the South
at the end of the war. The general focus was on re-integrating
Confederate states into the Union and the assimilation of
freed slaves – colloquially known as “Freedmen” – into
Southern society. The passing of the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution had granted
Freedmen their freedom, their citizenship, and their right to
vote, but getting the former Confederate states to recognize
and enforce these new amendments proved to be difficult.
Violent paramilitary and vigilante groups based on a philosophy
of White supremacy, such as the Ku Klux Klan, began secret
campaigns to terrorize – and on many occasions kill – any
Freedmen who attempted to exercise their new rights. In
response to these groups, the federal government supplied
the newly reconstructed Southern state governments with
large contingents of national army troops, and began
1923
Unfortunately, the strength of protection offered to the
newly freed slaves during the aftermath of the Civil War
would not last long. In 1867 Ulysses S. Grant was elected
as the eighteenth president of the United States. Grant was
a Northern war hero, and strongly progressive in his views
towards Reconstruction and the rights of the Freedmen.
In his first term he was successful in stopping Southern
violence against African-Americans, stabilizing the newly
formed Southern state governments, and galvanizing the
progressive Republican Party. [It should be noted that the
Republican and Democrat parties of this era were entirely
different entities than their modern incarnations. The
Republicans were considered Northern Progressives,
while the Democrats were Conservative Southerners.] As he
began his second term, Grant was strongly criticized by both
parties for the corruption of his administration. He continually
allowed the close friends he appointed into his cabinet to
abuse their powers for personal gain. His willingness to turn
a blind eye to the crimes around him began to break the
Republican Party down into competing factions. Then in
1873 a depression hit the economy of the Southern states,
and public support began to shift away from Grant and the
Republicans and towards the Democrats, who loudly blamed
Grant for the crisis. These two blows against his administration
allowed the Democrats to regain much of the ground they
had lost in the South. With this resurgence, they renewed
their determination to block African-American progress. Small
revolutions began at the state government level, and many of
the newly elected Freedmen were ousted from their positions
and replaced by White appointees. White supremacist groups
also began new campaigns of violence, after several years of
inactivity during the early part of the Grant administration.
The renewed Conservative uprising in 1873 culminated in
one of the most horrific incidents of the Reconstruction period
on April 13 in Colfax, Louisiana. What came to be known as
the Colfax Massacre started as one of a series of attacks
September 28 John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first
March 3 The first issue of Time magazine is published.
1924
February 2 Calvin Coolidge delivers the first radio broadcast
by a President of the United States from the White House.
May 26 The Immigration Act of 1924 is passed. The act limits
the amount of annual immigration from foreign countries to 2%
of that country’s current immigrant population in America.
20
an aggressive process of capturing and prosecuting the
members of White supremacist groups in order to quell the
violence. Under these policies African-American voter turnout
flourished, as did the rates of Black elected officials, in the
election of 1867. In many states these levels would not be
surpassed, or even met, until the 1990s. Anti-miscegenation
laws went largely unenforced during this time, as the majority
of Southern state governments were controlled by Northern
progressives who were waging an aggressive campaign to
secure newfound rights for the Freedmen.
show boat ASOLOREP.ORG
round-the-world flight. It takes them 175 days and 74 stops to complete
the journey. Their craft was part of a team of four separate planes that
took off at the same time. They were the first to finish, and one of only
two crews that made it back to their origin point of Seattle.
eventually elevated to the Supreme Court, in a case known as
United States v. Cruikshank. The ruling from the court was that
the U.S. did not have the authority to prosecute such an attack
as a violation of the fourteenth amendment, because the mob
wasn’t a force of the American government, but a group of
private citizens. This ruling would severely reduce the power
of the Grant administration to apprehend and prosecute White
supremacist groups, and such groups were able to gain a
great deal of power in the South in the years that followed.
Racist propaganda pamphlet from 1864 designed to incite
fear of African-American integration into White culture.
by Democrats and White supremacist groups against the
Louisiana Freedmen who had won elections in 1872.
The entire election had been contentious, and there were
multiple attacks and riots in response to the large number of
Freedmen and Republicans that had been elected. In order
to defend against these attacks, the Freedmen of Grant Parish,
Louisiana began to fortify the courthouse at Colfax. There
were several weeks of unrest leading up to the incident, with
a few casualties on both sides of the conflict. Then, on April
13, a group of over 300 Democrats, Klan members, and former
Confederate officers began their onslaught on the courthouse
with rifles and cannons. Their numbers had been bolstered
by a salacious news story about the unrest in the preceding
weeks, printed in the anti-Republican paper the Daily Picayune.
The incendiary headline read:
“THE RIOT IN GRANT PARISH. FEARFUL ATROCITIES BY
THE NEGROS. NO RESPECT SHOWN FOR THE DEAD.”
The assault was short, and the men inside the courthouse
soon began to fly white flags of surrender. Afterwards, the
attacking Southern Conservatives began to systematically kill
all of the captured Black Freedmen, while sparing the captured
Whites. The final death count of African-Americans was
reckoned at 105, over forty times the amount of dead White
men. Equally troubling was the political fallout of the massacre.
The trial of the men accused of instigating the attack was
July 21 John Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in
a Tennessee school. His trial had gained national attention, and
become one of the most publicized events in history under the
name of The Scopes Monkey Trial.
August 8 The Ku Klux Klan holds a parade in Washington D.C. with
1925
40,000 members in attendance. At an estimated 5 million members, the
Klan is at this point the largest fraternal organization in the United States.
June 13 Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized trans-
1926
mission of pictures and sound. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill
in motion is broadcast across 5 miles from Anacostia, VA to Washington D.C.
August 6 Don Juan premiers as the first feature length
The final nail in the coffin for the Reconstruction movement
in America came about during the controversy surrounding
the presidential election of 1876. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes fought in one of the
most contentious elections the country had ever seen.
When the votes were cast, discrepancies came up in four
separate states, and both parties declared their candidate to
be the winner of the election. Several political backroom deals
were struck, and a series of compromises were made by the
Republicans and the Democrats. Most notably, Hayes agreed
that if Tilden conceded the election to him, he would remove
all federal troops from the Southern states. This agreement
effectively ended the Reconstruction movement, and is often
called “The Great Betrayal” by African-American historians.
It is through the lens of the failed Reconstruction period in
America that the case of miscegenation in Show Boat must
be viewed. 1877 was a year of renewed oppression for
African-Americans in the South, and began what would
become a legacy of intolerance and harmful legislation. In
the following years Jim Crow laws, statues dictating “separate
but equal” treatment of Blacks, would become the rule
of the land. By 1887 most Southern states had imposed
methods of disenfranchising Black voters such as literacy
tests and poll taxes, and the number of Black elected officials
plummeted. Nearly a hundred years would pass before the
civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the eventual ruling of
all laws against miscegenation as unconstitutional in the 1967
Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia. However, long after
the laws were stripped from the books, strong sentiments
still linger. In 2009, Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana Justice of the
Peace, recused himself from marrying an interracial couple
based on his personal opinion that their future children would
suffer because of their different races. Upon hearing this,
President Barack Obama (himself the product of a mixed race
marriage) had his press secretary release a statement that his
administration, “…had reason to believe that a biracial child
could do well.”
-AA
1927
Ravenal and Magnolia reunite at the Cotton Blossom.
may 20 Charles Lindbergh pilots the Spirit of St. Louis
on the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris.
October 6 The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, opens as the
first feature length movie with synchronized dialogue and songs.
December 27 Show Boat opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.
motion picture with synchronized sound effects and music.
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
21
Experience. Discuss. Create.
Public Programming at Asolo Rep
Share the experience. Discuss the ideas.
Show Boat PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
“Carefully Taught” Cabaret
Sunday, November 24, 7pm
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Go online
Oscar Hammerstein II helped to create many of America’s best-loved musicals, and
while his work as a humanitarian and political activist is less well-known, his candid
lyrics speak for themselves. In 1949 South Pacific sang to a still-segregated country,
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear; you’ve got to be taught from year to year.”
Join us for an evening of performances of Hammerstein’s songs as we examine the
serious social issues embedded in his creative work.
Call the Development Office
At 941-351-9010 ext. 4707.
Mail your contribution
To: Development Office, Asolo Repertory Theatre,
Contribute online at asolorep.org/DONATE. 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243.
family day: Show Boat
Saturday, November 30, 2pm performance, pre-show activities begin at 1pm
This special celebration of the American Family features pre-show activities
for audiences of all ages to enjoy together, special ticket offers for family groups,
and a post-show discussion with members of the cast.
meet the actors
Sunday, December 8, 2pm
This matinee will be followed by a moderated post-show discussion with the cast.
Please contact the box office for tickets to these performances. Call (941) 351-8000.
show boat READING LIST
If you love what you’ve seen on stage in Asolo Rep’s production of Show Boat,
and want to learn more, these books will enrich your experience immeasurably!
Jerome Kern by Stephen Banfield and Geoffrey Holden Block
Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical by Todd Decker
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
Show Boat by Edna Ferber
Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II by Hugh Fordin
Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle by Julie Gilbert
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
For Public Programs surrounding upcoming productions,
please see page 32-33 in this program book. Additional
events may be added throughout the season. Stay up
to date at asolorep.org/public-programs.
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‘Tis the Season
for Giving
Asolo Rep memberships make unique and thoughtful
holiday gifts for friends, family, and co-workers! Give
a gift that will inspire, entertain, and engage all year long!
Contact Amanda Chandler at [email protected]
(941) 351-9010 ext. 4707 for more information.
Be treated like royalty with your own private theatre box!
Get your own private theatre box, available all season long. Makes a great holiday gift!
Four tickets • Private ante-room • Personal attendant • Red & white wine • Cheese, fruit & desert tray
OUR LIVES ON STAGE
Contact Molly Maginn at [email protected] (941) 351-9010 ext. 4704 for more information.
ASOLOREP.ORG show boat
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