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Pittsburgh Public Theater’s education and outreach programs are generously supported by BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Funding for Open Stage is provided by the Grable Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, and Mike & Steffie Bozic. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 1 Contents Characters……………….……………………..………………………...3 Synopsis….……………………………………..………………………..4 About the Author: Thornton Wilder….………….…………………….6 Lines and Quotes from Thornton Wilder…….…….…………………..7 The Bridge of San Luis Rey…………….………...………………………8 Our Town and Playwriting…………………….………………………9 Other Famous Plays from the 1930’s and 40’s………...……………...11 America from 1901-1913……………………………….……………...14 Minimalist Sets………………………………………………………...15 Pantomiming………………………….……………………………… 16 Meet the Director………...……………………………………………17 About the Cast………………………………..………………………...18 Theater Etiquette…………………………...….………………………30 Discussion Questions…………………..………………………………31 P.A. Academic Standards………………...…….………………………33 References………………………………….…………………………..37 Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 2 Characters Stage Manager - Narrates and observes the play with occasional interaction with the other characters Dr. Gibbs - Father of George and Rebecca and husband of Mrs. Gibbs, Dr. Gibbs is the medical doctor of Grover’s Corners. Joe Crowell - The local paperboy and older brother of Si Crowell Howie Newsome - The town milkman Mrs. Gibbs - Mother of George and Rebecca and wife of Dr. Gibbs, Mrs. Gibbs works around the house, cleaning, cooking and taking care of the family. Mrs. Webb - Mother of Emily and Wally and wife of Mr. Webb, Mrs. Webb spends her time taking care of her children, her husband and her house. George Gibbs - A young man who loves baseball, farms and Emily Webb Rebecca Gibbs - George’s little sister Wally Webb - Emily’s little brother Emily Webb - Emily is a very smart girl who dreams of starting a family with George Gibbs Professor Willard -A university professor well-versed in the historical and scientific details of Grover’s Corners Mr. Webb - Father of Emily and Wally and husband of Mrs. Webb, Mr. Webb is the editor of the town paper, the Grover’s Corners Sentinel. Woman in the Balcony Man in the Auditorium Lady in the Box Simon Stimson - The leader of the church choir and town drunk Mrs. Soames - A member of the church choir who is very interested in gossip Constable Warren - The town policeman Si Crowell - Paperboy and Joe Crowell’s younger brother Three Baseball Players Sam Craig - Nephew of Mrs. Gibbs Joe Stoddard - The undertaker at the Grover’s Corners graveyard Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 3 Synopsis Act I As a few elementary pieces of furniture are brought out, the Stage Manager introduces the setting: Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It's May 7, 1901, just before dawn. Establishing the layout of the town, he focuses on the homes of Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs and Mr. and Mrs. Webb. From the beginning, the Stage Manager sets a tone of ordinariness: "Nice town, y'know what I mean? Nobody very remarkable ever come out of it." As the day begins, we hear bits of gossip and news about the town: a marriage, a birth, a milkman's reluctant horse. We get acquainted with the children in the two families: George and Rebecca Gibbs, Emily and Wally Webb. George, age 15, is proud of his prowess at baseball; Emily, a year younger, is a top student at school and not shy about it. After morning segues to afternoon, George walks Emily home from school. The Stage Manager describes what's going to be put in the time capsule cornerstone of the new bank, so "people a thousand years from now" will know what life in Grover's Corners was like. As evening takes over, the action switches back and forth between George and Emily doing homework and their mothers at choir practice, where organist Simon Stimson seems unable to mask his tipsiness. The women return home and the Stage Manager announces the end of the first act. Act II It's July 7, 1904, just after high school commencement. In the Stage Manager's words, "Nature's been pushing and contriving," and many of the young people in town are planning weddings -George Gibbs and Emily Webb among them. Over breakfast Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs fret that George may not be old enough for marriage, and they reminisce about their own wedding day. The Stage Manager then takes us back a year to an exchange between Emily and George. She criticizes him for changes she sees in him and George, struck by her observations, invites her to join him in an ice cream soda at the drugstore. He admits that he's torn between going away to agricultural college or staying in Grover's Corners. As he realizes that Emily's opinion means more to him than anyone's, Emily admits that she feels the same way about him. "So," concludes George, "I guess this is an important conversation we've been having." Doubling as minister, the Stage Manager gives a brief sermon about marriage. After Mrs. Webb reveals her thoughts on the subject, Mrs. Gibbs and then Mr. Webb must calm the wedding jitters of George and Emily, respectively. As the wedding tableau freezes, the Stage Manager recalls the many couples he's married and what typically comes after: "the cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of the will -- Once in a thousand times it's interesting." And as George and Emily run up the aisle, the second act ends. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 4 Act III The stage has changed, with three rows of chairs representing graves in the cemetery. Among the dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Wally Webb, and Simon Stimson. It's nine years later, the summer of 1913, and the Stage Manager updates us on Grover's Corners. He reflects on how there's something eternal about every human being and how the dead gradually let go of their earthly lives. Emily, who has just died in childbirth, appears in the cemetery. She can't resign herself to death, and wants to know why she can't go back and live some of her life over. The dead try to dissuade her, but she insists. Mrs. Gibbs urges her to choose the least important day in her life: "It will be important enough." Emily relives the day of her twelfth birthday, experiencing the joys of everyday life but also the pain of seeing the precious, fleeting moments of her youth now lost forever. Increasingly distraught, Emily asks the Stage Manager to take her back to her grave. In the cemetery, Stimson snarls about the follies and ignorance of human beings, but Mrs. Gibbs comes to their defense, although she agrees with Emily that,"they [living people] don't understand." As a grieving George Gibbs throws himself at Emily's grave, the Stage Manager announces that almost everyone's asleep in Grover's Corners, takes one final look at the stars, and wishes us a good rest, too. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 5 About the Author: Thornton Wilder Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Yale and Princeton, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of his seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and his next-tolast novel, The Eighth Day received the National Book Award (1968). Two of his four major plays garnered Pulitzer Prizes, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). His play, The Matchmaker ran on Broadway for 486 performances (1955-1957), Wilder's Broadway record, and was later adapted into the record-breaking musical Hello, Dolly! Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them translation, acting, opera librettos, lecturing, teaching and film (his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 psycho-thriller, Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic to this day). Letter writing held a central place in Wilder's life, and since his death, three volumes of his letters have been published. Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature. On April 17, 1997, the centenary of his birth, the US Postal Service unveiled the Thornton Wilder 32-cent stamp in Hamden, Connecticut, his official address after 1930 and where he died on December 7, 1975. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 6 Lines and Quotes from Thornton Wilder “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” “The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” “The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.” (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) “We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.” (Our Town) “Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?” (Our Town) “Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well.” (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 7 The Bridge of San Luis Rey The Bridge of San Luis Rey was a Pulitzer Prize winning book written by Wilder in 1927. It is widely acclaimed and notably different from his other works, like Our Town. “On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.” With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 8 Our Town and Playwriting (Source: Delaware Theatre Company Teacher Resource Guide) In an article entitled "Some Thoughts on Playwriting,"* Thornton Wilder lists four fundamental conditions that separate drama from other art forms. Wilder maintains: 1) theatre depends upon the collaboration of playwright, actors, director, costume, set and property builders, and audience; 2) theatre addresses the "group" rather than individuals; 3) theatre is based on pretenses"agreed-upon falsehood(s), permitted lie(s)"; 4) the action of drama always takes place in present time. In Our Town, Wilder exploits these conventions to their fullest. He takes theatre back to the basics found in ancient Greek plays and Shakespeare. The play is set on a bare stage, and the actors use very few props. The audience, then, must collaborate to furnish bedrooms, kitchens, soda fountain, and graveyard. The character of the Stage Manager is the audience's guide into the play, never letting us forget our status as an audience watching fictitious characters act out made-up events. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town “There are those rare people who look at the world and see things the rest of us don’t see until they show us. These are the writers. There are a special few who can take that and turn it back into a world, these are the directors, the designers. There are fearless beings who can live in that world and show us who we are, those are our actors. They are dedicated people who know why that world matters so very much. Crew, theater staff, producers, investors, managers, marketers, and then there are the people who step forward and say, ‘show me this world. Open, change me.’ These are our audiences. And when all of these people come together and say, ‘yes,’ there is theater.” -The speech producer Jordan Roth gave when receiving a Tony Award for Clybourne Park in 2012 is very similar to Wilder’s first point detailing what separates drama from other art forms. 2013-2014 Season Page 9 Our Town is not just about the everyday lives, marriages, and deaths of its characters; it is a celebration of human life. The mundane events that we see depicted in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, in the first part of the last century are the same events that happen to all of us in Delaware in the first part of the new century. The characters are not unusual people; as an audience we do not need to delve into their motivations and desires. Their motivations and desires are our motivations and desires. Instead of following an additional plot, Wilder shows us snapshots of life in the three acts entitled "Daily Life," "Love and Marriage,'' and "Death." Wilder has stripped life to its essentials of routine, love, death, weddings and funerals, holding up a mirror so that we can see ourselves and each other. Writing about Romeo and Juliet, Wilder said that "when the play is staged as Shakespeare intended it, the bareness of the stage releases the events from the particular and the experience of Juliet partakes of that of all girls in love, in every time, place, and language." In Our Town, Wilder has performed the same magic. *Published in Intent of the Artist, edited by A. Cen!ento, by Princeton University Press in 1941. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 10 Famous Plays from the 1930’s and 40’s Our Town came out in the year 1938. Here are some other famous plays from that era. 1937 You Can’t Take It with You - Kaufman and Hart An eccentric family allows each member to pursue his own ambition in the home, but their routine is disrupted when a daughter with a regular job wants to bring her fiancé and his Wall Street family to dinner in George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2000. Tom Atkins is Granpa Vanderhof and Amanda Serkasevich is Alice Sycamore in Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of You Can't Take It With 1939 The Iceman Cometh - Eugene O’Neill You Harry Hope's saloon is home to a ragtag band of drunks and dreamers who celebrate the arrival of Hickey, the charismatic traveling salesman whose raucous presence always ensures a grand good time. But when a newly sober Hickey blows in with a renewed outlook on life, his zealous attempts to fix the lives of his old friends leads to a series of events that are at once devastatingly comic and heartbreaking-and a revelation that threatens to shatter the tenuous illusions that fuel their lives. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 11 The Little Foxes - Lillian Hellman The Little Foxes is a drama in three acts by Lillian Hellman, a chronicle of greed and hate in a ruthless family in the American South, and was produced and published in 1939. The play is set in the South at the turn of the 20th century and concerns the manipulative Regina Giddens and her two brothers, Ben and Oscar Hubbard, who want to borrow money from Regina’s rich, terminally ill husband, Horace, so that they can open the first cotton mill in town, produced by the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2009. 1942 The Skin of Our Teeth - Thornton Wilder Combining farce, burlesque, and satire, and elements of the comic strip, Thornton Wilder depicts an Everyman Family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-theworld disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 12 1944 The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams Amanda Wingfield lives in a St. Louis tenement, clinging to the myth of her early years as a Southern belle, repeating romantic stories of those years to her two children. Her daughter, Laura, who wears a leg brace, is painfully shy and often seeks solace in her collection of small glass animals. Amanda’s son, Tom, through whose memory the action is seen, is desperate to escape his stifling home life and his warehouse job. The Glass Menagerie was the first play ever produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1975 and was produced again in 1999. Carol Teitel, David Snell and Amy Wright in a scene from The Glass Menagerie, the first production of the Pittsburgh Public Theater's 1975 inaugural season No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre A mysterious valet ushers three people into a shabby hotel room, and they soon discover that hell isn't fire and brimstone at all—it's other people. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 13 America from 1901-1913 It has been over one hundred years since the first act of the play takes place. When the play starts it is 1901, William McKinley is president of the United States. In that same year, McKinley is shot, leaving Theodore Roosevelt, the vice president, to become president. It would be one year before the first movie theater, Tally’s Electric Theatre in California, was built. The Wright brothers first managed to fly in 1903, but it will be twenty whole years before women would be given the right to vote. 1903 Flyer As noted in Our Town, cars would soon become a common sight. The first assembly line, created by Henry Ford, was in 1913. Before then, each car had to be made separately, making the process a much longer and more complicated one. With the assembly line, cars became cheaper and easier to make. Ford’s famous Model T took only 93 minutes to assemble. Over the next fourteen years, because of the convenience and quickness of the assembly line, 15 million Model T’s were made. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 14 Minimalist Sets Our Town is known for its minimalist staging. The setting is usually only two tables, two ladders for a short period of time, and some chairs. Here are some other plays that work magic with minimal sets. Shakespeare Shakespeare wrote in a way that encouraged audiences to imagine sets. The empty space, that was extended out into the audience and could be viewed from three sides, could be a small prison cell, a battlefield, a royal court, a crowded city street, an ocean, and any other place, in rapid succession, without changing a thing. There were certain design aspects of the Elizabethan stage that offered some realism as well. The upper gallery could be a tower, a battlement, a bedroom window, a hilltop or, most famously in Romeo and Juliet, a balcony. But it was just a gallery, always the same: the playwright used language to dress it up as a battlement or a hillside and the audience’s imagination would complete the illusion. Waiting for Godot Waiting for Godot is the story of two men who are waiting around for someone named Godot. As they wait, they discuss philosophy, play games and meet a traveling theater troupe. The story is minimal and so is the set, which usually consists of a single tree. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 15 Pantomiming To pantomime is to pretend to do something without actually doing it. It is defined as the art of conveying emotions, actions and thoughts by gestures without speech. In an interesting way, pantomiming persuades and draws the audience in to participate. The characters of Our Town often pantomime, doing things such as cooking breakfast, reading, snapping peas and playing catch without actually doing them. They simply pretend. Here are some different activities that you can practice pantomiming: -Drinking a mug of hot chocolate -Reading the newspaper -Texting on your phone -Picking up a heavy box -Jumping rope -Playing a video game -Peeling a banana -Walking a dog -Shooting a basketball A version of Our Town depicting the Stage Manager getting Emily and George their strawberry phosphates -Doing homework -Eating pancakes -Jumping over puddles - Tying a rope Remember to try to keep it looking as real as you can! Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 16 Meet the Director TED PAPPAS celebrates his 14th season as Producing Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Public Theater and his 21st year of close association with the company as a director. He has staged more than 40 productions for The Public, including the works of Euripides, Shakespeare, Schiller, Wilde, Gilbert & Sullivan, and Sondheim. Some highlights include Sophocles’ Electra, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Kaufman & Ferber’s The Royal Family, Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s RolePlay, and the world premiere of Rob Zellers & Gene Collier’s The Chief, which played The O’Reilly for seven seasons and was filmed. His career began in New York City where he worked at Playwrights Horizons, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, John Houseman’s The Acting Company, New York City Opera under the leadership of Beverly Sills, and shows on and off Broadway. His regional credits are numerous and varied and include productions for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Arena Stage in Washington DC, the Kennedy Center, the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto’s Royal Alexandra, and Goodspeed Musicals. He staged a hip-hop concert hosted by Harry Belafonte which galvanized the Cannes Film Festival, directed a Las Vegas extravaganza for impresario Steve Wynn, and served as choreographer for NBC’s legendary series “Saturday Night Live.” He studied Shakespeare with Samuel Schoenbaum and modern drama with Eric Bentley, and holds degrees from Northwestern University and Manhattan’s Hunter College. He is a past president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the national labor union. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 17 Meet the Cast Tom Atkins (Stage Manager) is a Pittsburgh native and returns for his 18th Public Theater production. He most recently appeared at The Public as Arthur J. Rooney, Sr. in The Chief and Phil Hogan in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten. Mr. Atkins first appeared in The Public's inaugural season in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His other Public Theater credits include A Moon for the Misbegotten (James Tyrone, Jr.), Macbeth, Vikings, Cobb, The Steward of Christendom, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Weir, You Can't Take It With You, and The Drawer Boy. He has made numerous television appearances, from "The Rockford Files" to "Oz," and has performed in regional theaters across America. On Broadway he appeared in The Changing Room and The Front Page; Off-Broadway in Whistle in the Dark and Long Day's Journey Into Night. Film credits include Escape from New York, The Fog, Creepshow, Lethal Weapon, Bob Roberts, Striking Distance, Night of the Creeps, My Bloo Tony Bingham (Sam Craig) is thrilled to be returning to the Pittsburgh Public stage. He was recently seen in The Nerd at St. Vincent. Other recent roles include: Doug - Gruesome Playground Injuries, Robert F. Scott Antarktikos, Joe - Becky's New Car, and Stanislaw Lem in 800 Words which was produced by Caravan Theatre (for which Tony is the Producing Director). He has appeared on "As the World Turns," in several commercials, and a number of local indies including the feature film Trapped (2009 Winner of NY International Independent Film Festival for Best Crime Feature) starring Tom Atkins. Later this fall you can see Tony in Well at Off the Wall. He holds a BA from Point Park and a MFA from the University of Iowa. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 18 WESTON BLAKESLEY (Constable Warren) arrived in Pittsburgh last year and was welcomed into the company of August: Osage County with The REP directed by John Shepard. He played George in Moon Over Buffalo at The Theater Factory in Trafford. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh he spent 18 years in Los Angeles. Movies include Gus the barber in Pleasantville, the title character in the horror movie The Mangler Reborn, and numerous lowbudget features that will never be available on Netflix (he hopes). TV credits include "The West Wing," "iCarly," "Monk," "Chuck," and "In Living Color." Favorite theater performances: The Tempest in Miami, Little Murders in Stockholm, Sweden, How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Much Ado at a little winery in the Santa Ynez Valley, delicious. KEN BOLDEN (Professor Willard) is very pleased to return to The Public where he has previously appeared in Born Yesterday (the Assistant Manager), Amadeus (Valet), The Comedy of Errors (Angelo), and The Odd Couple (Vinnie). Most recent appearances in local theaters include Mnemonic (Spindler), and John Gabriel Borkman (Fodol) both for Quantum Theatre. For television, he had a guest spot on Nickelodeon's "Supah Ninjas" (the Vice Principal) and was the principal actor in this past winter's PA Lottery commercial. His last film appearance was in Sorority Row (Dr. Rosenberg). Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 19 CHARLOTTE BUSH (Rebecca Gibbs) is thrilled to be performing at the Public Theater. Charlotte is currently in the 7th grade at Pittsburgh CAPA for musical theater. For the last three years she was a finalist in The Public's Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest. She studied theater and piano at Hope Academy for Music and the Arts and sang with the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh for three years. In her free time she loves to swim, downhill ski, spend time with friends and family, sing, play with her dog, listen to One Direction, and eat bacon. Charlotte lives in Point Breeze with her parents, brother Ian, and adorable dog Elphie. PATRICK CANNON (George Gibbs) is ecstatic to collaborate with such beautiful artists and people on this wonderful play. Patrick, son of Edward and Margaret Cannon, was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Patrick was last seen as Eteocles in Oedipus and the Foul Mess in Thebes with No Name Players. Other credits include Curly in Oklahoma!, JP Finch in H2$, Billy Flynn in Chicago, the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors, Denny in The War Plays, John Adams in 1776, Fred/Narrator in A Christmas Carol, Silva in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Jim in Gift of the Magi, and Crow in A Tooth of Crime. Patrick is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago and proud member of AEA. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 20 JULIA COBLIN (Rebecca Gibbs) is thrilled to be a part of Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of Our Town. She is a 7th grade student at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts school. Julia won first place in The Public's 2013 Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest and she recently played Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew as part of The Public's Summer Shakespeare Intensive. Julia has appeared in the Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Tempest. She has also performed with Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Gemini Theater, and in the CAPA school musical, Seussical. BRIDGET CONNORS (Mrs. Gibbs) is thrilled to be back at the Public Theater having last appeared in Circle Mirror Transformation. She has also performed in Pittsburgh with Quantum Theatre, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, and The REP. Additional regional theater credits include South Coast Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, New Mexico Repertory, PCPA Theatrefest, New Theatre, Gable Stage, Mosaic Theatre, Florida Stage, A Noise Within, and the Oregon, Santa Cruz, Colorado, and Idaho Shakespeare Festivals. Bridget is a Professor in the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University and program coordinator of Voice and Movement. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 21 MARC EPSTEIN (Mr. Webb) is very excited to make his debut on the Pittsburgh Public stage in Our Town. Previous Pittsburgh appearances include: Othello: Noir, The Constant Prince, Out of This Furnace and The Tempest: or The Enchanted Isle for Unseam'd Shakespeare, and A Lie of the Mind, Arms and the Man, Scapin, and The Insect Play at Pitt Rep. He has also appeared at theaters around the country including the Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, New York Shakespeare Festivals Public Theater, Coconut Grove Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, and many others. He has also taught theater at universities around the city. After being in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, he and his family now call Pittsburgh their home. JAMES FITZGERALD (Citizen) is most happy to return to the Public Theater. Other Pittsburgh appearances include Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Quantum Theatre, and Bricolage. James has performed 16 seasons with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Other Chicago credits include Marriot's Lincolnshire Theater, Second City, ETC., The Royal George, Apple Tree, among others. Regional: Cape May Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Baltimore, Nebraska and North Carolina Shakespeare Festivals. Off-Broadway: Rose Rage directed by Edward Hall. Awards: two Jefferson Awards (Best Supporting Actor), a Jeff Citation (Best Actor), and Chicago's After Dark Best New Work Award as the author of Two for the Show. James recently completed filming Progression and The Mercury Men and next will appear at City Theatre in Charles Ives Take Me Home. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 22 LINDA HASTON (Citizen) is a performer, director, and teaching artist who is thrilled to be back at The Public having made her debut in The Little Foxes as Addie. She has performed with City, Bricolage, Quantum, and Off the Wall Theatre, to name a few. In the past few seasons at Off the Wall she has directed and/or performed in several productions. Recent favorites being Without Ruth, an original play based on stories about her mother written by Virginia Wall Gruenert, and Henry in The Club. Other favorite roles include Irene Page in Bubbling Brown Sugar starring Vivian Reed, and Tituba in Quantum's production of The Crucible. Film credits include the recently released film Won't Back Down with Viola Davis. WALI JAMAL (Howie Newsome) is honored to be in his third performance at The Public. Previous performances include Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts (James) and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (Cal). He has appeared in eight of the 10-play cycle by August Wilson: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Toledo), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Seth), The Piano Lesson (Avery), Two Trains Running (Wolf), Seven Guitars (Hedley/Canewell), Jitney (Doub), Gem of the Ocean (Caesar), Radio Golf (Sterling). Wali is a community television producer at PCTV 21 and is launching his educational show, "History's Flipside." Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 23 ANDY KIRTLAND (Citizen) is making his debut with Pittsburgh Public Theater. Pittsburgh credits: The Complete Works... (Abridged) (Unseam'd Shakespeare Company), Walk Two Moons (Prime Stage), The Tempest (Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the the Park), and The Festival in Black and White with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre. New York credits include: Macbeth (Raised Spirits Theatre), A Christmas Carol (13th Street Rep), and Thieves (Amerinda/Public Theater). He has acted regionally in Chicago, Baltimore, and with the New England Shakespeare Festival and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Andy is a member of Unseam'd Shakespeare Company. He studied Theater at Dickinson College and the British American Drama Academy. DANIEL KRELL (Simon Stimson) is happy to return to The Public for his 21st appearance with the company. His performances here have encompassed contemporary works, classics, and musicals. Favorites include Born Yesterday, As You Like It, Circle Mirror Transformation, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Metamorphoses, Amadeus, Cabaret, Oedipus, Much Ado About Nothing, Sweeney Todd, and last season's acclaimed 1776. He has played a variety of major roles with the region's professional theaters, such as City Theatre, CLO, Quantum, Bricolage, PICT, and The REP as well as with theaters around the country, including Clarence Brown Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, and Gateway Playhouse among others. Mr. Krell is also a veteran of many films, commercials, industrials, and voice-overs. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 24 ERIN LINDSEY KROM (Emily Webb) is thrilled to be playing Emily Webb in Our Town as her Pittsburgh Public debut! A native Pittsburgher now based in New York, Erin has worked extensively in Pittsburgh as well as across the country in theaters such as Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Tuacahn Amphitheatre, City Theatre, The Pittsburgh Playhouse, Playhouse on Park, Civic Light Opera, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, the Secret Theatre, and Totem Pole Playhouse. Selected credits include Sibyl in Private Lives, Daisy in Rhinoceros (Best Supporting Acress, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Wendy in Peter Pan, and Daisy in Side Show. For more information, visit www.erinlindseykrom.com KAREN MERRITT(Citizen) feels honored to return a third time to Pittsburgh Public Theater, having also appeared in Born Yesterday and The Royal Family. Other theatrical credits include: Romeo and Juliet, A Wrinkle in Time, The Music Lesson (Prime Stage); Shadowlands, Anne of Green Gables, You Can't Take it With You, The Book of Ruth, Murder in the Cathedral (Saltworks Theatre); The Three Sisters, The Winter's Tale, Shrew, The Comedy of Errors (Unseam'd Shakespeare); Trojan Women, The Wedding, Lower Depths (Moscow Art Theatre); Steel Magnolias (Pennsylvania Centre Stage). Training: MFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University and the Moscow Art Theatre School. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 25 LARRY JOHN MEYERS (Joe Stoddard) continues a long and happy association with the Pittsburgh Public after appearing in last season's favorites, Born Yesterday and 1776. He also has had the distinct pleasure of performing Mr. Wilder's remarkable Our Town twice before: in 1999, playing the "Stage Manager" as a guest artist at Pitt; and in 1990, for PPT's earlier acclaimed staging, as a replacement for "Mr. Webb." Larry lives near the Turner Cemetery in Squirrel Hill, and harbors a furtive desire to move to the riverbanks of Duck Hollow. His first "real job" was as an undertaker's assistant, driving the hearse for Mr. Harris. EDGAR O'CONNELL (Si Crowell) is in seventh grade at Pittsburgh CAPA. His Malvolio from Twelfth Night received an honorable mention in Pittsburgh Public Theater's Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest. Edgar's other credits include CAPA's Seussical Jr. (Who), Shakespeare in the Parks' The Tempest (Sailor, Demon) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Spirit), as well as many Gemini Theater Camp productions. He enjoys playing cello and reading. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 26 ELLIOT PULLEN (Wally Webb) is proud to join the cast of Our Town as Wally Webb. Elliot is a homeschooled sixth grader from Mt. Lebanon. He enjoys art, drama, and writing, and is a classical guitarist and Boy Scout. Elliot recently appeared in the role of Charlie Bucket in Little Lake Theater's production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as Malvolio in Falstaff's Fellows' production of Twelfth Night, and as a member of Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks Young Company in The Tempest. Elliot's acting mentors are Erin Fleming, Sunny Disney Fitchett, and Cat Aceto. JOHN SHEPARD (Dr. Gibbs) is thrilled to be back at The Public where he has appeared in Born Yesterday, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Little Foxes, and Mary Stuart. Other credits at Pittsburgh theaters include Reed in Electric Baby for Quantum Theatre (among many others), Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman for The REP (among many others) for which he was named Pittsburgh PostGazette Performer of the Year, and productions at City and PICT. He's been seen on Broadway (American Buffalo and A View from the Bridge), OffBroadway and at some of the finest American regional theaters including four seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others. He'll be seen in the upcoming films Homemakers, Exterior/Night, and Sisteria. He also directs and teaches. www.johnshepard.info. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 27 RYAN SHOWALTER (Joe Crowell) is 12 years old and in 7th grade at North Hills Middle School. This is his first performance in a Pittsburgh Public Theater play and he is very excited. Ryan, along with two of his classmates, won the Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest Lower Division Scene for The Comedy of Errors in 2013. He lives in Ross Township with his parents, older sister, two dogs, and two cats. Ryan plays ice hockey for North Hills and dek hockey for DekStar. He is an active member of Boy Scout Troop 83 in West View. He holds the rank of Star Scout and is working towards achieving the highest honor in scouts: Eagle Scout. CARY ANNE SPEAR (Mrs. Webb) is delighted to return to Pittsburgh Public Theater where she previously performed in Dancing at Lughnasa and How I Learned to Drive. Cary is from Pittsburgh, but began her theater career in Washington, DC, as a member of the Arena Stage acting company. She enjoyed a multitude of projects and roles, including John Guare's Women and Water, for which she was chosen by the playwright as his indomitable heroine, Lydie Breeze; Sally in A Lie of the Mind; and Anne Stanton in All the King's Men. After moving to New York, Cary performed Off-Broadway and in regional theaters around the country. She is grateful to have worked in many fine Pittsburgh theaters, including City Theatre, The REP, Jewish Theater of Pittsburgh, PICT, and St. Vincent Summer Theatre. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 28 ANDREW SWACKHAMER (Citizen) is a recent graduate from Point Park University. Credits include No Name Players: Viva Los Bastarditos (Dancin' Eddie Danson); Pittsburgh Public: Amadeus (Salieri's Servant); Prime Stage: The Great Gatsby (Nick Carraway), The Glass Menagerie (Understudy Tom/Jim); Quantum: Twelfth Night (Captain/Officer/Priest/Ukulele Minstrel); Point Park: A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas), Light in the Piazza (Giuseppe Naccarelli), Parade (Young Soldier). TERRY WICKLINE (Mrs. Soames) happily returns to Pittsburgh Public Theater for this special Masterpiece Season. Previous credits for The Public include The Importance of Being Earnest (Miss Prism), Much Ado About Nothing (Ursula), and Man of La Mancha (Maria). Regional credits: Nunsense (Rev. Mother) for Theatre By The Sea; Chekhov Festival (Ivanov, Drama!) for PICT; The Sound of Music, Me and My Girl, Anything Goes, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, Always...Patsy Cline, and A Musical Christmas Carol (Mrs. Dilber/Mrs. Fezziwig, 13 seasons!) for Pittsburgh CLO; Splendour (Genevieve) for Quantum Theatre; The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Narrator) for Unseam'd Shakespeare; and Andrew Previn's opera A Streetcar Named Desire (Nurse) for Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She's proud to be part of a cast of Pittsburgh artists. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 29 Theater Etiquette When you visit the theater you are attending a live performance with actors that are working right in front of you. This is an exciting experience for you and the actor. However, in order to have the best performance for both the audience and actors there are some simple rules to follow. By following these rules, you can ensure that you can be the best audience member you can be, as well as keep the actors focused on giving their best performance. 1. Turn off all cell phones, beepers, watches etc. 2. Absolutely no text messaging during the performance. 3. Do not take pictures during the performance. 4. Do not eat or drink in the theater. 5. Do not place things on the stage or walk on the stage. 6. Do not leave your seat during the performance unless it is an emergency. If you do need to leave for an emergency, leave as quietly as possible and know that you might not be able to get back in until after intermission. 7. Do clap—let the actors know you are enjoying yourself. 8. Do enjoy the show and have fun watching the actors. 9. Do tell other people about your experience and be sure to ask questions and discuss the performance. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 30 Discussion Questions 1) What is the importance of the Stage Manager? For what purpose is he watching, narrating and interacting with the play? How does he add to the play for the characters as well as for the audience? 2) What are the challenges and the advantages of having a minimal set and few props? 3) How would the play be different if it took place a hundred years later, in 2001? How would it be the same? 4) The citizens of Grover’s Corners are leaving a group of things in a time capsule to be dug up in one hundred years. They choose a copy of the New York Times and a copy of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel, a bible, a constitution of the United States, a copy of Shakespeare’s works and a copy of this play, Our Town. What would you suggest be left in a time capsule that would be opened one hundred years from today? 5) Thornton Wilder makes good use of small town, early 1900’s New England vernacular. Phrases like “hush-up-with-you” and “you gave me such a turn!”, as well as spelling words like stomach and get, as stummick and git, provide an insight into the background of the people of Grover’s Corners. Think of some regional phrases from our hometown, Pittsburgh. What other interesting sayings have you heard when visiting other places? 6) Wilder makes many references to time and numbers in Our Town. He makes a point of using the words ‘hundreds,’ ‘thousands,’ and ‘millions’ quite frequently. Some examples of this are “M… marries N… millions of them,” “Once in a thousand times it’s interesting,” and “They’ve asked a friend of mine what they should put in the cornerstone for people in a thousand years to dig up.” What is Wilder up to with these constant numerical references? Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 31 7) Towards the end of act three, Emily asks the Stage Manager “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?” The Stage Manager’s response is “No,” then after a pause he adds, “The saints and poets, maybe- they do some.” What about saints and poets might make the Stage Manager think they are more capable of “realizing life?” 8) If you were able to ask Mr. Webb, the editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel, a question about Grover’s Corners, what would you ask? 9) How was marriage viewed in the play? Do you think it is viewed differently today? 10) What do you think it is about Our Town that has made it such a classic and timeless play? Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 32 Pennsylvania Academic Standards The plays of Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 39th season, subtitled the Masterpiece Season, are a wonderful celebration of some of the greatest works in theatrical history, with rich benefits for school students. The 2013-2014 line-up features a six-play subscription series, all by world renowned composers and playwrights that hold a special place in any theater enthusiast’s heart. The Masterpiece Season will provide examples of the wittiest dialogue, the sharpest characters, and the most captivating scores. Applicable to All Plays and Productions: Arts and Humanities Standards and Reading-Writing-Speaking-Listening Standards Attendance and participation by students at any play produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater bears direct applicability to the PA Education Standards in Arts and Humanities and ReadingWriting-Speaking-Listening (RWSL). These applicable standards are summarized first. Then, each play for Season 39 is taken in turn, and its relevance to standards in other Academic Content Areas is cited. All standards are summarized by conceptual description, since similar concepts operate across all the grade levels served by The Public’s Education-Outreach programs (Grades 4 through 12); the principal progressive difference is from basics such as Know, Describe and Explain, moving through grade levels towards more mature activities such as Demonstrate, Incorporate, Compare-Contrast, Analyze and Interpret. 9.1: Production, Performance and Exhibition of Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts Elements Scenario • script/text • set design • stage productions • read and write scripts • improvise • interpret a role • design sets • direct. Principles Balance • collaboration • discipline • emphasis • focus • intention • movement • rhythm • style • voice. Comprehensive vocabulary within each of the arts forms. Communicate a unifying theme or point of view through the production of works in the arts. Explain works of others within each art form through performance or exhibition. Know where arts events, performances and exhibitions occur and how to gain admission. 9.2: Historical and Cultural Contexts The historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts. Works in the arts related chronologically to historical events, and to varying styles and genres, and to the periods in which they were created. Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective, and according to its geographic region of origin. Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts. Philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 33 Historical and cultural differences as they relate to works in the arts. Common themes, forms and techniques from works in the arts. 9.3: Critical Response Know and use the critical process of the examination of works in the arts and humanities. o Compare and contrast o Analyze o Interpret o Form and test hypotheses o Evaluate/form judgments Analyze and interpret specific characteristics of works in the arts within each art form. Identify and classify styles, forms, types and genre within art forms. Evaluate works in the arts and humanities using a complex vocabulary of critical response. Interpret and use various types of critical analysis in the arts and humanities. Contextual criticism. Formal criticism. Intuitive criticism. Apply the process of criticism to identify characteristics among works in the arts. Compare and contrast critical positions or opinions about selected works in the arts and humanities. 9.4: Aesthetic Response Compare and contrast examples of group and individual philosophical meanings of works in the arts and humanities. Compare and contrast informed individual opinions about the meaning of works in the arts to others. Describe how the attributes of the audience’s environment influence aesthetic responses. Describe to what purpose philosophical ideas generated by artists can be conveyed through works in the arts and humanities. Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Make inferences and/or draw conclusions based on information from text. Cite evidence from text to support generalizations. Identify the author’s intended purpose of text. Summarize the key details and events of a fictional text as a whole. Identify and apply meaning of content specific words used in text. Explain, interpret, compare, describe, analyze, and/or evaluate character actions, motives, dialogue, emotions/feelings, traits, and relationships among characters within fictional and literary nonfictional text. Explain, interpret, compare, describe, analyze, and/or evaluate: o The relationship between characters and other components of text. o The setting of fiction or literary nonfiction. o Elements of the plot (conflict, rising action, climax and/or resolution). o Relationship between the theme and other components of text. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 34 Educational Standards From Other Areas Applicable to Individual Plays and Their Themes OUR TOWN. September 26-October 27, 2013. Written by Thornton Wilder (1938). Directed by Ted Pappas. A story that is simple yet profound. A work of unparalleled imagination and heart – and arguably Americas’s greatest play. The theme of this bittersweet tale is the speed of life itself, and how it all too quickly passes us by. The Public’s production of this beloved work will mark the 75th Anniversary of the play’s premiere (1938), and will serve as the perfect gateway to the Masterpiece Season. Our Town is an exquisitely-expressed slice of quintessential Americana, bearing witness to the cycle of daily life in a tiny New England town at the dawn of the brave new 20th century – still a time in which milk was delivered by horse cart, automobiles were a gleam in the eye of the future, weddings were brief and marriages forever, and the daily weather formed the core of a profound cosmic conversation. Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas has announced that the cast of Our Town – 24 actors in all – will be comprised exclusively of actors who reside in the Pittsburgh region or who have resided previously in the Pittsburgh region, or attended school here. Much revered Pittsburgh actor Tom Atkins, known for his many fine performances at The Public, including Arthur J. Rooney, Sr. in The Chief, will play the pivotal role of the Stage Manager in Our Town. Civics and Government Evaluate the roles of political parties, interest groups, and mass media in politics and public policy. Economics Evaluate the economic reasoning behind a choice. Environment and Ecology Analyze how humans influence the pattern of natural changes in ecosystems over time. Evaluate the effect of consumer demands on the use of natural resources. Family and Consumer Sciences Solve dilemmas using a practical reasoning approach: identify situation, identify reliable information, list choices and examine the consequences of each, develop a plan of action, draw conclusions, and reflect on decisions. Contrast past and present family functions and predict their probable impact on the future of the family. Geography Explain the physical characteristics of places and regions, including spatial patterns of Earth’s physical systems. Explain the human characteristics of places and regions using the following criteria: Population, Culture, Settlement, Economic activities, Political activities. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 35 Health, Safety, and Physical Education Analyze the factors that impact growth and development between adolescence and adulthood: relationships (e.g., dating, friendships, peer pressure), interpersonal communication, risk factors (e.g., physical inactivity, substance abuse, intentional/unintentional injuries, dietary patterns), abstinence, STD and HIV prevention, and community. History Apply examples of the rule of law as related to individual rights and the common good. Evaluate the importance of historical documents, artifacts, and sites which are critical to world history. Evaluate the role of mass media in setting public agenda and influencing political life. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 36 References Special thanks to Madeline Kushner for her contributions to this resource guide. Bochi, Patricia. “The Bridge of San Luis Ray.” Photograph. Washington Independent. Fall 2013. <http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/january-slow-read-thebridge-of-san-luis-rey>. Gallagher, Ashley. “The Bridge of San Luis Ray.” Thornton Wilder Society. Web. Fall 2013. <http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey>. Howitt, Nadine. Skin of Our Teeth. Photograph. Stage Magazine. 26 Apr. 2012. Fall 2013. <http://www.stagemagazine.org/2012/04/getting-by-with-more-than-the-skin-of-ourteeth/>. “No Exit.” Hearst Communications, Inc. Web. Summer 2013. < http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/136322365-no-exit>. “Our Town.” Insights. Delaware Theatre Company. 2. Print. “Our Town: Plot Summary.” PBS. Web. 16 Aug. 2013. < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/tg_summary.html>. Robertson, Hamish. “Biography.” Thornton Wilder. Web. Summer 2013. <http://www.thorntonwilder.com/about/biography.html>. “The Glass Menagerie.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Web, Summer 2013. < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/235016/The-Glass-Menagerie>. “The Iceman Cometh.” Theatre in Chicago. Web. Summer 2013. <http://www.theatreinchicago.com/the-iceman-cometh/5017/>. “The Little Foxes.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Web. Summer 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344075/The-Little-Foxes>. “The 1900’s- The World Begins to Fly” americasbesthistory.com. Web. Summer 2013. <http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1900.html>. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 37 “The Skin of Our Teeth.” The Thornton Wilder Society. Web. Summer 2013. <http://thorntonwilder.com/full-length-plays/the-skin-of-our-teeth.html>. “Tally’s Electric Theatre.” Cinema Treasures. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. <http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8855>. “Thornton Wilder Quotes.” Goodreads Inc. Web. Summer 2013. Retrieved from <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/44061.Thornton_Wilder>. “Wright 1903 Flyer.” Photograph. NASA.Web. 28 Aug. 2013. <http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/air1903.html>. “You Can’t Take it With You.” Playbill, Inc. Web. Summer 2013. Retrieved from <http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/1799/You-Cant-Take-It-With-You>. Pittsburgh Public Theater Our Town 2013-2014 Season Page 38