Dramaguide 1

Table of Contents The Play p. 2-3 The Playwright p. 3-4 The Source p. 4-5 Big Ideas p. 6-8 Timeline p. 8-9 Source Poem p. 10 For Students p. 11 Learning Connections & Standards p. 12 Director William Hayes Producers Stephen Brown and Jamie Stern October 14 – November 13, 2016 Dramaguide written by Gary Cadwallader Dramaguide1 The Play The Characters Lawrence Shannon – A de-frocked Episcopalian priest working as a Mexican tour guide Maxine Faulk – Proprietor of the Coste Verde Hotel Hannah Jelkes – an American portrait artist traveling with her grandfather Nonno (Jonathan Coffin) – Hannah’s grandfather; the world’s oldest living poet Miss Judith Fellowes –a music instructor from a Baptist college in Texas; a tourist on Shannon’s Mexican tour Charlotte Goodall – a sixteen-year-old tourist on Shannon’s Mexican tour Hank – a Blake Tours bus driver Pancho and Pedro – young Mexican employees of the Coste Verde Hotel Herr Fahrenkopf, Frau Fahrenkopf, Wolfgang, Hilda – a family of German tourists Jake Latta – a Blake Tours employee Setting The play takes place in the summer of 1940 at the Costa Verde Hotel in Puerto Barrio, on the west coast of Mexico. The Story “I don't mean what other people mean when they speak of a home, because I don't regard a home as a ... well, as a place, a building ... a house ... of wood, bricks, stone. I think of a home as being a thing that two people have between them in which each can ... well, nest.” Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana The Rev. Lawrence Shannon arrives at the Costa Verde Hotel, a decaying hotel perched on top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The only guests are a family of German tourists. Shannon, working as a tour guide for Blake Tours, is leading a group of women from a Texas Bible college. He is “at the end of his rope” and seeks his friend, Fred. Fred has died, and Maxine, Fred’s widow, recognizes Shannon’s “nervous condition,” and invites him to stay. Their conversation is interrupted by the constant honking of the tour bus horn. Hank, the bus driver, begs Shannon to hand over the key in order to placate the angry tourists, but Shannon will go no further. He has the ignition key, and wants the tour to stay at the Costa Verde. Shannon tells Maxine that a teenaged girl on the tour made advances on him, and her angry chaperone, Judith Fellowes, climbs up the hill to confront him. Shannon refuses to hand over the bus key, so Miss Fellowes threatens to call his superiors and asks Maxine to use the phone in the hotel office. While Miss Fellowes is on the phone, Shannon asks Maxine to send Pancho and Pedro to bring the tour’s luggage up from the bus. Miss Fellowes returns from the office just as Charlotte appears, pleading with Miss Fellowes to allow the tour to stay. Miss Fellowes orders her to leave and, seeing Pancho and Pedro removing the luggage from the bus, runs screaming down the hill. Hannah Jelkes arrives at the hotel seeking rooms for her and her grandfather Nonno, “the world’s oldest living and practicing poet.” At first, Maxine refuses her rooms as the hotel is closed for the season. However, she relents and offers them one night. Later, she makes arrangements for Hannah and Nonna to move to a rooming house “in town.” German tourists arrive from the beach, share news that London was bombed by the Nazis, and order champagne. Charlotte escapes from Miss Fellowes’ protection and runs back to the hotel. Shannon retreats into his hotel room, but she demands to see him. He relents, but continually fends off her advances and pleas to marry. Miss Fellowes realizes Charlotte is missing and runs to the hotel, shouting for her. Shannon escapes to his room, and Charlotte hides in Hannah’s room. Fellowes hears Charlotte sobbing, pulls her from the room, and away from the hotel. 2 The Story, continued Shannon emerges from his room wearing his clerical attire. Hannah helps him with his collar, but it is worn and unwearable, and he flings it from the porch. Hannah begins to sketch him. Shannon admits he was excommunicated from the church for committing heresy, removed from his church and sent to an asylum. Hannah is determined to sell her art to Shannon’s tour group and hurries off down the hill. Pancho and Pedro catch an iguana and tie it underneath the porch. The iguana will be fattened for eating. A crash is heard from Nonno’s room and Shannon, realizing he’s fallen, helps him to his feet and onto the verandah. Maxine sets tables on the verandah for dinner and offers cocktails. Hannah returns without success and Maxine sees a deep, thoughtful connection forming between Shannon and Hannah. She becomes jealous, and tells Hannah to keep her distance from him. However, Hannah asks Shannon to sit with her at dinner. A large thunderstorm approaches producing wind and rain. Later that evening, Jake Latta, a representative from Blake Tours arrives to demand the bus key from Shannon. Shannon refuses, and he and Hank physically remove the key from Shannon’s pocket. After the tour leaves, Shannon has a panic attack and Maxine orders Pancho and Pedro to tie him into the hammock. Shannon tries to convince Hannah to untie him, but when she won’t he becomes violent and Maxine sits on top of him. When Shannon is alone he escapes from the binding and pacifies himself with a drink from the cocktail cart. Hannah comforts Shannon and together they create a deep, honest connection. After she learns that the iguana is tethered below the porch she asks Shannon to set it free. He, at first, refuses but relents and releases the iguana from its ropes. Nonno calls to Hannah to dictate a poem he has created in his mind. Maxine returns from the beach and implores Shannon to stay with her. She coaxes him to go for a swim in the ocean, and Hannah is left with her grandfather. The Author: Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams III on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi) was one of the preeminent American dramatists of the 1940s to 1960s. He first found fame and critical success with his 1945 Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, and achieved greater fame with his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Several of his significant plays include Summer and Smoke (1948), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). Williams’ early life was spent in Mississippi and Tennessee living with his maternal grandparents. His father, Cornelius, traveled as a salesman, but finally settled the family in St. Louis after taking a management position at International Shoe Co. Here Williams spent his youth developing skills as a writer, publishing poems and short stories in his school’s literary journals. Williams was nationally published at 16 in the literary magazine, Smart Set, with his essay in response to the question, “Can a Wife Be a Good Sport?” The following year he sold a horror tale, “The Vengeance of Nitocris” to Weird Magazine for $35. He was convinced he could have a career as a writer. Williams attended three universities, finally graduating with a degree in theatre from the University of Iowa in 1938. Throughout his college years Williams wrote plays, and the first, “Beauty is the Word,” was written for the Dramatic Arts Club while he was a freshman at The University of Missouri-Columbia. At that time, Williams was a journalism major. 3 The Author, continued After college, Williams relocated to New Orleans, where he wrote constantly. On the move south, he mailed a package of plays to the prestigious Group Theatre in New York City for an “under 25” playwriting contest. He won a $100 prize for four one-acts titled “American Blues.” He submitted, for the first time, under the name “Tennessee.” Most importantly, it brought him to the attention of the powerful literary agent Audrey Wood. She encouraged him to apply for a $1,000 Rockefeller grant, which he won in 1939. He moved to New York, newly represented by Wood, and attended the playwriting seminar at The New School. Williams had his first full-length play, Battle of Angels, produced by The Theatre Guild in 1940 (the play was revised and produced in 1957 under a new title, Orpheus Descending). While the production closed in Boston, and it was an unhappy experience for Williams, it gave him an understanding of writing for the “profit-oriented” commercial theatre. In 1943, Wood secured Williams a job as a scriptwriter at MGM Studios in Hollywood. Williams vehemently hated working on screenplays, but while there wrote a story about a girl with a collection of glass figurines, “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.” Encouraged by Wood, Williams developed the story into his first major success, The Glass Menagerie. Throughout his life Williams suffered from severe anxieties, and they became increasingly acute as the stresses of receiving poor critical reception for his plays persisted. In 1963, after the death of this longtime partner, Frank Merlo, Williams suffered a severe depression that compounded his anxieties. Consuming huge quantities of alcohol and barbiturates only exaggerated his problems, and Williams was temporarily committed to a mental health facility in 1969. Though hurt by the negative reception of his later plays, Williams never stopped writing: “I’m very conscious of my decline in popularity, but I don’t permit it to stop me because I have the example of so many playwrights before me.

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