Student Matinee Series
Study Guide For start down By Eleanor Burgess
start down at Alliance Theatre Show Art
Playwright
Eleanor Burgess is the recipient of the 2016 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award. Her play start down will premiere at the Alliance Theatre in February of 2016 and have a subsequent production at Centenary Stage in April. Her previous plays have been produced by the Last Act Theatre Company, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, the Boston Theatre Marathon, Lourdes Drama Society and Everyday Inferno Theatre Company, and developed at the Huntington Theatre Company, Crashbox Theater and Luna Stage. She has been a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and a member of the writers’ group at the Arcola Theatre in London. Originally from Brookline Massachusetts, she holds a B.A. in history from Yale College and an M.F.A in Dramatic Writing from NYU/Tisch.
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Synopsis
Inspired by his girlfriend Sandy’s high school teaching career and desperate to create a cutting-edge product, software developer Will forms a company dedicated to making online tutorials tailored to individual student needs. It’s a brilliant idea until the program threatens some deeply held beliefs about the student/teacher relationship. Sandy and Will find themselves on opposite sides of the argument. Sandy believes in the life-changing impact teachers have on students in one-to-one interactions. Will sees a problem that can be solved with technology, whether it should be or not.
Director
Jeremy B. Cohen is in his sixth season as the Producing Artistic Director at the Playwrights’ Center, having previously served as Associate Artistic Director/Director of New Play Development at Hartford Stage from 2003 to 2010, where he also directed several premieres. Other directing credits include productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, Alliance, Centerstage, Dorset Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Goodman, Kansas City Rep, McCarter, Mixed Blood, New Victory, Open Fist, Repertory Theatre of St Louis, Royal George, Steppenwolf Theatre, Theater J, Theatre Latte Da, Victory Gardens, and Workhaus Collective; workshops at O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, New York Stage & Film, Pasadena Playhouse, Denver Center, New Harmony, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Woolly Mammoth. As Founding Artistic Director of Naked Eye Theatre Company in Chicago, Cohen developed/directed more than 15 plays, including several premieres. He has received numerous directing awards, an NEA/TCG Directors Fellowship, and a Northwestern University grant for his play 12 Volt Heart. Last Season he directed the World Premiere of a new musical Off-Broadway (The Duke on 42nd Street) by singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke called My Mother Has Four Noses, which is currently touring the US, and this season he directs four World Premieres, including Start down (Alliance), Bad Dog (Olney), Lullaby (Theatre Latte Da) and the rolling World Premiere of Le Switch (The Jungle).
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Tracey N. Bonner (Karen) Tracey is thrilled to be making her Alliance Theatre debut. Her theatre credits include April 4th,1968: Before We Forgot How to Dream, What I Learned in Paris and The Mountaintop at the Indiana Repertory Theatre; We Are Proud to Present… at Victory Gardens Theatre; Native Son, Invisible Man, and Home at the Court Theatre; Bud, Not Buddy and Jackie and Me at Chicago Children’s Theatre; Radio Golf at Virginia Stage Company; Jitney at True Colors Theatre; Brothers of the Dust, The Talented Tenth, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Congo Square Theatre; and How the Kanye West Was Won and Six Degrees of Reparation at Second City. Television/Film credits include Mother's Day, The Longest Ride (20th Century Fox), Betrayal (ABC), Low Winter Sun (AMC), Chicago Fire (NBC), Casandra French’s Finishing School for Boys (MTV), Trapped in the Closet (IFC), and Prison Break (FOX). Tracey holds an M.F.A. in acting from the Theatre School at DePaul University and is a proud Ensemble Member of Congo Square Theatre Company.
Anthony Campbell (Jessie) picture and bio unavailable at time of printing
Andrew Puckett (Matty) is thrilled to be making his Alliance Theatre debut. Favorite Atlanta credits: A Confederacy of Dunces (Theatrical Outfit), The Shape of Things, Lobby Hero (Pinch 'N' Ouch), Moby Dick (Saiah Arts International). T.V./Film credits: "Swamp Murders", and Invasion of the Undead. He holds a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from KSU. He would like to thank Jeremy and Jody for this amazing opportunity, and Eleanor for creating such a stellar and important work. Finally he would like to thank his wife, Julie, for her unwavering love and support.
Annie Purcell (Sandy) is delighted to make her Alliance debut. Broadway: The Coast of Utopia: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage at Lincoln Center, Dividing the Estate, and Awake and Sing! Off-Broadway: Fashions for Men (The Mint) Illusions (Baryshnikov Center for the Arts), Twelfth Night (Fiasco), Cycling Past the Matterhorn (Theater Row), What May Fall (Fordham Alumni Theatre Company). Regional: Northern Lights (Hudson Valley Shakespeare) Awake and Sing! (Huntington Theatre Co.), Partners (Humana Festival, ATL), The Real Thing (Studio Theatre), Ed, Downloaded (Denver Center Theatre Co.), Scorched, A Christmas Carol, and Endgame/Play(American Conservatory Theatre), The Tosca Café (Theatre Calgary, Vancouver Playhouse), In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Elektra (Getty Villa), Mary's Wedding(Portland Stage Company), The House in Hydesville (Geva Theatre), and Uncle Vanya (Cal Shakes). Film and Television: "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", "Louie" and "The Black Donnellys". B.A., Fordham University at Lincoln Center, M.F.A. NYU. Annie also writes plays, teaches, and delights in making theater in all ways.
start down at the Alliance Theatre Page 3 of 14 Eric Sharp (Will) is thrilled to be making his Alliance debut. An actor and playwright based in Minneapolis, he recently wrote and starred in the world premiere of Middle Brother at Mu Performing Arts and will tour the show to South Korea this summer. Other regional credits include M. Butterfly (Guthrie Theater), The Jungle Book (Children's Theatre Co.), The Miser (Theatre de la Jeune Lune), After the Quake (Walking Shadow Theatre), and Mother Courage and her Children (Frank Theatre). Eric has performed at the Minnesota, Toronto, and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, as well as portraying the young Dalai Lama in TigerLion Arts' tour of The Buddha Prince.
Josh Tobin (Adam) is thrilled to be making his Alliance debut. New York: Gluten! (59E59 Theaters), July House (NYFringe), Scapin (Theatre Row), Until Next Time (The Brick Theater). Regional: 4000 Miles (Baltimore Center Stage), Something Intangible (Gulfshore Playhouse), The Imaginary Invalid, Cabaret, Clybourne Park, Henry IV & V, Big River (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Fifty Ways, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Chautauqua Theater Company). TV/Film: Ricki and the Flash, Happy Birthday Tommy. Education: M.F.A., U.N.C. - Chapel Hill/PlayMakers; B.A., Davidson College. JoshTobin.com.
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Characters
(All ages are at the start of the play; the characters age three years) Will - Male, 28, Chinese-American, a programmer Sandy - Female, 28, secular Jewish, a history teacher Karen - Female, 28, African-American, a math teacher Adam - Male, 28, WASP, a hedge fund analyst Matty - Male, 23, a white Midwesterner, a programmer Jesse - Male, 15, African-American, a high school student
start down at the Alliance Theatre Page 4 of 14 Unfamiliar Words and Phrases from start down
Ulysses S. Grant – The 18th president of the United States of America and prominent Union general during the Civil War. Squaw – an abbreviation of Squaw Valley in Olympic Valley, California. It is one of the largest ski areas in the United States. Vail – a popular ski resort in Colorado that boasts over 5,000 acres of skiing trails and a Swiss-style village with shops and eateries. Sauternes – a sweet wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux. It can average $48-$51/bottle Adderall – a prescription drug in the United States used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) GRE – an abbreviation for Graduate Record Examination; a standardized exam used to measure one’s aptitude for abstract thinking in the areas of analytical writing mathematics, and vocabulary Affirmative Action – an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination Asperger’s – an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Rosie Riveter - a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. July 16, 1945, New Mexico – the first atomic bomb test successfully exploded. Subreddits - Reddit is an entertainment, social networking, and news website where registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct links, making it essentially an online bulletin board system. Saving Private Ryan - a 1998 Steven Spielberg American epic war drama film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. Island hopping - Leapfrogging, or island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. The idea was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan.
start down at the Alliance Theatre Page 5 of 14 Roosevelt - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. Fascist – a person who supports an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. Purple Heart - a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military. 1945 Purple Hearts – The United States military expected up to 1 million casualties in the invasion of Japan, so they stocked up on Purple Hearts, but Japan surrendered after the atomic bomb was dropped. Those Purple Hearts are still being awarded today. Hiroshima – a modern city on Japan’s Honshu Island, was largely destroyed by an atomic bomb during World War II. "Lock thousands of Japanese people up in the desert like in California " – Jessie’s comment refers to the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States which was the forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the incarceration shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Prenup – abbreviation for prenuptial agreement; a written contract between two people who are about to marry, setting out the terms of possession of assets, treatment of future earnings, control of the property of each, and potential division if the marriage is later dissolved. These agreements are fairly common if either or both parties have substantial assets, children from a prior marriage, potential inheritances, high incomes, or have been "taken" by a prior spouse. Delivering Happiness - a book by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. It details his life as an entrepreneur, with emphasis on the founding of LinkExchange and Zappos. Zappos - Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing shop based in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Bezos book” – Adam is referring to The Everything Story: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. Considered the definitive story of Amazon.com. Tokamak - is a device that uses magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape. Industrial Revolution - was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840.
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start down Soundtrack
Eleanor Burgess includes several song suggestions in her script for scene transitions. If a theatre chooses to use all of her suggestions, the Start down soundtrack would include the following:
“Shots” LMFAO “Two Weeks” Grizzly Bears “Modern Man” Arcade Fire “Somebody I Used to Know” Gotye “We Can’t Stop” Miley Cyrus
Startups for Dummies
A startup is an entrepreneurial venture or a new business in the form of a company, a partnership or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. These companies, generally newly created, are innovative in a process of development, validation and research for target markets. The term became internationally widespread during the dot- com bubble when a great number of dot-com companies were founded. Because of this history, startups are often assumed to be solely technological companies, but this is not necessarily true: the essence of startups is generally related to the concepts of ambition, innovation, scalability, and growth. A startup explores an unknown or innovative business model in order to disrupt existing markets, as in the cases of Amazon, Uber or Google. Computer Programmer, Paul Graham, states that entrepreneurs who seek to create a startup are, “committing to search for one of the rare ideas that generate rapid growth.” Most people can list multiple startups with Facebook dominating the horizon. There are movies and songs about startups. Startups have become such a part of the American zeitgeist that even South Park took a poke at them.
However, unlike the fictional promises of wealth and fame found in most Hollywood startup stories, 90% of startups fail.
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start down at the Alliance Theatre Page 9 of 14 Articles & More About Startups
Allis, Ryan. "The History of Entrepreneurship - The Startup Guide - Creating a Better World Through
Entrepreneurship." The Startup Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Hunckler, Matt. "Top 20 Startups of All Time [INFOGRAPHIC]." Verge Top 20 Startups of All Time
INFOGRAPHIC Comments. N.p., 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Patel, Neil. "Startup Stars: A Brief History of the Best 20th Century Business Launches –
GeekWire." GeekWire. N.p., 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
The Timelines of famous startups: This website will allow you to choose a famous startup, like Amazon, and view the timeline of the company. http://www.startlin.es/timelines/
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Pre-Show Questions: 1. Is there more to education then the transference of knowledge? What are some of the other elements of education? 2. Is the most efficient way to do something always the right way to do it? Defend your position. 3. Do you believe that there are problems that technology cannot solve? Provide examples. 4. Which is more important: maintaining personal relationships or achieving personal goals?
Post-Show Questions: 1. In start down, Will stated, “Edtech is the new frontier. It's the new social networking.” Do you agree or disagree? Defend your position. 2. New companies are called startups. Why has the playwright chosen the title start down? 3. Why do you think Sandy stopped supporting Will’s program when he decided to add video tutorials? Site evidence from the play. 4. If Will’s software were in place at the beginning of Jessie’s high school career, do you think Jessie would have been more or less successful? Why? 5. How would you describe Will’s attitude toward education? Sandy’s? Karen’s? 6. Karen decided to stay with Adam because of “math.” Do you believe that there is a point in a person’s life when they should get married because they’re too old to continue dating? 7. Should have Sandy made Will choose between his company and her? Did she have a choice? Did he?
Creative Writing Prompts: 1. Imagine your school purchased Will’s software. Write a story describing how your school day would change. 2. Write a letter to your school superintendent promoting or dissuading the purchase of Will’s software. Use your best persuasive techniques.
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Graphic Startup Data
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start down at the Alliance Theatre There’s an App for That
Below is a representation of the projected growth in app sales through 2017.
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