ON STAGE the American Century Theater Presents
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The AmericanThe American Century Century Theater Theater presents by S N Behrman Biography ON STAGE The American Century Theater presents About The American Century Theater The American Century Theater was founded in 1994. We are a professional nonprofit theater company dedicated to presenting great, important, and worthy American plays of the twentieth century—what Henry Luce called “the American Century.” The company’s mission is one of rediscovery, enlightenment, and perspective, not nostalgia or preservation. Americans must not lose the extraordinary by S. N. Behrman vision and wisdom of past playwrights, nor can we afford to surrender the moorings to our shared cultural heritage. Our mission is also driven by a conviction that communities need theater, June 7–29, 2013 and theater needs audiences. To those ends, this company is committed to Gunston Theatre Two producing plays that challenge and move all Americans, of all ages, origins, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington and points of view. In particular, we strive to create theatrical experiences that entire families can watch, enjoy, and discuss long afterward. Director Board of Directors Steven Scott Mazzola Chair Louis George Vice-Chair Wes MacAdam Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Secretary Ann Marie Plubell Robert Gato Echanique Alison Samantha Johnson Jason Treasurer Wendy Kenney Aufdem-Brinke Board Paige Gold, Gabe Goldberg, Vivian Kallen, Jack Marshall, Kevin McIntyre Sound Design Properties Design Scenic Artist Staff Ed Moser Lindsey E. Moore Annalisa Dias-Mandoly Jack Marshall Artistic Director Stage Manager Assistant Stage Managers Paige Gold Managing Director Tré Wheeler Charles Lasky Rip Claassen Steven Scott Mazzola Ashley Crouch Brian Crane Lindsey E. Moore Ellen Dempsey Emily Morrison Kate Dorrell Ed Moser Setting Tom Fuller Joli Provost Rhonda Hill Ginny Tarris Act I A New York City apartment on an afternoon in November 1931 10-minute intermission This program is supported in part by Arlington County through the Arlington Commission for the Arts and Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division Act II, Scene 1 Three weeks later of Arlington Economic Development; the Virginia Commission for the Arts; Scene 2 Two weeks after that the National Endowment for the Arts; and many generous donors. Please—Turn off cell phones and other distracting devices. The use of recording equipment and taking of photographs during the performance are strictly prohibited. Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Cast in order of appearance Richard Kurt .............................................Daniel Corey Minnie ...................................................Cam Magee Biography (1932), by S. N. Behrman Melchior Feydak ..........................................Craig Miller Marion Froude ....................................Jennifer J. Hopkins With Biography, S.N. Behrman becomes The American Century Theater’s Leander “Bunny” Nolan ................................. Jon Townson second most produced 20th century American playwright, after The Master, Warwick Wilson .........................................Frank Britton Eugene O’Neill. For a company dedicated to presenting that century’s best Orrin Kinnicott ............................................Joe Cronin works that the rest of the theater world has forgotten, this is most fitting, for Slade Kinnicott ........................................Caitlyn Conley Behrman epitomizes the brilliant theatrical talent of the past whose creations are being consigned to undeserved oblivion due to no flaw of their own. Behrman’s curse is that none of his plays became famous enough or provided the inspiration for a movie popular enough to keep him nailed to Production staff the brains of the public and producers. Philip Barry, a similar playwright and Director ........................................ Steven Scott Mazzola contemporary who was rightly viewed—even during his peak—as inferior to Behrman, had a play turned into a classic movie starring Katharine Hepburn, Scenic Design ................................. Robert Gato Echanique Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. No Behrman film adaptation was ever Costume Design ............................Alison Samantha Johnson successful: the most famous, the big-budget MGM musical adaptation of Lighting Design. Jason Aufdem-Brinke Behrman’s atypical romance The Pirate, starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, Sound Design ...............................................Ed Moser was famous for being a bomb. Biography, Behrman’s best play and arguably Properties Design ....................................Lindsey E. Moore superior to The Philadelphia Story, was given a new (and lousy) title, Biography Stage Manager ............................................Tré Wheeler of a Bachelor Girl, and made into a blah film starring the forgettable Ann Assistant Stage Managers ................Charles Lasky, Ashley Crouch Harding. In the absence of one well-known title (Biography also has the curse Master Carpenter .................................Jonathan Hudspeth of having such a generic title that it is almost un-Google-able) or frequently Scenic Artist ...................................Annalisa Dias-Mandoly produced play to moor him to American cultural memory, Behrman, for all Set Construction ..........Ashley Crouch, Thomas Linn, Colin Manning his play-crafting skill and verbal dexterity, is all but lost. Additional Scenic Painting ............Ashley Crouch, Lindsey E. Moore, He is not alone. TACT has been excavating the vaults of 20th century Colin Manning, Ed Moser American theater for seventeen years, and some of our greatest and, during Dialect Coach .........................................Karin Rosnizeck their lifetimes, most acclaimed, playwrights haven’t been produced here Master Electrician .................................Jonathan Weinberg even once, never mind three times. We began with a list of such playwrights, Wardrobe Assistant ....................................Ashley Crouch whose number we have slowly—too slowly—reduced through the years, Photography ........................................Johannes Markus and it is depressingly distinguished still. We managed to remove one member, George Kelly, from the list this past season, with the production of Publicist .............................................. Emily Morrison his masterpiece, The Show-Off. The list, now nicknamed “The Behrman List” in honor of the first genius we rescued from it, today includes five. They are . 1. Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959) An undeniable giant among American playwrights, his fatal flaw was to specialize only in genres that have fallen Special thanks to— out of favor with audiences and producers: verse plays, anti-war plays not Jeffrey Akman Marilyn Johnson Sewing and about Vietnam or Iraq, and histories. His casts were also massive. Only his American Backstage, Inc. Design Studio atypical thriller, The Bad Seed, has commercial potential, and that show relies Brian Crane Michael Kahn on a juvenile actress of rare ability. Among Maxwell’s best: High Tor, Winterset, Karen Currie Constance McBride-Johnson Elizabeth the Queen, What Price Glory, Mary of Scotland, Valley Forge, Anne of Victor and Dale Gold Caitlyn Staebell a Thousand Days, and Key Largo. The latter was made into a film noir classic, Happenstance Theater it’s true, but the movie is so different from the play that companies are afraid that the play will disappoint theater goers. 2. Elmer Rice (1892–1967) The pre-eminent playwright in America before Frank Britton (Warwick Wilson) returns to The American Century Theater 1930, the inventor of the flashback device and responsible for the first after appearing in last season’s Marathon ’33 and as Banquo in this season’s credible courtroom dramas, Rice was as prolific and almost as experimental Voodoo Macbeth. Recent appearances include No Man’s Land, The Bacchae, Les as O’Neill (he put forty-four plays on Broadway), but only his expressionist Justes, and the title role in Richard III (among a dozen productions at WSC Avant classic The Adding Machine gets regular productions, and then mostly on Bard, where he is an Acting Company Member), The Minotaur (World Premiere, college campuses. His Street Scene is famous for its opera version; the play, Rorschach Theatre), Shape (DC World Premiere and NYC Premiere at La MaMa which is wonderful, is considered too expensive to risk producing. ETC with force/collision, where he is Core Ensemble/founding member); 3. Robert Sherwood (1896–1955) TACT finally began to do Sherwood justice productions with many other area theatres, including Arena Stage, Round with its “Rescues Series” staged reading of Abe Lincoln in Illinois this year, House Theatre, Synetic Theater, Theater Alliance, Scena Theatre, Constellation but a full production of a Sherwood play still resides in the uncertain future. Theatre Company, Forum Theatre, and Spooky Action Theater; and, regionally, He might be the best writer on the list. Sherwood also liked histories, and with the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. in his case, successful films of his plays have not translated into theatrical Upcoming: The Iceman Cometh (Quotidian Theatre Company). immortality. In addition to his Lincoln play, Sherwood wrote There Shall Be No Caitlyn Conley (Slade Kinnicott) is making her American Century Theater Night and Idiot’s Delight, all three garnering Pulitzers. He also wrote the plays debut. Boston credits include True Believers (Vagabond Theatre), Tom