BACKSTORY Your behind-the-scenes look at TimeLine productions YESTERDAY’S STORIES. TODAY’S TOPICS. From Artistic Director PJ Powers a message Dear Friends, that their “Person of the — can influence history is made With his blend of social classic for the ages. You just Year” was You. Me. Us. The through activism, be On behalf of TimeLine’s not only in commentary and might be surprised that the average citizen. it personal, social or entire company, I am government emotional complexity, age in which it was written political. thrilled to welcome you to Admittedly, upon first buildings and Odets revolutionized the really is not our own! our 11th season! Each year hearing that, I thought There are many complex at corporate American theater during As we usher in a second we go through a series of it was a poor excuse for issues — not the least of board tables, but in the The Depression by putting decade of making history at discussions about the issues not choosing a person of which will be a Presidential homes and workplaces of the struggles and longings TimeLine, we’re delighted and types of stories we national prominence — a election — that will demand people like you and me. of everyday citizens on the to share another Odets stage. With Paradise Lost, want explore, and this year single someone who had great thoughtfulness in the We begin our season-long play with you. With much he gives voice to those our deliberations seemed made a sizeable imprint on coming year. Each of us will conversation by revisiting to discuss, I hope our little individuals and exposes a even more extensive and issues of global importance. play some role in the history an old friend — Clifford theater again this season family’s quest for utopia passionate than at any But soon I recognized an that will be made, and it’s Odets. If you saw Louis will be a place where big amid a sea of economic and time during our 10 previous opportunity to explore up to us as individuals to Contey’s Jeff Citation- conversations take place! political turmoil. years. There was a lot on our Time’s idea. determine how active (or winning production of minds and an abundance passive) that role will be. Quite often TimeLine is Odets’ Awake and Sing! With a vast landscape of topics quite worthy of drawn to stories about With that in mind, TimeLine at TimeLine in 2002, you of ideas, this is an Odets examining on stage. legendary figures who is pleased to present may attest that Odets is There was one moment, defined their times and four plays that showcase a playwright who seems however, that turned claimed their chapters ordinary people living in custom-made for our “It’s equally important to tell the stories the tide for how I was in history books. But it’s extraordinary times. They company and that Contey of how average individuals —you, me, us is a director who has a approaching our planning. equally important to tell are filled with probing —can influence history.” At the end of 2006, Time the stories of how average questions, refreshing humor tremendous gift for making magazine announced individuals — you, me, us and the notion that history Odets’ urban poetry shine. Special Events and Resources the conversation Sunday Scholars Series The panel is moderated by Post-Show Discussions production dramaturg, Lobby Displays Study Guide TimeLine Board member these brief, informal discus- Immediately following the Stay after performances Don’t miss our historical Also online, you may obtain Peter H. Kuntz, managing sions are your opportunity performance on Sunday, on Thursday, August 30; lobby displays, available a production study guide, director of programs and to hear from the cast and September 9, TimeLine will Sunday, September 2; for perusal before and after our compilation of all the production for the Chicago production team about their host our Sunday Scholars Thursday, September 6; each performance. They historical background, Humanities Festival. experiences, ask questions Series. This one-hour panel Thursday, September 13 also can be downloaded at contextual articles and about and comment on the discussion features experts Please note that you do not and Sunday, September www.timelinetheatre.com. additional resources col- performance and engage talking about the themes need to attend the Sep- 16 for free post-show lected during production of fellow audience members and issues of the play. Tick- tember 9 performance of discussions. Moderated Paradise Lost. in conversation about the ets are $10; $5 for TimeLine Paradise Lost to attend the by a TimeLine Company themes of the play. subscribers; call the Box Sunday Scholars panel. member and featuring the Office to order. Clifford Odets: Origins the playwright A TIMELINE July 18, 1906 Clifford Odets lifford Odets was the of increasingly expensive inclinations and refused to After a performance in a is born in Philadelphia. Cson of Eastern Euro- apartments in New York send him to college, hoping small role with the Theatre 1912 Odets’ family moves to pean, Jewish immigrants. City. They were in social instead to train him in his Guild, Odets met Harold New York City. He was born in Philadelphia neighborhoods, and Odets, own printing and copywrit- Clurman, who invited him to June 28, 1914 Archduke on July 18, 1906. His mother, always seeking family, was ing business. Odets was meet with a group of actors Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Pearl, who suffered from often in the homes of his not a success in his father’s and directors who were Austro-Hungarian Empire, and tuberculosis and bouts neighbors, observing their business and drifted from holding weekly meetings to his wife are assassinated. In of depression, was often lives with his prominent job to job before finding discuss the state of theater, the months that follow, Aus- remote and emotionally blue eyes. like-minded actors and writ- the need for more training tro-Hungary, Serbia, Russia, Belgium, France and Germany inaccessible when he was a ers with whom he shared and rehearsal time, and the Odets’ childhood journals all are drawn into what would child. His father, Lou, was ragged apartments paid method of acting pioneered are filled with precocious become the World War I. both an ambitious business- for by bit parts in plays and, by Konstantin Stanislavski. and self-conscious accounts man and womanizer who occasionally, financial con- These meetings would ulti- April 6, 1917 The U.S. of his dreams of becoming Congress declares war on had high expectations for tributions from his mother. mately grow into the Group an actor or a writer. Early Germany. his son. Theatre, and Clurman would successes in theatrical per- Throughout this time, Odets become Odets’ friend and November 11, 1918 World Lou Odets was obsessed formances in grade school suffered from depression the director of many of his War I ends with the signing of with the American dream, and high school cemented and entertained thoughts of plays. It was the Group that, the Armistice. and, as he grew more suc- his desire to act. suicide, even as he worked for a time, offered Odets a cessful, he distanced himself to educate himself in the 1920 Adolf Hitler, as head of His father, however, did not Clifford Odets at age 28. family and artistic home. the National Socialist German from his immigrant past. theater, art and music. appreciate his son’s artistic (Photograph by Carl Van Vechten) Workers’ Party (Nationalsozial- The family was forbidden istische Deutsche Arbeiterpar- to visit his mother’s grave tei or Nazi Party) announces Clifford Odets and Luise Rainer circa 1937. (Photograph by Carl Van Vechten) for fear they would see the his 25-point program which family name, Gorodetsky, provided the permanent basis “Dear American friend. of the party. on the gravestone. After moving to New York City, October 24, 1929 The stock he added the initial “J” to That miserable patch of market crashes; it came to be his name and expanded his event, that mélange of known as Black Thursday. first name to Louis. He also October 29, 1929 Five began claiming he had been days later, there is a second born in Philadelphia. nothing, while you were stock-market crash. Soon known as Black Tuesday, this Caught between the looking ahead for some- crash causes widespread panic. emotional distance of his Most historians now believe mother and the severity and these crashes were symptoms thing to happen, that of the Great Depression, not ambition of his often-absent the cause. father, Clifford Odets was a bookish child who craved was it! That was life! 1930 Harold Clurman, Lee approval and a family. Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford You lived it!” begin holding meetings to dis- He grew up living upstairs cuss theater; Odets is among from an aunt and uncle in — Clifford Odets, 1963 a number of actors attending Philadelphia, then in a series these gatherings that would become the basis for the Group Theatre. George Bernard Shaw: a timeline The Group Theatre 1931 Banks suspend opera- the experiment tions by the end of the year. November 8, 1932 Franklin irectors Harold Clur- about an authenticity they Theatre became increasingly Delano Roosevelt defeats Dman, Lee Strasberg and felt was lacking in the the- socially aware. For a time Herbert Hoover and is elected Cheryl Crawford organized ater. The young company Odets joined the American the 32nd president of the the Group Theatre in 1931. struggled; while some plays Communist Party but found United States. They called it the Group were well reviewed, there it artistically restricting January 1, 1933 Hitler because the three directors were also financial failures and abandoned it, though is appointed Chancellor of had been holding weekly and pressures.