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The Spitfire Grill the Articles in This Study Guide Are Not Meant to Mirror Or Interpret Any Productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

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The Spitfire Grill the Articles in This Study Guide Are Not Meant to Mirror Or Interpret Any Productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival Insights A Study Guide to the Utah Shakespeare Festival The Spitfire Grill The articles in this study guide are not meant to mirror or interpret any productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They are meant, instead, to be an educational jumping-off point to understanding and enjoying the plays (in any production at any theatre) a bit more thoroughly. Therefore the stories of the plays and the interpretative articles (and even characters, at times) may differ dramatically from what is ultimately produced on the Festival’s stages. Insights is published by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, 351 West Center Street; Cedar City, UT 84720. Bruce C. Lee, communications director and editor; Phil Hermansen, art director. Copyright © 2011, Utah Shakespeare Festival. Please feel free to download and print Insights, as long as you do not remove any identifying mark of the Utah Shakespeare Festival. For more information about Festival education programs: Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street Cedar City, Utah 84720 435-586-7880 www.bard.org. Cover photo: Misty Cotton (left, then clockwise) as Percy Talbott, Pat Sibley as Hannah Ferguson, Afton Quast as Shelby Thorpe and Danforth Comins as Sheriff Joe Sutter in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2004 production of The Spitfire Grill. Contents Information on the Play Synopsis 4 CharactersThe Spitfire Grill 6 About the Playwrights 7 Scholarly Articles on the Play The Heart and Soul of America 8 Utah Shakespeare Festival 3 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Synopsis: The Spitfire Grill Percy Talbott, having been recently released from prison, steps off the bus in Gilead, Wisconsin, a location she selected because of a picture she found in an old travel book. Sheriff Joe Sutter takes Percy to the Spitfire Grill, since it’s the only guest room in town and because he doesn’t know what else to do with her. Here, she meets Hannah, who takes her in and gives her a job. Effy Krayneck, the town postmistress and busybody, is immediately suspicious of Percy, as is Caleb Thorpe, Hannah’s nephew. They make it known that a jailbird isn’t welcome in their midst. It is the painfully shy Shelby, Caleb’s wife, who is the only one willing to suspend judg- ment. When Hannah accidentally falls and injures her leg, Percy gets medical help for her, but Effy immediately goes about spreading the story that Percy pushed Hannah down a flight of stairs. Hannah, disabled for the time being, puts Percy in charge of the grill. Since her cooking proves to be nearly lethal, they enlist the aid of Shelby. Percy also takes over Hannah’s unexplained ritual of leaving a loaf of bread next to a stump behind the grill, a loaf of bread, which always mysteriously disappears during the night. As they become closer friends, Shelby tells Percy that Hannah had a son, Eli, the town’s favorite, and an idol to Caleb; but Eli was long ago reported missing-in-action in Viet Nam. Hannah, it seems, has been trying to sell the grill for years with no luck. Percy and Shelby, however, come up with a scheme. Why not advertise an essay contest with an entry fee of $100 and award the place to the writer of the best “Why I Want the Spitfire Grill” essay? Hannah agrees and Percy and Shelby devise an ad that describes the town, at least in their eyes. As the weeks go by, the essays begin to arrive in greater and greater numbers, and the com- munity gradually takes an interest. Meanwhile, Caleb does some research to find out what Percy was convicted of. While all this has been happening, Sheriff Joe Sutter has become more and more attracted to Percy, leading eventually to a marriage proposal. However, Percy turns him down, saying he deserves someone better than she. Percy confesses some terrible things in her past to Shelby, who reacts with great sympathy and understanding as Percy explains the whole situation. Percy is finally able to confront the mysterious visitor as he comes for the bread, and we learn his identity. It is Eli, Hannah’s long missing son. He was not missing-in-action, we learn. He was simply missing, a shell-shocked loner who has been hiding in the woods for all this time. Percy convinces him to come inside. At last, the day arrives when a decision must be made. Hannah decides the winner is the ad that was written for the newspapers, the one written by “her girls.” Percy and Shelby are to get the grill, and all the money is returned to the contestants. Percy has not only found self-forgiveness and happiness, but has proven to be the healing “balm” in Gilead. Joe, once so eager to leave, decides to stay. 4 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Characters: The Spitfire Grill Percy Talbott: Percy is pretty, if a bit rough-edged. Her face declares the strength of her youth and a sadness beyond her years. She carries a terrible secret. Hannah Ferguson: About seventy, Hannah is the owner of the Spitfire Grill. She is a tough- skinned and flinty old bird with a short, no-nonsense manner bordering on the bitter. She can also be very tender-hearted and fiercely loyal. She has a secret of her own to protect. Shelby Thorpe: In her mid-thirties, Shelby is a plain, soft-faced creature with a shy, almost ethe- real manner. She is the wife of Caleb Thorpe. Once her trust is gained, she also is a very loyal friend. Caleb Thorpe: In his early forties and the out-of-work foreman of the now-defunct stone quarry, Caleb is a frustrated man clinging to the past and the authority he once had. He bitterly opposes change. Sheriff Joe Sutter: In his mid to late twenties, Joe is a young, small-town policeman with a rest- less nature and a genuine desire to escape Gilead. Effy Crayneck: In her fifties, Effy is postmistress and the town busybody. She is a woman with narrow eyes and a sour tongue. There’s little to gossip about in a town so small, but when there is, she is the source. The Visitor: In his mid-forties and a mysterious figure who never speaks, the visitor has powerful eyes and a very strong sense of his body. Utah Shakespeare Festival 5 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 James Valcq and Fred Alley By Marlo M. Ihler From Insights, 2004 For the creators of the musical, The Spitfire Grill, artistic activities began early in their lives. James Valcq and Fred Alley both grew up in Wisconsin, Valcq in big-city Milwaukee and Alley in rural Mount Horeb. Both were drawn to music and theatre at a young age. During the summer of 1980, while Valcq was attending a summer music camp in Madison and Alley had dropped in to visit a friend at the same camp, the sixteen-year-olds met and became friends almost immediately. Valcq’s musical background consisted of early training and performance. By age seven he had appeared at the Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee. He later went on to earn a bach- elor’s degree in music and theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as well as a master’s in musical theatre composition from New York University. The accomplished com- poser, conductor, and musician now lives in New York City. Alley, considered more of a renegade, had a background in folk music and theatre. As an adult, he joined a folk singing group called the Heritage Ensemble in Door County, Wisconsin. In the early 1990s, Alley and Frederick “Doc” Heide decided to steer this group in a more theatrical direction and renamed it the American Folklore Theatre (AFT). The artistic director was Alley’s lifelong friend, Jeffrey Herbst, who, incidentally, was the friend he was visiting at the Madison summer camp when he met Valcq. For this organization he wrote an original musical based on local folk stories and myths every year for ten years. Such shows included Guys on Ice, Lumberjacks in Love, and Belgians in Heaven. The two men’s collaboration began following a trip to New York City with AFT, where they were inspired by their visit to Ellis Island to write their first show together. A musical called The Passage for AFT was the result. Alley wrote the lyrics and book while Valcq com- posed the music. The show premiered on AFT’s outdoor stage at Peninsula State Park in Door County in 1994. The Passage helped both men to polish their abilities as playwrights and artists. Alley would first write lyrics, to which Valcq would respond with music. According to Valcq, much of the music came immediately if the lyrics were “right.” If the lyrics weren’t quite work- ing, Valcq would push Alley until he wrote lyrics that did. This helped Alley to strengthen his voice as a lyricist. Valcq had the challenge of incorporating instruments that AFT used regularly, such as guitars and mandolins, in order to create suitable musical arrangements. By the time they completed this show, they were eager to work with each other again (Damien Jaques, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, September 14, 2002, www.jsonline.com/onwis- consin/arts/sep02/79632.asp). Several years passed before Valcq and Alley found a project that was of interest to both of them. Valcq was specifically looking for a story that was “very rural, that was lyrical, that had elements of kitchen-sink realism and .
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