The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Newsletter • Spring 2018 : THE DIRECTOR’S TAKE Ragtime was pri- Doctorow’s novel was later adapted into marily played on a film directed by Milos Forman in 1981, the piano and used which starred the incomparable James Cagney a strict left hand and a very young Elizabeth McGovern. In alternating bass with 1996, the novel was translated into a bril- syncopated or “ragged” liant musical by composer Stephen Flaherty, melody lines played by the lyricist Lynn Ahrens, and playwright Terrence By Dennis Razze right. The effect of the two McNally. opposing rhythms was an almost hypnotic ost people are familiar with the Doctorow’s novel tells the story of sound that made listeners tap their feet or get musical genre of ragtime because three groups—a wealthy white family living up on their feet and dance to this marvelous of the 1973 film The Sting, star- in New Rochelle, New York, African- M music. Ragtime further developed into scores ring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. For Americans living in Harlem, and a group for a small orchestra and became the most the film, composer Marvin Hamlisch adapt- of European immigrants arriving at Ellis popular music in America up until the First ed the music of 1890s composer Scott Joplin, Island and searching for the American World War. Who can forget Irving Berlin’s who was known as the “King of Ragtime” for dream in the ghettos of the Lower East first major hit, the 1911 anthem “Alexander’s his catchy compositions such as “The Maple Side of Manhattan. Intertwined with the Ragtime Band”? Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer.” Ragtime fictional characters of each group are real composers like Joplin found a way to com- One of the great modern American historical figures from the beginning of the bine the musical style of African-American novelists of the last century, E.L. Doctorow, jigs and cakewalks with the marches of John used the term “ragtime” as the title of his Philip Sousa. 1975 novel, which is considered one of the continues on page 3 best American novels of the 20th century. Casting Announced for Ragtime “We have spent four months assembling the cast of 40 actors for Ragtime. With Broadway, opera, regional theatre, television and film credits, this company of actors has incredible voices and talents that will certainly make PSF’s produc- Nkrumah Gatling Destinee Rea tion of Ragtime an unforgettable experience. The score and the story of Ragtime Coalhouse Walker, Jr. Sarah present many vocal and dramatic challenges and this wonderful cast will certainly Broadway: Miss Saigon; Broadway: Amélie; be up to the challenge,” says director Dennis Razze. National Tours: Porgy National Tour: Junie and Bess, Hair; Regional: B. Jones; Regional: Theatre Under the Stars numerous Bryant Martin Richard White Michele Ragusa Rod Singleton Mother Samuel Druhora Father Grandfather Emma Goldman Booker T. Washington Brandi Burkhardt Tateh Alabama Shakespeare, Voice of Gaston Disney Broadway: Ragtime, Hudson Valley Broadway: Mama Mia, Les Miserables (Jean Chicago Shakespeare; film, Beauty and the Young Frankenstein, Shakespeare, Virginia Tale of Two Cities; TV: Valjean, Transylvania Co-star ABC TV Quantico Beast (1991); National Titanic; National Tour: Shakespeare, Off- Brothers & Sisters, Hungarian Theatre), Tours, TV: numerous Fiddler on the Roof Broadway Passions, Series regular Candide (Candide, NBC Romanian National Opera) Notes from the Producing Artistic Director Thank You to Our Sponsors Season Sponsors When you attend PSF, you are part of a commu- Keith & Stefanie Wexler nity that you help to create through your engagement. The arts invite us Associate Season Sponsors in, all of us. Linda Lapos Kathleen Kund Nolan The Szarko Family The Festival’s & Paul Wirth & Timothy E. Nolan summer season Patrick Mulcahy will aim, as always, to surprise and delight, to get your toes tapping and your heart pumping. There will be comedy, music, poignancy, insight, tears, lovers, fools, Sponsors sword fights, and a dog. It is also a season that explores the landscape of the outsider. We’ll root for Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and his love Sarah in Ragtime, hoping as we do for Romeo and Juliet that this time the lovers will tran- Amaranth Foundation scend the enmity around them. The renowned actor Christian Coulson will illuminate the travails of King Steve & Lee & Amy Miller Richard II, who never quite fit the role of Jane Auvil Dolly Butz Cohen, Ph.D. King. In Shakespeare in Love, Viola De Lesseps will fight to find her way into a world that makes little room for her to be herself and to find the fulfillment of her passion in the process. Susan Henry Martin & Alice will navigate a strange won- James T. Martin, Jr. derland, Shakespeare’s Viola will make a willow cabin at the gate of love in Twelfth Night, and Helena will work her magic in hopes that all’s well that ends well in Brenda & John Dr. James & David B. Rothrock & love and marriage, when the only power McGlade Penny Pantano Patrina L. Rothrock afforded her is the power of her heart, mind, and soul. It’s a bone-deep ache. Belonging is a Drs. Paul & fundamental human need, and life at the June Schlueter margins is at odds with our pursuit of hap- piness and with the better angels of our natures. Theatre seeks to connect us, as all art does, creating beauty for its own sake as Festival Host a gateway to a sense of shared experience. Our mission is to reach the widest possible audience, and we are so thankful that you are a part of it. Come celebrate with us and pursue your own happiness at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s PSF receives state arts funding support PSF this summer. productions of Twelfth Night, King Richard II through a grant from the Pennsylvania and All’s Well That Ends Well are part of Council on the Arts, a state agency funded Shakespeare in American Communities, a by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania program of the National Endowment for the and the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. a federal agency. 2 • The Quill, Spring 2018 610.282.will Ragtime continued with today—equity, diversity, and inclusion viewed through the lenses of immigration, economic opportunity, race, and 20th century, such as Harry Houdini, Booker T. gender. Although the musical treats serious social themes Washington, Evelyn Nesbit, J.P. Morgan, Emma and is critical of the unevenly fulfilled promise of America Goldman, and Henry Ford. as a melting pot and a land of opportunity, it is hugely entertaining, romantic, hopeful, and patriotic. This musical The new musical Ragtime was a huge and lav- adaptation of Doctorow’s novel does not provide answers or Keith & Stefanie Wexler ish show that first premiered in Toronto in 1996 solutions to the challenges that face our society, both then and then opened the Ford Center for the Performing and now, but instead it holds a mirror up to the concept of Arts on Broadway in 1998. Directed by Frank Galati America, allowing us to see ourselves in a historical con- and choreographed by the brilliant Graciela Daniele, it tinuum through the lens of a musical metaphor. was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and introduced two performers to the Broadway stage who have since become Stephen Flaherty’s marvelous score will provide many legends in the American musical theatre—Brian Stokes challenges for PSF’s cast of Ragtime. It uses rags, cakewalks, Mitchell and Audra MacDonald as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. marches, and soaring ballads, as well as joyous dance music and the woman he loved, Sarah. that is infectiously ebullient and at other times unabashedly romantic. The poetic lyrics by Lynn Ahrens are wonderfully I recall seeing the original production in New York evocative and powerful for actors to sing and are terrific and being thrilled by the score and examples of the best of what modern American musical incredibly moved by the story. I saw theatre can be: that production three times and lis- tened to the original Broadway cast A strange, insistent music recording over and over Putting out heat, again until I wore out Picking up steam. the CD. It was the music Of something beginning, Ragtime illuminates An era exploding, many of the same A century spinning aspirations that we In riches and rags, continue to wrestle And in rhythm and rhyme. The people called it Ragtime... n Behind-the-Scenes This season’s Ragtime is sure to impress with some exhilarating stage effects and production ele- ments. Audiences will witness a recreation of one of Harry Houdini’s thrilling escapes, watch the notorious chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit fly above the stage on her “red velvet swing,” and glimpse a Model-T Ford driven onto the Labuda Center Main Stage. MAIN STAGE JUNE 13 - JULY 1 Book by TERRENCE MCNALLY Music by STEPHEN FLAHERTY Lyrics by LYNN AHRENS Based on the Novel “Ragtime” by E.L. DOCTOROW www.pashakespeare.org The Quill, Spring 2018 • 3 SHIPWRECKED IN ILLYRIA, SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT MAPS THE COASTLINES OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER By Heather Helinsky, Dramaturg forests, as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream change her form and dress like a man, she or . In the forest, the rules of is also separated from her twin brother he map of Shakespeare’s world was As You Like It love and courtship can be broken and sub- Sebastian and left alone to navigate the changing. Using the Mercator pro- verted, as Helena and Rosalind are quick to space between the court of the Duke jection, the Wright-Molyneux Map T discover. In the forest of Arden, women can Orsino and Countess Olivia.