PICT CLASSIC THEATRE At WQED’s Fred Rogers Studio Adapted by Alan Stanford from the novel by Charles Dickens Nov. 23 - Dec. 15, 2018 Directed by Alan Stanford explore PICT Classic Theatre presents examine The Old Curiosity Shop experience Directed by Alan Stanford starring Martin Giles* Matt Henderson James FitzGerald* Calema Graham Karen Baum* Jordan Ross Weinhold Jonathan Visser* Sean Lenhart Ken Bolden* Patrick Conner Jeff Monahan* Kendra McLaughlin Caroline Lucas Kaitlin Kerr Jacob Epstein Production Assistant Stage Scenic Artist Stage Manager Manager Deborah Thomas Cory F. Goddard* Catherine Kolos* Sound Designer Lighting Designer Master Electrician Kris Buggey Keith A. Truax Nicole White Technical Director Production Assistant Costume Designer Maggie Crockarell Anna Cunningham Joan Markert .. most of all expect the extraordinary Production Manager from WQED. Liam Nute WQED is member supported. wqed.org/donate *Member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. www.wqed.org Cast Martin Giles* ......................... Quilp James FitzGerald* .................. Brass Karen Baum* .......................... Sally Brass Jonathan Visser* ....................... Showman 1/Short/Garland Ken Bolden* .............................. Showman 2/Codlin/Witherden Jeff Monahan* ........................... Single Gent Caroline Lucas ......................... Nell Jacob Epstein ............................ Kit Matt Henderson ....................... The Boy Calema Graham ....................... The Marchioness Jordan Ross Weinhold .............. Dick Swiveller Sean Lenhart ............................ Fred/Boatman/Schoolmaster Patrick Conner ......................... Grandfather Trent Kendra McLaughlin ................. Mrs. Jarley/Mrs Nubbles/ Old Woman Kaitlin Kerr .............................. Mrs. Quilp/Landlady The Old Curiosity Shop takes place in 1850’s London, England and the surrounding areas. This production will be performed in All Rise. 2 hours, 30 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors Jones Day is proud to support PICT Classic Theatre. Its commitment and Stage Managers in the United States. to the creation of high-quality, professional, thought-provoking theatre PICT Classic Theatre receives state arts funding support through a grant from the of substance deserves a standing ovation. Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, are strictly prohibited. Please turn off all electronic devices such as cellular phones, beepers, and watches. 2500 Lawyers. 43 Locations. 5 Continents. www.jonesday.com PICT – The Old Curiosity Shop 3 Director’s Note Theatre is a very special and unique art form. And so is literature. A novel can take you to places you never dreamed of and meet with people you mightnever have imagined on your own. And so can a play. But a novel and a play are two very different things, each with their own set of rules. A novel excites the reader simply with the use of words. A novel can color in the pictures it unfolds with all sorts of information and description. It can fill the mind with everything the writer wants the reader to know. And Charles Alan Stanford Dickens was the kind of writer who left nothing to the imagination. He wrote his novels in exquisite detail. And he wrote them, to a large degree, episodically. He could judge the readers reaction even as he was writing the story. The play is quite a different animal. Where a novel might have many thousands of words – and The Old curiosity shop has 127,490 words - a play is far shorter – this one has 24,046 including stage directions. Where the reader may enjoy a week or two of reading a novel, and audience member in the theatre needs to see and hear all in the space of a couple of hours. The process of adapting a novel into a play is therefore a process of metamorphosis, and of removing 103.000 words! Put quite simply, you cannot put a book on the stage. You must change it into a new form, a new being. When I was commissioned by The Gate Theatre in Dublin in 2007, to create this dramatization of The Old Curiosity Shop, I recognized at once that this would be no easy task. The story is so very rich, and so very beautiful; but the novel goes off into so many tangents that was like a jungle, and my task would be rather like hacking away all the undergrowth before I would see the pure story. And how pure that story is. Dickens always has a moral for us in all his stories and this one is no exception. The tale of Little Nell, a child who must become responsible for the adult who should be protecting her. The child who must flee from the threat of abuse. The child lost in a world of hunger and poverty and fear. Little Nell is the refugee at the door of all of us. Mansions on Fifth Hotel The staging such a piece is no easy task for the actors or the director. To tell such a tale simply and clearly and in only two and a half hours. However, a theme, found in the book, of a travelling Waxwork was the kind of literary tangent that Dickens always offers, and that adaptors and directors always love him for. This will be our third play from a Dickens novel in the space of five years. And we present them for a very good reason. At PICT we examine current social issues through the lens of classic tales. Charles Dickens was not only the greatest storyteller the world has ever seen but was also the most potent of social commentators. He spoke up for those without a voice. For those who, cry as they might, would not be heard. For the poor, the underprivileged, the abused, the lost. His novels brought a profound social awareness to the Victorian age; and it is true but sad to say that the same message he gave to Victorian England is just as valid in western, and particularly American society today. So, we leave you to read The Old Curiosity Shop at your leisure, but tonight we offer you “The Heartrending Tale of Little Nell”, which is probably what Dickens should have called it in the first place. Alan Stanford PICT – The Old Curiosity Shop 5 Message from the Board President What the Dickens? On behalf of the board of directors of PICT Classic Theatre, it is my pleasure The great English novelist Charles Dickens came to the very young to welcome you to our production of Jane Eyre. We are celebrating 21 years city of Pittsburgh 170 years ago. of producing a broad range of classic plays and modern Irish theatre. We are BY RICK SEBAK honored to performing for you in the Fred Rogers Studio at WQED, site of One-hundred-and-seventy years ago, the great the famous children’s program. Here—inspired by Mr. Rogers—we hope to English novelist Charles Dickens was just 30 years create a compelling theatrical experience for you. old — but already internationally famous — when he, his wife, Kate, and her maid came to town in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of the most beloved novels of all time March 1842, surprising many locals. They were in and our production is an adaptation of her story by Alan Stanford, our the middle of a five-month visit, traveling around America via train, stagecoach, steamboat and Artistic and Executive Director. Alan’s plays have been produced all over the whatever means necessary. After a night in a tavern world. His Jane Eyre was originally produced at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in Torrance, Pa., the trio arrived here on a canal and broke box office records at the Guthrie Theatre. Our plays address boat, entering the city via the unusual suspended modern social issues through the lens of classic texts, which our production aqueduct over the Allegheny River. of Jane Eyre exemplifies. The play deals with the issues of personal integrity The Dickens spent three days in this young city and commitment and follows a young orphan girl as she develops into (with a population of 21,000) that he spelled womanhood. “Pittsburg” (although the “h” didn’t officially go away until 1890). Dickens’ travel memoir, American As most of you know, the price of a ticket does not cover all of the costs of Notes: For General Circulation, was candid and bringing wonderful theatre to the Pittsburgh community. We hope that you often snide: “Pittsburg is like Birmingham in England; at least its townspeople say so. Setting will consider donating to PICT and becoming an integral part of the PICT aside the streets, the shops, the houses, wagons, family. factories, public buildings and population, perhaps it may be.” Ouch. So please—sit back, relax and enjoy our production of Jane Eyre. He didn’t seem to mind the accommodations, however, stating, “We lodged at a most excellent hotel and were admirably served.” Although he didn’t identify it, that was the Exchange Hotel Peter Smerd at the corner of Penn Avenue and Sixth Street downtown (at or near where Heinz Hall is now). Rooms were a steep $1.50 per night. The couple stayed in Room 12, where fans and PICT Board President prominent citizens came to call after the Morning Chronicle reported that Dickens was in town. Among the visitors was William Foster, mayor of Allegheny City (not yet absorbed as the North Side), and his 16-year-old son Stephen — as in the future “father of American music,” Stephen Foster. While he was here, Dickens visited the Western Pennsylvania Penitentiary and the Arsenal, and saw enough of the town to remark that “It is very beautifully situated on the Alleghany River, over which there are two bridges.” On all three evenings, Dickens and his wife dined with portrait painter George D’Almaine, an old friend from London who relocated to Pittsburgh.