LimelightTEACHER LITERARY & CURRICULUM GUIDE 2008-2009 Kate Burton in by Emlyn Williams Directed by Nicholas Martin B.U. Theatre January 9 - February 8, 2009 HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY IN RESIDENCE AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY huntington theatre company in residence at boston university Peter DuBois Michael Maso Norma Jean Calderwood Managing Director Artistic Director STAFF This Teacher Literary and Curriculum Guide was The Corn is Green prepared for the Huntington Theatre Company by by Emlyn Williams Alexandra Smith, Professional Intern Directed by Nicholas Martin With contributions by Table of Contents Donna Glick, 1 Synopsis Director of Education 2 Emlyn Williams and His Lynne Johnson, Real-Life Miss Moffat Associate Director of Education 3 The Irresistible Pull of Miss Moffat M. Bevin O’Gara, 4 Morgan Ritchie: In the Blood Artistic Associate 4 The Corn is Green at the Williamstown Charles Haugland, Theatre Festival Stone Literary Fellow 6 Coal-Mining: The Bleak Legacy of North Wales Ilana Brownstein, Assistant Professor at 7 Civilization Versus Education Boston University’s School of Theatre in the 19th Century Becky Perlman, 8 Audience Etiquette Literary Manager, 8 Characters & Objectives Collaboration Theatre Company 9 Preparation for The Corn is Green Meg Wieder, Education Department Manager 10 Mastery Assessment Melissa Wagner-O’Malley, 11 Open Response & Writing Assignments Layout 12 Arts Assessment 12 Related Works and Resources 13 After Viewing the Production 14 Lesson Plans 15 For Further Exploration 16 Handout 1: Vocabulary Production Sponsor 17 Handout 2: Dramatizing Your Life Story 18 Curriculum Framework Ties SYNOPSIS The Corn is Green ily Cristobel Moffat arrives in the Welsh mining town of Glasorno in 1895 with a mission: to found a school devoted to Lthe education of the boys and girls slaving away in the nearby coal mines. As an unmarried, highly-educated, thoroughly English woman, however, Miss Moffat is a curious outsider in Glasorno’s tight-knit community. She encounters stiff opposition to her plans almost immediately. The villagers are suspicious of her intentions and the mine-owning Squire rebuffs her efforts to shorten his young employees’ hours for school attendance. Worst of all, the young miners themselves are wild and stubborn. Just when things seem hopeless, reading the promising writing of bright young miner Morgan Evans steels Miss Moffat’s idealistic resolve. She finds an ally in her indomitable housekeeper, Mrs. Watty, though she instantly clashes with Mrs. Watty’s slatternly young daughter. Bessie Watty is lazy, flirtatious, and shallow — everything Miss Moffat is not. After winning over the town minister, Mr. Jones, and respectable spinster Miss Ronsberry, she enlists their help in converting her home into a classroom for the children. After a rough start, the students begin to blossom, and Morgan quickly rises to the top of the class. Convinced that Morgan has the ability to do great things, Miss Moffat uses crafty flattery to convince the arrogant town Squire to recommend Morgan for a full Oxford University scholarship. Soon, however, the pressure and iso- lation of his intense preparatory tutoring regimen prompts Morgan to revolt. He finds brief comfort in drink and the romantic atten- tions of Bessie Watty. Thankfully, his rebellion is short-lived. After serious thought, a contrite Morgan returns to Miss Moffat with renewed determination to attend Oxford. His admission to the school depends on a crucial entrance examination, but just as Morgan finishes the test, two unexpected arrivals upend everyone’s priorities and compel Miss Moffat and Morgan to take separate paths into unknown territories. Though their futures lie down different roads, both ways look bright. – BP Limelight Literary and Curriculum 2008-2009 1 Emlyn Williams and His Real-Life Miss Moffat mlyn Williams was born in the small town of Mostyn, Wales in 1905 and Egrew up in poverty as the son of a coal- miner. He was rescued from a hardscrabble Miss Cooke sent a life by local schoolteacher, Miss S.G. Cooke, who recognized the promise of his nimble telegram praising mind. A London social worker and teacher, Miss Cooke saw that the ten year-old had an ear for languages, even though he had spo- the script but ended ken only Welsh until the age of eight. She took him under her wing and spent by writing, “No the next decade schooling him to become a teacher like herself. Under her tutelage, offense, but can’t Williams won a scholarship to study French in Switzerland, and then gained admittance to Oxford University. His stratospheric rise see anyone being to Oxford would prove the main inspiration for the character of Morgan Evans in The interested [in a Corn is Green. While at Oxford, Williams attended the play about a theatre for the first time, seeing a perform- ance of Somerset Maugham’s play Camel’s Back. He immediately knew he wanted to schoolteacher].” pursue a life in theatre instead of in educa- tion. Williams began to perform with the Oxford Dramatic Society, and wrote his first Emlyn Williams full-length play for the group, entitled Full Moon. By 1927, he was acting in professional Old Vic Theatre arrived soon after their wed- life, Miss Cooke’s instincts were incorrect. productions. His first recognition as a play- ding. While Williams performed in works by The Corn is Green became a smash hit in wright came three years later when his play Shakespeare and Ibsen, he kept Miss Cooke London, where it ran from late 1940 to early A Murder Has Been Arranged was performed close to his heart. Still living and busy teach- 1942. A successful engagement on Broadway in London. Acting roles on Broadway and in ing in Wales, she made time to read all of his starring Ethel Barrymore soon followed. motion pictures soon followed. plays and attend each of his London open- Williams’ theatrical success attracted the In 1935, Williams saw major success in ings. She also became close with his wife attention of the burgeoning motion-picture London and New York City with the pro- and served as an adopted grandmother to industry. He worked steadily as a screen- duction of his play Night Must Fall, a thriller his children. writer and film actor throughout the in which he also played a leading role as Always solicitous of Miss Cooke’s opin- 1930s and 1940s, including early-career a homicidal bell-boy. Upon returning to ion, Williams was especially nervous to work on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 film The England after the successful American hear what she thought of a new play he Man Who Knew Too Much. In 1948, he wrote, run, Williams co-starred in and co-directed began in 1938, inspired by the formative directed, and performed in The Last Days of his play, He Was Born Gay, with theatrical years he spent with her, called The Corn is Dolwyn, a movie set and filmed in Wales. luminary John Gielgud. He married Molly Green. Miss Cooke sent a telegram praising The film marked the cinematic debut of O’Shann in the same year, with whom he the script but ended by writing, “No offense, Williams’ protégé, Richard Burton (who would have two sons. An invitation to join but can’t see anyone being interested [in a had also made his professional theatre the esteemed repertory company of London’s play about a schoolteacher].” For once in her debut in an earlier Williams piece, Druid’s 2 Huntington Theatre Company Rest (1943). In appreciation of their friend- ship, Burton later named Williams as god- The Irresistible Pull of Miss Moffat father to his daughter, Kate Burton, who stars in the Huntington’s production as Miss laygoers and movie-buffs alike Moffat. Williams’ biggest cinematic hit was have been captivated by Emlyn the adaptation of The Corn is Green, filmed in PWilliams’ singularly ambitious 1945 and starring Bette Davis as Miss schoolteacher, Miss L.C. Moffat, ever Moffat. Another adaptation was filmed for since The Corn is Green opened in television in 1979 and featured Katharine London in 1940. The character’s Hepburn. indomitable ambition, rapid-fire In the 1950s, Williams translated his life- wit, shrewd wisdom, and enduring long love of Charles Dickens into a series of belief in the power of learning is as one-man shows. Performing as the great nov- inspiring and fascinating today as it John Dall and Bette Davis in the the 1945 elist, Williams toured the world to popular was nearly seventy years ago. film adaptation of The Corn is Green. and critical acclaim in the show, simply Given the role’s enormous appeal and complexity, it is no surprise that the women who called Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens. He even brought the production to Wales, have portrayed Miss Moffat on stage and screen comprise a veritable “who’s who” of where he performed it in Welsh. In the 1960s, 20th century American theatre. In 1943, it was the last great Broadway role for Ethel he similarly adapted the memoir of fellow Barrymore before her retirement from the theatre. The New York Times theatre critic Welshman Dylan Thomas into a solo per- Brooks Atkinson wrote admiringly of her performance, “Whether [Barrymore] owns formance, entitled A Boy Growing Up, which Miss Moffat or Miss Moffat owns her is hard to say.” And Barrymore herself spoke to he performed in London and New York. both the challenge and appeal of the role in a 1940 press interview, saying, “I like it As the demand for television program- better than any [part] I’ve ever had. It has everything in it that I care about.” ming grew, the ever-flexible Williams Bette Davis took over the part of Miss Moffat in the first filmed adaptation of The Corn devoted his talents to adapting plays for is Green, donning a gray wig and a padded suit to age her thirty-five year-old body television broadcast on the BBC, including several of his own pieces.