By Archibald Macleish the American Century Theater Presents About the American Century Theater the American Century Theater Was Founded in 1994
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The American Century Theater presents J.B. by Archibald MacLeish The American Century Theater presents About The American Century Theater The American Century Theater was founded in 1994. We are a professional nonprofit theater company dedicated to presenting great, important, and worthy American plays of the twentieth century—what Henry Luce called “the American Century.” The company’s mission is one of rediscovery, enlightenment, and perspective, not nostalgia or preservation. Americans must not lose the extraordinary vision and wisdom of past playwrights, nor can we afford to surrender the moorings to our shared cultural heritage. Our mission is also driven by a conviction that communities need theater, and theater needs audiences. To those ends, this company is committed to by Archibald MacLeish producing plays that challenge and move all Americans, of all ages, origins, and points of view. In particular, we strive to create theatrical experiences that entire families can watch, enjoy, and discuss long afterward. September 14–October 6, 2012 Board of Directors Gunston Theatre Two Chair Louis George 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington Vice-Chair Wes MacAdam Secretary Ann Marie Plubell Treasurer Wendy Kenney Board Paige Gold, Gabe Goldberg, Vivian Kallen, Director Stage Manager Set Design Jack Marshall, Kevin McIntyre Rip Claassen Kathryn Dooley Trena Weiss-Null Staff Lighting Design Sound Design Jack Marshall Artistic Director Zachary A. Dalton Ed Moser Paige Gold Managing Director Rip Claassen Steven Scott Mazzola Costume Design Properties Design Brian Crane Lindsey E. Moore Lorraine Slattery Michelle Hitchcock Ellen Dempsey Emily Morrison Kate Dorrell Ed Moser Tom Fuller Joli Provost A rundown circus tent Rhonda Hill Ginny Tarris somewhere in America at any time This program is supported in part by Arlington County through There will be one 15-minute intermission. the Arlington Commission for the Arts and Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development; the Virginia Commission for the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts; and many generous donors. Please—Turn off cell phones and other distracting devices. The use of recording equipment and taking of photographs during the performance are strictly prohibited. J.B. is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Cast J.B. .......................................................... John Tweel Sarah ....................................................Julie Roundtree Mr. Zuss . .Steve Lebens J.B. (1958) by Archibald MacLeish Nickles ............................................. Bruce Alan Rauscher How is J.B. like a passenger pigeon? Mrs. Adams ................................................ Allison Turkel Mrs. Botticelli ..........................................Kecia A. Campbell Like one of the large, gray, tasty game birds that once were so abundant in Mrs. Lesure ........................................... Kathryn Browning this country that flocks of them literally could blot out the sun, Archibald Mrs. Murphy ............................................. Jennifer Brown MacLeish’s masterpiece is a member of an extinct species, or nearly so. The Jolly/Girl ......................................................Loren Bray species is verse drama, an ancient form that once was dominant in stage Miss Mabel/Mary ................................Chanukah Jane Lilburne art and is now scorned and forgotten, except when impressive theatrical David ...................................... Zak Gordon, Jakob Sudberry Jonathan/Boy .................................................Sam Landa fossils and beautiful preserved specimens are on display. Rebecca ................................................... Caroline Frias J.B. was like a lone survivor even when it premiered in 1958. The verse Ruth .......................................................Kaiya Gordon drama had been slowly dying since the seventeenth century, and its First Roustabout/Soldier/Reporter/ fatal disease was realism. Once William Shakespeare started writing Police Officer/Firefighter ....................................Joshua Dick some of his plays’ comic scenes in prose, the deadly virus was loose: the Second Roustabout/Soldier/Reporter/ Police Officer/Firefighter ...................... Joshua Aaron Rosenblum Bard recognized that prose was the tool of the realist, while verse was Bildad ..................................................... Robert Heinly the method of the romantic, the dream-weaver, the troubadour, and, for Eliphaz ..................................................... Evan Crump a few more centuries at least, the tragedian. Zophar ................................................ George Tamerlani But by the 1820s, the writing was on the wall as well as the stage. The Distant Voice ...............................................John Dooley French writer Stendhal insisted that prose was the only possible medium Production staff for an effective tragedy. Henrik Ibsen abandoned verse as a medium Director .................................................... Rip Claassen after Peer Gynt in 1867, believing that poetry made drama dealing with Stage Manager ...........................................Kathryn Dooley contemporary issues less immediate and involving. He wrote: Assistant Stage Manager ........................... Johanna Schoenborn Scenic Design ........................................... Trena Weiss-Null Verse has been most injurious to the art of drama . It is improbable Lighting Design ........................................ Zachary A. Dalton that verse will be employed to any extent worth mentioning in the Master Electrician ........................................Jeffrey D. Porter drama of the immediate future since the aims of the dramatists of the Sound Design .................................................. Ed Moser future are almost certain to be incompatible with it. Costume Design ........................................ Lorraine Slattery Properties Design ..................................... Michelle Hitchcock The writer of A Doll’s House was largely correct, but this dying species Wardrobe Handler/Child Monitor/Animal Wrangler .......Lindsey E. Moore proved hardier than most. Even in America, where everything is always Publicist ..................................................Emily Morrison modern, talented playwrights periodically employed the power of Photography ...........................Dennis Deloria, Johannes Markus Program Design. Michael Sherman verse long after Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died alone in 1914. House Manager .............................................. Joli Provost There was MacLeish, of course, who was a poet who wrote plays rather than a playwright who used poetry, and Maxwell Anderson, who had Special thanks to— consistent Broadway success with his plays in the Thirties and Forties Backstage, Inc. Faction of Fools/Emma Jaster written in blank verse: The Wingless Victory, High Tor, Winterset, Mary of Don Barton, meter muse The Landa Family Scotland, Elizabeth the Queen, Key Largo, and Anne of the Thousand Days. The Baskir Familyz Sarah LaRue (Meanwhile, poet T.S. Eliot was holding down the verse drama fort in Robin Berry, TSNY of Washington DC Carol Feather Martin and England, with plays like The Cocktail Party.) MacLeish’s J.B., appearing in Constellation Theatre Company Trinity Presbyterian Church 1958, was a late and vigorous example of the rare breed, as was William Paul Hogan Adrian Rooney Alfred’s Hogan’s Goat, an Off-Broadway historical drama that was named the Best Play of the 1965–1966 Season. Since then, the species has been the victim of deadly predators. TV has Loren Bray (Jolly/Girl) received her BFA in Musical Theatre at Howard embedded realism in the public’s consciousness so firmly that so-called University. She was last seen in a reading of Raisin in the Sun at Bay reality shows seem more like drama than High Tor, and the use of poetry Theatre Company. on stage has retreated almost solely to musicals, which aren’t exactly Jennifer Brown (Mrs. Murphy) Stage credits: Castiza in The Revenger’s thriving either (the movie variety has pretty much vanished). Tragedy (Strawdog Theatre Company), Fand and Morrigan in Between the Nonetheless, the best of verse drama, when a theater company has the Door and the Sea: The Story of Yeats’ Cuchulain (Arc Entertainment Group) courage to produce it, is still capable of showing how beautiful and and various roles in Greater Tuna and Maggie in Texanna Rearranges high flying this exotic species could be in its prime. the Planets and Saves Your Family from the Gates of Hell (North Avenue Somewhere, Martha is cooing. Productions). She earned a BA in Theater from Columbia College Chicago. —Jack Marshall, Artistic Director Kathryn Browning (Mrs. Lesure) works most often as a film actress and voiceover artist in the New York/mid-Atlantic area. Recent film roles include network executive Carol Winstead in The Louder the Better and as Special Justice Helen Rider in Commitment (screened in the Short Film Corner, Cannes Film Festival). She was formerly producer/director of the More than half a century after this play was written, society finds itself political talk show, Think Tank (PBS). This is her first appearance with The coping with the same problems, but on an even larger scale. MacLeish’s American Century Theater. comforters—representing Religion, History, and Science—are still with us, and still as useless as he depicted them. Like many in our society, Kecia