The Call Is Places
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The Call Is Places Welcome from Artistic Director Joseph Haj 2016–2017 SEASON Dear Friends, Sense and Sensibility To make a life in the theater is a bold choice, as the path to the stage is September 10 – October 29, 2016 hardly a direct one. It comes with insecurity, both financial and personal, Wurtele Thrust Stage instability and public critique. How many of us actors and artists, as teenagers, had that brave conversation with our parents when we swore The Parchman Hour allegiance to a dream in the footlights and they did all they could to dissuade October 1 – November 6, 2016 us? Looking back, it’s hard to fault them. Guaranteed work this is not. McGuire Proscenium Stage What theater is though, is a calling – to hone a craft, to entertain, to find A Christmas Carol meaning in the act of storytelling. And as depicted in George S. Kaufman November 16 – December 30, 2016 and Edna Ferber’s The Royal Family, theater is the connective tissue Wurtele Thrust Stage between generations. Sure, there are moments in the play when Kaufman and Ferber seem to be satirizing the Cavendish family of thespians – lest any The Lion in Winter actor ever take him or herself too seriously. But there are also extraordinarily November 19 – December 31, 2016 poignant moments when relationships must be considered and hard McGuire Proscenium Stage decisions made by the Cavendish women, all of whom find themselves at a crossroads between their vocation and a The Royal Family decidedly different way of life. January 28 – March 19, 2017 McGuire Proscenium Stage There’s broad comedy, and there’s also beautiful nuance to be found in this nearly century-old King Lear story in terms of what’s uplifting and what can February 11 – April 2, 2017 be heartbreaking about a theatrical pursuit. I Wurtele Thrust Stage can’t think of a more perfect director to pursue that artful balance than Rachel Chavkin. As The Bluest Eye artistic director of the Brooklyn-based theater April 15 – May 21, 2017 ensemble The TEAM, Rachel is pushing the Wurtele Thrust Stage boundaries of creativity and new work for the stage, and all in service to brilliantly human Refugia stories about the American experience. That May 13 – June 11, 2017 she helmed The Royal Family with that same McGuire Proscenium Stage depth of curiosity and passion is a gift that I am extremely grateful for. Sunday in the Park with George On behalf of a wonderful cast and creative June 17 – August 20, 2017 team, thank you for being with us for The Wurtele Thrust Stage Royal Family. Enjoy the show! Native Gardens Yours, July 15 – August 20, 2017 McGuire Proscenium Stage Visit guthrietheater.org for additional PHOTO: JOSEPH HAJ (HEIDI BOHNENKAMP) JOSEPH PHOTO: productions and play descriptions. 1 \ GUTHRIE THEATER The Royal Family by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber Cast in alphabetical order GILBERT MARSHALL Robert O. Berdahl* HALLBOY Bear Brummel PERRY STEWART David Darrow* The Guthrie gratefully recognizes FANNY CAVENDISH Elizabeth Franz* John & Maureen Knapp, Jennifer Melin Miller & David Miller and Steven & CHAUFFEUR Stuart Gates* Catherine R. Webster as Producers, and David & Stacey Hurrell, Anne Paape and OSCAR WOLFE Shawn Hamilton* Frances & Frank Wilkinson as Associate JO Charles Hubbell* Producers of The Royal Family. GWEN CAVENDISH Victoria Janicki* HERBERT DEAN Bill McCallum* Setting New York, 1927. The duplex apartment JULIE CAVENDISH Michelle O’Neill* of the Cavendish family. DELLA Mo Perry* ACT ONE: Early afternoon on a Friday TONY CAVENDISH Matthew Saldívar* in November ACT TWO: The next day, between KITTY LeMOYNE DEAN Angela Timberman* matinee and night McDERMOTT Ricardo Vázquez* Intermission MISS PEAKE ACT THREE: A year later Tatiana Williams* Run Time Approximately 2 hours, 45 minutes Creative Team with one intermission DIRECTOR Rachel Chavkin Acknowledgments SCENIC DESIGNER Marte Johanne Ekhougen The Royal Family is presented by special COSTUME DESIGNER Brenda Abbandandolo arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. LIGHTING DESIGNER Bradley King The Guthrie extends a very special thanks to: SOUND DESIGNER Scott W. Edwards • Movement consultant Aaron Preusse DRAMATURG Carla Steen • Neslihan Arslan for her invaluable collaboration with Scenic Designer VOCAL COACH Lucinda Holshue Marte Johanne Ekhougen • Piano coach Victor Zupanc STAGE MANAGER Chris A. Code* • The TDF Costume Collection for its ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Michele Hossle* assistance on this production ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Taous Claire Khazem The Guthrie’s rush line is made possible with support from Target. DESIGN ASSISTANTS Polly Bilski (costumes) Kurt Jung (lighting) Delta Air Lines is the Reid Rejsa (sound associate) Official Airline of the Guthrie Theater. FIGHT CAPTAIN Stuart Gates* INTERNS Stephanie Engel (literary) Jenna Hyde (stage management) *Member of Actors’ Equity Association 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Synopsis SETTING Three generations of actors in the famed Cavendish family New York, 1927. slog through their daily routine of matinees, new play The duplex apartment of the readings, rehearsals, revivals and tabloid gossip. Julie is the Cavendish family. current family star, and prima donna in the New York theater world. Her career has always come first, a sacrifice abetted by her mother, Fanny, who dissuaded her from marrying a CHARACTERS businessman named Gilbert Marshall 19 years ago so that Fanny Cavendish, age 72, the family she would stay in the industry and realize the fame and matriarch, “rather magnificent” fortune due her. Julie Cavendish, 39, Fanny’s daughter, Fanny is a widow in her 70s, recently recovered from a the star of Broadway lingering illness, gamely planning to resume her career and recapture the years spent touring with her husband, Aubrey. Gwen Cavendish, 19, Julie’s daughter Tony is Julie’s brother, a handsome and talented actor with Tony Cavendish, late 30s, Fanny’s son, the energy of a lunatic – perfect for Hollywood – until he late of Hollywood shows up at the Cavendish house after breaking his film contract and punching his director. Herbert Dean, 57, Fanny’s brother, “an excellent actor beginning to show Julie’s independent 19-year-old daughter, Gwen, is his age” beginning her own acting career, but she is troubled by an argument with her boyfriend, Perry Stewart, over the time Kitty Lemoyne Dean, 48, Herbert’s commitments required by her career. Faced with giving up wife, a mediocre actress a life with Perry to continue acting, Gwen shocks the entire family by declaring she is quitting theater altogether. This Oscar Wolfe, the Cavendishes’ long- outburst – combined with a visit from the now-wealthy time theater manager, “a figure of Gilbert Marshall – makes Julie realize that her daughter is at authority” the same crossroads she was 19 years ago, and prompts her to question her own decision all those years ago. Perry Stewart, 28, Gwen’s love interest and a “personable young fellow” Gilbert Marshall, 47, a successful business man and former suitor to Julie Della, the Cavendishes’ maid Jo, the Cavendishes’ houseman McDermott, a boxer who trains with Julie Miss Peake, a nurse Hallboy Chauffeur Model of The Royal Family set PHOTO: LAUREN MUELLER LAUREN PHOTO: 3 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAYWRIGHTS When Edna met George … and by Carla Steen wrote some plays Production Dramaturg In 1924, Edna Ferber was among the most successful writers in America. She had published three novels, several collections of short stories, and had co-written a play featuring her popular character Emma McChesney, in which Ethel Barrymore starred. Her most recent novel, So Big, had just received the Pulitzer Prize. While she had only a passing acquaintance with playwright/critic George S. Kaufman, when he suggested they turn her short story “Old Man Minick” into a play, one of the great collaborations in American theater was launched. Both were disciplined writers, and famous Barrymore-Drew family, Eight and Stage Door. The Royal they moved quickly, completing but even Ferber admitted, “we Family wasn’t done with Ferber, the adaptation within three weeks succeeded in convincing no one, however. In 1940, she realized her of starting. Winthrop Ames agreed including possibly ourselves.” childhood dream of being an actor, to produce, and the play, now The work wasn’t quite so swift when she performed the role of called Minick, opened to moderate this time, taking eight months to Fanny Cavendish in a weeklong success in September 1924. write, which Ferber thought an run in Maplewood, N.J. Alas, she While the play itself may not be embarrassingly long time for “just discovered she did not enjoy acting remarkable or even remembered, it a comedy,” but they didn’t need as much as she thought she would, did lead to the musical Show Boat to do any rewrites, so polished finding herself bored with the (a passing comment by producer was the rehearsal draft. After repetition the craft required. Ames about the floating theaters some difficulty with casting – they caught Ferber’s attention) and to offered the lead role to Ethel Kaufman wrote more than 40 The Royal Family. Barrymore, who emphatically plays in total, and his best-known turned it down and held a grudge, collaborations may be those with Before work on the latter while other actresses didn’t Moss Hart in the 1930s. Like Ferber, commenced, Ferber learned all want to either cross or promote Kaufman received the Pulitzer she could about river theatricals Barrymore by appearing in the Prize, twice in fact, for Of Thee I and two years later published play – The Royal Family opened on Sing and You Can’t Take It With her novel, Show Boat, which December 28, 1927. It was a busy You. He died in 1961 at age 71. composer Jerome Kern wanted to month for Ferber, as the musical turn into a musical play.