Fml: How Carson Mccullers Saved My Life
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Steppenwolf for Young AdultS 2011/12 study guide fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life February 28- March 18, 2012 By Sarah Gubbins Directed by Joanie Schultz The Young ADulT CounCil wiTh SYA APPRENTiCe NIJEUL PoRTeR Dear Teachers & StuDenTs: Welcome To The seconD Gubbins’ play is about the way one reading, and classroom activities to shoW of The 11/12 deals with, and ultimately overcomes, guide your examination of these SteppenWolf for Young adversity. As with Carson McCullers’ productions. If further questions arise aDulTs season! character John Singer, Gubbins creates for you, or if you need anything vivid, dynamic “outsider” characters, regarding your visit to the theatre, This year’s season offers an exploration and then shows us the courageous please contact us. of the process by which a piece of ways these individuals search for literature evolves through adaptation community and connection despite their We look forward to welcoming you and reinterpretation. We explore the “otherness.” fml is about being bold to Steppenwolf and investigating way original work can be born from enough to know who you are, strong fml: how Carson McCullers saved the ideas and themes of a classic text– enough to stand up for yourself, and my life with you. how the compelling work of one artist fearless enough to survive high school. can prompt a bold response and fresh Gubbins created fml based on inspira- -Hallie, Megan & Lauren story of another. We are thrilled to tion she drew from McCullers’ classic involve students in this inter-gener- novel. Her story shows us that literature ational conversation across time and still has the power to transform how across forms, from the book by Carson we see the world. We look forward McCullers to Rebecca Gilman’s play to discovering what inspires you? The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as well Throughout this study guide, you will as our second production this winter, see references to both plays in Sarah Gubbins’ artistic response, fml: our season as well as questions for how Carson McCullers saved my life. the classroom, suggestions for further 1 inDex Welcome leTTer 1 Who is carson mccullers? 3 author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Who is sarah gubbins? 4 Playwright of fml The hearT is a lonelY hunTer 5 Synopsis and Character Descriptions fml: hoW carson 7 mccullers saveD mY life Synopsis and Character Descriptions Steppenwolf for Young AdultS StAff jo’s superhero: St. michael 9 The archangel Hallie gordon Artistic and educational director [email protected] classroom acTivity 11 312-654-5607 Writing Exercise, inspired by fml (30 min.) Megan Shuchman education Manager [email protected] Young aDulT council 16 312-654-5637 LGBTQ Terms: DefineD 17 lauren Sivak education Assistant [email protected] LGBTQ Teen issues: 19 312-654-5643 hoW You can help AccessibilitY snapshoT: ‘iT geTs 21 Audio description and touch tour beTTer projecT’ SUN MArcH 18 3:00pM classroom acTivity 23 American Sign language-interpreted Inspired by the ‘It Gets Better Project’ SAt MArcH 17 7:30pM (45 min.) open captioning SUN MArcH 18 3:00pM for furTher reaDing 27 Scene event for teens scene evenTs 28 SAt, MArcH 10 7:30pM ~come get play’ed acknoWleDgemenTs 29 STUDY GUIDE curAted bY Megan Shuchman ArticleS bY Megan Shuchman, lauren Sivak and nijeul porter edited bY Hallie gordon SpeciAl thankS to deanna isaacs, The Chicago Reader 2 biographical informaTion for carson mccullers Who is carson mccullers? Author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers was born Lula Georgia, McCullers stayed in New In addition to reaching literary stardom Carson Smith in 1917 to a middle class York, rubbing elbows with such writers at age 23 with The Heart is a Lonely family in Columbus, Georgia. From a as W.H. Auden, Gypsy Rose Lee and Hunter, throughout her successful young age, she showed promise as Reeves McCullers, whom she married career, McCullers wrote four novels, a a musician, and by age 10 was studying at age 20. Inspired by these writers, handful of short stories, a Broadway hit, piano and making ambitious plans to as well as Russian authors Dostoyevsky, The Member of the Wedding and a one day become a famous pianist Chekhov and Tolstoy—with whom collection of poems. She was awarded and composer. McCullers was endlessly fascinated— two Guggenheim fellowships, an Arts she began writing seriously and by and Letters Grant, and the New York At age 17, McCullers’ family made age 21, had her short fiction published Drama Critics’ Circle Award. significant sacrifices to send her to in Story, Harper’s Bazaar and study music at The Juilliard School in The New Yorker. McCullers and her Plagued throughout her life by New York City. On the train ride to her husband had a very contentious but the lingering side effects of rheumatic first day of class, however, McCullers passionate relationship, breaking up fever contracted as a teenager, tragically lost her tuition money and getting back together numerous McCullers died in 1967 at age 50, just and with it, her dream of becoming a times and living in both New York days before shooting began on the composer like Beethoven, Mozart and abroad, until Reeves committed film adaptation of The Heart is a or Schumann, all of whom she greatly suicide in 1953. Lonely Hunter. admired. Instead of heading back to 3 biographical informaTion for sarah gubbins Who is sarah gubbins? playwright of fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life Growing up in suburban LaGrange, it This is really embarrassing.” Out of teenager. And I had to go through a took playwright Sarah Gubbins, college, unconvinced of her talent but huge awakening as a writer. And I had now 36, a long time to realize that she unwilling to give up on a life in theater, very influential English teachers. All was gay. She sailed straight through 12 she started working as a freelance these things happened to me.” But, she years of Catholic schooling as a dramaturge and turned out to be good cautions, there’s a crucial difference: tomboy—great at sports, passionate at it. The best thing that happened, about golf, and, she says, blithely Gubbins says, is that she started “i Wasn’T ouT When i Was unaware of her sexuality. It wasn’t until specializing in new work: “I actually got a Teenager. in some WaYs college that it started to dawn on her, into the room with some new plays, and [This characTer] is mY and even then, “It took me falling in love, that’s when I learned, this is how you super-hero self, The Teen and falling in love, and falling in love, make a play, this is how you rewrite, this i Wish i haD been.” and then realizing—oh, there’s a trend is how you look for incident.” here: they all seem to be female.” It took Gubbins says she finds today’s her even longer to discover that she Gubbins says her work is political adolescents who are out “astonishing- was a playwright. A theater major as an not autobiographical despite those ly brave and inspiring.” The times undergrad at Northwestern University, who may find that hard to believe. are different, of course. There was Gubbins took a series of writing classes Her protagonist Jo, in fml: how no gay-straight alliance when she was with playwright John Logan, who was in Carson McCullers saved my life, in high school. And the whole residence during her senior year. Those is a lesbian, growing up in LaGrange. notion that gays would be married? classes were “amazing,” she says, but Not autobiographical? “Not “Unbelievable,” she says. Now, “there’s she came out of them thinking, “I’m not autobiographical at all,” Gubbins more visibility. You don’t have to (Anton) Chekhov, I’m not Caryl Churchill. says. “Listen, I’m gay. And I was a presume that everybody’s straight. And yet the homophobia, homo hatred, gay bullying continues.” As a sexually oblivious tomboy in LaGrange, Gubbins “wasn’t chased, wasn’t identified,” never suffered the beating inflicted on her protagonist. “It’s so complicated,” she says. “What is it about being out and confident that is so threatening to other people?” “Things are so much better today, and absolutely as bad.” by deanna issacs reprinted with permission from The Reader, August 25, 2011 PlaywRighT sarah gubbinS (RighT) in Rehearsal 4 harry (niCk vidal) AnD miCk (Jessica honoR carleTon) IN tHe HeArt iS A lonelY Hunter, 2011 the heart is a Lone Ly hunter Synopsis |:The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter follows John Singer, a deaf man who resides in a local boarding house, and four other vivid but desperately lonesome residents in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s on the eve of the Great Depression. Mick Kelly, a 14-year-old tomboy who dreams of becoming a concert pianist; Benedict Copeland, the town’s only black doctor; Jake Blount, a drunken political activist; and Biff Brannon, a recent widower and owner of the town’s diner and bar. As each finds solace in Singer’s ability to listen, they all unintentionally overlook their confidante’s profound isolation in this timeless tale woven from the lives of ordinary people. 5 The hearT is a lonelY hunTer miCk (Jessica honoR carleTon) watcheS as John SingeR (RoBert SChleifeR) JAke BlounT (LOREN lAZARINE) trieS CommunicateS wiTh Mr. kellY (AlAn wilDeR) To enCourage hiS fellow woRkers To fighT foR TheiR Rights character descriptions John Singer Dr. copelanD Jake Blount John Singer, a deaf man who works as a As the only black doctor in town, A wanderer and an alcoholic prone to silver engraver at a local jewelry store, is Dr.