Rhodes College the Harry B. Mccoy, Jr. Visiting Artists Program
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Rhodes College The Harry B. McCoy, Jr. Visiting Artists Program Presents The Harry B. McCoy, Jr. Visiting Artists Program The Harry B. McCoy, Jr. Visiting Artists Program wel- comes Zoe Caldwell as Lillian. Established in 1978, the McCoy Visiting Artists Program has brought to Rhodes an impressive variety of performing artists. Among those who have shared their talent and time with Rhodes students are opera's dramatic soprano, Nancy Tatum; noted dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille; Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard; The New Shake- speare Company of San Francisco; actresses Pat Carroll and Siobhan McKenna; the Tokyo String Quartet; pianists Paul Badura-Skoda and Alicia de Larrocha; theatre director Gavin Cameron-Webb; the New York Woodwind Quintet; pianist Gail Niwa; and The Chicago Chamber Brass. Endowed by the late Harry McCoy, a Memphis real es- tate developer who died in 1966, the purpose of the pro- gram is to introduce Rhodes students to various art forms and to the performing artists themselves. Such an oppor- tunity is seen as an enriching adjunct of the college's liberal arts experience. ANN SHANKS. THE KENNEDY CENTER & RONALD S. LEE PRESENT LOF CAIDWFtI U WAN WILLIAM LUCC LILLIAN HCLLMAN SET DESIGN BY COSTUME DESIGN DY UGHTING DESIGN DY MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN DY DEN EDWARDS JANE GREENWOOD THOMAS SKELTON DAVID GOODING CO-PRODUCERS DOD SHANKS AND KENNETH FELD r) DIRECTED BY Lillian was first performed at the Cleveland Play House, October 11, 1985 Additional material from "Profile: Lillian Hellman" through courtesy of KERA-TV, Dallas -Fort Worth. CAST Lillian Hellman .................................................. ZOE CALDWELL Voices at HUAC Meeting : Committee Chairman: Dudley Swetland; Committee Counsel: Allen Leatherman; Joseph Rauh: John Buck, Jr.; Reporter: William Rhys. The scene is a hospital in New York, January 10, 1961. THERE WILL BE ONE INTERMISSION. When I first came to New York in the last half of the 1930s, The Children's Hour had already been produced and Lillian Hellman was considered one of the most important- if not the most important-young writers of the time. She had yet to write The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine (written before World War II), and The Searching Wind, Another Part of the Forest, The Autumn Garden and The Lark (written during and shortly after it). Later she wrote the operetta Candide and Toys in the Attic. For someone who had said since childhood that she had. always wanted to write novels or nonfiction books, she certainly made an explosive impact on the American theatre. It was not until the last 18 years of her life that she turned to writing prose. She came up with three extraordinary books: An Unfinished Woman, Pentimento and Scoundrel Time, and then a fourth called Maybe. They are remarkably personal books about her life and our history. It is on these autobiographies that this material called Lillian is based. Her plays, her books, her constant and quoted reactions to life around her, and indeed her statement before the House Un-American Activities Committee have turned her into something of a cult figure. But beyond these facts, it is the forces and influ- ences of her childhood in New Orleans, her strange and long relationship to Dashiell Hammett, and certain unexpected events of her life that William Luce and the play, Lillian, seek in the hope of revealing the conditions that in some way shaped her life. -Robert Whitehead WHO'S WHO and^COMPANY ZOE CALDWELL (Lillian Hellman) is Fontanne ; A Man for All Seasons; and an Australian who has worked with some Harold Pinter's Betrayal. Among his of the great talents in the theatre: Dame other notable productions are Crime and Judith Anderson, Dame Edith Evans, Punishment, starring John Gielgud and Charles Laughton, Paul Robeson, Sir Ty- Lillian Gish; Bus Stop with Kim Stanley; rone Guthrie and Harold Clurman. She Mrs. McThing, A Touch'of the Poet (orig- has performed in most of the important inal production ) and The Skin of Our companies of the English-speaking world. Teeth, all starring Helen Hayes; The Prime i In 1970, she received the Order of the of Miss Jean Brodie; Sheep on the Run- British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II. way; Finishing Touches; Old Times; Sep- On Broadway, Miss Caldwell has won three arate Tables; The Time of the Cuckoo; Tony Awards: for Tennessee Williams' The Confidential Clerk with Ina Claire; Slapstick Tragedy, The Prime of Miss Jean and A Matter of Gravity and The West Brodie and Medea. She appeared Off- Side Waltz, both of which starred Katha- Broadway in Colette. She played Emma rine Hepburn. His productions of A View Hamilton in Terence Rattigan's A Bequest from the Bridge, After the Fall, Incident to the Nation at the Haymarket Theatre at Vichy, The Price, The Creation of the in London; Cleopatra opposite Christo- World and Other Business, The Arch- pher Plummer's Antony in Stratford, On- bishop's Ceiling and, more recently, the tario; and Mary Tyrone in Long Day's revival of Death of a Salesman were all Journey into Night with Jason Robards at by Arthur Miller. Other Broadway pro- the Kennedy Center and BAM. Her por- ductions include A Texas Trilogy; No trayals on television include Medea, Sarah Man's Land, Pinter's play starring Sir John Bernhardt, Mme. Arkadina in The Sea- Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson; Bed- gull and Carlotta Monterey O'Neill in the room Farce; and Jean Kerr's Lunch Hour. soon-to-be-aired "Eugene O'Neill, A Glory Mr. Whitehead directed the acclamied of Ghosts." She was recently seen in 1982 revival of Medea with Zoe Caldwell Woody Allen's film The Purple Rose of in the title role and Dame Judith Ander- Cairo. Miss Caldwell directed Colleen son as The Nurse. On Broadway he most Dewhurst in An Almost Perfect Person; recently produced (with the Shubert Organi- Richard II in Stratford, Ontario; and for zation) Brian Clark's The Petition, co-star- student audiences at the American Shake- ring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. speare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, The Taming ofthe Shrew in 1985 and Ham- let in 1986. She and her husband, Robert WILLIAM LUCE ( Author) is a California Whitehead, live in Pound Ridge, NY, with writer. Lillian, written for Zoe Caldwell, is their two sons, Sam and Charlie. his most recent , Broadway play. It had its premiere at the Cleveland Play House in the ROBERT WHITEHEAD (Director), in fall of 1985, went on to Washington's Ken- over 35 years on Broadway, has produced nedy Center and opened on Broadway at a substantial number of memorable plays, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on January 16, including his first, which was Robinson 1986. His earlier Broadway success, The Jeffers' Medea, starring Judith Anderson Bette of Amherst, starred Julie Harris, and and John Gielgud, and five New York was directed by Charles Nelson Reilly. Miss Drama Critics' Award-winners: The Mem- Harris won her fifth Tony Award for this ber of the Wedding, with Ethel Waters and portrayal of the poet Emily Dickinson. The Julie Harris; The Waltz of the Toreadors; IBM Television Special of Miss Harris perfor- The Visit, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn mance won three Christopher Awards. The record album received a Grammy Award. logy. His film credits include Lovers and Miss Harris also performed The Belle at the Other Strangers; Last of the Red Hot Lovers; Edinburgh Festival. Mr. Luce received the Class of '44; Fort Apache, The Bronx; and Peabody Award, the Ohio State Award and Hanky Panky. Television credits include Columbia University's Armstrong Award for "Harvey" with James Stewart and Helen his radio play on the life of Charlotte Bronte. Hayes, "All the Way Home" with Joanne It was performed by Julie Harris on Master- Woodward, and the mini-series"`Blind Am- piece Radio Theatre, for National Public bition," "Kennedy" and "Heartbreak House" Radio. Elinor Stout directed. Mr. Luce with Rex Harrison. adapted this play into the movie, Bronte. It JANE GREENWOOD (Costume Design- was filmed in Ireland by Irish Television and er) is a native of Liverpool, England. again starred Miss Harris. Delbert Mann Broadway credits include last season's The directed. Miss Harris will bring Bronte to Iceman Cometh ; Ballad of the Sad Cafe; the stage in 1986-87, under the direction of Richard Burton's Hamlet; More Stately Charles Nelson Reilly, in its American stage Mansions; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; premiere. Mr. Luce's play, Zelda, produced A Moon for the Misbegotten; Same Time, in 1984 at off-Broadway's American Place Next Year; California Suite; A Touch of Theatre, based on the correspondence of the Poet; The West Side Waltz; Anna Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, starred Olga Bellin Christie; Medea; Plenty and Heartbreak and was directed by Paul Roebling. A new House. She has designed for the New production of Zelda, starring actress Piper York Shakespeare Festival's La Boheme Laurie and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly, with Linda Ronstadt , the American Shake- will tour following its opening at The Burt speare Festival , the Tyrone Guthrie Thea- Reynolds Theatre in Jupiter, Florida. The tre, the Hartman Theatre, the Metropoli- music-theatre piece, The Divine Orlando, is tan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the his latest off-Broadway show which opened Houston Opera, the Alvin Ailey Dance at CSC Repertory on May 15, 1986. It is Company and the Joffrey Ballet. Televi- about the life and music of Orlando di Lasso, sion credits include the mini-series "Ken- the great composer of the late Renaissance nedy." Her films include The Four. Sea- and was directed by Paul Lazarus. George sons, Arthur, Wetherby with Vanessa Red- C.