By Rose Franken
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MTC_SOLDIERSWIFEflyer 12/16/05 10:25 AM Page 1 MINT CELEBRATES AMERICAN WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS. Check our website www.minttheater.org for Monday, March 27th Mint will hold a Coming to Mint in June: more events and updates on times and dates. Special One-Night Only Reading of SUSAN AND GOD THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Rachel Crothers SURROUND EVENTS: Dramatized by Margaret Ayer Barnes Directed by Jonathan Bank Discussions last approximately 50 minutes and from Edith Wharton’s novel. th are open to the public free of charge. The story of a socialite who embraces a new FEBRUARY 7 Margaret Ayer Barnes took up writing at thirty religious philosophy while abroad and returns nd Sunday, February 12 (following the matinee) when she was convalescing from a serious home eager to change everyone around her. thru APRIL 2 Rose Franken: Her Life and Work accident at the encouragement of playwright Tues., Wed., Thurs. at 7:00; Join Glenda Frank who teaches American litera- Edward Sheldon. In 1929 her dramatization of “Although it is rare now to find anyone who has ture and theater at FIT-SUNY for a discussion Wharton's novel ran on Broadway for over 200 heard of her, Miss Crothers at the apex of her Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, on the life and work of this once beloved but performances starring Katherine Cornell and career was a symbol of success in the commercial Sat. and Sun at 2:00 now forgotten writer. Ms. Frank writes the New Franchot Tone. Barnes and Sheldon then theater. Between 1906 and 1937, she saw close York column for Plays International and reviews collaborated on two plays, Jenny and Dishonored to 30 of her plays open on Broadway.” for New York Theater Wire. Lady, which also starred Cornell. Barnes won The New York Times the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for her first novel, Years Date TBA (check www.minttheater.org) of Grace. Other books include Edna, his Wife, ##################### War Letters Arms and the Boy and Perpetual Care. Join Andrew Carroll, director of the Legacy Edith Wharton is one of America’s great writers. And SAVE THE DATE: Project — whose mission is to preserve She is the author of The House of Mirth, Ethan correspondence from our nation's wars — Frome and The Custom of the Country. author of Behind the Lines and editor of the June 19th, 2006 volumes Letters of a Nation and War Letters, Attend the reading only or plan to have dinner Mint’s Annual Benefit will who will speak on the powerful and revealing before the show with director Jonathan Bank continue our celebration of letters soldiers have written during war and and some special guests to discuss Wharton, his search to find them. Barnes, Cornell and their very special American Women Playwrights collaboration. Date TBA (check www.minttheater.org) with a reading of excerpts from Working Women Call 212-315-0231 for more information Ruth Gordon’s Broadway play: Join us for a fascinating discussion on the or to book your seats. THE LEADING LADY. Artistic Director employment of women and how World War II Jonathan Bank changed the American workforce. -presents -PLEASE KEEP FOR YOUR RECORDS- I ordered tickets for SOLDIER’S WIFE for________________ 2006 @ ________pm. Paid By: H Visa/MC/Amex H Check #_____________ This Mint performance will be held on the 3rd floor at 311 West 43rd Street. All tickets are HELD at the Box Office - available for pick-up starting ONE HOUR prior to curtain. NO LATE SEATING! $30 for performances February 7 - 12 Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday at 7pm Ê $35 for performances February 14 - 26 $45 for performances February 28 - April 2 Friday-Saturday at 8pm & Saturday-Sunday at 2pm How to purchase your tickets for SOLDIER’S WIFE BOX OFFICE HOURS Name__________________________________________________ • By Mail or In-Person: Mint Theater Company (No Service Charges) 311 West 43rd Street, Ste. #307 Now thru Feb 3: Address_______________________________________________ New York, NY 10036 Monday - Friday 12-6 pm • By Phone: (212) 315-0231 ($2.50 per ticket service charge will apply) ______________________________________________________ Beginning Feb. 6: • By Fax: (212) 977-5211 (No Service Charges) Monday - Saturday Set Design By Rose Franken City_______________________State______Zip_______________ • On-line: www.minttheater.org (No Service Charges) 12 - 6 pm Nathan Heverin Sunday 12 - 3 pm • Call for special group rates (groups of 15 or more) Costume Design *Phone (_______)__________________________*For Confirmation Production Stage Manager Karen Hergesheimer Clint E.B. Ramos Date Time # of Tkts. Price Total Press Representative E-mail_________________________________________________ Sound Design $30 Feb 7-12 David Gersten Dramaturge To order tickets call 1st Elizabeth Rhodes x=$35 Feb 14-26 & Associates Amy Stoller Choice $45 Feb 28-Apr 2 H Enclosed is my check made payable to Mint Theater Company Lighting Design (212) 315-0231 Graphic Design 2nd I am also including a Casting + H Please charge my Visa, MC or Amex Jude Dvorak Josh Bradford Choice tax-deductible contribution Stuart Howard, Or visit our on-line Box Office: Properties Design Amy Schecter www.minttheater.org 3rd ________-________-________-________ Exp.Date _____/______ & Paul Hardt Scott Brodsky Choice TOTAL = Performances at Mint Theater Director: Eleanor Reissa 311 W. 43rd St., 3rd floor *All sales are final. There will be no exchanges or refunds. Signature______________________________________________ MTC_SOLDIERSWIFEflyer 12/16/05 10:26 AM Page 2 “A timely, provocative play about a husband back home Rose Franken (1895- from the war after being away for a year and a half. 1988) Born Rosebud By Rose Franken Dougherty Lewin in In a sense, Soldier’s Wife is a poignant love story— Gainesville, Texas. the struggle of a confused couple to recapture romance. And this is done Her parents separated not with mirrors but with merriment. The dialogue is suave and sparkling.” The ever present awareness of the war- shortly after she was time ordeal of its central characters born so Rose and her (New York Journal-American, 1944) Rose Franken was lends poignancy to Soldier’s Wife, three older siblings a professional writer for over although the play, like most of were raised in the forty years beginning with her novel Franken’s work, is essentially the story family brownstone in Harlem. She was Patterns in 1925, published by Max of the joys and complications of married set to enter Barnard College in 1913 Perkins at Scribners, and concluding life. Kate’s unexpected celebrity but instead she married Dr. Walter with her humorous book You’re Well brings her glittering temptations and Franken. They spent their first ten Out of the Hospital in 1966 when she was opportunities at the same time that months of married life at a sanitarium seventy-one. Franken was a Broadway her husband is trying to make the while her husband’s tuberculosis went playwright and director, as well as adjustment to civilian life and cope into remission. Hollywood screenwriter and novelist. with his guilt about being on the side- She achieved fame and fortune as the lines while war is still being waged by Franken’s writing career began by author of the phenomenally successful his friends and comrades. “One of the accident, when she found a mis-deliv- “Claudia” stories, serialized in Redbook most striking phenomena of the war,” ered typewriter on her doorstep and By Rose Franken and Good Housekeeping and published Franken says, based on her own son’s promptly wrote her first story. Her in eight books between 1939 and 1957. letters, is the friendships that develop husband offered enthusiastic encour- In 1941 she dramatized the first book while men are together under fire. agement and she continued to write When Mint presented Echoes of the War by J.M. Barrie, audiences and critics alike were of the series into the play Claudia starring “They want to be back with their to amuse him. She gave immediate touched by the contemporary resonance of those WWI plays. Likewise, audiences may find Dorothy Maguire, which ran on Broadway friends.” evidence not only of talent and craft, that the war-time experiences of its central characters lend poignancy to Soldier’s Wife. for 722 performances. In addition to but of a keen business sense and a the hit play, Franken wrote two movies, professional attitude. a radio and a television series about THE AWARD-WINNING MINT THEATER BRINGS YOU “A bright, sophisticated, the life and love of Claudia and David Franken’s play, Another Language, Naughton and their family. Franken’s intelligent comedy.” was produced in 1932 and was a The Greatest Plays You’ve Never Seen other plays on Broadway included surprising success, running for 453 SUCH AS WALKING DOWN BROADWAY, THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, FAR AND WIDE AND THE SKIN GAME. Another Language and Outrageous The New York Journal-American performances. Her husband died the Fortune, which along with Claudia and described the play as both “a timely, following year and Franken then Soldier’s Wife were selected by Burns provocative play” and “a bright, moved to Hollywood with her three Mantle for his prestigious Best Plays sophisticated, intelligent comedy. In a children, ages 13, 8 and 5, where she annuals. Today none of her plays or sense, Soldier’s Wife is a poignant love had a lucrative screenwriting career. books is still in print. story—the struggle of a confused couple In 1937 she married William Meloney, to recapture romance. And this is done one of her Hollywood writing partners Soldier’s Wife is a romantic comedy not with mirrors, but with merriment. and they moved back east to a farm in set against the back drop of World The dialogue is suave and sparkling.” Connecticut.