Student Matinee Series
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Student Matinee Series Good People By David Lindsay-Abaire Study Guide Created by North Atlanta High School Advanced Drama Class of Linda Stevenson As part of the Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists’ Junior Dramaturgy Program Under the guidance of Teaching Artist, Neeley Gossett Good People opened on Broadway in 2011 at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York City. The play can be seen at The Alliance Theatre from January 16, 2013 to February 10, 2013. Awards The play was nominated for a Tony Award, Drama League Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Frances McDormand, who played Margaret, received the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance in the play. Reviews "There’s nothing pure about the goodness or badness of the folks who inhabit this play. This makes them among the most fully human residents of Broadway these days." -New York Times "The remarkable thing about Good People is its refusal to settle into schematic patterns." -LA Times Good People at the Alliance Theatre Page 1 of 16 "If Good People isn't a hit for the Manhattan Theatre Club there is no justice in this land." -Variety "Good People delivers an astute class on the working class." -Chicago Sun Times About the Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire David Lindsay-Abaire is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. He is also a lyricist, librettist and a screenwriter. He grew up and was raised in South Boston. He was raised by two working-class parents. He went to public school until the age of 12 when he won a scholarship from the Boys and Girls Club to the prestigious prep school, Milton Academy, in Milton MA. In 4th grade he began acting, and in 10th grade he began writing plays. He then went to Sarah Lawrence College where he studied acting and also took classes in playwriting. One of his shows was performed at Sarah Lawrence, and there he decided to continue writing. “If I hadn’t gotten lucky, I could certainly have ended up the manager at a Dollar Store — or maybe not even the manager, maybe the cashier. A lot of people I grew up with are in jail, died of drug overdoses, or committed suicide. They weren’t bad people, they weren’t troublemakers. They just didn’t have the breaks and the opportunities that I did.’’ – The Boston Globe After graduating from Sarah Lawrence in 1992, he began writing plays and won a few awards. At one competition, the second place winner suggested he apply to the highly selective Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Julliard. He was one of the five playwrights admitted to the two year program in 1996, and he honed his skill. However, the program did not award a diploma. He was taught by two prominent playwrights Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang. He is married to Christine Lindsay-Abaire, an actress. They have two children and live in Brooklyn, New York. “I will always be the working class kid. I have a deep respect for hard work and people trying to make their lives better. I hope it informs my own work ethic. My sense of humor is very Southie — dark and inappropriate. Laughter in the face of hardship, that’s still very present. I also have a little bit of a temper. I think most people consider me pretty mild-mannered. But I don’t suffer fools gladly. Not too many people from Southie do.” –Huntingtontheatre.org His first theater acclamation was for his play Fuddy Meers, which premiered in 1998. Wonder of the World premiered in 2000 and starred Sarah Jessica Parker. Rabbit Hole came to Broadway in in 2006 and featured Cynthia Nixon, John Slattery, and Tyne Daly. Rabbit Hole won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. He has also written Kimberly Akimbo, Dotting and Dashing, Snow Angel, The L'il Plays, and A Devil Inside. He has also been credited Good People at the Alliance Theatre Page 2 of 16 with helping write the script for Robots, Inkheart, and the film Rabbit Hole. In addition, Abaire wrote a movie from Dreamworks Animation called Rise of the Guardian, as well as Shrek the Musical and the book for High Fidelity the musical. Good People opened in March of 2011. Synopsis of Good People Act One At the beginning of the play, Stevie fires Margaret from her job at the Dollar Store because of her chronic lateness. Margaret reveals that her continual tardiness is because she struggles to find care for her mentally handicapped, adult daughter. She begs Stevie for another chance and uses the fact that she was friends with his late mother to negotiate keeping her job. This does not work, and Margaret is out of a job and unable to pay her bills. After her firing, Margaret’s longtime friend, Jean reveals that she has run into their friend from high school, Mike Dillon. He is now a doctor. Jean and Margaret’s other friend, Dottie, encourage her to ask him for a job. Margaret visits Mike Dillon at his office. He has escaped Southie through an Ivy League education and is now a reproductive endocrinologist. He now has little in common with Margaret and does not have a job to offer her. However, Mike does reluctantly invite her to his birthday party. Margaret looks forward to the party and the opportunity to meet possible employers there when Dottie and Jean suggest she accuse Mike of being Joyce’s father in order to collect money from him. At the end of the act, Mike calls and tells her that the party has been cancelled. She assumes that the party was not cancelled and that Mike did not want her to come, so she toys with the idea of going to Mike’s party despite the phone call. Act Two In Act Two, Margaret goes to Mike's party even though he cancelled the party because his daughter is ill. Kate, Mike’s wife greets Margaret and assumes she is a caterer there to pick up left over food. After Kate realizes that Margaret is one of Mike’s old friends from Southie, she insists that she stay. Margaret learns that the party had actually been cancelled and is embarrassed. When Kate leaves the room, Mike and Margaret are left to reminisce about the past. They discuss their past relationship. Mike badgers Margaret about her inability to be financially stable, and he says that if she had wanted to get out of Southie, she could have. Finally, after a heated argument, Margaret confesses that Joyce is his child. Both Kate and Mike are bewildered by her shocking announcement. By the end of the discussion she is asked to leave, and she says the Joyce is actually not Mike’s child. Good People at the Alliance Theatre Page 3 of 16 At the end of the act she receives a check for her rent and thinks it is from Mike and plans on returning it. Later, she finds out it is from Stevie, her former boss, and decides to keep it. It is finally revealed that Mike is Joyce’s father. Directors The original Broadway play was directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, and the Atlanta production will be directed by The Alliance Theater’s Artistic Director Susan V. Booth. Susan V. Booth is a well-known director who has worked with theaters throughout the country, including the Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre and many more. She started her career as an artistic director when she joined the Alliance Theatre in 2001. Her most famous projects while working in the company include Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, The Color Purple, Bring It On: The Musical, The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee, Sister Act: The Musical and more. She graduated from and held a teaching position at the Northwestern University. She also taught at DePaul University, and she currently teaches at Emory University. Actors Original Broadway Cast The Alliance Theatre Cast Mike Dillon: Tate Donovan Mike Dillon: Thomas Vincent Kelly Margaret Walsh: Frances McDormand Margaret Walsh: Kate Buddeke Dottie: Estelle Parsons Dottie: Brenda Bynum Jean: Becky Ann Baker Jean: Lala Cochran Stevie Jean: Patrick Carroll Stevie Jean: Andrew Benator Kate: Renée Elise Goldsberry Kate: Kristen Ariza Good People at the Alliance Theatre Page 4 of 16 Characters Dottie is a friend of Margaret’s and helps her with Joyce. She is a fifty-year-old White, Southie native and always speaks her mind. She is a bingo enthusiast and considers herself an entrepreneur because she makes and sells toy rabbits. Jean is fifty, White, and works in a hotel. She is from Southie and is harsh and blunt toward her friends, Margaret and Dottie, but she is loyal. She hatches a dishonest scheme to help Margaret pay her rent. Kate is an African-American woman in her early thirties. Kate, her husband Mike, and her daughter Ally are an upper class family. They live in a large beautiful house in South Boston. Kate is a literature Professor at Boston University. Kate received her PHD from Georgetown. She is very polite to others and has very positive attitude. However, her marriage to Mike is troubled. Margaret is a White woman around age fifty. She is a tough woman from Southie and has been fired from a Dollar Store. Because she is a high school dropout and has a mentally handicapped daughter named Joyce who takes much of her time, she struggles to find work.