THE", LADY t S NOT .fQli BURNING A PLAY READING by Jay Lazell Deck A,. B. College of the Pacific, 1946 PRO'JEC'r Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS AT THE SACRAMENTO STATE COLLEGE SACRA ~, ~EN'l' O STAT~ 2JLLEGE Approved: L ARCHIVES __ ,....... ______. Charles V. Hume, Chair Baxter M. Geeting George W. Creel dvisory Committee Date ??ztu.t ~ r; I Cf J-y I!m, LADY 1s l!QX. ~ BURNING A PLAY READING A Project Presented to the Faculty of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts Sacramento State College In Partial Fulfillment ot the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Jay Lazell Deck June 195'4 TA13LE OF CONTENTS ·CHAPTER PAGE I. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECT • • • • • • • • 1 II. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR • • • • • • 5 III. A STAGE HISTORY OF TEE PLAY • • • • • • • • • • 12 IV. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ROLE • . • • • • • • • • 21 V. A BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLAY READING • • 26 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • 31 BIBLIOGRAPHY ~- • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 32 CHAPTER I THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECT I.. THE PROBLEM Statement Q! the problem. The problem in this Master's project is to interpret the character of Thomas Mendip in a play reading of The Lady's !!Q!. .!Q.!:. Burning by Christopher Fry. ID!. Project: A. The reading will be presented on the Sacramento State College Campus on May 22, 19~· B. The production methods for this project include an informal setting, minimum lighting effects, modern day costuming, and suggested movement. ~Written Report: The written report of The Lady's Not for Burning is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ' VALIDATION QE IJ.m PROBLEM The personal educational objectives to be gained are five in number: 1. To interpret a character capable of the thought and movement indicated by the playwright and the director. 2 2. To interpret a character in relation to the other members of the cast in a ngive and take8 process. 3. To analyze and evaluate the character of Thomas Mendip and his relationship to the play as a whole. 4. To investigate the background of the author, the play, and the ensuing successes or failures or the play. 5. To investigate the background and growth or this type of reading performance. This project is directly in line with the work of the present writer. His concern is with all aspects of the teaching of dramatic art at the Sacramento Junior College: History and Theory of Drama, Stage Design, Stage Lighting, Make-up, Beginning Acting, Play Production, Acting with Bodily Movement, and Oral Interpretation. Experience offered in this project gives the writer further training in inter­ pretation and voice control. Experience in this form of dramatic art is of direct value in his profession. -A PREVIEW --OF THE ORGANIZATION The organization of this project will consist or six chapters. The others are: II. A biographical sketch of Christopher F'ry containing pertinent facts beginning with his childhood and ending with his develop­ ment as a successful writer. 3 III. A stage history of the play, which is concerned with the first London and New York presentations, the cast, and the evaluations of the play. IV. The interpretation of the role of Thomas Mendip as derived from the internal evidence. V. The background and development of play reading; its relation to the Chautauqua movement, and the productions of recent professional play reading companies. VI. Conclusion dealing with the problems encountered in presentation before an audience. :.!l!! PRESENT STATUS Ql mm, PROBLEM To the best of the writer's knowledge there have been no other theses that have approached the problem of Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not f.!2!. Burning in the manner of this project. This is the first time a project of this type, a play reading, has been attempted at the Sacramento State College. Naturally, the field of play reading makes demands differing from those of standard acting projects. A stage actor has additional means to help him along to a total presentation, whereas the play reader has only the book and himself. Mr. Fry is so new to the literary scene that critics have had little opportunity to analyze and compare his works. Therefore, the accumulation and presentation of 4 facts concerning his life, and the interpretation of his play make this project something of an innovation, and it is to be hoped, worthwhile. SOURCES --OF DA'T.A: The principle sources of data on Fry have been current issues of theatrical organs, and the production script of the professional production of The Lady's !Q!. for Burning. CHAPTER II A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AlJTHOR. F'ry was born December 18, 1907, in Bristol, England. His father was an architect named Charles Harris; his mother was the former Emma Marguerite F'ry Hammond. Mr. Harris was of a deeply religious bent and became a lay missionary in the Bristol slums; he died while Christopher was still quite young, but by taking in boarders, Mrs. Harris managed to send the boy to Bedford Modern School where he apparently gave no hint of future greatness as poet-playwright; however, he began writing early, producing a farce at eleven, some sort of poem at twelve, and a verse drama at fourteen. There was some musical training given to Fry, as he plays the piano and has appeared in musical comedy. Accomplishing very little at formal studies, he left school at eighteen to "drift" into the teaching pro­ fession. During this time, he paid tribute to his mother by adopting her religion, Quaker, and her maiden name, Fry (because of its euphony). Teaching was not suecessful for F'ry, and he joined the Bath Repertory Company. Later, he divided his time between teaching part time at a preparatory school in Surrey and repertory theatre. After eight years of reper­ tory groups, acting the usual rounds of Shakespeare, Shaw, 6 Wilde, and Coward, Fry finally arrived in London. There, working to keep himself in board and lodging, he tried his hand at various tasks: Editing a magazine, cartooning, working as a secretary to a novelist, and writing children's plays for radio. According to ~Magazine, . • • • for awhile he was secretary to a popular songwriter; he essayed some songs himself which however did not become popular. He is said to. have moved into an abandone.d rector! to write a verse play, which he did not finish. Early in 1934 Fry directed the Wells Repertory Players at Tunbridge Wells, until the enterprise failed. His next effort was to write words and music for an Andre Charlot revu.e, She Shall~ Music. Later, Dr. Barnardo's Homes, a charitable organization caring for orphaned and abandoned children, asked him to write a play on the life of its founder, John Barnardo. This he did, and apparently was the stage manager of the production, as he toured the provinces with it for two years • .Kt the end of this venture, Christopher Fry found himself in love, and immediately.contracted a marriage with Phyllis Hart, a .journalist. Within two years, they were penniless until a distant cousin came to their rescue by promptly dying and leaving them a small legacy. With enough money to exist, Fry began to work on, ~ Boy With ~ ~' 1 Analyst, Time Magazine, 56:58-64, November 20, 1950. 7 a pageant marking the fiftieth anniversary of a village church. Later pageants were ~ Tower and Thursday's Child. The latter was produced at Albert Hall, London, and one member of the audience was Queen Mary. Mr. Fry seemed to be on the first rungs of the ladder of success. In 1939, he became director of the Oxford Playhouse, where he met the young actress, Pamela Brown, who was to become a popular and outstanding actress, and who was later to star in l'.h!. Lady's Not for Burning. About this time war broke out in Europe, and Fry, who was a conscientious objector, was assigned to the Pioneer Corps. He worked with the demolition squads in London, and he helped in Liverpool with the destruction of ''buzz bombs"·· Naturally, during this period of war, there was little time to devote to writing. After the war, he chose verse for his literary medium. One of his earlier plays in verse was A Phoenix !Q.Q. Frequent, which was not successfUl in New York. It opened there in April 26, 1950, and closed five days later. His next major work to follow was The Lady's Not !Q!: Burning, which is discussed in Chapter Three. After the success of The Lady's Not for Burning, Sir Laurence Olivier commissioned Fry to write a play for him. This play was Venus Observed, • and, due to the hackneyed direction and misinterpretation 8 of Olivier, it too wa·s sh~rtlived. Mr. Fry did not mind, for he had achieved financial as well as literary success with his ventures. Mr. Fry is about 5' 8" in height and weighs around 140 pounds. According to Time Magazine, Fry is a squirrel-like, rumpled, reticent man with a gentle genius for making friends ••• (his) idea of a good evening is to sip whiskey and black rum with old theatrical cronies. Fry likes to compose Tin Pan Alley-like tunes ••• writes an occasional parody of the classics such as his version of Macbeth in which the three witches are girl reporters.2 Most of his writing is done in a small cottage in an Oxfordshire village, where he lives with his wife and his son Tam.