History and Background
Book and Lyrics by Gretchen Cryer Music by Nancy Ford SYNOPSIS
The heroine of L.M. Montgomery’s beloved novel, Anne Shirley, is a spunky, red- headed orphan sent to live with a farmer and his sister on Prince Edward Island. The only problem? They thought they were adopting a boy! Follow Anne’s adventures (and misadventures) as she discovers the meaning of family, friendship, and home.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer met as first year students at DePauw University. Their relationship quickly grew from classmates to collaborators as they spent four years developing their composition skills and artistic voices. Upon graduation, they moved to New York and began performing their work professionally. Their first two Gretchen Cryer (left) and Nancy Ford (right) at the piano New York productions, Now is the Time for All Good Men and The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, explored themes of pacifism and the role of media in communication. Their first and only Broadway production, Shelter, starred Cryer across from her then husband, David. While their work often garnered mixed reviews from the critics, Ford and Cryer won and Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award throughout their first decade in the city.
In 1978, Ford and Cryer premiered their most well-known musical, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it On the Road. In the musical, a 39-year-old divorcee abandons her old cabaret act in order to reinvent herself as a pop singer without relying on outdated cliches of what a woman performer is supposed to be. Based on her own life experiences, Cryer starred in the original production at the Public Theater and later at the Circle in the Square theatre. At the time, the subject matter was controversial, but the show ran for three years and earned Cryer and Ford recognition as a feminist composing team for their examination of the relationship between women and men.
Since then, the two have become part of the musical theatre canon. As the first-- and for a long time, only--female composing team, much of their work centers women's experiences and voices. In 2007, exactly 40 years after first New York musical premiered in the same theatre, Anne of Green Gables opened Off Broadway.
Nancy and Gretchen at an event in 2013
ABOUT THE NOVEL AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Anne of Green Gables was written in 1908 by Canadian author Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery. Set in the late nineteenth century, the novel follows Anne Shirley, a fiercely intelligent, stubbornly honest red- headed orphan. She was mistakenly sent to the Cuthbert siblings of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, whom had requested a boy to help with the upkeep of their home A scenic view of Prince Edward Island (Green Gables). Once they met Anne, however, they couldn’t find it in their hearts to send her away. They agreed to raise her as their own, opening their home to her powerful imagination, big heart, and sometimes wild antics.
Montgomery, a native of Prince Edward Island, grew up at the end of the nineteenth century. After her mother’s untimely death, she moved to what is now known as Saskatchewan to live with her grandparents. Much like Anne, Montgomery was born with an active imagination and passion for storytelling. She submitted A small farm on the coast of Prince Edward Island her first poem for publication at thirteen.
As a young adult, Montgomery worked as a teacher during the day and focused on her writing by night. She published over 100 short stories within the first decade of her career. While she had various suitors, Montgomery did not marry until 1911, three years after she found success with Anne of Green Gables. Throughout her marriage, she continued to write while raising two sons.
Montgomery faced significant tragedy and hardships in her life. She vehemently supported the World War I war effort by urging men to join the front lines and speaking out against the atrocities happening in Europe. She later regretted her decision to encourage young men to volunteer for the army, feeling responsible for taking them away from their families and for their untimely deaths. Montgomery came down with Spanish Flu in 1918 and lost her best friend to the illness the following January. Both her and her husband underwent periods of depression until their deaths. A young L.M. Montgomery Throughout her lifetime, Montgomery published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. She died in 1942.
ADOPTION IN VERMONT AND THE UNITED STATES Compiled by Drewe Goldstein, Administration/Education Intern
Throughout most of her childhood, Anne bounced around from house to house, always helping the families that lived there but never finding one of her own. That is, until she met Matthew and Marilla. Anne of Green Gables is fundamentally a story about adoption and the many ways to build a family. Take a look at some statistics about adoption and foster care in the United States and Vermont.
Adoption and Foster Care in the United States:
In 2001, there were 1.5 million adopted children in the United States, representing 2.5 percent of all U.S. children.
Though U.S. citizens adopted nearly 13,000 children from 106 different countries in 2009, a little more than two-thirds of all children came from only five sending countries: China (23 percent), Ethiopia (18 percent), Russia (12 percent), South Korea (8 percent), and Guatemala (6 percent).
While inter-country adoption may be the most visible category, the majority of American adoptions actually involve children adopted out of foster care. About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Of non- stepparent adoptions, about 59 percent are from the child welfare (or foster) system, 26 percent are from other countries, and 15 percent are voluntarily relinquished American babies. Same-sex couples raising adopted children are older, more educated and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents. An estimated 65,500 adopted American children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.
Currently Florida is the only state that bans adoption by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Some states, such as Mississippi, allow a man or woman to adopt alone but will not allow second-parent adoption by a same gender partner. The state of Utah prevents any unmarried couples from adopting.
Adoption and Foster Care in Vermont:
To adopt a child in foster care, you:
o Must be at least 21 o Can be single, married, living with a partner, or joined through civil union o Must have a valid adoption home study or Vermont foster care license
Applications are considered regardless of disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity/expression, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Young children remain the largest group in state custody today, said Karen Shea, interim deputy commissioner for the Family Services Division at the state Department for Children and Families. As of Dec. 1, Vermont had custody of 1,328 children, she said. More than 500 of them were infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children. Cast and Creatives
OUR WESTON PRODUCTION
Anne of Green Gables is the first full production in our new studio space, Weston Playhouse at Walker Farm. Walker Farm brings new and exciting opportunities to increase the scale, size, and artistry of our productions. Take a look at how the set and costume designers rose to the challenge of breathing new life into this beloved children’s classic.
Courtesy of Set Designer Charlie Corcoran
Courtesy of Costume Designer Sydney Gallas
MEET THE CAST
Now in its eighteenth year, the Young Company program allows students from the country’s best musical theatre programs to spend their summer performing and studying at the Weston Playhouse. Meet this year’s eight YoCo members!
David Alea Grace Martini Bella Muller Marissa Hecker
Megumi Nakamura Liv Nurmi Matthew Pitts Cole Wachman
Reading List Reading List
Other Works by Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer
Now is the Time for All Good Men
Shelter
The Last Sweet Days of Isaac
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road Discography
Anne of Green Gables (A New Musical), JAY Productions, 2009 Books by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables (Box Set), Random House Children’s Books, 1990
The Complete Emily Starr Trilogy, e-artnow, 2013
The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016
A Tangled Web, Sourcebooks Fire, 2014