FALL 2014-2015 SPOTLIGHT GREAT THEATRE — PRODUCED BY YOU

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Zabryna Guevara and Will LeBow in Sonia Flew; The cast of She Loves Me; Michael Emerson and Kate Burton in Hedda Gabler; Nathan Lane in Butley. REMEMBERING NICHOLAS MARTIN: 1938-2014 Former Artistic Director Nicholas Martin died on April 30, 2014 at age 75 in New York after battling a long illness.

Martin directed 18 shows for the Huntington while serving as Artistic Director (2000-2008) and two after his departure (2009 and 2010). Among the most memorable were Dead End, his first, which featured a three-story set depicting a New York tenement onstage and a swimming pool standing in for the East River in the orchestra pit, and the joyous She Loves Me featuring Brooks Ashmanskas and Kate Baldwin, his last as Artistic Director. Other highlights include the acclaimed revivals of Hedda Gabler with Kate Burton, Butley with “I take solace in Nathan Lane, and Present Laughter with Victor Garber, all of which transferred to Broadway. knowing that his In 2004, his world premiere production of Melinda Lopez’s Sonia Flew inaugurated the Wimberly Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The first new theatre to be built in Boston in more than 75 years, Martin championed the new venue as a home DNA remains on for the Huntington’s new plays initiatives. Martin also supported the development of local writers with the creation of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program, one of the our stages and initiatives the Tony Awards Administration Committee cited last year when awarding the in our company.” 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award to the Huntington. The season after his tenure as artistic director ended, Martin returned to the Huntington – PETER DUBOIS to direct The Corn is Green with Kate Burton and her son Morgan Ritchie, Martin’s godson. In 2010 he returned once again to helm William Inge’s Bus Stop.

“I loved Nicky’s humor, laughter, and warmth,” recalls current Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. “He will be so deeply missed. I take solace in knowing that his DNA remains on our stages and in our company. He will always be here, and he will always be a part of who we are.”

“Partnering with Nicky was a great treat,” says Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso, who worked with Martin from 2000 to 2008. “He was a brilliant director of classics and new plays alike and was a wonderful collaborator. What I most remember is the joy with which Nicky infused a room, whether it was a rehearsal hall or a dinner table. And that laugh! Nicky Martin’s laugh will always be a life-affirming miracle, loud enough to rouse the angels from their heavenly sleep and wicked enough to make them question whether they were on the right side.”

Martin’s last project was the world premiere of Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike which garnered the 2013 Tony Award for Best New Play and a Tony Award nomination for his direction. The Huntington will recreate his acclaimed production of the hit comedy here in January and will dedicate it in his honor.

2 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 WELCOME TO OUR 2014-2015 SEASON

COMPELLING FAMILY COMEDY GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER SEPT. 5 – OCT. 5

PROVOCATIVE MEDICAL THRILLER ETHER DOME OCT. 17 – NOV. 23

STIRRING AMERICAN CLASSIC AWAKE AND SING! NOV. 7 – DEC. 7 THE CALDERWOOD SMASH-HIT BROADWAY COMEDY VANYA AND SONIA TURNS 10! AND MASHA AND SPIKE The Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts marks a milestone 10th birthday on JAN. 2 – FEB. 1 Monday, September 29. For the past decade, the Calderwood Pavilion has been the Huntington’s artistic home MOVING IRISH DRAMA for new play development and provider of first-class facilities and audience services to dozens of Boston’s most exciting small and mid-sized companies. When it opened in THE SECOND GIRL 2004 with the world premiere of Melinda Lopez’s Sonia Flew the Calderwood Pavilion JAN. 16 – FEB. 21 was the first new theatre to be built in Boston in more than 75 years. Since opening in 2004 through the summer of 2014, the Calderwood Pavilion’s impact SCATHING COMEDY has been felt throughout the community as it has hosted: • An average of over 40 companies each year, including SpeakEasy Stage Company, THE COLORED MUSEUM Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s Boston Theater Marathon, The Theater Offensive, Bad MAR. 6 – APR. 5 Habit Productions, and Company One Theatre. • More than 4,000 performances of more than 300 different productions produced by over 70 organizations. TIMELY NEW DRAMA • An audience of nearly 750,000 theatregoers. AFTER ALL THE • More than 300 organizations that have put on activities as diverse as theatrical productions, concerts, private parties, summer camps for teens, and business TERRIBLE THINGS I DO meetings. MAY 22 – JUN. 20 • 24 world, American, and New England premieres produced by the Huntington. Special thanks to Presenting Sponsor Bank of America and The Boston Foundation PLUS A SPECIAL EVENT for their support of the Calderwood Pavilion 10th Anniversary Celebration. COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA MAR. 27 – APR. 26

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 3 BY TODD KREIDLER “Malcolm-Jamal Warner BASED ON THE SCREENPLAY BY has matured into a WILLIAM ROSE solid leading man.” – THE WASHINGTON POST

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (“The Cosby Show”) makes his Huntington debut in Guess DIRECTED BY MALCOLM-JAMAL WARNER IN DAVID Who’s Coming to Dinner directed by Huntington favorite David ESBJORNSON Esbjornson (All My Sons). Joanna surprises her liberal, white parents when she brings home John, her African-American fi ancé, to meet GUESS WHO’S them. Both sets of parents must confront their own unexpected reactions and concerns for their children as their beliefs are put to COMING TO the test. Set in the 1960s, this funny and poignant new stage adaptation offers a fresh interpretation of the beloved Academy Award winning DINNER fi lm and also features Julia Duffy (“Newhart”), Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox (Now or Later), and Boston favorite Will Lyman (All My Sons).

“TRULY UPLIFTING! A delightfully funny evening of theatre that should not be missed!” AVENUE OF THE ARTS – MD THEATRE GUIDE SEPT .BU 5 THEATRE - OCT . 5

Braille “David Esbjornson brings a striking contemporary perspective to classics that allow us to experience them in new and unexpected ways. After his astonishing production of All My Sons, I can’t wait for him to reveal the emotional and social immediacy KATHY of the ideas raised by this landmark film.”

BILL WILLENS

– PETER DUBOIS CROUCH / AP

Bill de Blasio, son Dante, daughter Margaret Rusk and Guy Smith on Chiara, and wife Chirlane McCray the cover of Time magazine (1967) ROOM AT THE TABLE In adapting the iconic film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, People who opposed interracial marriage saw the Secretary of playwright Todd Kreidler has created a portrait of race relations in State’s participation as tacit approval from Lyndon B. Johnson’s America as intimate, provocative, and poignant today as the original administration. Ebony magazine wrote that “Secretary Rusk was in 1967. In 1967, the movie revealed the hypocrisy of liberal reportedly advised the White House of the forthcoming wedding, minded intellectuals who accepted interracial marriage in theory but and his decision to escort his only daughter down the aisle even not in practice. Today, the play forges a connection between two if political repercussions forced a resignation.” conversations: the first tracks how far America has come in the last fifty years in its acceptance of interracial marriage, and the second Interracial marriage no longer poses the same challenges for couples focuses on recognizing the unspoken racial inequalities that still like Peggy Rusk and Guy Smith. It is now legal to enter an interracial exist. As Kreidler says, “the question for me has always been how marriage everywhere in the United States, with South Carolina and we keep it set in 1967 but not of 1967.” Alabama being the last states to overturn their prohibitions in 1998 and 2000. A 2010 Pew Research study found that 8.4% of all current Upon their return to San Francisco to announce their engagement, US marriages are interracial, up from the less than 1 percent in 1961. John Prentice, Jr., an African-American doctor portrayed in the film version by Sidney Portier, and Joanna Drayton, a young white Kreidler’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner encourages us to return college student, face rejection from Joanna’s parents. To add to a shared past and to reflect on the reality of race relations in the pressure to the evening, Joanna has invited John’s parents to fly present day. Even in a nation with a biracial president, New York up from LA. When the Prentices arrive, they also express their Mayor Bill de Blasio’s multi-racial family still causes waves in the firm opposition to the engagement. The families argue about the media. According to the Huffington Post, “he is apparently the first challenges and obstacles the couple will face as they consider white politician in US history elected to a major office with a black whether to support or interfere in John and Joanna’s relationship, spouse by his side,” and according to the National Healthy Marriage all within the hours before dinner is served. Resource Center, “black-white marriage remains the most unlikely racial combination in the US.” “Don’t fool yourselves. Whatever you talk out in this house on a hill tonight won’t change the hearts in homes across the country,” This country where the personal is political, the choices of men says John Prentice, Sr., criticizing the naïve hopes of the young and women like John and Joanna shift the perspective on race. couple and their mothers. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was The film was released to critical acclaim and placed the debate of released in a decade that was defined by racial tensions, and the interracial marriage at the forefront. This touching adaptation of depiction of John and Joanna’s relationship pushed a private an American classic brings forth an honest discussion about the conversation into the public sphere. It joined highly publicized challenges of interracial marriage, but more importantly, it serves and controversial events such as the landmark Supreme Court as a powerful reminder that these conversations still have a place case of Loving vs. Virginia or Time magazine’s decision to make at our dinner tables. the marriage of Peggy Rusk, daughter of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Guy Smith the cover of their September issue. – SEBASTIÁN BRAVO MONTENEGRO

LEARN MORE ONLINE Watch the trailer of the 1967 film, listen to an interview with Malcolm-Jamal Warner, read an interview with director David Esbjornson, and more.

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Katharine Houghton and Sidney Poitier in the Malcolm-Jamal Warner in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner film version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) BRINGING THE STORY ONSTAGE: AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT TODD KREIDLER LINDA LOMBARDI, LITERARY MANAGER AT ARENA STAGE, SAT DOWN WITH TODD KREIDLER, PLAYWRIGHT AND ADAPTER FOR GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, TO FIND OUT HOW HE ADAPTED THE CLASSIC FILM FOR THE STAGE.

How did you get started as a playwright? That question’s hard to answer. I’ve done everything on some level. I stretched flats, I was a master electrician (until I got electrocuted), I worked in a box office, directed, did sound design, stage managed, everything, but writing has always been a constant in my life. I had some early success writing plays when I was young in Pittsburgh, and that scared me. I turned my focus to directing, and by the time I started working with August Wilson and became his dramaturg, I was directing a lot — I was a director who really wanted to be a writer but was scared. Not that directing isn’t Todd Kreidler incredibly difficult and rewarding, but what I really wanted to do was write. Around November of 2000, August said, “If you’re gonna write, man, be a writer. Don’t stand out there hesitating. Man, you gotta stand up and claim it.” Which is what I did.

6 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 What attracted you to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Why adapt this story today? CURTAIN CALLS First of all, it’s a cultural touchstone. Whatever your feelings NAME Julia Duffy about the piece are, whatever community you’re from, it literally brought the issue of race into the home, both in the storytelling ROLE Christina Drayton and thematically. HOMETOWN Minneapolis, Minnesota Approaching it today, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? I am intensely concerned about my children as about and engage in the attitudes of 1967 but in a way that was they enter the adult world. Like the daughter for the 21st century. These attitudes and ideas are still very much character in the play, mine have proven themselves more than alive. People have tried to make linguistic adjustments so racism ready to make life choices, but as a mother I understand how even today has become more covert. The systemic racism and the the most level-headed child will not keep you from worrying. It’s endemic attitudes are cloaked, but they’re still very much alive. something you never really get a break from. Just look at the disproportionate amount of blacks living in poverty or the criminalization of young black men. That’s not an opinion WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A TENSE FAMILY DINNER? about society. Those are verifiable facts. You’re on one of two sides. I would bring lots of wine! After that, I think a sense of humor You either say that young black men are somehow more criminally would be essential. But first, wine. bent, that it’s built into them to be more violent or more criminal, DOES YOUR FAMILY HAVE ANY SPECIAL DINNER TRADITIONS? or you believe — as I do — that this is our American legacy from We are rarely all together as a family these days so we have no adult slavery that we are still struggling to redress. traditions for a family dinner. We’re just happy to get those times. The writing challenge was also exciting to me. From Holler if NAME Adriane Lenox Ya Hear Me to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, I’m writing ROLE Mary Prentice character-driven American stories. I get to deal with a defining HOMETOWN Memphis, Tennessee aspect of American life, which is race relations in America. LAST HUNTINGTON ROLE Tracy in Now or Later There’s something about the access to characters on stage that’s particularly of interest to me. It’s something that you can’t get in HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? film and television. I find theatre very supple for the exploration of I have a sense of balance like Mary Prentice. character and the layered aspects of our lives — attitudes towards WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A TENSE FAMILY DINNER? love, attitudes towards sex, towards food. There’s a way to evolve A sense of humor mixed with reality. those things and really try to cover the individual humanities DOES YOUR FAMILY HAVE ANY SPECIAL DINNER TRADITIONS? of the characters, and to make what I think is an argument and Saying grace. transformation about attitudes towards race. NAME Will Lyman How did you go about adapting the screenplay of Guess Who’s ROLE Matt Drayton Coming to Dinner for the stage? HOMETOWN Boston, Massachusetts It wasn’t just taking a screenplay to a play. It was taking an iconic LAST HUNTINGTON ROLE Joe Keller in screenplay to a play. So there was always a spirit of preserving the All My Sons iconic moments of the film and then connecting them with a story that is familiar. The single setting and the compression of time HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? Like my character I am thoughtful, analytical, and sensitive. Unlike made it ready-made for the stage. The challenge was going from my character I am not controlling, organized, or verbally influential. iconic moment to iconic moment. WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A TENSE FAMILY DINNER? The phrase ‘guess who’s coming to dinner’ has become part of Probably not much that would help ease the tension. Mostly the American vernacular. What does the saying mean to you? silence, I imagine. It’s exciting. There’s a surprise coming. It’ll either be an old NAME Malcolm-Jamal Warner friend or an acquaintance or someone exciting — but it’ll be an interesting dinner. ROLE Dr. John Prentice HOMETOWN Jersey City, New Jersey HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? Um, well, he’s a doctor. I’m not. We’re both good people. We’re both accomplished in Reprinted with permission from Arena Stage. our fields. What I find fascinating about Dr. John Prentice is that despite all of his worldly accomplishments, parental approval is still very important to him. Though he’s 40 years old, this play is somewhat a coming of age piece for him where he has to let go of that need for approval. I can totally relate to that transformation. WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A TENSE FAMILY DINNER? Laughter. And as my mother will attest, a very long before- SEE PAGE 23 dinner prayer. FOR SHOW PERFORMANCE CALENDAR AND EVENT LISTINGS

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 7 BY ELIZABETH EGLOFF DIRECTED BY A new treatment promising MICHAEL WILSONto end pain pits a doctor and his PROVOCATIVE MEDICAL THRILLER student in an epic battle between altruism and ambition. Based on the true story of the discovery of ether as an anesthetic in 1846 and set in Boston’s own Massachusetts General Hospital, this fascinating new play explores the ecstasy of pain, the sweetness of relief, and ETHER the hysteria that erupts when healthcare becomes big business. A co-production with Alley Theatre, Hartford Stage, and DOME La Jolla Playhouse.

“Indisputably terrific! A fascinating story.” – HOUSTON CHRONICLE SOUTH END OCT . 5CALDERWOOD - NOV PAVILION . 23 AT THE BCA

“MARVELOUS” – THE HUFFINGTON POST

Braille “Elizabeth Egloff’s thrilling new exploration of a revolution in modern medicine unfolds in our own back yard, and our collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital will illuminate a lesser-known chapter of our city’s rich history. As our nation grapples with a healthcare overhaul, now is the perfect time for gifted director Michael Wilson to connect the ramifications of this fascinating event to the world in which we live.” – PETER DUBOIS

A re-enactment of the first surgical operation with ether anesthesia at MGH’s Ether Dome on October 16, 1846. Painted by Warren and Lucia Prosperi. A WORLD BEFORE ANESTHETICS Before anesthetics, “a surgeon would employ six burly men to chief of surgery and founder of MGH Dr. John Collins Warren, and hold a patient down as the chief surgeon pushed a saw past the young entrepreneur William T. G. Morton. Egloff pits student against sliced muscles, still twitching, and listened as the blade cut through teacher, ambition against altruism. the bone,” says Julie M. Fenster, author of the book Ether Day, Egloff takes us through the rise and fall of these men, each of them detailing the brutal and painful past of modern surgery. “Some of risking their life and reputation to come closer to the monumental the patients remember the sounds of their limbs dropping to discovery, beginning with Horace Wells and his chance encounter the ground.” with ‘the laughing gas.’ “It was more the power of nitrous oxide In the early 19th century, surgeons had limited options for reducing to produce pleasure than suppress pain that caught the public the intense pain surgery caused. On October 16, 1846, a group of imagination,” says Jay. The recreational drug “found a twilight surgeons would gather to witness the first public display of ether as existence in music hall entertainments and variety shows” where an anesthetic in the operating theatre, now called the Ether Dome, Wells breaks his nose and realizes the gas’ painkilling properties. at Massachusetts General Hospital. Located right along the Charles Ether Dome jumps from laughing parties in Hartford, Connecticut River, on the top floor of the Bullfinch Building, the operating to public tests of anesthesia at a surgeons’ meeting in Boston, to room would become home to one of the most influential medical Morton’s fledgling home experiments on his pets. advancements in history and the setting for the epic battle between Egloff brings heated debates to life with witty and dynamic the men who developed it in Elizabeth Egloff’s historical drama, dialogue, creating a vibrant picture of the battles that took place in Ether Dome. Boston. The showdowns continue past the original Ether Day since Egloff presents us with an in-depth portrait of the surprising its discovery also marks the beginning of the commercialization of and extraordinary discovery of sulfuric ether’s analgesic properties modern medicine. The concept of paying for treatment was unusual during the early 19th century, but Morton’s entrepreneurial instinct and each of the eccentric men who made it possible. “It was the forces commerce and medicine into an uneasy partnership, one moment when Boston, and indeed the United States, first emerged that sets the stage for divisive arguments in our own time over as a world-class center of medical innovation,” writes Mike Jay in healthcare as a commodity. The Boston Globe. The monumental finding of ether’s medicinal properties “would transform medicine, dramatically expanding the Egloff’s play bears a subtitle: “A Grand Exhibition Produced on the scope of what doctors were able to accomplish,” he continues. Dramatic Stage with No Expense Spared, Showing the Exhilarating Inventions of the Medical Mind,” and this elaborate description Because a historic legacy awaited the inventor of the “mysterious fits her larger-than-life play that takes us through both the thrill of compound,” a dispute unraveled between four men, each with their discovery and the downfall of those creators. own claim to the invention. The chief participants in that battle were Hartford dentist Horace Wells, Boston doctor Charles T. Jackson, – SEBASTIÁN BRAVO MONTENEGRO

LEARN MORE ONLINE Read about the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital, watch an MGH presentation about technological innovations in anesthesia, and more.

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The cast of Ether Dome Hannah Tamminen, Michael Bakkensen, and Ken Cheesman in Ether Dome

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT: ELIZABETH EGLOFF SHIRLEY FISHMAN, RESIDENT DRAMATURG AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE, SAT DOWN WITH ETHER DOME PLAYWRIGHT ELIZABETH EGLOFF TO DISCUSS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE PLAY AND WHY SHE WAS THE RIGHT PERSON TO TELL THIS STORY.

What inspired you to write a play about the circumstances of the discovery of anesthesia? I got a phone call from Michael Wilson in the summer of 2005. He was the artistic director of Hartford Stage at the time, and the theatre received a grant from the state of Connecticut to commission a play inspired by local historical events. One day while he was walking in Hartford’s Bushnell Park he came upon a statue of Horace Wells. He asked a friend who he was. That’s when the idea for the play started. He talked to me about writing a play about Horace Wells, a dentist in Hartford who had something to do with the discovery of ether — that he was robbed of the credit Elizabeth Egolff by his student and that nobody knows what really happened. He thought that the story might be a great idea for a play.

Why did Michael think you would be the right person to write this story? He knew that I had grown up in Farmington, Connecticut, where Morton’s wife lived before they married. I went to school in West Hartford and college in Hartford. And I was steeped in the Hartford view of the world and of itself. I was thrilled to take it on — I love plays about history and politics. As I researched, I became hypnotized by the story of the four men who were at the center of the ether controversy: Horace Wells, William Morton, and Dr. Charles T. Jackson and Dr. John C. Warren, esteemed surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of a handful of respected medical schools in the country.

10 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 Wells had been investigating ways to alleviate his patients’ all the way into the end zone. Harvard Medical School and Mass suffering during dental surgery. He witnessed a man who injured General’s library accounts have always credited Morton, but no himself after inhaling laughing gas. When he saw that the man felt mention is made about his scandalous past. Jackson receives no pain, he wondered if the gas could be used on his patients. He some credit for helping Morton with research. Their accounts successfully experimented with the gas, and Morton suggested he don’t mention Wells. After the 2001 publication of Julie M. demonstrate the procedure in Mass General’s operating theatre. Fenster’s book, Ether Day, Harvard began to include small The stakes for Wells’s demonstration in the hospital’s dome were references to Wells, so he’s no longer invisible. very high. When it failed, it launched a medical competition that would change history and the destinies of those four men. It’s an epic story and incredibly dramatic. How did you Jackson claimed he had given Morton a vial of sulphuric ether so create a play from this factual story? In order to put it on stage, I needed to decide whose story it that he could painlessly extract his wife’s tooth. Morton took both Wells’ and Jackson’s ideas and climbed his way into Mass General’s was. After many drafts, it finally came to me that it’s Horace’s dome and into the medical history books. Wells, a sensitive idealist, story; his struggle and downfall frames the play. There were was irreparably wounded by Morton’s betrayal and descended into so many people involved, I had to compress a number of Mass depression and addiction. Some believed Wells was the inspiration General doctors into Drs. Haywood, Bigelow, and Gould. These for Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. three men, along with Jackson, became the chorus of the play. The factual events occurred between 1845-1870, but I collapsed At a certain point, I realized that there were inconsistencies; the the story, into one year. The arc of the story hasn’t changed story was different depending on whose version I read. But the since my first draft. brutal fact remained that Morton deserved the credit — he was the one who picked up the ball when no one else did and took it Reprinted with permission from La Jolla Playhouse.

NAME Tom Patterson CURTAIN CALLS ROLE William Morton South Bend, Indiana NAME Michael Bakkensen HOMETOWN ROLE Horace Wells HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? I think William and I both want to prove HOMETOWN Portland, Oregon. ourselves, that there’s a need to belong, to be HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? loved. I think I’m less ruthless! I share Horace’s idealism, but I don’t think I’m HOW HAS THIS PLAY CHANGED YOUR PERCEPTION ON quite as naive as he was about the dangers MODERN MEDICINE? I think I’m extremely happy to NOT live in a posed by untrustworthy friends or chemicals. pre-anesthesia world, and I’m grateful for the advances humanity HOW HAS THIS PLAY CHANGED YOUR PERCEPTION ON has made. It also makes me hopeful we’ll find cures for cancer, MODERN MEDICINE? Until working on this play I didn’t AIDS, Parkinson’s, ALS, and every other debilitating disease and comprehend the depth of pain and suffering and the disorder. There’s a lot left to be discovered. hopelessness before the advent of anesthetics. NAME Amelia Pedlow Ken Cheesman NAME ROLE Elizabeth Wales Wells Augustus Gould ROLE HOMETOWN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Born in Providence, Rhode HOMETOWN HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? Island; Lives in Newton, Massachusetts I, too, firmly believe that full credit for the HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? discovery of anesthesia deserves to go to Like Augustus Gould, I have an interest Horace Wells. Elizabeth Wells fought her whole life to get her both in medicine and the natural sciences, like marine biology. husband the partial credit he was eventually rewarded, and I can Unlike Dr. Gould who was an exceptional cataloguer, I am not only hope to be like such a brilliant, strong, loyal woman. a good record-keeper. I like details in the moment but am WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT IN THE PLAY? The very not particularly good at chronicling them. brief scene between Elizabeth Wells and Elizabeth Morton. In a HOW HAS THIS PLAY CHANGED YOUR PERCEPTION ON play and a time in history dominated by men, I find it so deeply MODERN MEDICINE? This play delves into how profoundly the satisfying that our playwright gives the audience a small window art of surgery was changed by the introduction of consistently into the lives of women at that time. It’s a scene where two dependable anesthetics. Like most of us in the modern age, women from vastly different backgrounds and ways of life reach I have friends and family members whose lives have been saved for advice and support from a stranger. I love it. by surgery. None of the major surgeries that this brings to mind could ever have been done without modern anesthetics. This play has made me hyperaware of and highly appreciative of SEE PAGE 23 the role of the anesthesiologist in modern surgery. FOR SHOW PERFORMANCE CALENDAR AND EVENT LISTINGS

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 11 BY DIRECTED BY MELIA BENSUSSEN

In a cramped Bronx apartment, a working-class STIRRING AMERICAN CLASSIC Jewish family dreams of a brighter future. Matriarch Bessie Berger’s fi erce determination keeps her family afl oat, whatever the cost. Gritty, passionate, WAKE funny, and heartbreaking, Odets’ 1935 masterpiece beautifully captures both A the hopes and the struggles of an unforgettable AND SING! American family.

AVENUE OF THE ARTS BU THEATRE “Feels so timely NOV . 7 - DEC . 7 it might have been written yesterday.” – CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Braille “Since her gorgeous, moving production of Luck of the Irish in 2011, I’ve wanted to bring director Melia Bensussen back to the Huntington to mount a classic. She has a great passion for Clifford Odets’ work — Awake and Sing! was Melia’s childhood, she once told me. Her talent for telling intimate family stories that play out on a broad social canvas makes now the perfect opportunity for her return.” – PETER DUBOIS

Melia Bensussen MELIA BENSUSSEN ON AWAKE AND SING! MELIA BENSUSSEN HAS DIRECTED KIRSTEN GREENIDGE’S LUCK OF THE He is brutally honest about where generosity ends and self-interest IRISH AND CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION AT THE HUNTINGTON. begins: when is that a good thing, and when is that a wildly SHE WILL DIRECT CLIFFORD ODETS’ AWAKE AND SING! THIS FALL. destructive impulse? I am struck by my empathy for these dragon moms — Bessie is a close relation to Amanda Wingfield from The Glass SHE CORRESPONDED WITH DIRECTOR OF NEW WORK LISA TIMMEL Menagerie — mothers who want, they say, what is best for their children ABOUT HER PERSONAL CONNECTION TO THE PLAY AND WHAT THE but on some level are operating out of their own primal panics and PLAY MEANS TO US IN 2014. fears. Their sons — Odets, Williams, and others — see clearly where these woman have led their families to survive, but have also led them Awake and Sing!, like much of Clifford Odets’ work, is steeped in a to destruction. That is a hell of a balance for anyone to try and strike. critique of capitalism, “Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills” is a refrain throughout the play. You bring a personal connection to the What do you think the play has to say to us in 2014? ideals of Jake Berger — would you mind telling me a little about it? I think the play portrays the emotional battlefields that ensue Like Jake, my family was very committed to the visions of the left. when economic pressures overwhelm. How can we love purely and They were socialists and communists, idolizers of Emma Goldman generously when we are in constant danger of losing our homes, our and others. My parents were “red diaper babies,” a phrase that has all savings? How do families today decide about college for their kids, if they but disappeared from our culture, but a term that spoke to a family’s are lucky enough to even have that as an option? Kids find they cannot commitment to Communist (“red”) ideals. Nowadays, does anyone leave their parents’ home for financial reasons, and so the claustrophobia even want to hear the word “communist” anymore? and intensity of the nuclear family continues to exert its pressures. This Odets’ gift for me, personally, in this work is that he places a Jewish against a more and more conservative society — the generations of family at the center of that very familiar struggle. There is a strong this family sound so familiar to me: the grandfather hoping/wishing for connection for me in their tones, their arguments: a fierceness about the next generation to fight for equality and less economic disparity, their existence and their struggle. We forget how marginalized Jews for unions and the rights of the people. I find my son, who at 18 is were in the 30s in this country, how radical it was to hear Yiddish on now trying to fight against our generation’s lack of movement on the Broadway (most of which was excised from the Broadway production environment leads to some similar arguments in my household. and some of which we hope to put back in to our production). Like all of us, these people have huge struggles — the magnification What draws you into the play emotionally? of their battles to stay connected and viable in the world reflects a Like Chekhov and Arthur Miller — I think Miller would not exist piece of what we all must feel at different points in our life as we try without Odets, and Odets would not have written these plays without to be ethical people while protecting each other. “Awake and Sing Chekhov — Odets captures the complexities of intimacy and tension in all ye who dwell in the dust!” It’s a call to action and to waking up in a close-knit family. To find a balance between love, support, and self- the deepest sense of the word — to be sure to be aware of one’s life interest in any nuclear family has always been the stuff of great plays. choices and possible positive impact on the world.

LEARN MORE ONLINE Explore Playbill’s archives featuring items from the original production of Awake and Sing!, read more about the Group Theatre, listen to a story about Odets on his centennial, and more.

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 13 Group Theatre’s world premiere production of Awake and Sing! (1935) Group Theatre’s world premiere production of Clifford Odets’ (1935)

“ [Odets had] an appetite for the broken and run-down, together CRAMPED QUARTERS: with a bursting love for the beauty immanent in people, a burning belief in the day when this beauty would actually shape the external world. These two apparently contradictory impulses kept him in a perpetual boil that to the indifferent eye might look like either a stiff passivity or a hectic fever.” THE EARLY – Harold Clurman, founder of the Group Theatre and director of the original production of Awake and Sing!

In Clifford Odets’ work, one can see etchings of the hardscrabble YEARS OF life that inspired it. Born in Philadelphia in 1906, he spent his earliest years in a cramped apartment in a Jewish ghetto that his parents — recent immigrants named Louis and Pearl — shared with his mother’s sister Esther. His family was strongly religious, but his father was so PLAYWRIGHT keen to assimilate that he denied that his mother’s name in their home country had been Gorodetsky, even though it appeared on her tombstone. In 1912, eager to improve the family’s station, Louis moved the family to the Bronx. CLIFFORD Moving to New York started a string of transfers, each to slightly “grander” tenements. Odets would later write in notes for an unfinished play (named after one of these homes 783 Beck Street) that their constant apartment switching symbolized “the American ODETS and dehumanizing myth of the steadily expanding economy […] Where does America stop? When does it begin to make homes and sink nourishing roots? […] Perhaps follow the rise and fall of the house by the Odets family moving in and then, several years later (now hating the place!) moving away. Oh the waste of it all.”

Clifford’s father Louis worked as a printer, rising to the rank of foreman and then starting his own press. Much to Louis’ disappointment and anger, Clifford was a poor student, often failing multiple subjects and skipping assignments to spend more time at or rehearsing with his amateur theatrical group. At 17, Odets dropped out of school to become an actor, a discipline where he met with mixed success. Clifford Odets Though he found enough work, he was stuck in small parts, stringing

14 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 CURTAIN CALLS NAME Michael Goldsmith ROLE Ralph HOMETOWN Bloomfield Hills, Michigan LAST HUNTINGTON ROLE Matt in Now or Later WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLIFFORD ODETS FILM OR PLAY? Awake and Sing! is so, so brilliant, but I’d probably have to say . All of his work is a pretty

UNITED irresistible combination of gorgeous language and a fierce moral conscience.

ARTISTS DOES THIS PLAY RESONATE WITH YOU IN 2014? The play is about / PHOTOFEST a family struggling to gain (and maintain) a foothold in , a topic I know a little something about as a Brooklyn-based actor.

NAME Will LeBow Barbara Nichols and in the film version of The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) ROLE Jacob HOMETOWN Brooklyn, New York (a second generation Russian/Polish Jew) together a meager existence through the Black Tuesday crash and LAST HUNTINGTON ROLE Carl in Bus Stop the start of the Great Depression. After jobs ranging from Broadway HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? I share understudy to camp counselor, he was invited in 1931 to join in the a lot with Jacob. My parents were liberals/leftys, and they met in founding of director Lee Strasberg’s Group Theatre. 1933 — the year Awake and Sing! takes place.

Frustrated by his slight roles, Odets began to write. Casting about YOUR FAVORITE CLIFFORD ODETS FILM OR PLAY? Awake and Sing! is my favorite. It is the New York City my extended family grew for inspiration, he penned a short story inspired by his surroundings: up in and it deals with the issues they had to navigate. “I was holed up in a cheap hotel, in a kind of fit of depression, and I wrote about a young kid violinist who didn’t have his violin because NAME Annie Purcell the hotel owner had appropriated it for unpaid bills. He looked ROLE Hennie back and remembered his mother and his hard-working sister, and HOMETOWN St. Louis, Missouri although I was not that kid and didn’t have that kind of mother or sister, I did fill the skin and the outline with my own personal feeling, HOW ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? and for the first time I realized what creative writing was.” I’m like Hennie in that I can be tough as well as tender, though Hennie has a real way with words, A natural product of his time spent as an actor, Odets transitioned even more than I do. We both have a lot of pride. Luckily I feel l into plays, and in 1935, premiered four different works back-to-back have a little more happiness and balance in my life, whereas Hennie that would launch his career. First, his famous agit-prop piece Waiting is balancing right on the edge. for Lefty dramatizes the unionization of a group of taxi drivers and DOES THIS PLAY RESONATE WITH YOU IN 2014? Hennie’s story is famously ends on the cry of “Strike! Strike! Strike!” Waiting for Lefty so topical — you can see how her unexpected pregnancy changes subsequently played on a double bill with his play . the course of her life, and in the time that she lived, she was The third play produced was the earliest begun, Awake and Sing!, rendered relatively powerless by this turn of events. Just like Hennie, which Odets had started roughly when he joined the Group Theatre. women are still fighting to be have control of their own reproductive The fourth, , was met with tepid reviews. health and choices, and ultimately, their own destiny.

Odets went on to a prolific career, authoring more than a dozen plays NAME Stephen Schnetzer and six films, including The Sweet Smell of Success. But in those early ROLE Morty years, his personal life was marked by loneliness and a longing for HOMETOWN Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts; the kind of family he saw slipping away from American life. “When Lives in New York, New York I was a boy, the whole promise of American life was contained for me in Christmas cards which showed a warm little house snuggled WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLIFFORD ODETS FILM OR PLAY? Awake and Sing!, of course, is my in a snow scene by night,” Odets wrote. “Often little boys and girls favorite! But I also love Golden Boy. were walking up the path of the door and carrying bundles of good things. This represented protection, a home and hearth, goodness and DOES THIS PLAY RESONATE WITH YOU IN 2014? The play speaks comfort, all things which become increasingly more difficult to attain.” to families struggling economically. There’s not much left of the middle class. The job market is so depressed now that I feel bad for – CHARLES HAUGLAND our young. So many 20-somethings are moving back in with their parents and that can put a strain on everyone. I have two sons, 28 SEE PAGE 23 and 24, and it’s hostile out there. FOR SHOW PERFORMANCE CALENDAR AND EVENT LISTINGS

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 15 “Transforming lives. That’s why we are here — to ensure another year of access to the Huntington’s programs for thousands of young people.”

– MICHAEL MASO

MANAGING DIRECTOR MICHAEL MASO’S WORDS WERE MET WITH THE OPEN HEARTS OF MORE THAN 400 GUESTS AND INCREDIBLE BROADWAY TALENT WHO GATHERED ON APRIL 28 AT THE BOSTON PARK PLAZA CASTLE TO PAY TRIBUTE TO WIMBERLY AWARD RECIPIENTS TRUSTEE JOHN D. SPOONER SPOTL AND TONY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR MARY ZIMMERMAN (THE JUNGLE BOOK AND CANDIDE). THE EVENING RAISED MORE THAN $1 MILLION TO SUPPORT THE HUNTINGTON’S RENOWNED EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS. $1MILL “I was really moved by this,” said Zimmerman as she accepted the Wimberly Award. “I had such glorious experiences here in this town and at the Huntington. I want to thank every human being that’s here. We cannot do it without this kind of support from you.”

“A lot of this is a big surprise to me,” said John Spooner after being serenaded onstage by Lauren Molina and presented with the Wimberly Award. “This proves a lot of things — we can still be surprised, which is what the Huntington does, what theatre does. It can surprise us and make us think.”

The event also included the inaugural presentation of the Gerard and Sherryl Cohen Award, a new recognition of excellence among the Huntington’s staff, to Properties Master Kristine Holmes and Associate Director of Marketing Meredith Mastroianni.

Tony Award nominee André De Shields, Kevin Carolan, Lauren Molina, Geoff Packard, and a chorus of guest artists brought the audience to their feet paying musical tribute to Mary Zimmerman and John Spooner.

Many thanks to Spotlight Spectacular Chair and Trustee Susan B. Kaplan for leading this event over the $1 million mark two years in a row! Huntington Overseer Bryan Rafanelli of Rafanelli Events designed the event, Trustee Neal Balkowitsch’s MAX Ultimate Foods catered, and Trustee John Cini’s High Output provided the lighting and sound. More than 33,000 people participate in the Huntington’s education and community programs each year. To see an inspiring video about PAUL

the Huntington’s programs, visit huntingtontheatre.org/education. MAROTTA

AND

HUNTINGTON

THEATRE

COMPANY

16 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 IGHT SPECTACULAR RAISES OVER ION FOR 2ND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 17 FRED & JANE JAMIESON: “WE’RE WAY

INTO IT!” Jane and Fred Jamieson

FRED AND JANE JAMIESON ARE MAINSTAYS OF THE HUNTINGTON “I am a big fan of the COMMUNITY WHO HAVE SUBSCRIBED SINCE THE LATE 1980S. Huntington’s education THEY FREQUENTLY ATTEND EVENTS AND DINNER AND JOIN OUR OCCASIONAL THEATRE TRIPS. FRED IS A TRUSTEE SERVING ON department and its THE FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES, A MENTOR, AND A BIG ADVOCATE FOR THE HUNTINGTON’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS. programs — what they MOST RECENTLY, THE JAMIESONS JOINS THE HUNTINGTON LEGACY SOCIETY, DOING THEIR PART TO HELP ENSURE THE FUTURE OF THE do for the community HUNTINGTON. DIRECTOR OF MAJOR GIFTS MEG WHITE SPOKE WITH is nothing short of FRED ABOUT HIS COMMITMENT TO THE HUNTINGTON. How were you introduced to the Huntington? A colleague of mine, Tony Hutchins, was always talking the place compelling.” up. He would arrange groups from our work to attend special – FRED JAMIESON evenings at the Huntington. Jane and I went to one, and then another, and in no time at all we were hooked!

How did you become interested in theatre? Jane and I both grew up with theatre in our lives. For me it was a little sporadic, but Jane, who grew up in Southeastern Massachusetts, went to New York to see shows pretty regularly.

WELCOME NEW BOARD OVERSEERS On May 20, the Huntington’s Board of Trustees elected five new members to the Council of Overseers: Deborah Benson, Catherine Creighton, Charles Marz, Daniel Mullin, and Sally Reid. These new members join our longer standing Trustees and Overseers who through their efforts help to sustain the Huntington’s high artistic and operational standards, while building an even stronger organization. We extend our gratitude to the entire Huntington Board community for their commitment to the Huntington.

18 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 Our boys were still in school and living at home, so from the beginning we brought our kids along — we thought it was a great way to have a family night. We were such regulars that one night when the Huntington was short ushers, the staff asked our kids (who were then in their teens) if they would help. The kids were thrilled and still remember it as a fun night.

How did you become a board member? To begin with, it’s a terrific community — board and non-board, it doesn’t matter — we all share a love of theatre and an appreciation T . for the quality of productions that the Huntington creates. Over CHARLES time, Jane and I got to know some of the folks involved with the

Huntington and came to some of the events. It sort of evolved from ERICKSON there. In 2005, I was asked to join the Council of Overseers. It was easy to say yes. David Wilson Barnes in The Power of Duff (2013). You’re known as a strong advocate for the Huntington’s education programs. Why do you think they’re so important? in general, I thoroughly enjoy the Huntington’s productions, there There is no doubt that I am a big fan of the Huntington’s are rare occasions when I don’t and, yet, I still know that I am better education department and its programs — what they do for for having seen it. the community is nothing short of compelling. I love seeing how the students respond in various situations — whether it’s a What inspired you to become founding members of the student matinee, where the kids are so well-prepared that they Huntington’s new Legacy Society? are exemplary audience members, or other programs such as Oh, this was an easy decision and equally easy to put in place. the Poetry Out Loud or August Wilson Monologue Competition Jane and I like the idea of being able to help to assure the future — the quality of these programs, coupled with the skills and of the Huntington — we want to make certain it’s here for our kids talent of the Huntington’s teaching staff, create extraordinary and their kids too. experiences for the student participants. I know the Huntington reached 29,000 kids through their education programs this past What are your favorite Huntington experiences? season. That’s a daunting number, yet my wish is that we could There are many, but a recent one is this past season the Huntington reach even more because I know that these special experiences created some videos for use in the production of The Power of Duff. at the Huntington translate into better lives, better students, They put a call out for “extras” to be in the videos and I signed up. and better citizens. My 20 seconds of fame did not end up on the proverbial cutting room floor but was actually used in the production. Since then, I’ve been What have you learned through your Huntington recognized on the street and at the dog park by Huntington audience experiences? members who remember me from the clip. Amazing. Theatrical productions can make you aware of other people’s points of view and introduce you to topics not previously Any closing thoughts about the Huntington? considered. It can be a character-building experience. While, We’re way into it!

BUILDING A LEGACY OF GREAT THEATRE: HUNTINGTON LEGACY SOCIETY Members of the Huntington Legacy Society play a lasting role If you have already included the Huntington as part of your in securing the Huntington’s strong, successful future beyond will or estate plan, or if you wish to discuss how you can their lifetime by making a bequest or other planned gift. No participate in the Huntington Legacy Society, please contact: amount is too small. Members enjoy benefits and recognition David Dalena, Senior Director of External Relations today for their future gift, including: 617 273 1547 • Acknowledgment in Huntington program books [email protected]

• Invitations to Huntington Legacy Society events

• Private backstage tours upon request

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 19 ANNOUNCING OUR 2014-2015 STUDENT EDUCATION & COMMUNITY MATINEE SEASON! PROGRAMS BY THE NUMBERS STUDENT MATINEE TICKETS ARE JUST $15! Performances start at 10am and are followed by lively 33,000 Actors Forums with members of Students and community members are the cast. Student groups are also served through the Huntington’s nationally welcome at regularly scheduled recognized Department of Education and performances. For more information Community Programs each year and to reserve tickets, please contact Meg O’Brien at 617 273 1558 or [email protected]. Seats fill quickly, reserve today! GUESS WHO’S 3,000 100% Patrons use assistive of Codman Academy COMING TO DINNER listening devices a year graduates have been accepted to college Braille WED., SEPT. 17 100 ETHER DOME students from the Horace Mann School Braille THURS., OCT. 30 for the Deaf and Hard 1ST THURS., NOV. 20 of Hearing attend our student matinee series PLACE and receive theatre Ashley Herbert is the AWAKE AND SING! arts education and 2014 August Wilson transportation, Monologue Competition Braille FRI., NOV. 14 free of cost national champion THE SECOND GIRL THURS., FEB. 12 POETRY OUT LOUD STUDENT PARTICIPATION BY YEAR THE COLORED MUSEUM 2008 7,538 TOP 5 FRI., MAR. 13 Massachusetts’ Poetry Out 2009 8,956 Loud competition ranks THURS., APR. 2 in the top five nationally 2010 12,320 in school, student, and teacher participation COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA 2011 18,788 THURS., APR. 16 2012 20,318 Our online Curriculum Guides are available for use in the classroom 2013 20,900 and include historical information, 2014 24,479 interesting facts about the production, lesson plans, and more. SUPPORT THE HUNTINGTON’S EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS: LEARN MORE ONLINE: Visit Visit huntingtontheatre.org/donate huntingtontheatre.org/studentmatinees

20 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 ASHLEY HERBERT NAMED 2014 AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION NATIONAL CHAMPION! Boston is proud to be the home of the 2014 August Wilson Monologue Competition National Champion, Ashley Herbert! “I saw how it connected with my life. That’s how I put my emotions into the monologue and made it my own,” says Ashley, a student at the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers. In May, Ashley, along with Trinidad Ramkissoon of Boston Day & Evening Academy and Dinia Clairveaux Ashley Herbert performs her monologue of Snowden International School at Copley, traveled to New York City with Manager of Curriculum from Gem of the Ocean and Ashley and Instruction Alexandra Truppi to join with contestants from seven other cities in a weekend of and Denzel Washington at the National Competition in New York City celebration and competition. On the evening of the national finals, Ashley performed a monologue from Gem of the Ocean to win the top prize and more than $3,000 in scholarship money. Denzel Washington, having recently appeared on Broadway in Kenny Leon’s Tony Award-winning production of A Raisin in the Sun, made a surprise appearance at the competition and delivered an inspiring speech to the competitors. The evening also included a special performance from the Tupac Shakur Broadway musical Holler if Ya Hear Me, directed by Kenny Leon.

This season marks the fifth year the Huntington will be facilitating the August Wilson Monologue Competition for Boston, which is also held regionally in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Seattle. The Boston regional finals, which are free and open to the public, will be held on the evening of Monday, February 2, 2015. The regional finals will be the culmination of the Huntington’s 8-10 week residency in eleven Boston high schools.

Visit huntingtontheatre.org/education to learn more or contact Donna Glick, Director of Education and Community Programs, at [email protected] or 617 273 1548 for more information on how your students can participate in 2015.

Funded in part by the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative at EdVestors.

POETRY OUT LOUD CELEBRATES 10 YEARS! 2014 Massachusetts State Champion Courtney Stewart (Springfield Central High School) returned to Washington, DC to compete at nationals for the second year in a row where he gave moving recitations of “Monet Refuses the Operation” and “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night” that earned him a spot in the top eight of his region (a step further than he advanced last year). Though he did not advance to the national finals, Courtney is an admired member of our community, and we are all very proud of his continued success.

Last year, Poetry Out Loud continued to see an increase in participation across Massachusetts, with 24,479 students participating from 85 schools. The Huntington’s Education Department has facilitated DAVID Poetry Out Loud since the program’s inception, and in 2014 the state ranks 4th in the nation for total

MARSHALL State champion Courtney Stewart at number of schools participating, 3rd for number of students, and 3rd for total number of teachers the Massachusetts Poetry Out Loud participating. The program, run nationally by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Competition. Foundation, saw more than 375,000 students participate from more than 2,400 schools nationwide.

This fall marks the beginning of the 10th annual Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest and registration is now open. This free program is open to all high schools (grades 9-12) in Massachusetts. Please visit huntingtontheatre.org/pol for more information and to register your school today. Contact Donna Glick, Director of Education, with any questions at [email protected] or 617 273 1548.

Supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Brookline Bank.

HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 21 HUNTINGTON NEWS WELCOME THE NEW HPF CLASS The Huntington recently announced the 2014-2016 cohort of Huntington Playwriting Fellows: Mia Chung, John J King, Sam Marks, and Nina Louise Morrison. While in residence at the theatre for two years, these artists will participate in a writers’ collective with the Huntington’s artistic staff, are eligible for readings and workshops, and receive a modest grant. They follow in the footsteps of Lydia R. Diamond (Smart People and Stick Fly), Melinda Lopez (Becoming Cuba and Sonia Flew), Ronan Noone (The Atheist, Brendan, and this season’s The Second Girl), Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro (Before I Leave You), Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish), Ryan Landry (Ryan Landry’s “M”), and others.

Mia Chung is the author of You for Sam Marks’ play The Delling Shore Me for You, This Exquisite Corpse, had a world premiere at the Skin in the Game (an adaptation of 2013 Humana Festival. Other The Orphan of Zhao), Long Island productions include The Old Masters Arpeggio, and We Spend Our Lives. (Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory You for Me for You received its of New Work), The Joke (Studio world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Dante), Brack’s Last Bachelor Party Theatre and Boston premiere at (59E59 Theaters), and Nelson Company One Theatre. Her work and Bigger Man (Partial Comfort has been developed by the Bay Area Productions). His plays have been Playwrights Festival, The Civilians’ workshopped and read at the Atlantic R&D Group, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Hedgebrook, Icicle Creek Theater Company, Theatre Club, MCC, New York Theater Festival, Inkwell Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage, The Public Theater/ Performing Arts, Labyrinth Theater Company, Magic Theatre, NYSF, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Page Salon, Playwrights Realm, and the Stella Adler Studio of Sundance Institute Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, and many others. Acting. She received her BA from Yale, her Masters in Philosophy He is currently developing a project at HBO produced by Steve from the University of Dublin/Trinity College, and her MFA Buscemi and Stanley Tucci. Mr. Marks is the Briggs-Copeland from Brown. Lecturer of playwriting in Harvard’s English department.

John J King is part Texan and part Nina Louise Morrison is a playwright, Tyrannosaur. He lives in Boston where director, and actor. She was a he makes plays/art/music, and scares semi-finalist for the 2014 National little children who thought dinosaurs Playwrights Conference and is the were dead. He has a Bachelor of Arts recipient of a Richard Rodgers from SUNY Boondocks and an accent Fellowship and a Shubert Foundation from his mama. His plays include grant. Her plays have been read and From Denmark with Love (IRNE produced by the One-Minute Play Award nomination for Best New Festival, Company One Theatre, Fresh Play), Bear Patrol, and an adapted Ink Theatre, Wax Wings Productions, libretto for the German Gothic opera Bostonia Bohemia, and Interim Der Vampyr. His work has been produced locally by Vaquero Writers. She is a member of Project: Project and Accomplice Playground, Mill 6 Collaborative, New Exhibition Room, and Writers. She studied acting at the National Theatre Institute at Whistler in the Dark. Goals include recording a great dance tune, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, New Actors Workshop, and making impossible things from cardboard, and singing in a girl Oberlin College. She currently teaches at the University of New group. J-RexPlays.com Hampshire, Mount Ida College, and GrubStreet. She received her MFA from Columbia University.

This program is supported by the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays and the Harry Kondoleon Playwriting Fund, with special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

22 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 PERFORMANCE CALENDARS SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2014

GUESS WHO’S CALENDAR KEY

COMING TO DINNER Braille (o) 35 BELOW WRAP PARTY A special evening for young S M T W T F S professionals aged 21 - 35 complete with a post-show party. Visit huntingtontheatre.org/35below for more information. 5 6 AVENUE OF THE ARTS / BU THEATRE ••f8PM •f8PM (@) ASL-INTERPRETED For Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience 7 8 9101112 13 •2PM members. Call 617 273 1558 for more information. •f7PM •f7:30PM *7PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 •2PM ~@ds10AM •2PM (~) AUDIO-DESCRIBED For blind and low-visioned audience 7PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM members. Call 617 273 1558 for more information. ROSH 21 22 23 24HASHANAH 25 26 27 •2PM ~•2PM h2PM •7:30PM •7:30PM d7:30PM @c•8PM 8PM (d) ACTORS FORUM Participating members of the cast answer YOM KIPPUR your questions following the performance. 28 29 30 1234d2PM •2PM •2PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM 5 (c) COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP A special reception for members 2PM of our Community Membership program. 7PM SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2014 (f) FIRST LOOK

ETHER DOME Braille (h) HUMANITIES FORUM A post-performance talk on the historical and literary context of the show featuring a leading S M T W T F S local scholar. 17 18 SOUTH END / CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA •8PM •8PM (•) POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS Dynamic post-show 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 conversations with fellow audience members and Huntington staff •2PM held after most every performance (except select Saturday and •f7PM •f7:30PM *7PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM Sunday evenings). 26 •2PM 27 28 29•2PM 30~ds10AM 31 1 •2PM c7PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM (*) PRESS OPENING NIGHT 2 3 45678~•2PM h2PM •7:30PM •7:30PM d7:30PM •8PM 8PM s For groups of students in grades 6-12. VETERAN’S ( ) STUDENT MATINEE 9 •2PM 10 11DAY 12d2PM 13 14 15 •2PM Call 617 273 1558 for more information. 7PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM

16 17 18 19 20ds10AM 21 22 2PM 2PM 7:30PM 7:30PM 7:30PM •8PM 8PM 23 TICKETS 2PM OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2014 PRICES Start at $25

35 BELOW $25 for those 35 and under at every performance AWAKE AND SING! Braille S M T W T F S STUDENTS (25 AND UNDER) & MILITARY $15 7 8 GROUPS (10+) Discounts are available for Groups of 10 or more, plus AVENUE OF THE ARTS / BU THEATRE •f8PM •f8PM groups have access to backstage tours, talks with artists, and space for receptions. Contact 617 273 1525 or [email protected]. 9 10 11 12 13 14 ~ds10AM 15 •2PM •f7PM •f7:30PM *7PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM Receive $10 off any additional tickets purchased. 16 17 18 19•2PM 20 21 22 ~•2PM SUBSCRIBERS •2PM •7:30PM •7:30PM d7:30PM ••8PM8PM 8PM Prices include a $3 per ticket Capital Enhancement fee. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2PM THANKSGIVING • h2PM •7:30PM •7:30PM DAY ••8PM8PM 8PM

30 •2PM 1 2345d2PM 6 •2PM 7PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •7:30PM •8PM 8PM HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 7 2PM NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014 617 266 0800 HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 23 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID BOSTON, MA PERMIT # 52499 MAIN BOX OFFICE

THEATRE MICHAEL MASO 264 HUNTINGTONBOSTON,617 266MA617 AVENUE02115-46067900 266 0800huntingtontheatre.org MANAGING DIRECTOR HUNTINGTON AVENUE OF THE ARTS COMPANY& SOUTH END IN RESIDENCE AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY PETER DUBOIS NORMA JEAN CALDERWOOD ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

UPCOMING EVENTS STAGE & SCREEN AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE Stage & Screen is a collaboration between the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Huntington that explores the depictions of shared themes in Huntington INSIDERS EVENTS productions and acclaimed films. The fall lineup includes: Join us for post-show talkbacks featuring JUNGLE FEVER guests from The Boston Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 AT 7PM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 AT 7:30PM Spike Lee explores interracial relationships against the urban The Boston Globe’s Culture Desk reporter backdrop of New York City in the 1990s. Starring Wesley Snipes, James Burnett will host a post-show talkback Annabella Sciorra, and Samuel L. Jackson. Join us for a conversation with members from the Guess Who’s Coming after the film with WGBH investigative reporter Phillip Martin and to Dinner, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Todd Kreidler, adapter of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Meredith Forlenza.

THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 AT 7:30PM MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17 AT 7PM The Boston Globe Ideas Editor Stephen Clifford Odets wrote the screenplay for this 1957 award-winning Heuser will lead a post-show talkback after film about J.J. Hunsecker, a powerful newspaper columnist. the evening performance of Ether Dome. Join us for a conversation after the film with Awake and Sing! director Melia Bensussen. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18 AT 7:30PM The Boston Globe’s theatre critic Don Save the Dates for the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Huntington 2015 Aucoin lead a post-show talkback following events: January 5 & March 9. Tickets are $11 ($8 for Huntington subscribers) the evening performance. and may be purchased online at coolidge.org or at the Coolidge box office, located at 290 Harvard Street, Brookline.