Brigham Young University · Department of Theatre and Media Arts Holiday Written by Philip Barry Directed by Barta Lee Heiner Nov. 7–17; Nov. 27–Dec. 1, 2012 Pardoe Theatre Harris Fine Arts Center Holiday Director’s Note Cast Scenes For the love of money is the root of all evil… Linda Seton ............................ Becca Ingram New York, during the late 1920s Original play by Johnny Case. Magarin Hobson Philip Barry Many years ago I was performing in the musical Quilters Julia Seton .............................. Mallory Gee Act 1: The Drawing Room Produced by that toured thirteen states throughout the west and mid- Ned Seton ............................... Eric Gourly special arrangement with Scene 1 Johnny arrives Samuel French, Inc. west. One of the things I enjoyed most, besides meeting Edward Seton ......................... Alexander Trop Scene 2 Meeting the family New York City. the people in each area, was visiting the antique shops. Susan Potter ........................ Taylor Warburton Nick Potter ............................... Andrew Joy Scene 3 The talk In Montana, I was able to find an antique crazy quilt Laura Cram ........................... Sarah-Lucy Hill Cast and 3 Scene 4 The Crams arrive Seton Cram .............................. Billy Hagee Production Staff that was created from beautiful silks and different patterns of needlework. A few of the pieces of silk had Delia ................................. Michael Comp Henry ............................... Jordon Nicholes Act 2: The Playroom Director’s Note 4 started to decay. I was told that it was because certain silks in that time period had been dipped in metallic Scene 1 Looking for Linda Study Guide 5 salts. These salts gave the material a beautiful sheen Scene 2 The party and more structured shape, but through time led to its Production Staff Scene 3 Disruption Meet the 13 disintegration. Director ................................ Barta Heiner Scene 4 Ringing in the Company Stage Manager ........................ Heather Bosen New Year And so, in a way, it is with the Seton family in Holiday. Assistant Stage Managers ............ Makinsey Eakman Production Staff 14 The family’s beneficent founder, Grandfather Seton, Jennifer Chandler Props Designer ............................ Lara Cobb Act 3: The Drawing Room started from grass roots and built a financial empire; but Set Dressing .............................. Lara Cobb Scene 1 Where is Johnny? Donors 16 through time his children’s focus changed from home Set Designer ........................ Carter Thompson Scene 2 Problems and entrepreneurship to the love and accumulation of Lighting Designer ................. Brianna Stephenson Assistant Lighting Designer ................ Josh Fawcett wealth. In doing so, the third generation of the family has Scene 3 Johnny returns Co-Costume Designer ................. Jocelyn Chatman started to disintegrate. Will the grandchildren be able Co-Costume Designer .................. Mallory Mackay Scene 4 Off on a holiday to break free from the chains of wealth that has been Assistant Costume Designer. Ivory Smith Co-Makeup Designer ................. Allyson Thanxton misused? Co-Makeup Designer ..................... Holly Garner Only time will tell. Sound Designer .................. Michelle Ohumukini Barta Heiner, director Dramaturg ............................. Bianca Dillard Holiday 3 Meet the Company Holiday Study Guide Bianca Morrison Dillard, dramaturg Michael Comp From New York City, NY. Freshman in theatre arts studies. Delia Recent credits include placing third in the New York Shakespeare Competition. This is Michael’s first role in a BYU production. Mallory Gee From Elk Grove, CA. Senior in theatre arts studies. Recent Julia Seton credit include Becca in Rabbit Hole. She is currently filming in the Pick Your Own Adventure web series. Eric Gourley From Las Vegas, NV. Senior in acting. Recent credits Ned Seton include The Elephant Man, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Billy Hagee From Mckinney, TX. Freshman in the music dance theatre. Seton Cram Recent credits at BYU include Philips in Casey at the Bat. This is Billy’s second role at BYU. Magarin Hobson From Grantsville, UT. Senior in acting. Recent credits at BYU Johnny Case include Armado in Love’s Labor’s Lost, Lord John in The Elephant Man, and Keith in Stage Door. He also played Lachie in The Hasty Heart last summer at the Hale Centre Theatre in Philip Barry: Playwright 6 West Valley. Consumer Culture 8 From American Fork, UT. A graduating senior in acting. Recent Becca Ingram Prohibition 10 Linda Seton credits at BYU include Beth in Merrily We Roll Along and title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She recently received the National Classical Acting Award at the American College Dramaturg’s Note 11 Theater Festival in Washington, D.C. Bibliography 12 Andrew Joy From Clinton, UT. Senior in acting with a minor in sociology. Nick Potter BYU credits include Mike in White Christmas; title role in Babe, the Sheep Pig; Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet; and bridegroom in Blood Wedding. He also produced Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along last year at BYU. Learn More at The 4th WALL! Jordan Nicholes From Fort Worth, TX. Freshman at BYU studying acting. Henry Recent credits include Mr. Smith in The Bald Soprano at The 4th WALL is dedicated to providing insider access to the BYU’s Mask Club, and Christopher Columbus in Mariner at theatrical productions at Brigham Young University. Whether San Antonio College. it is insights from the rehearsal room, interesting historical information, interviews with the production team or more, the BYU dramaturgs are working to break down that 4th WALL. Cast bio, con’t. p. 13 >>4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu 4 Department of Theatre and Media Arts Holiday 5 The future looked bright, and Barry would prove to be a Philip Barry: success. He was a prolific playwright with a career spanning nearly 30 years (1921–1949). He wrote and had 24 plays Playwright produced professionally—nearly one play a year. In fact, Philip Barry was born and raised in New York by a family of the play he wrote the year he died was finished and Irish Catholic immigrants who owned a successful marble produced two years after his death. and tile business. His family may not have been considered rich, but by all accounts they did well financially. With Barry’s success as a Broadway playwright he and his family did quite well financially—the fact that Ellen’s father was not only wealthy but generous certainly didn’t Always a Writer hurt their situation. They led a comfortable life with multiple homes. They owned a villa (a gift from Ellen’s Barry’s was first published in 1905, when he was not quite nine father) in Cannes, France, and they would generally years old. His short story, “Tab the Cat,” debuted in The Junior spend five months of every year there. Many of Barry’s Express magazine (the children’s supplement to a national plays were written here. The rest of the year was spent in magazine). He went on to write his first play at the age of 13. He one of their New York homes or in an apartment in New York City proper (when one of his plays graduated from Yale in 1922. was being produced). His wife, Ellen, and their two sons would generally travel together as Writing was his only real ambition. He would turn down the they migrated from home to home during the year. opportunity to work with his brothers and eventually take over the family business, ensuring a steady income, to attend Yale University and pursue a career in writing. He also turned down a well-paying and promising career as a copywriter for a marketing company to continue writing plays. Holiday Original Production Barry largely wrote to and about the upper Marriage and Money class. His message was this: “What the world needs is more leisure ’n’ fewer alarm- Barry met Ellen Semple, daughter of wealthy clocks—less do-as-you’re told ’n’ more do-as- lawyer Lorenzo Semple in 1921.Though their you-please.” future was uncertain, the young couple married in July 1922. • Originally titled “I don’t suppose anyone would believe it if The Dollar. you put it into a play, but this is the way it • Opened at the Plymouth Theatre November 26, 1928. began. I had written a play, taken a wife, and • Barry’s eighth Broadway play. gone to Europe on a wonderful holiday, not • Loved by audiences and critics alike. counting the cost, not worrying about the • 229 performances in eight weeks; grossing $539,000 ($7,200,000 today). future. I had no idea what we were going to • Ranked one of the ten best plays of 1928–1929. do when we got back to NY, but everything worked out. The day before we landed, there • Movie rights were purchased for $35,000 ($470,000 today). was a cable under the door with the good • Barry often built his stories around a strong female actress. He wrote the play to star news. The play had been optioned by Richard Hope Williams, with Katharine Hepburn as her understudy. Hepburn would later star in Herndon. We were on our way!” Philip Barry the 1938 film version ofHoliday . (P.B. 36) 6 Department of Theatre and Media Arts Holiday 7 Culminating in Heightened Pressure to Get Rich Second Industrial Revolution: Quick While most Americans were making more money than they had in the Rise of Consumer Culture previous decades, most of them didn’t have quite enough to keep up with the glamorous lifestyle they were seeing in movies and magazines. Suddenly, the income that had been sufficient for their needs no longer proved enough to keep up with their wants. People began to invest heavily in stocks, which created a boom in the market Model-Ts weren’t the only thing being and drove profits up. So, while people were making money in the manufactured on an assembly line. Things stock market for a time, it would later prove only to be creating an like radios, vacuum cleaners, irons, Consumer Culture unsustainable market “bubble.” For the first time, people had access to payment plans and credit lines that allowed them to own things refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and toasters With more money to buy they hadn’t yet paid for.