Masquers Playhouse Guest Director Application Form (please fill out this form entirely) Name: Peter Budinger & DC Scarpelli Date: April 2010 Address: 49-B Randwick Avenue City, Zip Oakland, CA 94611 Phone: 510.717.3768 E-mail: [email protected] Which time slot would you prefer for your production? X January X March X July September November No preference Please list the most recent shows you have directed: Name Place Date Where The Sun Don’t Shine (Budinger/Scarpelli) Exit Theater, SF (Fringe Festival) Sept 2006 The Pillowman (McDonagh—staged reading) Martin Macks, SF Sept 2004 Hors D’Œuvres (Coward, Budinger/Scarpelli) Toland Hall, SF Dec 2000 It Came From Beneath the Kilt!!! (Bud./Scar.) Exit Theater, SF (Fringe Festival) Sept 2000 ‘Dentity Crisis (Durang) Jewel Theatre, SF Sept 1998 Proposed Production #1 Title: The Marriage of Bette and Boo Author/Composer(s): Christopher Durang Genre: X Comedy X Drama Musical Thriller Other: Casting: No. of men: 5 No. o f wome n : 5 No. of children : 0 Age range: 25–70 Age r ange: 25–70 Age range: Period: Contemporary/Present Day (with a feel of the 1950s–1980s)1 Please describe any special technical requirements: None (Please see the attached design notes for more information). Describe why you want to bring this show to the Masquers: Please see the attached proposal notes. Page 1 April 2010 Dear TAS: Well, here we are again! And you find in front of you, once again, a proposal from us for Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette and Boo, a touching, personal, cruel and hilarious play with which we have been in love with since we were college kids. It is an exceptionally good fit for this Playhouse — its space, its resources (both physical and in terms of acting pool) and its audience. Following this cover sheet you will find: H An introduction to the play and its history, and—more specifically— our connection to and ideas about the play. H A casting breakdown by character age and type. H Ideas on staging and design. These proposal pages will be followed by the playscript. We thank you very much once again for your consideration of our pro- duction of The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Sincerely, Peter & DC PS: For your convenience, please note that this is an interactive PDF. You can navi- gate around it using the Bookmarks feature in Adobe Reader. BUDINGER & SCARPELLI BUDINGER director’s proposal | masquers playhouse 2011 season | page 1 PROPOSAL We have been great admirers of Christopher Durang since we were teenagers. He was a major reason that we started writing plays ourselves. At Yale, where we both gradu- ated with an emphasis in playwrighting, we were both lucky enough to find ourselves in small playwriting seminars where he was a guest lecturer. And since Yale is his alma mater — the place where he began eking out his absurd concoctions — the connection to, affection for and understanding of his work was always palpable. Durang has one of the most unique comic voices in contemporary theater, and it is generally agreed that The Marriage of Bette and Boo is his most signifi- cant work to date. It also happens to be his most autobiographical play, so that’s prob- ably not a coincidence. Bette and Boo retains the wildly dark humor of his other plays, but also possesses a quieter, sadder side. Those two elements work beautifully together to create a funny, chaotic, maddening and moving evening of theater. We feel the play is an excellent fit for the Masquers. Though it is a comedy with a large cast, it is a strong ensemble piece — there are no functional, under- written or thankless characters. No one waits in the wings for a walk-on. Each role in the play is carefully crafted and written with great affection and with rich interconnected- ness to the others on stage. Every role has great emotional and comic moments to seize. Because the work is semi-autobiographical, Durang knew these people, or versions of them, and created each of them with a fondness that audiences respond to. There are no children in the play and none of the characters are younger than 25 years old. In fact, most of the parts are for actors over 40. The Marriage of Bette and Boo, ultimately, is about family. It chronicles the joys and the perils of family life, what you embrace and what you endure as a mem- ber of a family. For that reason alone, the play resonates with audiences in a very per- sonal and meaningful way. Families are full of people you love and would defend to the death. And those are the same people you’d willingly strangle to death with your own hands. The Masquers is like that too: a Marriage made in heaven. BETTE BETTE AND BOO director’s proposal: bette & boo | masquers playhouse 2011 season | page 2 CASTING BREAKDOWN characters the brennan family bette (female, 20s–30s) Bright and vivacious, a “winner.” Someone for whom everything should go right. margaret (female, 40s–60s) Bette’s mother, a Queen Bee who’s preoccupied by appearances. paul (male, 50s–60s) Bette’s father. A sweet man who has been rendered unintelligible by a stroke. joan (female, 30s–40s) Bette’s sister. Life has been hard for her, and she’s rather bitter and put-upon. emily (female, 30s–40s) Bette’s other sister: a sweet and spiritual soul, but hopelessly inept and eternally apologetic. the hudlocke family boo (male, 30s–40s) A sweet and gentle man who is completely disengaged from his emotions. karl (male, 50s–60s) Boo’s father. Karl is more or less a bastard: acidic and unaware that Other People are anything but an annoyance. soot (female, 40s–60s) Boo’s mother. Soot is the polar opposite of Karl. She’s simple and endearing, and in her adoration of Karl has more or less divorced herself from reality. fr. donnally (male, 40s–60s) The family priest. An affable man and a comic character, extremely comfortable in his own authority. (Also appears as the family doctor) matt (male, 20s–early 30s) Bette and Boo’s only surviving child, Matt is introspective, extremely self-analytical, and the outside observer of his own family. BETTE BETTE AND BOO director’s proposal: bette & boo | masquers playhouse 2011 season | page 3 HISTORY & DESIGN relevant production history 1985 Public Theatre, New York, NY 1998 American Repertory Theatre (ART), Boston, MA 2008 Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels, New York, NY Christopher Durang introduces the opening tableau with the original 1985 New York cast of Bette and Boo, including Joan Allen, Olympia Dukakis, Bill McCutcheon and Mercedes Ruehl. design Our design æsthetic is minimal for reasons of economy and our desire for swift, seamless transi- tions. Bette and Boo is a memory play. It takes place in a series of small scenes, which, when taken as a whole, form a story mosaic. Because the piece is narrated, there’s no need for natural- istic setting or period, and the entire production can be performed on an abstract set of modular pieces, defined by inventive lighting and the occasional piece of furniture. The spare aesthetic is like that of The Apple Tree, except that the designer now has a much better feel for what he’s working with in terms of resources, and is much better equipped to handle what is to come... One idea is for the set to be made up of modular pieces (forming tables, chairs, etc.), those modular pieces could start the play stacked up upstage in the vague form of a wed- ding cake, allowing Bette, Boo, and their families to begin the play as literal ornaments at their own wedding, with their respective families completing the tableau. As the play goes on, the “wedding cake” is dismantled more and more, finally coming back together for the final scene. About costumes: The play takes place between the ‘50s and the ‘80s. It begins with a wedding, and it is common for the characters to wear their wedding attire through the en- tire show, with only minimal changes throughout to suggest passage of time and circumstance. BETTE BETTE AND BOO director’s proposal: bette & boo | masquers playhouse 2011 season | page 4 PLAYSCRIPT THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO by christopher durang peter budinger & dc scarpelli director’s proposal: the pillowman | masquers playhouse 2010 season 1 ACT ONE SCENE 1 All the characters, in various wedding apparel, stand together to sing: the Brennan family, the Hudlocke family. Matthew stands apart from them. ALL (sing) God bless Bette and Boo and Skippy, Emily and Boo, Margaret, Matt, and Betsy Booey, Mommy, Tommy too, Betty Betsy Booey Boozey, Soot, Karl, Matt, and Paul, Margaret Booey, Joanie Phooey, God bless us one and all. The characters now call out to one another. BETTE Booey? Booey? Skippy? BOO Pop? MARGARET Emily, dear? BETTE Booey? BOO Bette? KARL Is that Bore? SOOT Karl? Are you there? JOAN Nikkos! BETTE Skippy! Skippy! EMILY Are you all right, Mom? 2 BETTE Booey, I'm calling you! MARGARET Paul? Where are you? JOAN Nikkos! BOO Bette? Betsy? BETTE Boo? Boo? Flash of light on the characters, as if their picture is being taken. Lights off the Brennans and Hudlockes. Light on Matt, late twenties or so. He speaks to the audience. MATT If one looks hard enough, one can usually see the order that lies beneath the surface. Just as dreams must be put in order and perspective in order to understand them, so must the endless details of waking life be ordered and then carefully considered.