STUDY GUIDE IntroductionTABLE OF CONTENTSPg. 3 Pg. 4 Top Ten Things to Know About Going to the Theatre Cast and Creative Team Credits Pg. 5 Stout, Wolfe and Goodwin Pg. 6 Inside Vertigo Theatre- An Interview with Joseph Goodrich Pg. 8 Pre-Show Projects and Discussion Questions Pg. 10 Dynamic Duos 1950's Manhattan Food! Your Burning Questions Pre-Show Activities- To Get You Up On Your Feet Pg. 15 The Perfect Team Spotting a Liar Post Show Discussion Questions Pg. 20 The Art of The Theatre Review Pg. 21 About Vertigo Theatre Pg.22 Vertigo Theatre is committed to creating a welcoming atmosphere for schools and to assisting teachers and parent chaperones with that process. It is our wish to foster and develop our relationship with our student audience members. It is our intention to create positive theatre experiences for young people by providing study guides and post-show talk backs with our actors and theatre personnel, in order to enrich students’ appreciation of theatre as an art form and enhance their enjoyment of our plays. IntroductionWelcome to the Study Guide for Vertigo Theatre’s production of Might As Well Be Dead adapted by Joseph Goodrich, from the novel by Rex Stout. In this guide, you will find information about Rex Stout and his creations, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. It also includes information about the creative team and performers involved in the production, as well as a variety of activities to do with your class before and after the show. There are topics suitable for class discussion, individual writing projects, as well as games and exercises that get students moving around and learning on their feet. For this production, you’ll find activities that will get students thinking about famous literary partnerships, and learning how to work together as a team. We are also featuring an interview with playwright Joseph Goodrich, who has adapted Rex Stout’s novel for the stage Sometimes your students might read an unusual word or term and feel some vertigo, so we’ve got handy-dandy blood spatters that provide definitions or point to topics of interest. Like this: Vertigo is a medical condition. One of the symptoms is the sensation of movement in a sufferer who is not moving. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. Vertigo is the most common type of dizziness. PG. 3 Top 10 Things to Know about BecauseGoing some of you mayto be frst-time the theatre attendeesTheatre (and some of you more experienced theatregoers may need a little reminder), we’ve compiled a Top 10 list of some of New York Show Tickets Do’s and Don’ts of Broadway Teatre Etiquette as well as a few of our own: 1. Power Down Turn off your cell phone, people. Turn. It. Off. And, no, putting your cell phone on vibrate isn’t good enough - the people next to you can hear that weird buzzing sound, too. Besides which, the use of cameras and recording devices in the theatre is strictly prohibited. 2. Don’t Send Text Messages During the Show You may think you’re being all incognito, but in a darkened theatre, the light from your cell phone screen is incredibly distracting to those around you. And why do you still have your phone on anyway? We just told you to turn it off! 3. Eat Your Lunch Before the Show, NOT during it This isn’t the movies. Eating, drinking or chewing gum is not permitted in the theatre. There is a water fountain out in the lobby for your use during the intermission. 4. Unwrap Cough Drops and Candies in Advance If you anticipate any coughing fits during the show, be sure to unwrap your lozenges before the performance starts and have them at the ready. That crinkling sound is like nails on a chalkboard during a quiet play. And, no, unwrapping it S-L-O-W-L-Y does not help the situation ... it’s much, much worse. 5. Pre-Show When the houselights go down at the beginning of the play, this lets you know that we’re starting. It is at this moment that the actors and technical staff do their final preparation for the opening moment, so please let them do their work by being quiet and respectful. 6. Don’t Be A Disruptive Miss Manners Sure, it’s irritating when someone’s cell phone goes off, but what’s even worse is when it’s followed by a series of annoyed “Tsks,” and“Hmphs”. Hisses, snarls, and shouts of “turn it off!” can be just as distracting as the original disruption. 7. Zip Those Lips A quick whisper to your neighbour, or an audible reaction to something interesting that happens on stage is fine (this is live theatre, not the morgue), but keep conversations to intermission and after the show. 8. Stay put, watch and enjoy the play. If you absolutely must use the washroom during the performance, please exit the theatre quickly and quietly. You will be readmitted to the theatre at the discretion of the House Manager. 9. You’re not in your Living Room Please do not stand up, walk around or put your feet on the seat or stage in front of you. Everyone around you, including the actors, will appreciate it. 10. Enjoy Yourself! Come to the theatre to get swept away into another world. Be sure to thank all of the artists for their hard work by applauding during the curtain call. PG. 4 CAST AND CREW CREDITS The Cast STAFFORD PERRY Archie Goodwin GRANT LINNEBERG Nero Wolfe KAREN JOHNSON- DIAMOND Mrs. Herold/Franny Irwin DAVID LEREANY Inspector Cramer/Breyer ALEX CHEROVSKY Peter Hays/Ralph Arkoff SARAH WHEELDON Suki Molloy/Dol Bonner ANDY CURTIS Tom Irwin/Fritz ARIELLE ROMBOUGH Rita Arkoff/Delia Brandt DEVON DUBNYK Pat Degan/ Johnny Keems Creative Team HAYSAM KADRI Director NARDA MCCARROLL Set and Lighting Designer APRIL VICZKO Costume Designer ANDREW BLIZZARD Sound Design and Original Composition KARL SINE Fight Director LAUREN THOMPSON Choreographer KRISTIN JONES Assistant Costume Designer JOHANNE DELEEUW Stage Manager CATHERINE ROULEAU Assistant Stage Manager MILLIE WINZINOWICH Apprentice Stage Manager JANE MACFARLANE Voice and Dialect Consultant The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any PG. 5 means whatsoever is strictly prohibited STOUT, WOLFE and GOODWIN REX STOUT Like many writers from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Rex Stout (1886-1975) got his start writing for the pulp magazines that were popular in the early 1900s. Starting in the 1910s, he dabbled in poetry, romance, science fiction, adventure, and murder mystery. Golden Age of Detective Fiction - a rough period ranging from the 1920s to the 1930s, when a host of crime fiction writers produced work that defined many of the conventions of the modern crime story. However, unlike many of his contemporaries, he gave up writing for over a decade, while he pursued other lines of work. This included the invention a school banking system, which earned him a significant income, allowing him to travel extensively across Europe with his wife, Fay Kennedy. PG. 6 He took up writing again in the 1930's and eventually published the first novel in his Nero Wolfe series, Fer-de-Lance, in 1935. The series would carry on for a staggering 40 years, with Stout writing 33 novels and 41 novellas and short stories. The Wolfe stories were adapted for film, radio, and television, but not for stage until 2009 (an Italian production of Christmas Party). In 2014, American playwright Joseph Goodrich adapted The Red Box for the stage. Following on the success of that production, he adapted Might As Well Be Dead in 2017. The Nero Wolfe Series The Nero Wolfe Series was popularly and critically successful, and is also considered a landmark in detective fiction. Critic Frederick Isaac said: Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance, then, may be said to have heralded the beginning of several eras. It was, first and foremost, the opening of one of America's best detective series, introducing Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and their world to generations of readers. Second, Archie's presence raises serious questions about the possible roles that the detective's assistant could and should play in the investigative process, some of which remain open even today... Third, Wolfe and Archie began to redefine the relationship between the two traditions of the Great Detective and the hard- boiled sleuth ... By identifying both of these strands and personifying them in Wolfe and Archie, Stout challenged the world of detection to analyze itself. The genre has never been the same since. Like Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe has an assistant without whom he would be in trouble. Wolfe’s Watson is Archie Goodwin, a man who is in many ways Wolfe’s opposite. But in their working relationship they complete one another. As with Holmes and Watson, Wolfe and Goodwin have some interesting traits and eccentricities. PG. 7 Wolfe, a private investigator, is a large man, described by Goodwin as weighing a “seventh of a ton”. His interests range from fine dining to literature to raising orchids. Perhaps Wolfe’s key trait, though, is that he never leaves his book-filled Manhattan home . Wolfe is often described as an armchair detective, in that he does his detective work at home—in his own mind— and nowhere near a crime scene. Goodwin is Wolfe’s live-in assistant. He’s street-smart, a good talker, and a man of action. He ventures out into the world to collect evidence, talk to suspects, and engage in derring- do that Wolfe wants no part in.