STAGE NOTES prepared by Bridget Grace Sheaff Mistakes Were Made by Craig Wright Glossary for Mistakes Were Made……………………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Shakespeare Kings………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 What it Takes to Produce……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Principal Dates and Time Line of the French Revolution…………………………………………………………. 14 About The Play……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 About The Playwright…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 19 Page | 2 Glossary for Mistakes Were Made PLACE Bastille (22) A fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint- Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789 in the French Revolution, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement, and was later demolished and replaced by the Place de la Bastille. Fertile Crescent (13) The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, and the Nile Valley and Nile Delta of northeast Africa. University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted popularized the term. Having originated in the study of ancient history, the concept soon developed and today retains meanings in international geopolitics and diplomatic relations. Los Alamos (39) Los Alamos National Laboratory (or LANL; previously known at various times as Project Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is one of two laboratories in the United States where classified work towards the design of nuclear weapons is undertaken. The other, since 1952, is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. LANL is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security (LANS), located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing. Felix sarcastically asks Esther to call Los Alamos when he thinks the world is acting backwards. New Brunswick (7) A city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is the county seat of Middlesex, and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, 27 miles southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. Page | 3 Russian Tea Room (32) The Russian Tea Room is a Russo-Continental restaurant, located at 150 West 57th Street (between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue), between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower, in Manhattan in New York City. Vienna Woods (31) The Vienna Woods are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. West Village (21) The West Village is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The area is roughly bounded by the Hudson River on the west and Sixth Avenue on the east, extending from 14th Street south to Houston Street. Winchester Cathedral (38) Winchester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe. PEOPLE Atticus Finch (37) A fictional character in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Lee based the character on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer who, like Atticus Finch, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial. See also To Kill a Mockingbird Billy Ray (37) Billy Ray Cyrus (born William Ray Cyrus; August 25, 1961) is an American country music singer- songwriter and actor. Having released twelve studio albums and forty-four singles since 1992, he is best known for his number one single "Achy Breaky Heart", which became the first single ever to achieve triple Platinum status in Australia. He is the father of Miley Cyrus. Billy the Kid (12) William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. c.1859- 1861-July 14, 1881), better known as Billy the Kid and also known as William Antrim, was a 19th-century gunman who Page | 4 participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier outlaw in the American Old West. According to legend, he killed twenty-one men, but it is generally believed he killed eight. He killed his first man in April 1, 1877, at around 17 years old. In Mistakes Were Made, Felix rapidly lists off famous people with “kid” in their name, including Billy the Kid. Boo Radley (38) Arthur "Boo" Radley is a mysterious character in To Kill a Mockingbird who slowly reveals himself throughout the novel. Boo Radley is a very quiet, reclusive character and doesn't actively present himself until Jem and Scout's final interaction with Bob Ewell. The children of Maycomb believe he is a horrible person, due to rumors spread about a trial he underwent as a teenager. It is implied during the story that Boo is a very lonely man who attempts to reach out to Jem and Scout for love and friendship, for instance leaving them small gifts and figures in a tree knothole. See also To Kill a Mockingbird Garth Brooks (38) Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart. In Mistakes Were Made, Felix jokingly suggests that Garth Brooks should also star in the musical adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck (37) (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) An American actor. One of the world's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1970s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Felix talks about how Gregory Peck shut the door on the musical adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird years ago. See also To Kill a Mockingbird. Hank Williams (38) (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) An American singer-songwriter and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential singers and songwriters of the 20th Century. In Mistakes Were Made, Felix jokingly suggests that Hank Williams should also star in the To Kill a Mockingbird musical. Marie Antoinette (43) Marie Antoinette (baptised Maria Antonia Josepha (or Josephina) Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793), born an Archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 Page | 5 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. Miley Cyrus (37) Born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992, Miley Cyrus is an American singer, actress, and songwriter. Her father is country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. She held minor roles in the television series Doc and the film Big Fish in her childhood. In 2006, Cyrus rose to prominence as a teen idol after being cast in the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana, in which she portrayed the starring character Miley Stewart. When Felix talks about the musical adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, Miley Cyrus is signed on to play the lead Scout. Pacino (8) Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American actor and filmmaker. He is well known for playing mobsters, especially Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and Tony Montana in Scarface, and often appeared on the other side of the law—as a police officer, a detective and lawyer. Felix says in Mistakes Were Made, “Yeah, like Pacino in ‘Buffalo,’ exactly.” In the 1980s, Pacino achieved critical success on stage while appearing in David Mamet's American Buffalo, for which Pacino was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Pussy Galore (42) A fictional character in the Ian Fleming James Bond novel Goldfinger and, later, the film by the same name. In the film, she is played by Honor Blackman. Felix says he is the theatrical equivalent of Pussy Galore, meaning he is very successful at pursuing what he wants. The Sundance Kid (12) Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (1867 – November 7, 1908), better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the American Old West. Longabaugh likely met Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker) after Parker was released from prison around 1896. Together with the other members of "The Wild Bunch" gang, they performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history. In Mistakes Were Made, Felix rapidly lists off famous people with “kid” in their name, including The Sundance Kid. MISCELLANEOUS The A-Team (40) Felix asks Esther to call the “A-Team” to fight the people taking over his movie set. The A-Team is an American action-adventure television series, running from 1983 to 1987, about a fictional group of ex–U.S. Page | 6 Army Special Forces personnel who, after being imprisoned as war criminals "for a crime they didn't commit", escape and, while still on the run from the army, work as soldiers of fortune. Big Bang (14) The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the early development of the universe. The key idea is that the universe is expanding. Consequently, the universe was denser and hotter in the past. Moreover, the Big Bang model suggests that at some moment all matter in the universe was contained in a single point, which is considered the beginning of the universe.