Pierce Studio inside the Trust Art Education Center Directed by Alan Stanford World Premiere February 19 - 28 Copyright © 2015 Playbill Online Inc. All marks used by permission. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A GREAT PERFORMANCE. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC is ranked among the nation’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. SYS411939_gh_upmc_pict_theatre_ad_color.indd 1 4/16/14 12:41 PM PICT Classic Theatre presents For the Tree to Drop A world premiere by Lissa Brennan Directed by Alan Stanford Karen Baum* Siovhan Christensen Linda Haston* Justin Lonesome* David Whalen* Scenic Designer Lighting Designer Costume Designer Alan Stanford Mike Papinchak Joan Markert Sound Designer Production Manager / Props Master Steve Shapiro Technical Director James Thome George DeShetler, Jr. Stage Manager Projection Design Cory F. Goddard* Assistant Stage Manager Jessi Sedon-Essad Paige Barnes Scenic Artist Jennifer Kirkpatrick For the Tree to Drop was developed with support from the “In the Raw Festival” at Bricolage Production Company, Pittsburgh, PA. *Member of the Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Cast Henry A slave. He is dead. ........ Justin Lonesome* Estella His sister. A slave. .......... Siovhan Christensen Theenie A slave. ........................ Linda Haston* Edgar A Plantation owner. ........ David Whalen* Clarinda His wife. ..................... Karen Baum* Setting: A Southern Plantation in the 1860’s FOR THE TREE TO DROP WILL BE PERFORMED IN SIXTY-FIVE MINUTES WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. *Member of Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. PICT Classic Theatre receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Special Thanks: Mona Rush, Sara Steelman, CMU Drama Department, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Point Park University, Vincent Lighting, Tracy Edmunds & The Trust Arts Education Center, Ateret Reisner and Flyspace The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, are strictly prohibited. Please turn off all electronic devices such as cellular phones, beepers and watches. 2 PICT – For the Tree to Drop From the Board President Dear Friends, Some themes are universal, and some messages cannot be said too often. Tonight’s play captures such a theme: discrimination in any fashion is intolerable and is de- grading to the society in which it is permitted. We regrettably live in a world where hatred, in the name of race, religion, national origin, or gender, is rising. While we would like to believe that slavery has disappeared, it has not; human trafficking is flourishing. Modern communications permit no escape from graphic evidence of the atrocities. PICT Classic Theatre is privileged to present a world premiere by a gifted Pittsburgh artist. It is a moving story, beautifully portrayed, of finding hope among misery and despair. This season PICT Classic Theatre will focus on the human spirit and its propensity for good and at times evil. Good people can be misled. Antebellum slave owners did not believe that they were sinners. Why so? Our season will offer plays that entertain, provoke, and inspire, and through our art and our education program, PICT Classic Theatre aims to better the community in which we live. We know that you have come to expect more – to take home a message from each play, along with some laughs and tears. The message is personal for you to determine. In the end, it is not a matter of whether there are more saints than sinners, but whether each of us more often than not puts our more saintly side forward. Sincerely, Chuck Moellenberg PICT – For the Tree to Drop 3 Production Team Director/ Scenic Designer .............................................. Alan Stanford Costume Designer .......................................................... Joan Markert Lighting Designer .......................................................... Mike Papinchak Sound Designer .............................................................. Steve Shapiro Projection Designer ....................................................... Jessi Sedon-Essad Props Master ................................................................... James Thome Production Manager/ Technical Director ....................... George DeShetler, Jr. Stage Manager ................................................................ Cory F. Goddard * Assistant Stage Manager ................................................ Paige Barnes Scenic Charge Artist ....................................................... Jennifer Kirkpatrick Wardrobe ........................................................................ Rikkilee Rose Sound Board Operator ................................................... Kristopher Buggey Light Board Operator ..................................................... Antonio Colaruotolo Carpenter ........................................................................ Drew Palajsa Carpenter ........................................................................ Frank Noll Pittsburgh Cultural Trust The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major cata- lytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts. www.TrustArts.org PICT – For the Tree to Drop 5 Director’s Note I have always supposed that it is reasonable to argue that all of the plots for theatre, operas, novels, and ballet, were basically conceived over two and a half thousand years ago by the Greek poets and playwrights. Since then, most writers, struggling to create new stories and new adventures in the chaos of human existence, have found themselves simply re-examining the same basic plot-lines which are inextricably linked to the same basic human emotions; emotions that strangely seem very much akin to the famous (or possibly infamous) seven deadly sins, or more hopefully Alan Stanford the seven cardinal virtues. Fear, hate, love, lust, compassion, trust, truth: all these are to be found in the earliest of writing for the theater and have continued to be the driving force behind creative imagination ever since. So I think it not unreasonable to assume that these have been the driving forces of humanity since we were developed enough to call ourselves humans. The play Antigone, written by Sophocles two and a half millennia ago, examined, amongst other things, the power we hold over others and the human desire for respect and freedom— The freedom to be who we are and believe what we want. The freedom to honor ourselves and each other. But it also put into question the right to ensure order— The need for a social structure. The desire for stability. Laws are man-made, and they are put into place to create that order. We live in a chaotic world, a chaotic universe. Civiliza- tion is, in that sense, nature’s way of putting order onto the natural chaos of things. From the dawn of what we call “civilization,” slavery was a part of the man-made order. Sébastien Norblin “Antigone et Polynice” Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons (continued on page 9) PICT – For the Tree to Drop 7 Director’s Note (continued from page 7) Whole cultures, entire econo- mies depended on the balance of slave and master. Even Plato’s utopian Republic did not remove the concept of slavery. The feudal system of governance that shaped Europe for over two thousand years depended on a process of serfdom that survived into the 19th Century and still exists in parts of the world today. And that is order. And it never changes while order rules. Chaos is the process of change, be it gal- axies colliding or people fighting “’Pedeapsa robilor’ (‘Foaia duminecii’, ca. 1830) for freedom. Chaos is the method ILR 252” by Unknown. Licensed under by which change occurs and just Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons as order controls chaos, chaos can and does destroy order. One of the great truths is that change rarely occurs without revolution, and revolution is chaos. This nation was born of revolution and from the chaos that such revolution brings. And the result of that chaos was the birth of a different order, based not on Monar- chy and the power of one, but on democracy and the power of all… or most. Slavery still remained, and it took a new chaos, four score and ten years later to resolve