The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Play Guide Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Great Gatsby 3 WHO WE ARE 33 TIMELINE OF EVENTS CONTENTS 4 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY 38 DIRECTING GATSBY 4 CHARACTERS 42 SYMBOLISM IN THE GREAT GATSBY 6 SYNOPSIS 45 GLOSSARY AND PERIOD REFERENCES 7 F. SCOTT FITZGERALD IN THE PLAY 13 AN INTERVIEW WITH SIMON LEVY 49 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 17 THE ROARING TWENTIES 53 AMERICA PLAYS! LESSON PLANS 20 PROHIBITION 59 REFERENCES 24 THE JAZZ AGE 26 THE AMERICAN DREAM 28 NEW YORK IN THE 1920s 29 WOMEN IN THE 1920s It is Arizona Theatre Company’s goal to share the enriching experience of live theatre. This play guide is intended to help you prepare for your visit to Arizona Theatre Company. Should you have comments or suggestions regarding the play guide, or if you need more information about scheduling trips to see an ATC production, please feel free to contact us: Tucson: April Jackson Phoenix: Cale Epps Associate Education Manager Education Manager (520) 884-8210 ext 8506 (602) 256-6899 ext 6503 (520) 628-9129 fax (602) 256-7399 fax The Great Gatsby Play Guide compiled and written by Jennifer Bazzell, Literary Manager and Katherine Monberg, Artistic Intern. Discussion questions and activities prepared by Cale Epps, Education Manager April Jackson, Associate Education Manager and Amber Tibbitts, Education Associate. Layout by Gabriel Armijo. Support for ATC’s Education and Community Programming has been provided by: Organizations Mrs. Laura Grafman Ms. Norma Martens APS Individuals Kristie Graham Hamilton McRae Arizona Commission on the Arts Ms. Jessica L. Andrews and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Green Ms. Rita A. Meiser Bank of America Foundation Mr. Timothy W. Toothman Mr. Greg B. Hales Ms. Thelma Miller SPONSORS City Of Glendale Ms. Beth A. Bank Mr. David Hansen Ms. JeanMarie Moore Community Foundation for Mr. and Mrs. Franklin L. Bennett Mr. Terrence M. Hanson Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Nachman III Southern Arizona Mr. Brain Blaney Ms. Athia L. Hardt Thomas C. Patterson Cox Charities Jana Bommersbach Ms. Brenda Helps Mr. and Mrs. John D. Ratliff Jr. Downtown Tucson Partnership Mr. Robert Booker Mr. Ken Heron Mr. and Mrs. Chris Reaney Enterprise Holdings Foundation Ms. Sally Branch Leigh Herr Ms. Marsha Reingen Ford Motor Company Fund Ms. Peter Deluca and Mr. and Mrs. M. Langdon Hill Dr. and Mrs. Sanford H. Roth Freeport-McMoran Mrs TamarRala Kreiswirth Megan Hilty Ms. Jennifer Ruddle Copper & Gold Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Darryl B. Dobras Mr. David Iaconis Mr. Fernando Romero and Gannett Sharon Dupont McCord Mr. Gary Jordan Ms. Dina Scalone-Romero JPMorgan Chase Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Dusenberry Mr. Richard Kautz Drs. John and Helen Schaefer National Endowment for the Arts Ms. Laura Evans Mr. Darrel Kidd Mr. and Mrs. Eric E. Schindler Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Mr. and Mrs. Burton Faigen Mr. Randall Kincaid Mr. and Mrs. Lewis D. Schorr PICOR Charitable Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Edward Farmilant Mr. Everett L. King III Mr. Michael C. Schroeder and Scottsdale League for the Arts Ms. Catherine M. Foley Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Knight Mr. Steven J. Eagleson Stonewall Foundation Ms. Sandra Foss Mr. Kenneth Kociuba Mr. and Mrs. Michael Seiden Target Mr. and Mrs. Eric Freedberg Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Kraemer Salim Shafi The Boeing Company Mr. Jack Friedland Mr. Jeff Kunkel Mr. and Mrs. Elliott J. Solomon The Donald Pitt Family Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey P. Gaia Mr. Jeff Lemon Ms. Jan Spaeth The Johnson Family Foundation, Inc. Mr. Henry Gallin Mr. William C. Lewis and Mr. Howard N. Stewart The Marshall Foundation Ms. Kate Garner Mr. Rick K. Underwood Ms. Terri Thorson The Maurice and Meta Gross Foundation Dr. Mary Jo Ghory Mr. Ray Lombardi Mr. Michael Tompkins The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Mr. Patric Giclas and Meilani Lombardi Andres Mr. Thomas Warne The Stocker Foundation Mrs. Gail M. Giclas Mr. Rick Lombardo Mr. Russ Wiles The William L. and Ruth T. Pendleton Mr. and Mrs. David Ira Goldstein Mr. and Mrs. James Lovelace Quinn Williams Memorial Fund Ms. Linda Goode Ina Manaster Leslie Woodruff Tucson Medical Center Tucson Pima Arts Council Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 2 ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY: WHO WE AREThe Great Gatsby Thousands of people make our work at ATC possible! WHO WE ARE WE WHO Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. This means all of our artists, administrators and production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profit. Each season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see on stage. In addition, ATC currently employs about 100 staff members in our production shops and administrative offices in Tucson and Phoenix during our season. Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers, stage directors, computer specialists, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box office agents, stage crew -the list is endless- representing an amazing range of talents and skills. We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the theatre in financial and legal matters, advise in Herberger Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona marketing and fundraising, and help represent the theatre in our community. Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousands of those people support us with charitable contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets. Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state governments also support our work financially. All of this is in support of our mission: to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona excellence and that resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation. In order to fulfill its mission, the theatre produces a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to the broadest spectrum of citizens. Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 3 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby Adapted by Simon Levy INTRO Directed by Stephen Wrentmore INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY Considered by many to be the Great American Novel, The Great Gatsby is at once titillating, fascinating and shocking in its portrayal of The Jazz Age that was soon to disappear from the American landscape. In this first authorized adaptation since 1926, Simon Levy brings the humor, irony, pathos and loveliness of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic to the stage. Navigate the languid atmosphere of wealth and privilege with Nick Carraway as he observes the glittering, elaborate parties of his neighbor, the infamous and illusive Jay Gatsby. Part of ATC’s AMERICA PLAYS! Celebrating Great American Stories series, The Great Gatsby’s Scenic Model by Yoon Bae, designer for ATC’s The sharp depiction of the “American Dream” resonates Great Gatsby anew for each generation. CHARACTERS Jay Gatsby: A “Midwesterner” by birth, Gatsby’s past is shrouded in mystery, while his present persona exhibits an incredibly rich man with a strong emotional attachment to a woman from his past. “‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ [Nick] ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past.’ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ [Gatsby] cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’" Daisy Buchanan: Born to a wealthy family in Louisville, Daisy is a debutante and socialite whose past with Gatsby collides with her present life with her husband, Tom. “‘Her voice is full of money,’ [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it. I’d [Nick] never understood before. It was David Macdonald, the actor who plays full of money — that was the inexhaustible charm that Jay Gatsby in ATC’s The Great Gatsby rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it ... high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl.” Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 4 The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway: Nick is a true Midwesterner, having come East to attend Yale and then work in bonds and CHARACTERS explore New York. Nick is the play’s narrator and it is through his eyes that we experience the other characters and the events of the story. He is the cousin and former classmate of Daisy and Tom Buchanan, respectively. “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I [Nick] am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” Tom Buchanan: A Yale-educated man from a wealthy and respected family, Tom has never had to play by the rules because the rules don’t apply to someone of Costume rendering for Nick by David K. his social standing. “‘Now, don’t think my opinion Mickelsen, costume designer for ATC’s on these matters is final,’ [Tom] seemed to say, ‘just The Great Gatsby because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.’” Jordan Baker: A professional female golf player, Jordan has little family but money to spare. A friend of Daisy and Tom, Jordan is a knowledgeable source of gossip regarding the social circles in which the characters move. “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I [Nick] suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.” Myrtle Wilson: A fiery woman of a lower social class than many of the other characters in the play, Myrtle and her husband George live in the valley of ashes near New York City.

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