PRESENTS ONSTAGE THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT Photo: Lancia E. Smith presents ONSTAGE THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT Written and Performed by Max McLean Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Original Music & Sound Design Projections Designer Kelly James Tighe Michael Bevins Geoffrey D. Fishburn John Gromada Rocco DiSanti Wig & Hair Designer Dialect Coach Leah J. Loukas Claudia Hill-Sparks Marketing, Advertising and Press Digital Advertising Southside Entertainment The Pekoe Group General Management Production Stage Manager Aruba Productions Lew Mead Executive Producer Ken Denison Co-Directed by Ken Denison and Max McLean There will be no intermission. Please turn off cell phones and personal electronic devices before the performance begins. Thank you. CAST AND LOCATION C.S. Lewis .....................................................................................................................Max McLean Location .......................................................Lewis’ Study, Magdalen College, Oxford, 1950 A NOTE ABOUT THE PLAY In 1950, C.S. Lewis received a letter from with the likes of the late Christopher a young American writer expressing his Hitchens or Sam Harris. struggle to believe Christianity because he thought it “too good to be true.” This play is an exploration of Lewis’ Lewis responded, “My own position at dramatic conversion from this position the threshold of Christianity was exactly to Christianity. It is my view that his the opposite of yours. You wish it were vibrancy and resonance as a Christian THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT true; I strongly hoped it was not...Do apologist is rooted in this experience. you think people like Stalin, Hitler, Haldane, Stapledon (a corking good The primary sources for this play were writer, by the way) would be pleased Lewis’ autobiography Surprised by Joy on waking up one morning to find that as well as his Collected Letters. I also they were not their own masters...that relied on several of his books and there was nothing even in the deepest essay collections including The Problem recesses of their thoughts about which of Pain, The Weight of Glory, Mere they could say to Him, ‘Keep out! Christianity, God in the Dock, Present Private. This is my business’? Do you? Concerns and Christian Reflections. Rats!...Their first reaction would be (as Last, I was greatly helped by the mine was) rage and terror.” many biographies and critical insights by Douglas Gresham, Walter Hooper, This was Lewis’ mindset before he Devin Brown, Tim Keller, Alan Jacobs, “gave in” as he put it. Lewis embraced Jerry Root, Andrew Lazo, George materialism, a worldview also known as Sayer, David Downing, Alister McGrath, “atheism,” “naturalism,” “determinism” Armand Nicholi, Sheldon Vanauken, or “reductionism”. What they all hold Kenneth Tynan and A.N. Wilson to in common is the view that all of life, name a few. every action, emotion or perception, can be reduced to pre-existing physical This play takes place prior to the causes all the way back to the Big publication of Lewis’ first Narnia story Bang. There is no need to appeal and well before he met his wife, Joy to a supernatural source. God is not Davidman. That may beg the question required to explain or define origin, “will there be a sequel”? We shall see. meaning, ethics or destiny. For many years, Lewis was a defender of this view. And given his rhetorical gifts and love of debate one could see Max McLean him fit into the “New Atheist” camp 3 WHO’S WHO MAX McLEAN (C.S. Lewis, Playwright, ect with FPA after The Screwtape Letters Co-Director) Created the role of and Shadowlands. He has designed Screwtape (NYC, London, National costumes for television, film and theater. tour), Mark in Mark’s Gospel (Chicago, Recent television credits include two Jeff Award for Solo Performance), seasons of Garry Trudeau’s series Alpha Genesis (NYC, National Tour). As play- House starring John Goodman and wright/adaptor C.S. Lewis’ The Great Bill Murray, and three seasons of the Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Genesis web series Cop Show with Colin Quinn and Mark’s GospeI. Co-writer with Chris and Jerry Seinfeld. Select film cred- Cragin-Day of Martin Luther on Trial. its include the award winning In The Favorite roles include Stanley, A Streetcar Family and The Grief of Others by Patrick Named Desire, and Snoopy, You’re a Wang, The Killing of John Lennon (2007 Good Man, Charlie Brown. McLean has Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury narrated the Bible five times as well as Prize), Down the Shore with James John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Gandolfini and A Novel Romance with Classics of the Christian Faith. His narra- Steve Guttenberg. He has also designed tions received four Audie Award nomi- costumes for numerous Off-Broadway nations. Max enjoys a round of golf. plays, including Sidd, White’s Lies, All Ephesians 2:10 Eyes and Ears, Machiavelli and Good Ol’ Girls. www.michaelbevins.com KELLY JAMES TIGHE (Scenic Designer) OFF BROADWAY/NATIONAL TOURS: GEOFFREY D. FISHBURN (Lighting Shadowlands (Fellowship for Performing Designer). Lighting Design - New York: Arts), The Fantasticks, Almost Heaven, Almost Heaven and Martin Luther The Time of Mendel’s Trouble, on Trial. Lighting Design - Regional: Nunsense (Anniversary production at Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon, The the Cherry Lane), Movin’ Out, Shear Little Mermaid, The Addams Family, Madness, Mooseltoe - A New Musical, Titanic, Peter Pan, Hairspray, Beauty 101 Dalmatians, Triumph (Las Vegas and the Beast, Phantom, Jekyll and Hilton). REGIONAL: San Jose Rep, Hyde, Gypsy, The Wiz, Jacques Brel Laguna Playhouse, Michigan’s Cherry is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. County Playhouse, Arts Center of Assistant Sound Design – New York Coastal Carolina, Sacramento Theater & National Tours: Dreamgirls, West Company, Diablo Theater Company, Side Story, The Secret Garden, Nixon Contra Costa Musical Theater, Center in China, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. Repertory Company, Gateway Playhouse. Associate Sound Design – Regional: Several National Television shows and Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Wizard of commercials including Disney, KitKat, Oz, My Fair Lady, The Spoleto Festival. Oxygen Network, Animal Planet, etc. Online at Kellyjamestighe.com JOHN GROMADA (Composer/Sound Designer) John has composed scores MICHAEL BEVINS (Costume Designer) and designed sound for more than 35 Michael is excited to design another proj- Broadway productions, including The 4 WHO’S WHO Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper, The Chronicles, On the Town, A Night with Trip to Bountiful (Tony nomination), Janis Joplin, Vanya and Sonia and The Best Man (Drama Desk Award), Masha and Spike, American Idiot, Irena’s Clybourne Park, Seminar, The Columnist, Vow. Off Broadway: The Royale (Lincoln Next Fall, A Bronx Tale, Prelude to a Center); The Robber Bridegroom Kiss, Proof, Rabbit Hole, A Streetcar (Roundabout); Barbecue, Fortress Named Desire, Twelve Angry Men of Solitude (The Public Theater); The and A Few Good Men. For FPA: The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce Lost, Into the Woods (Shakespeare in and Shadowlands. His other New York the Park series); Heathers: The Musical; credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot, Tribes; Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Incident at Vichy, Ripcord, Old Hats, My Theatre, NY); Jelly’s Last Jam (Signature Name is Asher Lev, Measure for Measure Theatre, DC); The Pirates of Penzance (Delacorte Theater), The Orphans’ (Barrington Stage Company); Ever After Home Cycle (Drama Desk and Henry (Paper Mill Playhouse): Butler (59E59). Hewes Awards), Shipwrecked! (Lucille Leah holds a BFA from the University Lortel Award), Julius Caesar, The Skriker of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of (Drama Desk Award), Machinal (OBIE Music. Award) and many more. His television and film credits include a score for the CLAUDIA HILL-SPARKS (Voice & Emmy-nominated The Trip to Bountiful Dialect Coach) Broadway: Anastasia, and Showing Roots. For more informa- Dance of the Vampires. Off Broadway: tion and music, visit www.johngromada. An Octoroon (Soho Rep/TFANA), com. The Merchant of Venice (TFANA), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public ROCCO DISANTI (Projection Design). Theater, Shakespeare in the Park), Polish Broadway: The Snow Geese, The Joke (MTC), Time and the Conways Columnist, Wit, Collected Stories, Time (Epic Theater Ensemble), Stone Cold, Stands Still. Off Broadway: Incident at Dead Serious (The Edge Theater Vichy (Signature), Desire, Lift, Inner Company), Shadowlands (Fellowship Voices, Wide Awake Hearts (59E59), for Performing Arts). Regional: 2008– Completeness (Playwrights Horizons), A 2010 Summer Shakespeare Festivals, 8 Second Chance (The Public) and more. years as Resident Vocal Coach for The Regional: Fly, The Threepenny Opera, Old Globe, Hartford Stage, Barrington Spin, Company, A Second Chance Stage Company, Long Wharf Theatre, (Signature Theatre). Kansas City Swing, Huntington Theater Company, North Lift, The Adventure of Fishy Waters Shore Music Theater, American Players in Bed With The Blues (Crossroads). Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company. AWARDS: Nominated for a 2012 Henry Numerous National Tours for Network Hewes Design Award for Completeness. Presentations. Television: Dialect Coach for Richard Easton as Ben Franklin for LEAH J. LOUKAS (Wig & Hair Designer). PBS. Faculty: The Old Globe/USD MFA Broadway: The Great Comet, The Heidi Professional Actor Training Program, 4 5 WHO’S WHO Boston University BFA Professional Manager extends over 25 years, includ- Actor Training Program, The American ing numerous