JANUARY 1997 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ The Play’s the Thing: Marsha Norman, Queen of the Lonely Hearts Rubin's Corner: Ragtime Growth of a New Voices: Another Year in Review TRE Trivia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Play's the Thing Marsha Norman Queen of the Lonely Hearts The plays of Marsha Norman illuminate the universal theme of loneliness of the human heart. Her characters, like Jessie in 'night Mother, and Alberta in Third and Oak: The Laundromat, explore the way people deal with the extremes of a lonely existence. Jessie takes a more self-destructive path while Alberta reaches out of her boundaries to make a connection with a young woman. In each case the reader or audience member is allowed to peek into the darkness that haunts us all. 'night Mother, the 1983 play which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, re-enacts the final hour and a half of Jessie Cates' life. The original production opened on Broadway on March 31, 1983 at the John Golden Theatre. Jessie Cates was played by Kathy Bates, and Thelma Cates was played by Anne Pitoniak. Tom Moore directed the production as well as the 1986 film version which starred Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft. Jessie informs her mother, Thelma, of her plan to commit suicide at the end of the evening. Thelma is not sure at first what to make of her daughter's announcement. She begins a series of ploys to stop Jessie from shooting herself with her father's gun. Thelma threatens, pleads, then gets nostalgic in order to sidetrack her daughter from her plan. All the while Jessie calmly checks items off her list of things to do before dying. Jessie feels her life has never been her own. When Jessie learns that her "fits" of epilepsy have occurred since childhood, but was never told, she confronts her mother, telling her that the information was hers to know. Her husband Cecil deserted her. Her own son Ricky, a delinquent, stole from her. Her brother Dawson was harsh and judgmental. And her mother never saw Jessie as anything more than a live-in servant or a possession. Jessie missed out on many things in her life. Most of all, she missed out on being herself. Jessie thinks it began in her infancy as she tells her mother: JESSIE. . . .I found an old baby picture of me. And it was somebody else, not me. It was somebody pink and fat who never heard of sick or lonely. . . Somebody who mainly just laid there and laughed at colors waving around over her head and chewed on a polka-dot whale and woke up knowing some new trick nearly every day and rolled over and drooled on the sheet and felt your hand pulling my quilt back up over me. That's who I started and this is who is left. (There is no self-pity here.) That's what this is about. It's somebody I lost, all right, it's my own self. Who I never was. Or who I tried to be and never got there. Somebody I waited for who never came. And never will. . . The oddest thing about Jessie's behavior is the calm, almost euphoric way she conducts herself throughout the evening. It is said in that people who intend to commit suicide gain a sense of power over the tragedies in their lives. For Jessie, this is a power she has sought after all her life. She finds joy in her ability to make this choice and tells Thelma: "No, Mama, this is how I have my say. This is how I say what I thought about it and I say no. To Dawson and Loretta and the Red Chinese and epilepsy and Ricky and Cecil and you. And me. And hope. I say no!" Thelma finally begins to realize that Jessie is serious and relents: "Who am I talking to? You're gone already, aren't you? I'm looking right through you. I can't stop you because you're already gone!" The two of them begin to discuss the plans for what Thelma must do after Jessie dies. She repeats all the orders Jessie has left her about who to call and what to wear at the funeral. When Jessie starts to leave, Thelma tries one more time to stop her. Jessie whispers, "'Night, Mother." She goes into her room and locks the door. Thelma pounds on the door, screaming at Jessie: "Stop this! I didn't know! I was here with you all the time. How could I know you were so alone?" And then a shot rings out as Jessie's final answer. The tension of the production is increased by the "ticking clock" scenario. The author's notes in the play edition states, "The time is the present, with the action beginning about 8:15. Clocks onstage in the kitchen and on the table in the living room should run throughout the performance and be visible by the audience. There will be no intermission." Play critic Robert Brustein said in his review of the production: It not only measures its own time, however (like the movie High Noon), but also the time of the audience. . . . This sounds like a gimmick, but it gives the play the density and compression of an explosive device, and accounts in part for its remorseless power (it also validates the enduring truth of the Poetics). Robert Brustein's review also compared the work of Marsha Norman to the works of Chekhov who felt that things should happen on stage as they do in real life. Chekhov, as Brustein stated in the review, once wrote, "For instance, people are having a meal at a table, just having a meal, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being smashed up." Norman has also stated that she is not interested in how people cover things up, but how they get through their day. Brustein admits that Marsha Norman, like Eugene O'Neill, digs into the hidden parts of family life and labeled 'night Mother as, ". . .a compressed, more economical version of A Long Day's Journey into Night." In assessing her work, Brustein stated: I am invoking some great names in describing this play because I believe Miss Norman, consciously or not, is writing in a great dramatic tradition and, young as she is, has the potential to preserve and revitalize it. Nothing reinforces one's faith in the power and importance of the theatre more than the emergence of an authentic universal playwright -- not a woman playwright, mind you, not a regional playwright, not an ethnic playwright, but one who speaks to the concerns and experiences of all humankind. Implicated as I am, I have grown convinced that Marsha Norman is the genuine article -- an American writer with the courage to look unflinchingly into the black holes from which we normally turn our faces. Norman's other plays also reflect the themes of loneliness and an ache to belong somewhere in the world. Getting Out chronicles the journey of Arlene as she struggles to break free from her rebellious youth via the strength of religious faith. The character of Arlie, Arlene's youthful self, is on stage with her as she relives flashbacks of her past. Arlene encounters a lecherous prison guard and her ex-boyfriend who was also her pimp. Arlene also must come to grips with her cold-hearted mother who turned her back on Arlie. In one of the flashbacks Arlie is confronted by the Principal of her school who echoes her mother's sentiments : PRINCIPAL. Your mother was right after all. She said put you in a special school. No, what she said was put you away somewhere and I said, No she's too young, well I was wrong. In Third and Oak: The Laundromat a chance meeting of two lonely women in the wee hours of the morning sets the stage for an unusual friendship to form. Alberta goes to the Laundromat to wash her husband's clothes. Deedee, a young woman who lives across the street from the Laundromat, has come to do her wash while waiting for her husband to come home. Both women are hiding a secret. Deedee pressures Alberta into telling why she won't wash a certain shirt. Alberta finally tells her that her husband recently died and she can't bring herself to wash that shirt, the last one he wore. Deedee finally confesses that she thinks her husband is seeing another woman. By the end of the night the women have found some fleeting comfort in each other. An interesting side note to the play is that this one act has a companion piece. Third and Oak: The Pool Hall takes place the same time of night and is next door to the Laundromat. The story revolves around Shooter, a young black disc jockey, who has come to visit Willie, the best friend of his late father. Willie resents Shooter's success and the fact that Shooter seems to have turned his back on all those that love him. After a bitter confrontation the two men begin to bridge the chasm that had formed. There is an additional scene, when Deedee from the Laundromat appears, which can be inserted so that the two plays can be presented together. The two one-acts can also be presented separately. Another of Marsha Norman's successes is the musical The Secret Garden, based on the Francis Hodgson Burnett classic. Norman wrote the book and lyrics for the musical and the music was written by Lucy Simon. The story centers around Mary Lennox, born and raised in India, who is sent to live with her uncle after the death of her parents. Her hunchbacked uncle becomes a recluse after the death of his beloved wife Lily. Locked away in the house is his invalid son, who fears growing the same deformity as his father. Mary discovers a magic garden that was locked after Lily's death. With the help of a magical young boy, Mary brings the garden to life, and brings life back to the lives of those around her. Marsha Norman seems to like the musical format. She spoke about her plans for the future, "I'm going to do musicals on Broadway, because I love them and people really want to see them. Straight plays I will do in regional theaters. And when I really want to reach 90 million people, then I will do TV." Although she was rejected by many feminists when 'night Mother was produced, she is considered to be at the forefront of feminist writing. In fact she would rather write about women than men. Norman states, "If it's feminist to care about women's lives, yes, I'm a feminist." It was Jon Jory (son of the actor Victor Jory) of the Actor's Theater of Louisville who convinced Norman to write her first play. The annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actor's Theater led to the discovery of playwrights like Norman, Beth Henley and John Patrick Shanley since its inception in 1977. Before her success as a playwright, Norman worked in a school for extremely disturbed children in Kentucky (which would serve as inspiration for Getting Out), freelanced as an editor and reviewer for magazines and newspapers, and also administrated and taught for the Kentucky Arts Commission. Marsha Norman is a leading voice in American theater today. Her insight into the human heart is raw, honest, and a no-holds barred look into the emotions people rarely reveal. With strength and self-determination, her characters act as guides through the darkest parts of our lives and point us toward the light of hope at the other end. The loneliness that cripples all of us at times can be healed, and Marsha Norman has a cure. My prescription would say: Read two of her plays, and call me in the morning. Plays by Marsha Norman Circus Valentine D. Boone Getting Out The Holdup 'night Mother Sarah and Abraham Third and Oak: The Laundromat Third and Oak: The Pool Hall Traveler in the Dark Trudy Blue Musicals The Red Shoes The Secret Garden Winter Shakers Internet sites relating to Marsha Norman * This site is loaded with goodies for musical lovers. Site includes the lyrics to all of the songs, synopsis of the musical, and other information. * This site is the Playwriting Seminars area. Each of these locations have samples of how plot and climax works in relation to 'night Mother * http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/ * playwriting/obligatoryexnm.html * http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/ * playwriting/nightmother.html * http://www.vcu.edu:80/artweb/ * playwriting/suspensetech.html --- Caprice Woosley is currently pursuing her BFA in theater (directing and playwriting), after 25 years working in and around community theater. She is a playwright, produced but not published, actress, and amateur dramaturg who enjoys researching plays. She is a host in the Writing Forum where she co-hosts a Writing Discussion Group. She also hosted "Shakespeare Unplugged" and "Murder and Mayhem" in the Theatre Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRE Trivia: * "A law was made a distant moon ago here..." Where - and what was it? * Julie Andrews created two major musical heroines on the Broadway stage but did not appear in the film version - what were the roles? Who played them in the respective films? * What Chorus Line dancer steals her dance card to find she scored: Dance 10, Looks 3 * Who wrote the music in the composer lyricist teams of Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe * In what musicals are the following tantalizingly-titled songs found... * The Hard-Knock Life * The Prince of Humbug * Honey Bun * Cell-Block Tango * In Praise of Women * A Hymn to Him * How to Handle a Woman * The Mob Song * The Rumble Answers to last month's trivia: * Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams wanted respectively: the Turkey, Dove, and Eagle * Betty Buckley and Ken Howard were Broadway's original Martha & Thomas Jefferson in 1776 * The very first Evita to croon "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" was Julie Covington on the 1976 cast album * The "3 directors of promise" from Sunset Blvd. were D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling * Historical figures Henry Ford, Harry Houdini and Emma Goldman all appear in the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime, even though they were omitted from the movie * The new Boublil & Schonberg musical Martin Guerre is set in a 16th century French village called Artigat ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner RAGTIME Growth of a New American Musical Live Entertainment of Canada (Livent) is headed by Garth H. Drabinsky in partnership with Myron I. Gottlieb. The foci of the Corporation's activities are the ownership and operation of Toronto's historic Pantages Theatre; producing, managing and operating the North York Performing Art Centre located in Metro Toronto; and developing, producing, managing, marketing, and licensing theatrical events, and other forms of live entertainment in Canada and throughout the world. Since 1989, Dranbinshy has produced major musical theatrical productions that have been staged in Toronto, London, New York and across North America. Productions include "The Phantom of the Opera", "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", "Kiss of the Spider Woman", "Aspects of Love", "The World Goes Round", and "Showboat". Livent is continuing to explore and develop new live theater venues in various cities. Drabinsky is clearly a man with a master plan. He works at his projects slowly and carefully. His process for developing new productions includes multiple workshops with controversial audience surveys, amplified shows for oversized theaters, a boggling early supply of souvenirs, and even a preliminary CD to be sold before the finished cast recording. His latest project is E.I. Doctorow's 1975 novel "Ragtime". Garth Drabinsky began hiring major talents to turn it into a musical. He and his company invested 8.8 million dollars into the show. He hired Terrence McNally, who adapted "Spider Women, to write the book. He then pick Frank Galati, the Tony Award winning director of "The Grapes of Wrath", as the director of this complex production which involves one WASP, one Jewish immigrant, one African-American, racism, industrialization, women's rights, labor organizing, white slavery, and daredevil explorations. Eugene Lee, who did the sets for "Sweeney Todd" and "Show Boat", was hired to bring his talents to "Ragtime". Drabinsky even brought in Graciela Daniel to do the choreography. His cast include Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Peter Friedman, and Marin Mazzie. During the same period Drabinsky purchase a theater on 42nd Street and begin restoration of this fifty year old landmark theater. When the Toronto critics reviewed the show they wrote, "Ragtime" is not original enough to be the great American musical that Drabinsky seems determined to manufacture. With some second-act tightening and shaping Livent could have a new hit on their hand which could open their restored theater in December, 1997. Before New York, Drabinsky has released the "Songs from Ragtime" and the production continues to sell many tickets in its Toronto run. You get the picture. Drabinsky, to his credit, has put together a package that could be a big Broadway hit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices is Contemporary Theatre Another Year in Review It's a rule, at the end of every calendar year a publication is expected to put out a "Year in Review" in which, to quote the Cool Site of the Day "you spend at least 75% of your time belaboring the obvious and the other 25% making bold but scary prognostications that can't possibly be verified" If you're fortunate enough to have Billy Joel on staff you could at least make this headline-recycling exercise interesting by making it rhyme or setting it to music - If you're Spy Magazine you can at least be relentlessly irreverent, cynical and snide. If you're Marie, you decide that, since you're neither Billy Joel nor Spy you should give readers a break and stick to two or three very memorable highlights, and avoid the most recent news - how can one feel nostalgic about a show that opened or cast recording that was released last Thursday. At Tonys Time, the parade of the egregiously overlooked featured Julie Andrews declining her award in a move some consider noble and others a rabid diva-fit, David Merrick resorting to the sort of publicity stunts that were trite in the '40s, August Wilson shooting eye-daggers into Terrence McNally's back as he rose to accept his award, and legendary wit Nathan Lane doing comparatively little with a bumper crop of outrageous preshow hype in one of the most lackluster awards broadcasts ever. All the raves began "Not since a chorus line" but sometimes they went on to praise Jonathan Larson's celebration of Greenwich Village Bohemia, Rent, and sometimes the celebrated subject is Savion Glover's electric exploration of Black history through dance, Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in da Funk. In other words, 1996 saw the triumph of the non-traditional, less-than-mainstream American musical on Broadway, over imports and fluff. But Don't Cry for Andrew Lloyd Webber just yet, he could afford to be magnanimous presenting Rent with its Tony Award for Best Musical - his London revival of Jeeves was a hit and coming Stateside, new musical Whistle Down the Wind set for a first-ever American premiere (ALW usually debuts new material in England or through concept albums). The latter, a collaboration with the best Webraganza director Hal Prince, is delayed in D.C. for some script changes, but is still Broadway bound. The former Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is now Lord Lloyd Webber, having received a lordship in the New Years honors, and the film of Evita not only made it to the big screen after 7 or 8 years of false starts, it forced a new collaboration effort with former partner Tim Rice (guys, consider yourselves Gilbert & Sullivan - you don't have to like each other to work together - and you're output is much better together than individually) Disney progressed with it's renovation of 42nd Street and surprised everyone with the announcement that they too will opt for substance in the form of new Tim Rice musical King David, over pop in the shape of The Lion King to open the New Amsterdam. But fear not, Feral-Hamlet fans, the Lion King is still Broadway bound, with none other than Juan Darien director Julie Taylor. Les Mis Massacre - As it approached it's 10th Anniversary in NYC, Les Miserables released 2/3rds of it's Broadway cast saying the show was getting tired. An inconsequential loss to theatre-lovers compared to the demise of TheaterWeek, which announced it's first 1997 issue, which hit newstands January 6th, would also be it's last issue. What does all this mean ? Nothing really - some of the above developments like the 42nd Street project may have lasting consequences, Most are just something that happened, or an episode in a trend that will be forgotten in a few months, well, forgotten until the Decade in Review roundups in 3 years. What will the new year hold? More surprises from Toronto and more outside New York premiere's that will start every Chicken Little decrying the death (read: decentralization) of Broadway. At least one more high profile flop - probably a musical, probably with a set that could house a small country. More surprise hits from the Encore Series, more and more jockeying among big musicals for a few empty theatres on the Great White Way. More award nominations that will spout a new generation of the egregiously overlooked. Now that they own a network, Disney might expand its theatre-innovation efforts to breathe some life into the ailing Tony Awards. More revelations & revolutions - business as usual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1997, Mersinger Theatrical Services