-40%
Thornton Wilder in "The Skin Of Our Teeth" - 1948 Westport Ct. Theatre Program
$ 5.28
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Description
An original program for the Pulitzer-Prize winning play "The Skin of our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder , starring Wilder himself playing the role of Mr. Antrobus. The location was the Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut (see below) and the date August, 1948 (the program is not dated but Joan Caulfield is due to perform the following week August 23 to 28, 1948 - see scan). An advertisement for the local photographer shows the cast members including Wilder - see scan10 pages including "Who's Who in the Cast". Good condition. A great piece of theatre memorabilia.
Thornton Wilder
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Thornton Wilder
Wilder in 1948
Born
Thornton Niven Wilder
April 17, 1897
Madison, Wisconsin
, United States
Died
December 7, 1975 (aged 78)
Hamden, Connecticut
, United States
Occupation
Playwright, novelist
Notable works
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(1927)
Our Town
(1938)
The Skin of Our Teeth
(1942)
Notable awards
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
(1927),
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
(1938, 1942),
National Book Award
for Fiction (1968)
Thornton Niven Wilder
(April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three
Pulitzer Prizes
—for the novel
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
, and for the plays
Our Town
and
The Skin of Our Teeth
— and a U.S.
National Book Award
for the novel
The Eighth Day
.
Contents
1
Early years
2
Education
3
Career
4
Personal life
5
Death
6
Bibliography
6.1
Plays
6.2
Films
6.3
Novels
6.4
Collections
7
Further reading
8
Footnotes
9
References
10
External links
Thornton Wilder with his two sisters and their father Amos at family cottage in
Maple Bluff, Wisconsin
(1900)
Wilder was born in
Madison, Wisconsin
, the son of Amos Parker Wilder, a newspaper editor
[1]
and U.S. diplomat, and Isabella Niven Wilder. All of the Wilder children spent part of their childhood in China. His older brother,
Amos Niven Wilder
, became Hollis Professor of Divinity at the
Harvard Divinity School
, was a noted poet, and was instrumental in developing the field of
theopoetics
. His sister, Isabel, was an accomplished writer. Both of his other sisters,
Charlotte Wilder
, a poet, and
Janet Wilder Dakin
, a zoologist, attended
Mount Holyoke College
.
[2]
Wilder in his
Yale College
graduation
photo
(1920)
Wilder began writing plays while at
The Thacher School
in
Ojai, California
, where he did not fit in and was teased by classmates as overly
intellectual
. According to a classmate, "We left him alone, just left him alone. And he would retire at the library, his hideaway, learning to distance himself from humiliation and indifference." His family lived for a time in China, where his sister Janet was born in 1910. He attended the English
China Inland Mission
Chefoo School
at
Yantai
but returned with his mother and siblings to California in 1912 because of the unstable political conditions in China at the time.
[3]
Thornton also attended Creekside Middle School in
Berkeley
, and graduated from
Berkeley High School
in 1915.
[4]
After having served a three-month enlistment in the Army's
Coast Artillery Corps
at
Fort Adams
, Rhode Island, in
World War I
(rising to the rank of
corporal
), he attended
Oberlin College
before earning his Bachelor of Arts degree at
Yale University
in 1920, where he refined his writing skills as a member of the
Alpha Delta Phi
fraternity, a literary society. He earned his
Master of Arts
degree in French literature from
Princeton University
in 1926.
[5]
After graduating, Wilder studied in
archaeology
and Italian in Rome, Italy (1920–21), and then taught French at the
Lawrenceville School
in
Lawrenceville, New Jersey
beginning in 1921.
[6]
His first novel,
The Cabala
, was published in 1926. In 1927,
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
brought him commercial success, and his first
Pulitzer Prize
(1928).
[7]
He resigned from the Lawrenceville School in 1928. From 1930 to 1937 he taught at the
University of Chicago
, during which time he published his translation of André Obey's own adaptation of the tale, "Le Viol de Lucrece" (1931) under the title "Lucrece" (Longmans Green, 1933).
[8]
In 1938 he won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
for his play
Our Town
, and he won the prize again in 1943 for his play
The Skin of Our Teeth
.
[9]
World War II
saw him rise to the rank of
lieutenant colonel
in the
U.S. Army Air Force
Intelligence, first in Africa, then in Italy until 1945. He received several awards for his military service.
[fn 1]
He went on to be a visiting professor at
Harvard University
, where he served for a year as the
Charles Eliot Norton professor
. Though he considered himself a teacher first and a writer second, he continued to write all his life, receiving the
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
in 1957 and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 1963. In 1968 he won the National Book Award for his novel
The Eighth Day
.
[10]
Being proficient in four languages,
[6]
Wilder translated plays by
André Obey
and
Jean-Paul Sartre
, and wrote the
libretti
to two operas,
The Long Christmas Dinner
, composed by
Paul Hindemith
, and
The Alcestiad
, composed by
Louise Talma
and based on his own play. Also,
Alfred Hitchcock
, whom he admired, asked him to write the screenplay to his thriller,
Shadow of a Doubt
.
[11]
He completed the first draft of the screenplay for Hitchcock.
[6]
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(1927) tells the story of several unrelated people who happen to be on a bridge in
Peru
when it collapses, killing them. Philosophically, the book explores the question of why unfortunate events occur to people who seem "innocent" or "undeserving". It won the Pulitzer Prize
[1]
in 1928, and in 1998 it was selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century. The book was quoted by
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
during the memorial service for victims of the
September 11 attacks
in 2001.
[12]
Since then its popularity has grown enormously. The book is the progenitor of the modern disaster epic in literature and
film-making
, where a single disaster intertwines the victims, whose lives are then explored by means of flashbacks to events before the disaster.
[
citation needed
]
Frank Craven
,
Martha Scott
and
John Craven
in the original Broadway production of
Our Town
(1938), winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Wilder wrote
Our Town
, a popular play (and later film) set in fictional Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It was inspired by his friend
Gertrude Stein
's novel
The Making of Americans
, and many elements of Stein's
modernist
style can be found in the play. Wilder suffered from
writer's block
while writing the final act.
Our Town
employs a choric narrator called the
Stage Manager
and a
minimalist
set to underscore the human experience. Wilder played the Stage Manager on Broadway for two weeks and later in
summer stock
productions. Following the daily lives of the Gibbs and Webb families, as well as the other inhabitants of Grover's Corners, the play illustrates the importance of the universality of the simple, yet meaningful lives of all people in the world in order to demonstrate the value of appreciating life. The play won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize.
[13]
Wilder as Mr. Antrobus in
The Skin of Our Teeth
, 1948
In 1938,
Max Reinhardt
directed a Broadway production of
The Merchant of Yonkers
, which Wilder had adapted from
Austrian
playwright
Johann Nestroy
's
Einen Jux will er sich machen
(1842). It was a failure, closing after 39 performances.
[14]
His play
The Skin of Our Teeth
opened in New York on November 18, 1942, featuring
Fredric March
and
Tallulah Bankhead
. Again, the themes are familiar – the timeless human condition; history as progressive, cyclical, or entropic; literature, philosophy, and religion as the touchstones of civilization. Three acts dramatize the travails of the Antrobus family, allegorizing the
alternate history
of mankind. It was claimed by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, authors of
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
, that much of the play was the result of unacknowledged borrowing from
James Joyce
's last work.
[fn 2]
[15]
In his novel,
The Ides of March
(1948), dedicated to an anti-fascist Italian writer,
Lauro De Bosis
, Wilder reflected on parallels between
Benito Mussolini
and
Julius Caesar
. He had met
Jean-Paul Sartre
on a U.S. lecture tour after the war, and was under the influence of
existentialism
, although rejecting its
atheist
implications.
[16]
In 1954,
Tyrone Guthrie
encouraged Wilder to rework
The Merchant of Yonkers
into
The Matchmaker
. This time the play opened in 1955 and enjoyed a healthy Broadway run of 486 performances with
Ruth Gordon
in the title role, winning a
Tony Award
for Guthrie, its director. It became the basis for the hit 1964 musical
Hello, Dolly!
, with a book by
Michael Stewart
and score by
Jerry Herman
.
[17]
In 1962 and 1963, Wilder lived twenty months in the small town of
Douglas, Arizona
, apart from family and friends. There he started his longest novel,
The Eighth Day
, which went on to win the National Book Award.
[10]
According to Harold Augenbraum in 2009, it "attack[ed] the big questions head on, ... [embedded] in the story of small-town America".
[18]
His last novel,
Theophilus North
, was published in 1973, and made into the film
Mr. North
in 1988.
[19]
The Library of America republished all of Wilder's plays in 2007, together with some of his writings on the theater and the screenplay of
Shadow of a Doubt
.
[20]
In 2009, a second volume was released, containing his first five novels, six early stories, and four essays on fiction.
[21]
Finally, the third and final volume in the Library of America series on Wilder was released in 2011, containing his last two novels
The Eighth Day
and
Theophilus North
, as well as four autobiographical sketches.
[22]
Although Wilder never discussed being homosexual publicly or in his writings,
Samuel Steward
wrote in his autobiography that he had sexual relations with him.
[23]
Wilder was introduced to Steward by
Gertrude Stein
, who at the time regularly corresponded with both of them. The third act of
Our Town
was allegedly drafted after a long walk, during a brief affair with Steward in
Zürich
, Switzerland.
[24]
In Penelope Niven's biography,
Thornton Wilder: A Life
, she provides considerable epistolary evidence that the third act of "Our Town" was not written in response to any walk, conversation or affair with
Samuel Steward
but was begun before Wilder ever met Steward and was not finished until several months afterward. Niven also raises doubts about Steward's uncorroborated and unsubstantiated claims of having been Wilder's lover.
[25]
Wilder had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed mingling with other famous people,
[1]
including
Ernest Hemingway
,
Russel Wright
,
Willa Cather
and
Montgomery Clift
.
[
citation needed
]
From the earnings of
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
, in 1930 Wilder built a house for his family in
Hamden, Connecticut
. His sister Isabel lived there for the rest of her life. This became his home base, although he traveled extensively and lived away for significant periods. He died in that house on 7 December 1975, of
heart failure
.
[6]
He was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery,
Hamden, Connecticut
.
[26]
The Trumpet Shall Sound
(1926)
The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays
(1928):
[27]
"Nascuntur Poetae"
"Proserpina and the Devil"
"Fanny Otcott"
"Brother Fire"
"The Penny That Beauty Spent"
"The Angel on the Ship"
"The Message and Jehanne"
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
"Centaurs"
"Leviathan"
"And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead"
"The Servant's Name Was Malchus"
"Mozart and the Gray Steward"
"Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job?"
"The Flight Into Egypt"
"The Angel That Troubled the Waters"
The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act
(1931):
The Long Christmas Dinner
Queens of France
Pullman Car Hiawatha
Love and How to Cure It
Such Things Only Happen in Books
The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden
Our Town
(1938)—won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
[13]
The Merchant of Yonkers
(1938)
The Skin of Our Teeth
(1942)—won the Pulitzer Prize
[13]
The Matchmaker
(1954)—revised from
The Merchant of Yonkers
The Alcestiad: Or, a Life in the Sun
(1955)
Childhood
(1960)
Infancy
(1960)
Plays for Bleecker Street
(1962)
The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume I
(1997):
The Long Christmas Dinner
Queens of France
Pullman Car Hiawatha
Love and How to Cure It
Such Things Only Happen in Books
The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden
The Drunken Sisters
Bernice
The Wreck on the Five-Twenty-Five
A Ringing of Doorbells
In Shakespeare and the Bible
Someone from Assisi
Cement Hands
Infancy
Childhood
Youth
The Rivers Under the Earth
Shadow of a Doubt
(1943)
The Cabala
(1926)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(1927)—won the
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
[7]
The Woman of Andros
(1930)—based on
Andria
, a comedy by
Terence
Heaven's My Destination
(1935)
Ides of March
(1948)
The Eighth Day
(1967)—won the
National Book Award for Fiction
[10]
Theophilus North
(1973)—reprinted as
Mr. North
following the appearance of the film of the same name
Westport Country Playhouse
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Westport Country Playhouse
Westport Country Playhouse
Address
25 Powers Court
Westport
USA
Coordinates
41.1416°N 73.3548°W
Coordinates
:
41.1416°N 73.3548°W
Type
Regional theatre
Capacity
578
Construction
Opened
29 June 1931
Architect
Edwin Howard
Website
www
.westportplayhouse
.org
Westport Country Playhouse
, is a not-for-profit theater in
Westport
,
Connecticut
.
It was founded in 1931 by
Lawrence Langner
, a New York theater producer.
[
citation needed
]
Langner remodeled an 1830s tannery with a Broadway-quality stage.
[
citation needed
]
2010 marked the Westport Country Playhouse’s 80th season. The Westport Country Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which were transferred to Broadway, and almost four million people have attended the theatre.
[
citation needed
]
Contents
1
History
1.1
Construction and early use
1.2
Pre-Opening
1.3
Grand opening
1.4
Post opening
1.5
Twentieth century
1.6
Present day
2
Building
2.1
Campaign for a New Era
2.2
Seating
2.3
Stage
3
Education
3.1
Joanne Woodward Internship Program
4
Notable performers
5
Technical
5.1
Fly system
5.2
Lighting
6
References
7
Further reading
The building that is now the Westport Country Playhouse was originally constructed in 1835 as a
tannery
by R&H Haight, owned by Henry Haight.
[1]
Charles H. Kemper acquired the tannery from Henry Haight's widow in 1866 and subsequently renamed the business C.H. Kemper Co.
[1]
In 1930, the former tannery, which had been unused since the 1920s, was purchased for ,000 by
Lawrence Langner
.
[
citation needed
]
Cleon Throckmorten, a
Broadway
designer, was commissioned to renovate the interior of the building.
[2]
In order to more easily transfer Playhouse productions to Broadway, the stage was built to match the specifications of Broadway’s Times Square Theatre on 42nd Street.
[
citation needed
]
The idea proved immediately useful when the playhouse's first production,
The Streets of New York
(starring
Dorothy Gish
), transferred to Broadway. Dozens of new works followed suit over the years.
[
citation needed
]
When it came to casting, Langner turned to well-known actor acquaintances and friends such as
Eugene O'Neill
and
George Bernard Shaw
when he needed new plays.
[
citation needed
]
On June 29, 1931, the curtain went up on the first production at the Westport Country Playhouse.
[3]
The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England "straw hat circuit" of summer stock theaters.
[
citation needed
]
The Playhouse's strong launch enhanced its reputation among the acting community.
[
citation needed
]
Wealthy theatre patrons and supporters in nearby
Fairfield County
towns helped it survive and thrive.
[
citation needed
]
In the 1940s, the Westport Country Playhouse began its apprentice program for young theater professionals. Over the years, Westport Country Playhouse apprentices have included composer/lyricist
Stephen Sondheim
, screenwriter
Frank Perry
, television host
Sally Jesse Raphael
, composer
Mary Rodgers
, actor
Cary Elwes
, and actress
Tammy Grimes
. The educational apprenticeship programs are still running.
The Westport Country Playhouse closed due to
World War II
from 1942 to 1945. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the Westport Country Playhouse's successes included world premieres of
William Inge
's
Come Back, Little Sheba
and
Horton Foote
's
The Trip to Bountiful
, both of which went on to Broadway.
Since the Langners stepped down in 1959, the administration has included
James B. McKenzie
from 1959 to 2000 and actress
Joanne Woodward
,
Paul Newman's
wife, who took over as artistic director in 2000. Newman remained a part-owner of a restaurant next to the theatre until his death in 2008. The Playhouse became a non-profit in 1973.
[4]
In 2002 the Westport Country Playhouse transferred its first production to
Broadway
after more than 35 years.
[5]
Recently the theatre saw the world premiere of
Thurgood
and a revival of
Thornton Wilder
's
Our Town
with Paul Newman. Currently under the artistic direction of
Mark Lamos
, the Playhouse produces new and classic plays for the public.
Alison Harris, executive director since 2000, announced in 2005 that she would not be renewing her contract when it expired in 2006. In December 2006, Jodi Schoenbrun Carter was named managing director. Artistic directors Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe returned to the Westport Country Playhouse on January 2, 2008 to provide interim artistic leadership for the 2008 season. Ms. Woodward, acclaimed actress and director as well as a long-time resident of Westport, was the Westport Country Playhouse’s artistic director from 2000 to 2005, with Ms. Keefe as her associate. For the past two years, Ms. Woodward served as Westport Country Playhouse artistic director emeritus as well as a member of the board of trustees. Ms. Keefe has also been a member of the board since her departure as associate artistic director in 2006. Currently under the artistic direction of
Mark Lamos
the Playhouse produces new and classic plays for the public.
The Westport Country Playhouse has provided a stage for many new
playwrights
over the years.
David Wiltse
is the current playwright in residence, writing one play for the Westport Country Playhouse to produce each year.
[6]
[7]
[8]