Clybourne Park Curriculum Connections

“Outrageously Funny”

–London Telegraph

CLYBOURNE

By BRUCE NORRIS Directed by EDWARD SOBEL

PARK

Written by Bruce Norris Jan 26 – Mar 18 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama WINNER! Olivier Directed byAward Edward Sobel for Best New Play Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best New Play

A STUDY AND RESOUCE GUIDE

by Samantha Pedings

CONTENTS

Page 2 Playwright Biography: Bruce Norris Page 3 Foundations: A Raisin in the Sun Page 4 Workshop: Playwrighting Pages 5-6 Synopsis Pages 7-8 Theme Focus: Gentrification Pages 9-10 Facilitated Workshop: The Great Debate Pages 11-12 Production Spotlight: Scenic Design Pages 13-14 Production Spotlight: Costume Design Pages 15-16 Workshop: Learn American Sign Language

PUBLISHED WORKS:

The Actor Retires (1992) The Vanishing Twin (1996) The Infidel (2002) Purple Heart (2002) We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003) The Pain and the Itch (2004) The Unmentionables (2006) Clybourne Park (2009) A Parallelogram (2010)

AWARDS: 2003 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work,

We All Went Down to Amsterdam

2005 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work,

The Pain and the Itch

2010 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work,

A Parallelogram

Clybourne Park:

2010 London Critics Circle for Best New Play

2010 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play

2011 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play

2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

2011 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best Play

BRUCE NORRIS

playwright biography

Bruce Norris hails from Houston, where his family attended the same Episcopal church as George H. W. Bush. He discarded his Lone Star accent in junior high, he says, because he was “ashamed to be from Texas.” Bruce discovered the theatre at about the same time as he dropped his twang. “I’m extraordinarily lazy by nature and it’s a lazy person’s job and so I totally gravitated,” he says. “I liked everything about the theatre. The first time I ever made out was in a carpool for a production of The Sound of Music. I made out with one of the other von Trapp children.”

Norris acted, sang, and danced his way through adolescence, working professionally on the local stage and in television. From high school he went to Boston University, where he studied scenic design, then transferred to Northwestern Univeristy. He wrote his first produced play, The Actor Retires, in 1992 as a vehicle for his own skills as an actor.

Since then, eight more of his plays have been produced to much critical acclaim, including Clybourne Park.

Norris does not earn much income as a playwright. He maintains his lifestyle by acting in “the occasional episode of Law & Order or something like that.” A couple of years ago he played Jack Black’s brother in School of Rock--a role that was eliminated from the film but made him “an astonishing amount of money.” You may also recongnize him in the role of the stressed-out, stuttering teacher in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense.

In biting style, Norris stands ready to badmouth practically anybody and anything--especially if, like him, it smacks of bourgeois hypocrisy. “I want to depict everyone as slightly ridiculous, but that’s because I think I’m hugely ridiculous,” he declares. At 51, his growing notoriety as a brilliant, remorseless social satirist has far surpassed his established success as an actor. In 2011, Bruce Norris recieved one of the highest honors in literature when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Clybourne Park, and it will open on Broadway later this year.

“Everybody Loves Bruce Norris,” Chicago Magazine, July 2006

2

FOUNDATIONS:

A Raisin in the Sun Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park was inspired by the classic American theatre piece, A Raisin in the Sun. Written by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun debuted in 1959 and was the first play authored by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. It was nominated for four Tony Awards and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award the same year. In 1983, the New York Times stated that A Raisin in the Sun “changed American theater forever.”

Lorraine Hansberry

Hansberry’s play tells the story of the Youngers, an African-American family living in Chicago’s Southside sometime between World War II and the 1950s. The Youngers are about to recieve an insurance check for $10,000 at the start of the action. Each family member has an idea of how the money should be spent. As the play proceeds, the Youngers clash over their competing dreams until--after much conflict and drama--Mama, the matriarch, puts a down payment on a house for the whole family. She believes that a bigger, brighter dwelling will help them all. This house is in Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood. When the Youngers’ future neighbors find out that the family moving in is African-American, they send Karl Lindner, a representative from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association to offer money in return for staying away. The Youngers refuse the deal and eventually move out of their current apartment, fulfilling the family’s long-held dream. Their future seems uncertain and slightly dangerous, but they are optimistic and determined to live a better life.

The experience of the Youngers mirrors events in Hansberry’s own life. Her father, Carl, was involved in a lawsuit against property owner, James Burke, after Burke sold a home to the Hansberrys in a traditionally white, Chicago neighborhood and then later changed his mind about the validity of the sale. Lorraine refliects on the litigation in a collection of her writings To Be Young, Gifted, and Black:

“25 years ago, [my father] spent a small personal fortune, his considerable talents, and many years of his life fighting, in association with NAACP attorneys, Chicago’s ‘restrictive covenants’ in one of this nation’s ugliest ghettos. That fight also required our family to occuupy dispued property in a hellishly hostile ‘white neighborhood’ in which literally howling mobs surrounded our house...My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily treck to and from school.”

The first act of Norris’ Clybourne Park is told from the perspective of white homeowners Russ and Bev as they are told by Karl Lindner, a neighborhood friend, that their house has been sold to an African-American family-Lorraine Hansberry’s Younger family.

3 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/p/hansberry.htm

WORKSHOP Playwrighting Bruce Norris was in the 7th grade when he saw the 1961 film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. In a November 2011 interview with NPR Norris stated:

“I grew up in a very segregated part of Houston. And so, to see a play--well, it was the movie in

stead of the play--in which the results of segregation and segregation policy were made so clear to

me at a very early age, and that I was potentially the antagonist in that struggle was a really strange

thing to put in the mind of a 12-year-old.�

Think of an event or idea that has had a large influence on who you are today. Could it provide inspiration for a play, like real life events were for Lorraine Hansberry or A Raisin in the Sun was for Bruce Norris? Use your personal life experiences, and try your hand at playwrighting by answering the questions below.

1. What is the setting of your play? Be as specific as possible.

2. Name at least two of your characters and provide a brief description of each.

3. What is the conflict? (In other words, what is the problem? What drives the action of your play?)

4. What is the resolution? (How does the play end? Is the conflict resolved?)

4

SYNOPSIS ACT ONE

When the lights come up on Act One, we are in Russ and Bev’s house on Clybourne Street on a Saturday afternoon in early September 1959. Russ is sitting in his armchair eating ice cream (neopolitan to be precise) and reading National Geographic while Bev continues packing for their immanent move out to Glen Meadows (a suburb of Chicago). Francine, Bev and Russ’s African-American house keeper enters from the kitchen, clearly assisting the couple with preparations for their move, though she would not normally be working on a Saturday.

At first, Russ is reticent to engage with Bev, seeming incorrigible and distant. Yet Bev manages to engage Russ by playing a game thinking of the terms by which we would call people from particular cities and attempting to establish the rules by which these names are created--for example, people from Paris are Parisians. As their game progresses, the topic shifts to Russ’s recent lack of engagement in the community and its negative effect on the couple’s social life. Bev also brings up a trunk (about which we’ll learn more later) and asks Russ to bring it down the stairs. He deflects the topic and says he’ll perform the task later.

Soon, the phone rings and Francine answers it. Karl Lindner (a neighborhood acquaintance) is on the line and wants to stop by for a visit. Bev takes the phone. Despite the fact that both Bev and Russ are in no mood for a visit from Karl, he insists on coming over, and Bev obliges. While Bev is on the phone with Karl, Jim, the preacher from the couple’s church, appears at the door. Jim and Russ engage in some small talk about Russ’s new job and their move, while Bev fixes some iced tea for Jim. Soon, though, their conversation turns to Russ’s lethargy and ostensible depression, as it relates to his son Kenneth. Russ, aggravated, quickly quiets the conversation and demands Jim’s departure by using some tenacious and socially inappropriate phrases. Bev re-enters, ice tea in hand, to this scene. She tries to retain Russ, but he escapes up the stairs. At the same time, Albert, Francine’s husband, rings the doorbell to pick up his wife. Albert waits inside, while Bev complains to Jim about Russ’s depression. Promptly, Francine comes down the stairs carrying two bags of hand-me-downs. Bev brings up the trunk again, and convinces Albert and Francine to bring it down from upstairs for her. As they exit to drop off Francine’s hand-me-downs in the car, Karl appears at the door, surprised to see two African-Americans standing in Bev and Russ’s doorstep. Bev welcomes Karl into the house, but Karl, an unnaturally formal and awkward man, just came to ask permission to bring his wife Betsy into the house as well. Bev decries Karl’s inconsiderate behavior, insisting he bring Betsy in, so Karl leaves to retrieve his wife.

Russ comes down the stairs, having changed his shirt, and avoids all conversation, quickly exiting into the kitchen. He returns promptly and disappears into the basement. Karl returns with Betsy, who is deaf. Greetings go all around, and Russ returns from the basement with a shovel. Bev convinces Russ to speak to Karl, and she takes Betsy into the kitchen to get some more iced tea. Karl, in turn, convinces Jim to stay for their conversation. Soon, Francine and Albert re-appear and head upstairs. Russ notices this but Bev prevents him from discovering what it is that they are doing. Karl gets down to brass tacks, so to speak, and informs Russ that the neighborhood association has discovered that an African-American family is purchasing the house. In response to this, the neighborhood association made an offer to the family of the house in order to prevent a black family from moving into a white neighborhood, but their offer was rejected. Amidst this conversation, the trunk from upstairs comes barreling down the stairs – Francine apparently lost her grip on the heavy military trunk. Russ, infuriated, storms off to the basement. Now, Karl and Jim begin to berate Francine with questions, attempting to establish that she would be uncomfortable living in a white neighborhood to justify their desire to prevent the black family from occupying Russ and Bev’s house. Russ returns and quickly puts a stop to this conversation. He explains that his house is sold and there’s nothing that can be done to change that. Russ ushers a relentless and disappointed Karl out his house, yet within seconds of exiting, Karl returns with a new argument, stating that the family purchasing the house may not be aware of why they got the house for such a low price. Russ really loses his temper and turns on Karl, shouting that he does not care for a community that couldn’t care for his son. Through this, Russ divulges details about his son Kenneth – that he was in the Korean War, that he was convicted of killing innocent civilians, and that he hanged himself in his upstairs bedroom. When Karl does not cease, Russ opens the trunk – still resting on the stairs – and begins to read his son’s suicide note. Bev runs off, sobbing, into the bathroom. After the air has seemingly settled, Jim suggests that they all bow their heads to pray. Russ rises and threatens to punch Jim. A brief scrawl ensues, in which a lamp is knocked over and Karl, Jim, Francine, and Betsy leave the house. Russ drags the trunk out into the kitchen.

Albert stays and begins to rectify the mess that was made. Bev returns from the kitchen and offers to pay Albert for his help. He refuses her offers and leaves their home. Russ comes in from the kitchen with work gloves and retrieves his shovel. We discover that he plans to bury this trunk under a tree in their back yard. Bev convinces him that it’s too late in the day to do so, so Russ sits in his arm chair as Bev tidies up their home. They engage in a bit of small talk, but we can see from this that their future together in Glen Meadows does not bode well; their routine of faux-joy and communication will no longer function.

5

ACT TWO

It is a Saturday afternoon in early September 2009. We are in the same house as Act One, except it now appears that the house has been in disrepair for some time. All of the furniture is gone, the kitchen door is no longer hanging, there are holes in the floor, and construction permits are posted on the front window. The lights come up in the middle of a meeting regarding the planned construction of a new house on the lot in which this house currently stands. The new homeowners, Steve and Lindsey, are here with their lawyer Kathy to defend their planned construction against the petition from Lena and Kevin and their lawyer Tom. Kevin and Lena are an African-American couple who live nearby in the neighborhood.

At first the meeting seems to be going smoothly; they parse some legal terminology and small talk abounds. It’s clear that both couples are trying to maintain a congenial and friendly atmosphere to the meeting. The meeting is interrupted by Kathy’s cell phone ringing; Hector, the architect for the new house, has called her, concerned that he isn’t present at this meeting. Lindsey takes the phone and goes outside to quell Hector’s discomfort. While she’s on the phone, Lena addresses the group, saying that she has something important to say to them regarding this house and its importance. Steve suggests that she waits to tell them until Lindsey returns. She politely agrees. Kathy, sensing the awkward silence in the room, begins to talk about her recent vacation to Spain and Morocco. A disagreement arises between Steve and Kathy over the capital of Morocco, but Lindsey returns just in time to prevent it from escalating to an argument. Then, Tom redirects the groups attention to the legal document at hand. This document establishes the rules and regulations regarding renovations and constructions to residences in the Clybourne Park area. The conversation pushes forward briefly and they turn their attention to the details of the document. Lena senses an opportunity to speak again and attempts to do so, however, this time she is halted by the entrance of Dan, a contractor working in the house’s back yard.

Apparently, his crew ran into something buried in the backyard when they were digging a hole for a Koi pond. Rather than continue to disrupt their meeting, Steve exits with Dan to investigate the problem.

Just as they begin to look at the document again, Tom’s cell phone rings and the meeting is again disrupted. The group’s conversation turns, once again, to foreign vacations though their previously positive opinions of Spain, Morocco, and Prague are now somewhat more disparaging. Steve re-enters, seeing that the meeting has halted. Once Tom is finished with his phone call, Lena is finally given a chance to speak. She informs the group that the houses in this neighborhood have a great deal of historical value due to the fact that it was the first middleclass neighborhood in Chicago into which African-Americans moved during the Civil Rights era. Then, Lena mistakenly mentions her personal connection to the house. Steve immediately jumps on this and inquires further. Lena explicates that her great-aunt purchased this house and that she used to play in this house as a child (her great aunt is a part of the family moving into the house in Act One). She then goes on to explain that the reason her aunt could afford this house was because the son of the previous owners killed himself in the house. Lindsey begins to freak out and the meeting is thrown off track once again. At the height of the commotion, Dan enters dragging a military trunk in from outside. Apparently, this is what they hit while digging in the backyard. Quickly, Lindsey dismisses Dan, and he goes to search for some bolt cutters so the group can discover what the box contains.

The conversation soon returns to Lena’s connection to the house and her belief in a political initiative to change the face of the neighborhood. Sensing that she’s speaking euphemistically about a white family moving into a predominately black neighborhood, Steve pushes her to say exactly what she means. She is resisting doing so, but admits that there are economic factors aimed at restricting a certain “group.” Steve immediately heightens the stakes by saying what he believes Lena to be actually saying – that race is a factor in their purchasing of the house. The conversation escalates as Steve continuously tries to justify his belief and Lindsey attempts to calm the situation by acting liberal and understanding, while disparaging Steve. Finally, Steve exclaims that he’s sick of having to watch what he says so as not to offend people of other races , so much so that he can’t tell a joke that was told to him by a black friend of his. Lena and Kevin insist he tells the joke, while Lindsey tries to prevent it. Ultimately, Steve tells his joke, which prompts a string of racist jokes from Steve and Kevin. These jokes climax in a joke insulting white women, told by Lena. Though Lena and Kevin were offended by Steve’s racist jokes, they took them in stride and played along, yet once Lena tells an offensive joke about white women, Lindsey and Kathy refuse to participate anymore. Steve berates them for being overly sensitive.

Finally, it’s four o’clock – the scheduled end to their meeting. Tom ends the meeting and he, Kathy, Lena, and Kevin leave. Just as Lena and Kevin are leaving, Steve insults Lena and Kevin comes back in the house to defend his wife’s honor. Dan has just entered with bolt cutters and breaks up Kevin and Steve. Lena and Kevin and Lindsey and Steve argue with one another simultaneously as both couples storm out of the house. Dan is left alone holding the boltcutters, so he decides to see what’s in the trunk. As he pulls out Kenneth’s suicide letter and begins to read it, we shift back in time to early morning in 1957 – the morning Kenneth committed suicide. Kenneth comes down the stairs, dressed in his military uniform, and sits on the window bench to write his suicide note. Bev soon enters from upstairs as well, and asks Kenneth what he’s doing up so early. Kenneth evades answering; Bev complains that she didn’t get enough sleep the previous night and expresses hope for the future of their family. Kenneth convinces Bev to go back to sleep. Once she does, he continues writing his letter.

6

theme FOCUS

GENTRIFICATION

In the past 20 years, Chicago has experienced a surge in development in once poor, under served neighborhoods. At the same time, those neighborhoods have become significantly ‘whiter,’ according to the 2010 Census. In Act Two of Clybourne Park, Lena takes issue with the fact that she believes Tom and Lindsey are ambassadors of gentrification. Hear both sides of the story from real people experiencing gentrification first-hand.

VOICES Earnest Gates has lived in West Haven, Chicago, since his birth in 1952, when it was still a working-class white neighborhood. His parents where the second black family on their block, and they witnessed white abandonment of the neighborhood within two years of their arrival. When caucasions started returning to the community in the 1990s, the sway he believed they held angered him. “I’m resentful of that,” he said. “That’s a slap in the face.” But he later changed his mind after development began to revitalize the neighborhood. Gates decided that the ‘white arrival’ could ultimately improve the community by exposing its poor residents to new cultures, helping them better prepare for participation in the global economy. Besides, gentrification won’t completely displace low-income African-Americans, he said. He and his neighbors booby-trapped the community against it by interspersing low-income housing throughout. “We put scattered-site public housing in the neighborhood to make it distasteful for really, really higher income. . . If I’ve got a half-million dollar home, I don’t want somebody in public housing next to me. They don’t match. I can’t be in my $500,000 world with Shay-Shay and Bo-Bo next door.”

I suppose the #Southside of #Chicago needs more dilapidation before they throw up #JambaJuice n #Starbucks...#Gentrification

--tweeted by John Mickens on January 22, 2012 I really appreciate the McDonalds across the street from my office playing Salsa all day. #HumboldtPark #Chicago resisting #gentrification

--tweeted by Carlos Daniels on January 25, 2012 7

Lucy Gutierrez lives in the Pilsen neighborhood on the Near Southwest Side of Chicago. For decades, she has lived on 18th Street, a street lined with Mexican bakeries, restaurants, and family-owned businesses. After a recent meeting about proposed plans to develop the industrial side of the neighborhood and parts of 18th Street through tax-increment financing, Gutierrez-now 70 years old--wonders if the landscape and the faces in the neighborhood she knows so well will change. “If they do all this, build new facades, more parking spaces, if they really spice up this whole neighborhood...we would be hit with higher taxes,” said Gutierrez. In recent years, gentrification has spread in this area of Chicago, and now there are signs that Pilsen, minutes from downtown with its afffordable housing, could become the next hot spot for gentrification. Several apartment buildings have already changed ownership with new landlords raising rents. Longtime residents are recieving phone calls and letters from real estate agents asking if they want to list their properties. Community members are worried about potential displacement and whether small businesses will be replaced by large chains, such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. But the neighborhood is resisting, evidenced in signs in livingroom windows to an anti-gentrification mural on Bishop and 18th Streets. Gutierrez, herself, has pasted a neon green sign in her window to tell prospective buyers, “This house is NOT for sale.”

Gentrification: (noun) the restoration of run-down

urban areas by the middle class, resulting in the

displacement of low-income residents.

Michelle is a 22-year-old, white University of Chicago student living in Pilsen, a traditonally hispanic neighborhood. She, and people like her, are know as gentrifiers. Michelle, however, did not move to Pilsen because of it’s low rents or it’s reputation as a hip up-and-coming neighborhood, but rather for the authenticity it could offer. She is searching for a legeitmate snese of community and a “true” Chicago experience like many other young people who were raised in the less colorful, middleclass suburbs. “I really like neighborhoods when there’s a lot of people out and walking around a lot,” says Michelle, and she compares living in Pilsen to a year-round block party. She likes living in a place where neighbors speak to each other and hang out on thier stoops “visiting” long into the night. When referencing the gentrification that has happend on the North Side of Chicago, where much of the old has been torn down to make way for the new condo culture, Michelle admits she has a “knee-jerk reaction” to “the sorts of people who live in condos.” She has a strong desire to set herself apart from these gentrifiers, who she discribes as “rich people” with “hollow” lifestyles. But two years ago, she started feeling uncomfortable when stickers began popping up all over Pilsen that said, “Keep the gringos out!” Michelle doesn’t understand 8 thefeelings of animosity. “It’s like, why can’t...you shouldn’t judge me!

www.twitter.com http://articles.chicagotribune.com/keyword/gentrification http://thecore.uchicago.edu/Summer2010/web-feature-pilsen-bohemia-3.shtml

8

WORKSHOP The Great Debate GENTRIFICATION: A Black and White Issue?

Now that you’ve learned more about how individuals and neighborhoods are affected by gentrification, decide where you stand on this heated topic. Complete a “pro and con” list in the space provided below. In the “Pro” column, list all the positive affects of

gentrification. In the “Con” column list all the negative affects.

PRO

CON

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

9

After completing your lists, use them as a tool to help you decide which side you will take. Are you for gentrification or against it? Do the “pros” outweigh the

“cons” or visa versa? Once you have solidified your own opinion, divide into two groups: those advocating gentrification and those opposed to gentrification.

Talk it Out! Time to debate! Choose three spokespeople from your group to present your arguments for why gentrification is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for communities. Flip a coin to decide which team will present first. Now take turns explaining why you are for or against gentrification. After each representative speaks, students should raise their hands if they wish to present counter-arguments. Remember to have an open mind, and really listen to the other side’s veiwpoints.

After the debate is finished, take a moment to discuss the results. Did anyone change his/her mind about the postitive/negative effects of gentrification? In your 10 opinion, which team ‘won’ the debate?

10

PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT

JAMES KRONZER: SCENIC DESIGN James Kronzer is a scenic designer based in Washington, DC. He recieved a BFA in Acting from Catholic University in Washington, DC, as well as a certificate in Scenic Art from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England. Mr. Kronzer is the recipient of two Barrymore awards and eight Helen Hayes awards.

RADIATOR +31"

+38.5"

+46"

+53.5"

+61"

RAMP DOWN

+68.5" +23.5"

+31"

+38.5"

+46"

+53.5"

+61"

+68.5"

+0"

+0"

+7"

+15"

WINDOW

Clybourne Park

+76"

KITCHEN/ STORAGE

+70" +64"

TO +82" CELLAR

BENCH

+58"

FRONT PORCH/ STORAGE +52" +46"

RADIATOR

+40" +34" +28" +22"

WINDOW RADIATOR

72"X40"

+0"

LAMP

C

A R HA M IR

SOFA

DINING ROOM TABLE

TEL. TABLE

WINDOW

GROUND PLAN:

+23.5"

BATHROOM +16" +0"

WINDOW

+0"

+0"

+7"

+14"

+21"

PAINT ELEVATION:

Clybourne Park

11

ACT ONE

FUN FACT: During intermission, the crew of Clybourne Park completely transforms the set by stripping it bare. This includes removing furniture, molding, and lighting RADIATOR fixtures. They then add trash, board up the windows, and place construction materials throughout the room. After a mere fifteen minutes, the actors are to enter an entirely +23.5" different looking home--the same room after 40 years of neglect. You can watch the scene shift at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46RakTesQAI.

ACT TWO

12

+3

PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT

ROSEMARIE E. MCKELVEY: COSTUME DESIGN Rosemarie E. McKelvey is a Philadelphia-based freelance costume designer. She recieved a BFA in Fashion Design from Moore College of Art & Design, where she now teaches as an adjunct professor. Ms. McKelvey won a Barrymore award in 2007 for her work on Caroline, or Change and in 2009 for Something Intangible, both Arden productions.

RUSS / DAN

David Ingram

BEV / KATHY

Julia Gibson

JIM / TOM / KENNETH

Steve Pacek

The actors of Clybourne Park all play at least two roles. During intermission they change their costumes (and in the women’s case, their hair), then re-enter the stage as completely different characters at the start of Act Two.

13

KARL / STEVE

Ian Merrill Peakes

BETSY / LINDSEY

Maggie Lakis

FUN FACT: Notice the through-line of the costumes from 1959 to 2009. Each

actor’s costume has been designed to retain a similar look from “then” to “now.”

The connections between the eras and characters can be seen in color palate,

accessories, and even pregnancy!

ALBERT / KEVIN

Josh Tower

FRANCINE / LENA

Erika Rose

14

WORKSHOP

American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is a language used by many people in the US who are hearing impaired. ASL uses hand shapes, positions, movements, facial expressions, and body movements to convey meaning. It uses an alphabet (finger spelling), sign representing ideas, and gestures. ASL is an independent language that has its own grammar and syntax; it is not simply a manual version of English.

Clybourne Park’s Besty is deaf. The actress, Maggie Lakis, was taught ASL phrases specifically for our production. Learn the ASL basics yourself!

ASL ALPHABET

15

Try using the common phrases and alphabet to spell out words and form a sentence.

Can you use ASL to communicate without speaking? Attempt to have a dialogue with a friend using only sign language. Can you communicate successfully? For a full guide to American Sign Language, check an ASL dictionary out of your local library.

16