CREEDE REPERTORY THEATRE Delve Deeper Study Guide Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise Directed by Michael Perlman Although nearly 3,000 miles apart, when US Army doctor Jack Ludwig begins writing aspiring actress Louise Rabiner, sparks fly. This engaging and heartwarming comedy tells a story of how connection and relationships unfold while a world apart. Based on the story of his parents’ courtship during WWII, Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Leading Ladies, Moon Over Buffalo, Lend Me a Tenor) explores love, isolation, and hope over great distance. Starring Graham Ward & Caitlin Wise.
June 25 – Sept 4 in Seime Park Dramaturgs: Courtney Cauthon & Kate Berry Editor: Kate Berry creederep.org / 719-658-2540
Glossary Manischewitz: A popular kosher wine often consumed on Passover. It is budget friendly, made from labrusca grapes, and is combined with a large amount of residual sugar—its sweetness often making it the fodder of jokes. Malaria: An intermittent and remittent fever caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitos in many tropical and sub-tropical regions. Norman Rockwell: A well known painter and illustrator who most famously created idealistic and sentimental covers for the Saturday Evening Post. His work was often dismissed by serious art critics, though some of his later work focused on more serious subjects such as racism in a series for Look magazine. Leave: In regards to the Army, leave is time away from duties and training. The Mess: An area where military personnel eat, socialize, and (in some cases) live. Betty Davis at the Stage Door Canteen
USO: The United Service Organization. Since 1941, the nonprofit charity has provided live entertainment such as comedians, actors, and musicians, and other programs to members of the United Stages Armed Forces and their families. Stage Door Canteen: An entertainment venue for American and Allied servicemen that opened in 1942 in the Broadway theatre district in New York City. It was open 7 nights a week. Food was provided for free, and between 5 p.m. and midnight daily, the canteen served 200 gallons of coffee, and 5,000 cigarettes were smoked. The Canteen inspired a radio series which ran from 1942-45, as well as a film in 1943. Boarding House: Also called “rooming houses” during the 1930s and 40s, they were popular and transitional living spaces for students, single workers, immigrants, and newlyweds when they left home or moved to a city. Boarding houses offered wholesome meals, housekeeping, and a sense of community for its paying residents.
One of Norman Rockwell’s many covers for the Saturday Evening Post
Hellzapoppin’ : A musical review with music by Sammy Fain and Charles Tobias, book by Harold “Chic” Johnson and John “Ole” Olsen. It ran on Broadway from 1938-1941 and went on the road in 1942. Louise gets cast in 1943 though there isn’t clear information about whether the show was still touring then. This may have been an dramatization by Ludwig. Column by Eleanor Roosevelt: “My Day” was a newspaper column written by the First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt from 1935 to 1962. The First Lady wrote six days a week except in 1961-62 when when she wrote every other day due to her health. The article quoted by Jack is actually from May 9th, 1940.
Eleanor’s Column
Glossary (con’t) “That girl with the CANDLE IN THE ITALIAN OPERA!”: Louise is referring to the opera, La Boheme, composed by Giacomo Puccini. The “girl” she is referring to is Mimi, who dies at the end of the opera from consumption (tuberculosis).
Arsenic and Old Lace: A play by Joseph Kesselring. It ran on Broadway from Jan 10, 1941 to June 17, 1944 playing a total of 1,444 performances. The farcical dark comedy follows the Brewster family: Mortimer, his fiancé Elaine, his two unassuming and murderous aunts, and many more eccentric characters. It was made into a movie with Cary Grant in 1944. Though the movie was set for release in 1942, the play was such a success that the film was not allowed to open until the play closed on Broadway.
Blithe Spirit: A comedy by Noël Coward about a socialite
Cary Grant and Pricilla Lane in the 1944 film Arsenic and Old Lace
who accidentally summons the ghost of his dead wife. Premiered in London on the West End in 1941 and moved to Broadway in 1941 where it ran through June of 1943.
Name Dropping Over the course of the play, Louise mentions many stars of 1940’s stage and film. Below are some of those famous faces.
Betty Grable
Dorothy Lamour
Rita Hayworth
Paulette Goddard
Ann Miller
Jimmy Stewart
Hedy Lamarr
Bob Hope
Lana Turner
Ginger Rogers
Behind the Scenes of Dear Jack, Dear Louise Captain Jacob S. Ludwig is stationed at Camp White in Medford, Oregon. On December 12, 1941, five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress appropriated $27 million to transform the Agate Desert into Camp White. At its peak, the camp occupied nearly 50,000 acres and contained nearly 40,000 people, making it the second- largest city in Oregon at the time. The camp was deactivated in April 1946 but a Camp White post office remained until 1960.
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January - The first Americans arrived in England The 91st Infantry “Powder River” Division at in January Camp White in Medford, Oregon June 1 - Throughout 1942, Blitz intensified in both England and Germany. On June 1, Canterbury Cathedral was bombed. June 4-7 - Battle of Midway. A major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II, often cited as "the turning point in the Pacific." This battle occurred six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and was the Allies' first major naval victory against the Japanese. It redefined the importance of air superiority. June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
1943 • February 10 - Battle of Guadalcanal. After six months of fierce fighting on land, sea and air, Guadacanal is taken by American forces. The campaign ended Japanese expansion plans and perhaps signified the turning point of the war in the Pacific theatre. It was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. • April 19 - On the Jewish feast of Passover, over 2000 Waffen SS soldiers under the command of SS General Jürgen Stroop attacked with tanks, artillery and flame throwers. A fierce battle erupted between the heavily armed Germans and 1200 Jews armed with smuggled in pistols, rifles, a few machine guns, grenades and Molotov cocktails. • August 1 - Operation Tidal Wave. An air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces based in Libya and Southern Italy on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis powers.
1944 • June 6 - As Operation Overlord (now known as D-Day) got underway, some 6,500 vessels landed over 130,000 Allied forces on five Normandy beaches: codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Overall, however, the landings caught the Germans by surprise, and they were unable to counter-attack with the necessary speed and strength. Anything that was moving and German was liable to be attacked from the air.
1945 • January 27 - Liberation of Auschwitz. The Soviet army enters Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberates around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom are ill and dying. • May 7 - German Surrender. The following day was celebrated as VE (Victory in Europe) day. The war in Europe was over. • September 2 - VJ Day. Japan formally surrenders to the Allies on, marking V-J Day, although the initial announcement of surrender was made Aug. 15, 1945.
Ken Ludwig’s parents, on which the play was based
A Brief History of Communication
Speech: Early humans began using speech as communication, using it to describe their daily experiences. Drawings: Early humans then began drawing on cave walls and dwellings to immortalize their stories, however this was a very localized form and wasn’t far-reaching. Smoke Signals: These developed out of a need for long distance communication. This mode was used by Indigenous peoples of North America, as well as in ancient China where it was used along the Great Wall between towers.
Ancient drawings like this have been found on every continent in the world
Pigeons: Due to their excellent ability to find their way home, pigeons were used by Persians, Greeks, and Romans. A pigeon was even awarded a French War Cross during WWI. Her name was Cher Ami. Semaphore Flags: Meaning literally “sign-bearer”, these flags were embraced by the maritime community of the 19th century. Visual symbols were conveyed by flags, rods, disks, paddles, and sometimes bare or gloved hands. They are still used on today for emergency communication at sea. The Pony Express: Though human messengers had been used for communication for a long time, the Pony Express was the first official courier service organization used to deliver newspapers, letters, and small packages. It was only in business for 18 months from 1860-1861. The Telegraph: In June of 1860, Congress agreed to subsidize the building of a transcontinental telegraph line. In 1861 New York City communicated directly with San Francisco and one of the most popular and long standing methods of communication was complete. In 2013, the final telegram was sent in India.
The Pony Express had a 10 day guarantee and riders could not weigh over 125lbs
Radio: Though officially invented in 1896 by Guglielmo Marconi, both WWI and WW2 accelerated radio communication technology, which quickly caught on globally as a source of news and entertainment. Telephones: While Italian inventor Antonio Meucci is credited with creating the first phone in 1849, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S patent in 1876. Early telephones were only available to the wealthy and weren’t available more widely until the early 20th century. Cellular and Wireless Technology: Invented by George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr (yes, that Hedy Lamarr) during WWII as a process called, ”frequency hopping”. This technology would evolve into modern-day cellphone technology and WiFi.
World War II Communication Equipment
Texting, Messaging, and More: We can now communicate with others in a blink of an eye. And though many people across the globe have access to cellphones, many areas which experience extreme poverty struggle with many forms of communication, leaving them isolated.
Love in the Time of Zoom Since the invention of the modern computer, humans have had a desire to use it to find love. The origins of online dating can be traced back to 1965 when two Harvard students created a 75question matchmaking survey on an IBM 1401. And though modern online dating didn’t surge in popularity until decades later, it was usually a means to an end: meeting someone in person. Like the nearly three year courtship of Jack and Louise almost exclusively through letters, the pandemic forced many interested parties to develop a relationship without actually meeting at all. In 2021, all that’s really changed is the speed of reply, which has its own set of complications. The dramatic tension caused by not hearing from someone for weeks or months at a time, is now reduced to seconds, minutes, or hours waiting to see those three little dots… Will they reply? Are they interested enough to meet in person? In one letter, Jack expresses his anxiety to Louise over what could happen if they meet and don’t like each other, aren’t attracted to each other, or realize they might be better off as friends. This fear is echoed today as many couples who date only over Zoom, meet, and find they are missing that special spark. Jacqueline Mendez, a licensed marriage-family therapist in Los Angeles shares: “Video gives us just one view of someone. There’s a missing piece of the energy of the physicality of the person. So what ends up happening is that we start developing a fantasy of this person, just given the information that we have. And then the fantasy takes over and we start imagining what this person’s going to be like. We start imagining what it’s going to be like when we finally meet and we start feeding and nurturing this fantasy.” And if the fantasy doesn’t match up with the reality? That was the risk in 1942, and it’s still a risk we take today. So many variables go into a long term and successful relationship, but often— wherever that spark may be—it’s still a risk worth taking.
Kate Berry and Graham Ward in a scene from CRT’s 2016 production of The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, which explored artificial intelligence, love, and relationships throughout time and space.
Post Show Questions: • • • •
Do you think Jack and Louise’s relationship would be successful today? Why or why not? Has our ability to be patient changed in the modern world? Do you still correspond to a friend or family member over letters? Why or why not? Find yourself a pen pal! If you haven’t done so lately, try writing a letter of any length to one of your favorite people. Ask them to write you back. See what happens!