PlayGuide "The Nerd"

NOVEMBER 12 - DECEMBER 15, 2019 | QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE

by Larry Shue | Directed by JC Clementz SPONSORED BY

Executive Producers: Julia & Bladen Burns, Caran & Joel Quadracci

www.MilwaukeeRep.com | 414-224-9490

By Larry Shue | Directed by JC Clementz

NOVEMBER 12 DECEMBER 15, 2019 QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE Table of Contents Mark Clements ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Chad Bauman EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ✸✸✸

PLAYGUIDE WRITTEN BY

Lindsey Hoel-Neds Content Writer

Frances White Contributing Writer

Kristen Carter Contributing Writer

PLAYGUIDE EDITED BY

Synopsis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Creative Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Production History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Larry Shue & The Rep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Intersection of Farce and Realism in The Nerd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 “Nerds” in Popular Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9 Featured Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A Discussion with The Nerd Director, JC Clementz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Jenny Toutant Education Director

Lisa Fulton Chief Marketing Officer

Auburn Matson Education Administrator

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Jeff Meyer 2

The Nerd - PlayGuide

synopsis

The Nerd takes place in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1979 in the home of Willum Cubbert, an architect.

Willum arrives home on his birthday to his two friends and tenants, Tansy and Axel, surprising him and preparing for an evening gathering. Tansy and Willum have a mutual attraction, but seem to have trouble committing to more than being friends. Tansy has decided she must move to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career as a TV meteorologist and is struggling with letting Willum know.

When Willum checks his answering machine, he discovers a message from a man from his past, Rick Steadman, who saved Willum’s life in Vietnam. Over the years, Rick and Willum have exchanged some letters and cards, but have never actually met. Willum has promised Rick that he could ask Willum for help at any time. Apparently, that time is now, as Rick is coming to visit.

During the evening’s festivities, Willum will be hosting Mr. Waldgrave, a client for whom Willum is designing a hotel. The uptight Mr. Waldgrave has brought with him his put-upon wife, Clelia, and their obnoxious son, Thor. Rick also arrives, and his awkward mannerisms and behavior ruin the evening for everyone at the party. As the Waldgraves leave with their dignity and tempers barely intact, Rick comes back into the house carrying a suitcase. William doesn’t have the gumption to tell him to leave, so Rick becomes Willum’s new houseguest.

Act II opens six days later, and Willum is worse for wear due to the insufferable omnipresence of Rick.

Axel offers up a solution for ridding themselves of Rick and saving Willum’s sanity and career in the process. Willum tries to ask Rick to leave in his own way, but cannot seem to counter Rick’s guilt tripping. At his wit’s end, Willum finally decides to give Axel’s plan a try.

The next night, Tansy, Axel, and Willum welcome Rick to a special “traditional Terre Haute dinner” and regale him with bizarre stories and customs to push his buttons and hopefully force him to leave.

Hijinks ensue and the fate of Willum’s career and life hang in the balance. Will they be able to force “the nerd” out for good, or will they all just have to accept Rick and his oddity as a fixture in their lives?

creative team

Arnel V. Sancianco Scenic Designer

Misti Bradford Costume Designer

Lee Fiskness

Lighting Designer

Pornchanok (Nok) Kanchanabanca Sound Designer

Frank Honts Casting Director

JC Clementz Director

www.MilwaukeeRep.com

Larry Shue Playwright

Kate Ocker

Stage Manager

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characters Willum Cubbert a 34-year-old architect who lacks “gumption,” landlord to Tansy and Axel, veteran whose life was saved in Vietnam

by Rick Steadman.

Andy Nagraj

Mr. Warnock Waldgrave owner of the hotel that Willum is designing, uptight and stern, has high expectations of Willum and his work.

Chris Mixon Tansy a tenant of Willum’s who shares a mutual attraction with him, she has dreams of moving to Washington, D.C. to become a weather woman, lives with Axel.

Alex Keiper

Lillian Castillo Axel a newspaper drama critic, friends and roommates with Tansy, instigator of plots and sharp-witted.

Charlie Cornell

Jeremy Peter Johnson

Michael Doherty

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Rick Steadman the “nerd” of the title, a veteran who saved Willum’s life, but who is a bizarre and obnoxious man of whom the others just can’t seem to rid themselves.

Mrs. Clelia Waldgrave the put-upon wife of Mr. Waldgrave, she is a school teacher who uses unique coping strategies to deal with her husband, child, and other circumstances.

Thor Waldgrave Mr. and Mrs. Waldgrave’s eight-year-old son, he is fearful and also mischievous, what one might at first describe as a “brat.”

Damon McCoy

The Nerd - PlayGuide

From left: Daniel Mooney as Axel Hammond, Maggie Thatcher as Tansy McGinnis, James Pickering as Rick Steadman, and Larry Shue as Willum Cubbert in The Rep’s 1981 production of The Nerd. Photo by Mark Avery.

Melinda Pfundstein, Brian Vaughn, Torrey Hanson, and Gerard Neugent in The Rep’s 2007 production of The Nerd. Photo by Jay Westhauser.

production history The Nerd premiered at Milwaukee Rep in April of 1981 with playwright Larry Shue in the title role. The play saw its next production in Manchester, England at the Royal Exchange in 1982. In 1987, the play made its way to Broadway, and ran for 441 performances. The Broadway production starred Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame, and was directed by comedian and television personality, Charles Nelson Reilly. In 1989, NBC ordered a pilot of a television series based on the play, but the series was never optioned. This year’s production is the fourth time Milwaukee Rep has staged the play. Over the almost forty years since The Nerd premiered at The Rep, it has seen many regional, community, and school productions, and is considered one of the great modern American comedies. www.MilwaukeeRep.com

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larry shue and milwaukee rep

Larry Shue, Journal staff photo. Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

Larry Shue. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.

Larry Shue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 23, 1946. He grew up in both Kansas and Illinois and attended Illinois Wesleyan University. He graduated cum laude in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Theater and saw two of his plays performed at the university during his time there. Shue served in the Army until 1972, during the height of the Vietnam War. This experience is reflected in several characters and storylines in his plays. After leaving the Army, Shue began his career in the theater, acting and writing for the Harlequin Dinner Theaters in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Shue joined Milwaukee Rep in 1977, beginning as part of the acting company, but later focusing on playwriting. At the request of Artistic Director, John Dillon, Shue became The Rep’s Playwright in Residence upon the success of his one-act play Grandma Duck is Dead in 1979. During his tenure as The Rep’s resident playwright, Shue penned his two most famous comedies, The Nerd (1981) and The Foreigner (1983).

Just as Shue’s star was on the rise, with The Foreigner selling out Off-Broadway, Shue preparing for his first big Broadway role, and The Nerd on tour in London, an unexpected tragedy occurred. Shue died in a plane crash on September 29, 1985 at the age of 39. While Shue left behind only a handful of works, those that he did share with the world have continued to keep audiences laughing from small community theaters to Broadway stages. The Rep is honored to be a part of his legacy and the place that he called his theatrical home.

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Background designed by Vecteezy.com.

Maggie Thatcher and Larry Shue in rehearsals for The Nerd, 1981. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Nerd - PlayGuide

Henry Strozier as Warnock Waldgrave in The Rep’s 1981 production of The Nerd. Photo by Mark Avery.

THE INTER SEC TIONS OF

Farce Realism AND

IN Farce as a theatrical art form has existed for centuries. Originally, the term “farce” denoted a short, comedic interlude between more somber sections of longer plays. Eventually, the term evolved to its modern meaning, which is a more specific style of comedy characterized by unlikely predicaments, verbal humor, mistaken identities, and physical comedy. While the absurdity of farce is definitely present in Shue’s work, the grounding in reality of his plays makes his work unique.

In The Nerd, classic elements of farce abound, and yet the story of Willum and his friends and guests is based in a strictly mundane setting and situation. The intersection of everyday occurrences like a dinner for a boss, having friends over, or just coming home from work with the zaniness of Rick’s character and the situational elements this brings puts The Nerd in interesting theatrical territory. Throughout the play, the abundance of absurd situations Rick’s presence brings to the lives of the other characters moves the play squarely into the realm of farcical comedy. Shue once described the story of this play and The Foreigner thusly: “I found an interesting character and tried to fill in a world around him.”

The play also embraces the physical comedy that is so much a part of farce. Not only is Rick a highly physical character to portray, but the other characters also find themselves in many uproarious and sometimes precarious physical circumstances. As a Chicago Tribune review of the original Broadway production stated, “Farce, a most unforgiving form of theater, demands a high percentage of precision. Near misses do not count.” This precision is also needed not only for the physical elements of the show, but also the rapid-fire jokes and lines written into Shue’s script.

Famous Farces Lysistrata, Aristophanes, 411 BCE Tartuffe, Molière, 1664 A Flea in Her Ear, Feydeau, 1907 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sondheim, 1962 Noises Off, Frayn, 1982 Lend Me a Tenor, Ludwig, 1985

Gerard Neugent in The Rep’s 2007 production of The Nerd. Photo by Jay Westhauser.

In the end, the farcical elements of the play intersect with the seemingly mundane reality of Willum’s life, turning it upside down. While the unassuming architect searches for ways to rid himself of his unwanted houseguest, hijinks and comedy ensue, bringing us all along for the ride.

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“Nerds” in Popular Culture: Nerd: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person, especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits.

- Merriam-Webster

"Nerd. One whose unbridled passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person without fear of other people's judgement."

- Zachary Levi, Actor, Singer, Director, Nerd

1950: The word “nerd” appears for the first time in print in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo. Photo Credit: Paul Kienitz.

1990s: As the internet becomes accessible to more people, fandoms begin to find their place online and nerd subcultures begin to be more defined by their pop culture tastes and less by their academic pursuits.

October, 1951: Newsweek publishes an article referencing the latest slang and notes, “In Detroit, someone who would once be called a drip or a square, is now, regrettably, a nerd.”

1996: The term “Geek Chic” arrives and designers start to copy stereotypical nerd styles, including high-water pant hems.

Photo Credit: Herringbone and Houndstooth Blog.

1960: The spelling “nurd” comes into common usage and dominates for some time.

1968: The “Save Star Trek” movement is the first successful mass action of the nerd agenda.

1970: Comic-Con International: San Diego has its first convention.

Photo Credit: Vaka Rangi.

1999: Star Wars: Episode I is released and acceptance of nerdy love for all things Star Wars-related becomes just a little more socially acceptable.

1999: Freaks and Geeks premieres on NBC, showing the lives of a group of outcasts attending high school in 1980.

Even though the show only lasted one season, it has been lauded as one of the best shows of all time by multiple sources and launched the careers of several of its stars.

Early 2000s: Comic-Con grows rapidly and embraces many different fandoms.

The defining of nerds or geeks becomes much more about what people consume than what they produce (fandoms vs. “nerd” careers).

Photo Credit: Wired.

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Background designed by Vecteezy.com.

Photo Credit: Time.

The Nerd - PlayGuide

From Obscurity to Ubiquity There is much debate about the origin of the term “nerd,” its original meaning, and its spelling.

Regardless, the idea of “the nerd” has been a part of our popular culture for almost seventy years. While a bookish, intellectually-focused, and socially inept person was not a new character in popular culture, the idea of “the nerd” truly came into its own in the 1950s and beyond. And thus, this is where we will begin our nerdy exploration.

1974: On Happy Days (set right here in Milwaukee), the Fonz uses the term frequently to describe uncool, bookish types.

Usage of the word skyrockets.

1975: National Lampoon’s publishes a poster titled “Are You a Nurd?” outlining the qualities of the “type” and helping define nerds for years to come.

Photo Credit: The Trad.

1984: Revenge of the 1978: The character Nerds is released and of Eugene Felsnic in nerds everywhere are heartened by the Grease plays the line, “We’ve got news stereotypical nerd for the beautiful and is the butt of people- there are many jokes in the more of us than film. there are of you!”

1980s: Writer/ director John Hughes creates some of the most iconic nerd characters of the decade in films such as The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Sixteen Candles.

Photo Credit: Retroland.

Photo Credit: E! News.

2007: CBS debuts The Big Bang Theory, a show that revolves around a group of friends who are the most stereotypical of nerds. The show brings nerd culture squarely into the mainstream and runs for twelve seasons.

2013: A reality competition show, entitled King of the Nerds premieres, pitting self-proclaimed nerds against each 2012: Glasses become other to see who is the accessory du jour the ultimate nerd. and everyone, especially those who are not at all visually impaired, decides to Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter. sport the nerdiest of frames.

2016: “Geek chic” reappears on fashion runways . . . again.

2016: Pokémon Go comes out and nerds and non-nerds alike are catching Pokémon throughout the real world.

Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal.

Photo Credit: Suzanne Carillo.

2019: Nerds are everywhere. Even non-nerds say they are nerds. As nerd icon, Wil Wheaton said, “Becoming mainstream is the wrong word; the mainstream is catching up.” Today, it is truly hip to be a square.

Photo Credit: the-big-bang-theory.com.

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Photo Credit: 2014 Trending.

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Tell us about your history with The Nerd.

I have kind of a long standing history/relationship with the play. I first encountered The Nerd in high school. I read it, fell in love with it, and I thought, “Larry Shue is a total genius.” I tried producing and directing and starring in it my senior year of high school. I got the rights and we were a week into rehearsal and I thought, “Wait. We need to build a set and find props,” and I couldn’t do it. So I cancelled my production of The Nerd. It feels very full circle that I now get to do that part in the place where it was birthed! It feels amazing.

Obviously you’ve loved it since you were young, what about it?

At that time I had not read a lot of plays, [but] it was the funniest play I had ever read and in recently rereading it, that opinion hasn’t changed. I just really appreciate his wit, sense of humor, vocabulary for talking about things, and just the loveliness with which his characters talk to one another. I think he cultivates a really lovely world.

How would you describe The Nerd?

The Nerd is hilarious, unbelievable, lovely, unexpected, and kind, I will say. Although maybe not “the nerd” himself.

The funny thing about The Nerd is that the title character is not the protagonist; he is, in fact, the antagonist.

What can audiences expect from The Nerd?

Anyone familiar with Larry Shue can expect his brilliant comic mind and anyone who is not, I do not know if you will quite know what to expect. I cannot think of any writer who does quite what Shue does in his work. I think it is a fun journey to be on.

This play premiered here at Milwaukee Rep in 1981, and this will be our fourth production of it. Are you nervous?

I am so excited. It is one of those roles [that has been] a decade in waiting for me, so I am thinking, “Let me at it!” It also gives me a chance to work with my fiancée, Alex Keiper, who is going to be doing it with me. And we are going to be getting married during the run of the show! And so we will have the end of tech rehearsal, we will have dinner, we will get married, and then the next day we will have the first preview of the show.

What else have you done here at The Rep? In 2013 I played Younger Brother in Ragtime and I stayed to do Aaron Posner’s version of A Christmas Carol. And I would do that three more times, including Mark Clements’ first time writing it. Doing Ragtime here was one of the more memorable theater experiences of my life. The way that it affected the city, doing it in the most segregated city in America, at least at the time, it felt so important. It felt so of this moment and it felt like everything theater should be. It felt like the closest theater can come to magic and I will carry that with me forever.

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The Nerd - PlayGuide

ITH

ION W A DISCUSS

ENTZ

CLEM C J , R TO

DIREC

Q: What are you most excited about in directing The Nerd?

A: It is really exciting to direct such a classic play that is equated with Milwaukee Rep. As a former staff member and someone who has directed five shows in the Stackner Cabaret, to have my first play in the Powerhouse be Larry Shue’s The Nerd is just so exciting. It is so funny, it is poignant. I think audiences will just have the best time and I am excited to be back.

Q: How did your experience working at The Rep influence you as an artist?

A: I came to The Rep as a Directing Intern and then got hired onto the staff. I spent five years here and they were the most formative years of my career. I got to assistant direct for some amazing directors and then Mark gave me a chance to direct in the Stackner Cabaret with Forever Plaid. This will be my sixth show with The Rep. The experiences I have had here have laid a foundation for the rest of my career.

Q: You've directed at The Rep many times before. Which of those shows was your favorite and why?

A: I have loved every show that I have directed here, but I would say my favorite is probably either The Doyle and Debbie Show or Murder for Two. Q: How do you plan on approaching the story of The Nerd as a director?

Comedy is really hard and I think that the best thing about this play is that it is a smart play, it is inherently funny, and as a director the most important thing in finding the humor in a play is to approach it truthfully. In that truth is where you find the humor because then you can relate to it as an audience member and go, “Oh, I can see myself in that situation.”

Q: Larry Shue's plays continue to be perennial favorites at The Rep; what do you most enjoy about his work?

A: There is an absurdism to his work. There is a silliness to Larry Shue’s work that I just find delightful. I laugh reading the script which is something very rare. I read a lot of scripts. I was reading the script again this morning and was giggling at many of the things that happen in The Nerd.

Q: This play premiered at The Rep almost forty years ago. Why do you think it will resonate with audiences in 2019?

A: For a play that was written almost forty years ago, it has great staying power. There is a reason that it is done all across the country in theaters that span from community theaters to professional theaters. It all started here at The Rep. There is something about this play that makes everyone laugh. It is an inclusive play where everyone can find something funny.

Q: Do you consider yourself a nerd?

A: We all are nerds, I think. It is interesting because when this play was written, I think there was a different connotation of what a nerd was: someone who does not have any social skills, someone who is completely boring. There has been a trend to take back that word and embrace it. Science fiction, science, being good at math - those are all things that now we embrace and we say, “Yeah, I am a nerd.” You look at Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, people that you would say “They are nerds,” and we celebrate them today. We celebrate George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones. We celebrate science fiction. We celebrate Star Wars and Star Trek. People can say “Yeah, I am proud to be a nerd” now.

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https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-nerd-4445 https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/23/nyregion/theater-review-the-nerd-who-came-to-dinner-and-stayed.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-11-19-8703270184-story.html https://variety.com/2006/legit/markets-festivals/the-nerd-1200516788/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Shue

Nerd Culture

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/sunday-review/were-all-nerds-now.html https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nerd https://www.theodysseyonline.com/nerds-and-geeks-are-the-new-popular-kids https://news.quirktastic.co/post/emergence-weirdo-ism-popular-geek-culture/ https://www.stereogum.com/1749111/a-history-of-nerds-in-pop-culture-5/vg-loc/videogum/ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-nerd https://paulkienitz.net/nerd-history.html

Farce

https://www.milwaukeerep.com/RepGlobal/archive/noises-playguide.pdf

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resources

About the Play and Playwright

The Nerd - PlayGuide

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