Misalliance is now considered one of the most delightful plays in the Shavian canon; however it was not always so popular. Severely denounced by the London critics when it first appeared in 1910, Misalliance vanished after only three performances. The New York premiere in 1917 also received unenthusiastic notices: The New Republic said, "Mr. Shaw shrinks several sizes in the estimate of a normally patient man." It wasn't until 1953 that the play began to catch on. The successful revival at the City Center in New York under the direction of Cyril Ritchard led New York Herald Tribune critic Brooks Atkinson to remark that "Shaw's Misalliance may be graded upward " He went on to call the play "sparkling and contrary in the best Shavian style " In The New York Times, Walter Kerr called Misalliance "the funniest subjectless play I have ever seen."
When the National Tour of this production came to Pittsburgh in October 1953, it played at the Nixon Theatre. The Pittsburgh Press's Kaspar Monahan called the play "one of the most hilarious farces in centuries of playwrighting," and was puzzled by the chilly reception the play originally had received. He called the London critics "old-womanish scribblers." Perhaps the truth of the matter is
that Misalliance was so far ahead of its time that it took until 1953 for audiences to catch up with it. Certainly few plays can match its record of receiving one major New York revival each decade since that 1953 production. In 1961 at the Sheridan Square Playhouse, Misalliance was directed by Philip Minor who was praised for his "astute direction" of "a sprightly and stylish conversation piece." The New York Post critic Jerry Tai mer called the 1972 revival of Misalliance "delightful Shaw which means topdrawer in any theater." Reviewing the play again in 1981, Walter Kerr said: "The cross pollination, the gleeful leap from topic to topic and impertinence to impertinence, keep the whole business bouyant, impishly and nervelessly defying all the dusty known rules for survival on a playhouse stage."
The Dallas Times Herald critic described the current Dallas Theater Center production directed by Philip Minor like this: "What a smart, crackling, playful production! Don't wait for me to qualify this rave, because I'm not going to." As Kaspar Monahan said back in 1953: "Once again the Old Boy of English Letters demonstrates that a great writer's works never grow old."
Stephen Berwind
George Bernard Shaw: Man of Ideas
Hating the name of George, Shaw was called Sonny by his family, Bernard by his friends, G.B.S. by himself, and names unprintable by countless victims of his pointed wit. That wit, which became his trademark and which brought him fame and fortune, was an expression of sadness as much as anger - the sadness of someone who is disillusioned with both his own and mankind's failure to live up to a certain potential.
George Bernard Shaw grew up in a curious home environment - which he later described as loveless and joyless - consisting of a drunken father, who gave him his strong sense of humor and a fondness for deflating sacred cows; an embittered mother, who gave him his rich background in music; and George Vandaleur Lee, his mother's singing teacher, who lived with and helped to support the family. When Lee left for the richer rewards of London, Mrs. Shaw followed, and the financial pinch forced Shaw to leave school and take a job as a clerk at a Dublin real estate office. The job bored him and Dublin bored him, and he was convinced that he could never fulfill his destiny of greatness in such a small pond. Thus, in 1876, at the age of twenty, Shaw set out for London.
During his early London years, Shaw lived off his mother, read voraciously at the British Museum, joined countless literary and debating societies (to cure
himself of his Irish brogue and his almost pathological shyness) and wrote. Between 1879 and 1883 he wrote five novels, all enjoyable, but none of which was accepted for publication. Nonetheless, the experience was invaluable. During the same period Shaw. came to know most of the leading young British socialists and joined the newly formed Fabian Society. In the bourgeois Marxism of the Fabians Shaw found a cause to which he could dedicate his talents; for forty years, as an essayist and debater, preacher and clown, he was the chief architect and spokesman for the Fabian program to make England a socialist parliamentary state.
But political action, however intense, provided an outlet for only part of Shaw's incredible energy. Having failed as a novelist, he turned to journalism, and over a period of fifteen years was art critic, music critic, book reviewer and drama critic for a variety of London papers and magazines. The music criticism may well be the wittiest ever written, and it gave Shaw his first taste of notoriety, but it was through drama criticism that he found his true career.
In 1892 an ambitious theatrical entrepreneur named J:T. Grein complained to Shaw, who wa-s"lne most adventurous of the London critics, that his two-year effort to bring the plays of Ibsen, StrindContinued on Page 2
Ford Rainey and Stephanie Dunnam play John Tarleton and his daughter, Hypatia , in the Public Theater's Misalliance.
George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1925, as he neared ninety.
berg and Hauptmann to London was being frustrated by the total absence of any British experimental playwrights. It was a challenge which Shaw determined to take on single-handedly. So it was later that same year, Grein's Independent Theatre produced the first of Shaw's socalled 'unpleasant' plays, Widowers' Houses, to the cheers of the socialists in the audience, the catcalls of the conservatives, and the profound indifference of virtual Ii everyone e_lse in London. It was a flawed play, rarely revived, but it launched Shaw, at the age of thirty-six, on his extraordinary fifty-eight year career as playwright, public figure and gadfly to the national conscience
George Bernard Shaw's life spanned ninety-four of the most difficult and exciting years in modern history, extending from the end of the Crimean War in 1856 to the dawn of the space age in 1950. These were years of extremely rapid and drastic change in Western culture, brought on by several great wars and by the development of modern technology. Some people were prepared for social and political change, but many were not and tried to preserve traditional ways of thinking and living. Shaw was one who not only accepted change but also fought for it publicly.
It is sometimes assumed that because Shaw and the Fabians were a significant force in English political life, his plays must be a species of propaganda, an instrument of his socialism. Shaw's object was not to communicate a lesson, a message or a moral, but to make his audience think Thought, especially new thought, could be painful - but wit could make it easier to take That wit remained an indelible mark of Shaw's character and art.
Dr. Robert Whitman
breakup of the Fabian alliance
AFunny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forums
If you're like me, you often leave the theater with myriad questions about the play and playwright, as well as ideas that are prompted by issues in the play I often wish that I could talk with someone who could answer my questions. The Production Forum, which is held after the last Sunday matinee during the run of each play (December 23, 1984 for Misalliance), is just such a vehicle for audience questions and discussion.
A second forum has been scheduled for December 9, 1984 immediately after the matinee performance. As with all our forums, it is free to the public and one need not attend the performance in order to attend the forum. Shavian scholar, Mrs. Rodelle Weintraub, a former Associate Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University and Associate Editor of The Shaw Review, will speak about the women in Shaw's plays and answer questions from the audience. Mrs. Weintraub is the author of the book, Fabian Feminist: Bernard Shaw and Women. I know that despite my laughter, Shaw's Misalliance will provoke questions and ideas for both forums.
Stephen Berwind
Minor And Gardner: . Together Again
The Pittsburgh Public Theater's current production of Misalliance is a reunion for Public Theater Producing Director, William Gardner, and play director, Philip Minor. They have worked together in the past at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago where Mr. Minor directed George Bernard Shaw's Too True to Be Good with Jean Marsh, Twelfth Night with Jean Marsh and Ellis Rabb, and The Little Foxes with Geraldine Page and Rip Torn. Working with William Gardner at the Adelphi Festival Theatre in Garden City, New York, he directed What the Butler Saw with Wayne Rogers, Carrie Nye and George Martin.
When John Wright Stevens came to Pittsburgh for design conferences on Misalliance, he was kind enough to take out an hour in his day to talk to me about his work as the Set Designer for this production. After meetings with the Production Manager, scenic artists, electricians and others, John Wright and I sat on the steps of the Theater enjoying a warm fall evening and talked about set design as the audience crowded in to see 'night; Mother.
JOHN WRIGHT, HOW DO YOU BEGIN TO ASSEMBLE YOUR DESIGN?
The first thing that I do is to study the play; I try to immerse myself in the work at hand in order to discover its values and idiosyncrasies. Then, since this is my first time designing at the Public, I have had to get acquainted with the theater space as well.
I've worked with Philip Minor before, so the work of getting to know the director was eliminated.
HOW DID YOU AND PHILIP WORK TO· GETHER ON THE PLAY?
Philip knows the play cold - he's done it before and has very specific ideas about the play. We actually didn't talk about it (the design) that much. We had a mutually assumed approach that was basically straightforward. I wasn't looking to develop a style for the show as I might with a play that is less realistic, less specific. The play really has a fairly ordinary set of requirements. What I needed to discover was how literal I needed to be. Shaw imagined the play on a proscenium stage and gave us a very detailed description of what he wants the set to look like. I had to find the essentials and then decide what I could keep and what needed to be solved in a different way. That was helped by the de· cision to accept what was in the play and colored by the year in which the play was set, 1912 HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT PUTTING A PROSCENIUM PLAY ONTO A THRUST STAGE?
No. The second job in any design project, and usually the bigger problem, is deciding how to fit the play into a given theater space. I find this theater a very interesting, provocative space and I didn ' t want to negate that. I want to make the play grow out of the space - not try to impose a proscenium on the space. I felt that I could attach the set to the space and still achieve the lightness and airiness required. I've worked on letting the theater serve as part of the scenery - of
course there were economic advantages as well.
CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT HOW YOU APPROACHED THE PLAY?
I think it's possible to view the play as Hypatia's fantasy - what she would like to have happen. From that idea, I elected to use selected realism. I'm not trying to create a real, convincing illusion of the Tarletons' house. I want to get the right atmosphere. I've made the outdoors that surrounds the play the imagined environment while the characters inhabit a more real one.
WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?
I go back and research the world of the play (as I would with any play). I start searching for specific things from that time and place which I think would best serve the author's intentions. I've set the play in a glass conservatory that is attached to a brick Tudor-style house. The furniture consists of an amalgam of pieces that once served different functions in the main house and are now in the conservatory and eventually will end up in the attic. The visual look is important because it helps explain these people by showing the audience how they live. You can learn quite a lot about people through the things that they usethat's very supportive of what the characters are all about. Then, of course, there are the basic logistical problems of where the actors can come and go. That's more challenging on a thrust stage. The sightline demands are much greater in thrust as well. I've always liked the play and wanted to get to know Shaw better and the best way to accomplish that is to work with Misalliance and Shaw through a design project.
Unfortunately, though I could have talked with John Wright for much longer, the time had come for him to go into the Theater and see the performance of 'night, Mother. He invited me to attend the Production Meeting the next morning where he would have his rendering for the set and where his plans for Misalliance would be finalized. John Wright has created a truly exciting environment tor the Tarletons and their guests. As I listened to him describe his ideas, the play came to life for me. The challenge now is for our Public Theater scenic artists to realize John Wright's ideas on stage. Then, we all will be able to enjoy the final product when we come to see Misalliance
Stephen Berwind
Stephanie
David
Joseph
Lina
Mr. Minor is one of the busiest directors in America. His distinguished career has included the Broadway production of The Cocktail Party for APA and directing assignments at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe Theatre of San Diego, The Hartford Stage Company and Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. Among the Off-Broadway productions he has directed are Misalliance at the Sheridan square Playhouse, Yes Is for a Very Young Man, Arms And the Man and The Millionairess.
Mr. Minor's many acting credits include Uncle Vanya, directed by Adrian Hall, and his performance in The Iceman Cometh at New York's Circle in the Square. ,, Notable among Mr. Minor's other directing credits are Uncle Vanya with Wayne Rogers and Jean Marsh and a revival of Becque's A Woman of Paris with Geraldine Page. He has staged the Waverly Consort's A Christmas Story in Medieval Music at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Die Fledermaus at Art Park, Lewiston, New York.
Mr Minor is noted for his productions of Shaw's plays. His skill, paired with the skill of Shaw, promises Misalliance will be an eventful evening of theater.
George Bernard Shaw (right) and H.G. Wells before the
Misalliance set design by John Wright Stevens
famous Eliza Doolittles Who Learned Their Lessons From Shaw
Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion as an unabashed love letter" to the British actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who played the original Eliza at the Nixon Theatre In Pittsburgh in December, 1914
Julie Andrews as Eliza in My Fair Lady, the 1956 musical adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion, the biggest hit of the decade on Broadway.
Leslie Howard as Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza in the 1938 Gabriel Pascal-MGM British film Pygmalion.
Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film My Fair Lady with costumes by Cecil Beaton
f.v.1.
Box Office Hours
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Preview Fri.-Sat. eve. 15.50
Preview Sun, matinee 11.00 Student and senior citizen ½ price discounts are available 30 minutes before curtain time (if the performance is not sold-out) with valid identification.
Public Theater
Subscriber Wins Trip To London
The winner of the Pittsburgh Public Theater/TWA London Theater Week Sweepstakes is Deborah Addleman of Greentree, a Public Theater subscriber • for the past three years.
After a performance of 'night, Mother : at the Theodore L. Hazlett, Jr. Theater, William Gardner, Producing Director of the Public Theater, and Gary Ravan, General Sales Manager of TWA's Pittsburgh • office, drew Mrs. Addleman's name from a barrel containing more than 1,100 entries. The prize includes round-trip airfare to London, lodging at a first-class hotel, a city tour and tickets to two theater shows in London's West End.
Mrs. Addleman and her husband, Charles, are looking forward to seeing Mousetrap, London's longest running stage production, and another show of their choice.
An administrative assistant in the division of plastic surgery at Allegheny General Hospital and mother of two daughters, this will be Mrs. Addleman's first trip to Europe.
#either Rain Nor Sleet Nor Snow
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow causes cancellation of a performance at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. But when something happens to one of our lead performers, we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to cancel a performance. This happened on October 9th when Sonja Lanzener, who played Jessie, became ill, and we had to cancel a performance of 'night, Mother.
"At 4:15 on Tuesday, when we heard that Ms. Lanzener, on her doctor's advice, would be unable to perform that evening," explains Bill Gardner, the Public's Producing Director, "we began contacting our patrons for that performance. Our staff, armed with our customer records, manned the phones and within an -hour, had contacted 95% of our sold-out audience for that evening's performance, 493 ticket holders. To be certain that the public was aware that the performance was cancelled; we also contacted area radio and TV stations, and they began • broadcasting the cancellation. The next day, our Box Office recontacted ticket holders, to seat them in other performances of 'night, Mother. We were able • to accommodate virtually everyone in another performance that was convenient for them."
Group Rates
Special discounts of up to 50% off regular ticket prices are available for groups of 20 or more. Contact Pat Hart at (412) 323-8200 for more information and assistance in planning your group outing.
Can't Make It? Too Late to Exchange? Take a Tax Deduction! If you find you are unable to attend a performance and cannot exchange your tickets, you may take a tax deduction for the amount paid for each ticket not used. Just release your tickets for resale by calling the Box Office as soon as possible but as late as curtain time on the day of performance and give your name and seat location. Your seats can then be sold to someone else. The result? A tax deduction for you, a full house for us, and no turnaways at the box office. How to Obtain Single Ti~~ets
1. In person at the Box Office.
2. By mail. Enclose payment, note performance desired, include name, address, telephone number and a stamped self-addressed envelope. Mail to: Pittsburgh Public Theater Box Office, One Allegheny Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
3. By telephone. You may charge single tickets to your American Express, MasterCard, or Visa accounts by calling the Box Office at (412) 321-9800.
Build For The Blind Award To The Public
The Pittsburgh Public Theater was honored by the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind at their 25th Anniversary and Scholarship Fund dinner in September. Public Theater Board President David Hunter was presented with a plaque in recognition of the Theater's creation of workshops for the blind. The Public was the first theater in Pittsburgh to initiate special workshops for the blind before a performance of each play on their season schedule. Since their inception by the Public, these workshops have been used as a model for programs done by other theaters here in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in the country. The Public has also provided assistance to groups in creating their own workshops so that live theater is more accessible than ever for the visually impaired.
Subscriber Seats Still Available
Call today and order a subscription to five plays, beginning with Misalliance, before al I the seats are gone for the season.
Please have your credit card ready. Save up to 50% over single ticket prices.
Co.:.,ing Up Next
Strange Snow ' by Steve
Metcalfe
A tender-hearted and strong comedydrama by one of America's exciting young playwrights. During a turbulent and sometimes humorous reunion, two Vietnam veterans and the sister of one come to terms with their memories of the war, with themselves and with love. January 8-February 10
Room Service by John Murray and Allen Boretz
This outrageously hilarious romp is one of America's best showbiz satires. Araucous, whiz-bang farce with a zany cast of characters and no-holds-barred laughter. February 26-March 31
The workshops start one hour before the play begins with an orientation to the physical layout of the theater and the set. The play is summarized, and a physical description of the actors and their costumes is given. If the play has any action that is visual in nature, this is also described. An audio tape, made by members of the cast, is played so that patrons can make a voice identification for each actor. The actor gives his name, his character's name, and says a few representative lines. The workshop is designed to give visually impaired patrons enough information so that when the play begins, they can enjoy the experience of live theater.
Special ACCESS Transportation For Senior Citizens Or
Disabled Patrons
You can easily travel round trip I between your home and the Pittsburgh Public Theater by taxi, special mini-bus or van (with hydraulic lift for wheelchairs). If you are a senior citizen or dis~ abled, please call ACCESS at 562-5353. Ms. Regina Lackner will give you details and arrange for your special ACCESS transportation tickets at a 90% discount price.
Becoming
Memories by Arthur Giron
Although cancellation violates the th~atrical tradition that the show must go on, there are times when we have no choice. Unlike large, elaborate Broadway productions which can afford to have understudies for leiid roles, the Public's budget and the relatively short runs of each play do not allow us the ' luxury of understudies. One of the reasons we ask you, our subscribers and single ticket buyers, for your home and work telephone numbers is to enable us to reach you when Murphy's Law strikes the Public.
latecomer Seating
The Pittsburgh Public Theater is an exciting, intimate theater space. While this is an asset to our actors and audience under most circumstances, it is a problem when the House Manager is faced with the difficulty of seating latecomers to a performance. Seating latecomers is very disruptive to the actors on 'stage as well as to other audience members. {n consideration of the vast majority of our patrons who arrive on time, latecomers will be seated only at specific intervals during each play and only in an easily accessible area. The seating intervals are determined in advance by the director of each show in order to provide minimum interference with the performance. The staff is not allowed to admit late-arriving patrons except at specified times.
Pittsburgh Public Theater One Alleglpeny Square 'Pittsburgh.'Pennsylvania 15212-5318
Editor: Designer: Marketing Manager: Mary G. Guaraldi Michael Neill Rosalind Ruch
This extraordinary new play is a loving look at the American past, in the tradition of Quilters and The Dining Room. Based on authentic family histories of the early 20th century, here's a warm and passionate tribute to courtship and marriage. April 16-May 19
Spectacular Finale To Be Selected
An exciting production of a world classic; or a colorful musical, or a new American play. We're talking to some of America's finest actors, directors and playwrights in order to present the best possible choice forourTenth Anniversary Finale. June 4-July 7
GettingTo The Public Is A Snap!
The Pittsburgh Public Theater is located in Allegheny Center on the north side of the Allegheny River, directly across from the 6th and 7th Street Bridges. From the North Hills, take McKnight Road/ East Street to East Ohio Street. Turn right onto East Ohio, following it directly to Allegheny Center. From the South Hills, take 279 to the Fort Pitt Tunnel Bridge, exiting onto the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Follow the signs to the Northside. Turn right at the first light onto Ridge Avenue, taking Ridge to Allegheny Center. From the West End, take the West End Bridge turning onto Western Avenue. Follow Western to Brighton, turn right on Brighton, go two blocks and then turn left onto West Ohio Street which leads directly to Allegheny Center. From the east suburbs, take 376 to the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Turn right at the first light onto Ridge, following it directly to the Center. In addition to adjacent street parking, convenient indoor parking is available below the Allegheny Center shopping mall; use entrances 3 or 4. Bus transportation is available to the Public via the following routes: 11 A, B, D; 16 C, D; 17 B (from Downtown); or 54 C (from Oakland). For more information, call the Port Authority of Transit at 231-5707.
Contributors: Producing Director: Stephen Berwind, David Herbert, Susan Larkin William T. Gardner
