Although the players are in costume and the language has the rhythmic formality of the eighteenth century, the heart of the play is vibrantly modern. Goldsmith's capacity for inventing sprightly situations and investing them with humor can still dominate a stage. His gift was to see people truly and to laugh at some and with others.
-Howard Taubman, New York Times, 1960
the startling thing is the discovery that the production's humour is as fresh and sparkling as if Goldsmith were a contemporary of Neil Simon. It is impossible to think of Goldsmith except in the present tense after seeing this immortal play which may well continue to be a hit right into the 21st century.
-Montreal Gazette, 1972
For some years tragedy was the reigning entertainment; but of late it has given way to comedy ...The pompous train, the swelling phrase and the unnatural rant are displaced for that natural portrait o human folly and frailty of which all are judges because all have sat for the picture.
- Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith from the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Viewers and reviewers for more than two centuries have applauded Oliver Goldsmith's comedy, She Stoops To Conquer. They have been amazed: "The scenes are so many beauties Each one belongs, it contributes." (Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram, 1960) And they have been amused: "She Stoops stands high and joyfully among the best comedies in the language." (Kenneth Huron, What's on in London, 1928) After attending the 1984 Roundabout Theater production starring E.G. Marshall and Kaye Ballard as Squire and Mrs. Hardcastle, Mel Gussow wrote, "Goldsmith set out to satirize the senti mental comedy of his era, and managed to have it both ways. He chided the debilitating gentility of the gentry at the same time that he cheered an audience with good-natured romantic hijinks."
This was Goldsmith's aim: as he laments in his 1772 "Essay on the Theatre," comic plays just weren't funny anymore. "Which deserves the preference," he demanded, "the weeping sentimental comedy so much in fashion at present, or the laughing, and even low comedy, which seems to have been last exhibited by Vanbrugh and Gibber?" He labored for three months in seclusion on She Stoops and rushed with it to George Colman, the manager at th_e Covent Garden Theater in London. Goldsmith was told he would have to wait: Colman was not sure the play was at all funny and the actors were
no more enthused than he. Fortunately for our author, Samuel Johnson liked the piece and pressured Colman to present it. On March 20, 1773 Johnson could cheer, "I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience."
Psychological astuteness and a firm reliance on an intrinsically amusing plot are key to the play's success. She Stoops has been more often performed than almost any other play in the English language, Shakespeare aside, and has been graced by many fine casts. In 1924 Helen Hayes played Constance opposite Paul McAllister's Hastings at the Empire Theater. Celeste Holm as Kate, Burl Ives as the Squire, Brian Aherne as Tony Lumpkin and Evelyn Varden as Mrs. Hardcastle performed to acclaim in 1949. Another sterling She Stoops was done in 1969 at Washington, D.C.'s National Repertory Theater with Geoff Garland (who appeared earlier this season in the Public's production of Life with Father) as Lumpkin and Sylvia Sidney (Pittsburgh Public Theater Season 10, 'night, Mother) as the greedy but doting Mrs. Hardcastle.
Goldsmith feared that having "banished humor from the stage, we should ourselves be deprived of the art of laughing." His response to this fear has become one of the eighteenth-century's best-known plays. "Nothing," praised Virginia Woolf, '.'could be more amusing than She Stoops to Conquer."
Wendy Nardi
You, our subscribers, will get the first look at Season 12, and the chance to keep - or change - your seats, when you receive your renewal packet in the mail. You'll get a preview of our exciting play considerations for next season, including recent works that have gathered raves in New York. On your renewal form, you can also help us pick our new season by listing the plays you would like to see at the Public. Renewing is as easy as mailing us your form, or calling 321-9800. You can also renew in our theater lobby when we see you for She Stoops To Conquer performarices beginning February 25. Your order now guarantees you the best theater seats in town!
Shy Ge n ius
Oliver Goldsmith was a "wayward child of genius" who, despite wanderings and a poor scholastic record, wrote a classic novel (The Vicar of Wakefield), a classic poem (The Deserted Village) and a classic play (She Stoops to Conquer), which placed him among the great figures of English letters.
Born in Jreland in November, 1728, Goldsmith himself was a classic figure who epitomized both the garret-artist, sought more as a debtor than as a writer, and the flamboyant socialite, wearing gaudy accessories and azure silk pants to appear in London society. He held little in reserve: generous to friends and sultanic in his tastes, any money he earned was soon spent. Likewise, whatever literary form he turned to was soon mastered: the exigencies of excessive shyness coupled with natural talent to refine his wit and insight far beyond the norm. Like young Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith feared the company of well-born women. Indeed, all fashionable society intimidated this poor curate's son. He stammered when nervous and behaved outrageously at times in an effort to compensate for his timidity. "I was never distinguished for address," he frequently confessed, "and have often blundered in making my bow.''
Wendy Nardi
Talking With . . . Stage Manager Roy Backes
Images From Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage
Living Stage brings to the Public a very speciijl event: Images. In Images we will meet a young disabled teenager striving to realize his dreams in an able-bodied world very real in its competitiveness and prejudices.
The Living Stage Theatre Company is based in Washington, D.C. as an outreach program of the famed Arena Stage to bring art and creative expression to the young, the aged, the incarcerated and the disabled. Indeed, Living Stage has since its inception in 1966 been dedicated to the discovery and fostering of artistry in the individual and to the recognition that creative expression is a basic human need.
Images is a play created especially for Living Stage's upcoming residency in Pittsburgh, which is funded by a grant from the Hasbro Children's Foundation and will last nearly a week The performance on March 3, 1986 at Pittsburgh Public Theater's HazlettTheaterwill begin the company's visit, which will continue with workshops designed to introduce local artists, parents, educators
The Stage Manager is one of the most important people in a theater, yet the stage manager's job is one of the least understood by the general public. We decided to talk with Public Theater Stage Manager, Roy Backes, about the life of a Stage Manager.
ROY, YOU HAVE BEEN AT THE PUBLIC FOR A LONG TIME. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED HERE?
I've been here tor ten seasons. I missed the first season and started the very beginning of the second season. I was first hired as a part-time carpenter, a grunt. I worked my way up to full time carpenter. I think it was the beginning of the fourth season that I became a stage manager. Of Mice and Men was my first show. Since then I've stage managed about 25 shows and some special events and new plays in the Plus-Six series.
THAT'S A LOT OF STAGE MANAGING. I IMAGINE THAT MOST OF OUR READERS DON'T HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT A STAGE MANAGER DOES.
(Laughs) You're probably right. The job is varied. What you do depends on where you are in the process. One of the main things that a Stage Manager does is to protect the actors in terms of all the Equity rules. [Actors' Equity Association is the actor's union.] The stage manager is the representative who's there to make sure that management obeys all the rules because the stage manager is also a member of Actors' Equity.
STARTING AT THE BEGINNING, TELL US ABOUT THE PROCESS FOR A STAGE MANAGER.
First of all during rehearsals, I consider myself as the information funnel in the rehearsal hall. It's up to me to insure that what happens in the rehearsal is directed to the different departments so that everyone knows what's going on. I get very specific in my notes to all the different departments. For instance, I'll send a note to costumes that a flask has to go into an inside jacket pocket so that when we get to tech week we don't have any problems. [Tech week is the week before public performances when the technical aspects, sets, costumes, lights and props are incorporated into the play.] I send notes to props about what props are needed, the size or shape, and how they're used by the actors.
Then when we're in performance, I'm in charge of calling the show - all the cues, light cues, sound cues, etc. During the run of the show, I work toward maintaining the actors' performances. In rehearsals I pay a lot of attention to what the director has to say to the actors about how the director wants them to do their roles. Then every night I watch the show very closely, noting what the actors do I make sure that the actors stay within the parameters that the director has set up. I allow the actors room to grow in their roles; I don't agree with stage managers who give out a lot of notes during a show and keep the actors in a straJghtjacket. I pay a lot of attention to the boundaries that the director creates.
IT LOOKS LIKE PATIENCE, GOOD JUDGMENT, AND BEING ABLE TO DEAL WELL WITH PEOPLE ARE THE QUALITIES THAT ONE NEEDS TO BE A STAGE MANAGER.
I think the biggest thing is patience and being able to communicate well to others so that you keep everybody working on a level key. This is a tense business and everyone gets overworked and underpaid. The stage manager has to keep everybody happy and working hard toward the common goal of realizing the production.
YOU GREASE THE WHEELS THAT MAKE THE WHOLE ENGINE MOVE.
Yeah, yeah. I love it. What matters to me as a stage manager isn't that the audience and the press and the outside world understand what I do. What really matters is that my peers - actors, technicians, directors - respect what I do and how I do what I do. I think stage managing is an exciting job.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST OR MOST INTERESTING TECHNICAL PROBLEMS YOU'VE HAD TO DEAL WITH AS A STAGE MANAGER?
K2 was the most difficult technical show to deal with because Jim Harper was afraid of heights and, unfortunately, he had to do all the climbing. I also had snow and avalanches in the show.
YOU HAD AN EMERGENCY DURING THAT SHOW ONE NIGHT, DIDN'T YOU?
Yeah. The only time in my career that I had to stop a show. Jim Harper inhaled a piece of the plastic snow that we used. When Jim climbed up to the grid, he told one of the crew people that he was having a problem. He continued for about ten minutes and then he stopped the show. He said "I'm sorry, but I need the stage manager" and I had to climb down and make an announcement. We cancelled that performance. He was fine the next day, but it was pretty scary for him.
OTHER THAN STAGE MANAGING, DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER AMBITIONS IN THE THEATER?
I'd like to continue to stage manage for a couple of years. I'd love to do Broadway - to stage manage on Broadway. Then, "I'd like to get into writing. I'm interested in being an artist. I've toyed with the idea of directing. I don't know that I want to do that yet. Later on, maybe 15 years down the road, I'd like to teach. I'm really interested in teaching the youth of this world about the realities of show business - like how to get a job. I think that students are taught techniques, but they aren't prepared for what it's like when they have to go out in the world and get a job. It's the old catch-22. Nobody wants to hire you until they see what you can do, but how can they see your work if nobody will take a chance and hire you?
Exuding calmness, confidence, and warmth, it is easy to understand why Roy Backes is such a popular stage manager. Stephen Berwind
Behind-The-Scen~s Tour Of British Theater
The Pittsburgh Public Theater is planning a unique, exclusive and affordable nine-day theater tour to London and Stratford-upon-Avon. In addition to the fabulous sights and great shopping, our tour will feature behind-the-scenes tours and discussions with theater personalities. Our plans include:
• Round trip transportation direct from Pittsburgh via British Airways
• First class accommodations and daily breakfast
• Baggage handling, service charges and taxes included
• Six theater tickets, including performances at the National Theatre, the Barbican Centre, a West End hit play and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford
• Theater landmarks tour, Barbican and/or National backstage tour, Courtauld Gallery and Blenheim Palace tours
• Discussions with Bill Gardner, with a leading London theater critic, and a session on "new writing"
• Departure date in late August or mid-October
• A cost of approximately $1600.
We would like an indication of your interest in such a tour. We'd also welcome your suggestions and comments. For example, which departure date you would prefer, side-trips you might like, etc. Please call Wendy Nardi here at the Public, 323-8200, and help us plan this oncein-a-lifetime trip!
and human services professionals to the improvisational theater techniques of Living Stage.
In the workshops, audience and company members improvise dramatic scenes for which a series of different endings are substituted so various participants may live their vision of how the scene should conclude. The substitution of endings for the same scene encourages faith in the logic of each individual's perception. Some scenes are reflective and, by showing how past events have conditioned the present, remind us that present actions will condition the future: what we do now does matter.
Living Stage operates on the belief that "it is the purpose of all artists. to effect a positive change in their audiences." While we are all artistic, we are also the audiences for and recipients of each others' actions. This awareness is an important, humanizing effect of Living Stage, for dreams are not just a part of sleep: they are the stuff futures are made of.
Roy Backes, Pittsburgh Public Theater Stage Manager, preparing for photo call of The Real Thing in September 1985.
Wendy Nardi
Company member Oran Sandel plays the part of a lost child seeking assistance from a sympathetic store owner, played by a child from Sharpe Health School for disabled children in Washington, D.C.
Meet Th e Actors: Sh e S toop s To Conquer's Jovia l Cast
She Stoops To Conquer, 01 iver Goldsmith's lighthearted comedy about mistaken identity, revolves around the lives of the Hardcastle family and their guests. William Swetland and Carmen Mathews, noted stage and screen actors, head the cast as Squire and Mrs. Hardcastle.
Carmen Mathews recently won great critical acclaim in Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca at Yale Repertory Theatre and was featured as Thelma Cates in 'night, Mother at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida. Among her Broadway credits are Sunday in the Park with George, Morning's at Seven, A Delicate Balance, Candide, The Yearling, and Dear World. Her extensive classical roles include Ophelia in Hamlet and the Queen in Richard II, both opposite Maurice Evans.
Ms. Mathews has played countless roles on television including Colonel Lillian Rayburn in M*A*S*H. Her film appearances include Sounder, Rage to Live, Rabbit Run and, most recently, Sidney Lumet's Daniel.
William Swetland, who recently marked his 50th year in the theater, is featured as Squire Hardcastle, master of the household. Mr. Swetland's numerous Broadway credits include Ah, Wilderness, The National Health, The Changing Room and Our Town. In London, he was featured in Room Service. In 1965, Mr. Swetland became a charter member of New Haven's highly regarded Long Wharf Theatre company and has been a leading actor in over 70 of its productions. He has performed in many outstanding regional theaters from Alaska to Florida and has been seen on numerous television programs.
Sarah Rush, a native of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, portrays Squire Hardcastle's daughter, Kate. Ms. Rush recently played the role of Bonnie Estill in Harrison, Texas, a new play by Horton Foote at the H B Playwrights Foundation in New York, co-starring Sandy Dennis and William Hickey. At the Kennedy Center, she understudied Kathleen Turner in Toyer. She also portrayed Emily in Our Town, directed by Gower Champion, for which she received a Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for Outstanding Actress. On television she has appeared in Happy Days, House Calls, Quincy, Tales from the Darkside and the mini-series The Seekers Her film credits include Joni, The Prodigal and Battles tar Ga/actica. Ms. Rush received her B.F.A. in theater from Pennsylvania State University and later played Katrin in / Remember Mama at the Little Lake Theater.
Don Fischer, who played Brody in the Public's The Real Thing, returns as Tony Lumpkin, Mrs. Hardcastle's son by a previous marriage. Mr. Fischer appeared on Broadway and in Los Angeles in A Little Family Business starring Angela Lansbury. Other credits include offBroadway productions of King Lear, Fraternity and Welcome Home and, on television, the role of Timothy Millis on The Edge of Night.
The visitors to the Hardcastle household include Marlow, Kate's suitor, played by Michel Gill. A graduate ofThe Juilliard School, Mr. Gill recently appeared in The Skin of Our Teeth at the Great Lakes Theater Festival.
Mark Chamberlin portrays Hastings, Marlow's travelling companion. Mr. Chamberlin was featured on Broadway in 84 Charing Cross Road with Ellyn Burstyn and in the film Ghost Story with Fred Astaire and Melvyn Douglas. Mr. Chamberlin previously appeared at the Public Theater in Appear and Show Cause, a play-in-progress.
Sarah Walker, who plays Constance, recently appeared as the lead in Strike of '92 at the Westbeth Theater Center in New York.
James· Carruthers plays the dual role of the landlord and Sir Charles Marlow. His numerous New York appearances include Our Town, Bad Habits, Poor Murder, The Hostage and Misalliance with Frances Sternhagen and Donald Moffat, directed by Philip Minor. He has also been seen in the films Taking Off and Tootsie.
William Cameron, featured as Diggory, most recently played the role of the prosecutor, Franklin MacMillan, in Nuts at the City Theatre Company.
Mary K. Chess, who plays the maid in She Stoops to Conquer, appeared at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Agnes of God, Animal Farm and The Miracle Worker.
Three actors will play the remaining roles of the townspeople and servants of the Hardcastle estate. David Doepken has been featured in Marat/Sade at Pittsburgh Playhouse, Children of a Lesser God at the City Theatre and in numerous productions at the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival. Thomas Mills Wood, a 1986 graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University appeared there in Guys and Dolls, The Beggar's Opera, The Misanthrope and Caught With His Trance Down. Jeff Monahan has performed the roles of Dude in Tobacco Road and John the Baptist in Salome at the Laurel Highlands Theater. He has worked in children's educational theater and has had various television roles.
Laura Leslie
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
by Oliver Goldsmith
Previews February 25-March 4
Opening March 5
Final Performance March 30 CAST (in order of appearance)
Mrs. Hardcastle
Carmen Mathews
Mr. Hardcastle
William Swetland
Tony Lumpkin
Don Fischer
Kate Hardcastle
Sarah Rush
Constance Neville
Sarah Walker
Landlord/Sir Charles Marlow
James Carruthers
Charles Marlow
Michel GIii
George Hastings
Mark Chamberlin Oiggory
Wllllam Cameron
Pimple
Mary K. Chess
Jack Slang/Roger
David L. Doepken
Dick Mugglns/Thomas
Thomas MIiis Wood
Amlnadab/Jeremy
Jeff Monahan
Directed by Philip Minor
Scenery by John Jensen
Lighting by Kristine L. Bick
Costumes by David loser
Music Composed
Gi ve Your Old Clothes
A New Career On The Stage
The Hardcastle family and young Marlow will appear in She Stoops To Conquer which begins previews at the Public on February 25.
Front row: Carmen Mathews and William Swetland. Back row: Michel Gill and Sarah Rush.
Geoff Garland as Tony Lumpkin and Sylvia Sidney as Mrs. Hardcastle pose with G. Wood and Susan Sullivan for the Washington, D.C. Ford's Theatre production of She
Sam Waterston, James Woods and JoBeth Williams In the 1982 Manhattan The_ater Club production of Gardenia by John Gu are. The Pittsburgh Public Theater production of Gardenia begins previews on April 15, 1986.
