The American Century Theater presents

Gunston Theater II2700 South Lang Street, Arlington VA

July 23–August 21, 2010

Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

The American Century Theaterpresents

There will be a 15-minute intermission.There will be cigarette smoking onstage.

Please—Silence and stow cell phones and other distracting devices. The use of recording equipment and taking of photographs

during the performance are strictly prohibited.

DirectorSteven Scott Mazzola

ProducerSherri L. Perper

Stage ManagerElena Maria Lower

Costume DesignFrank Labovitz

Properties DesignSuzanne Maloney

Technical Director/Master Carpenter

Jason M. Beagle

Scenic DesignDeborah Wheatley

Lighting DesignAndrew Griffin

Sound DesignMatt Otto

Scene synopsisThe setting is a suburb in Chicago in the 1970s.

Act 1 Scene 1—Afternoon in Carl and Mary’s home Scene 2—Early evening of the same day in Gabby and Alex’s home Scene 3—Evening of the same day in Carl and Mary’s home Scene 4—Later that same day in Carl and Mary’s home Scene 5—After midnight in Gabby and Alex’s homeAct 2 The night after Halloween in Carl and Mary and Gabby and Alex’s homes

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About The American Century TheaterThe American Century Theater was founded in 1994. We are a professional nonprofit theater company dedicated to presenting great, important, and worthy American plays of the twentieth century—what Henry Luce called “the American Century.”The company’s mission is one of rediscovery, enlightenment, and perspective, not nostalgia or preservation. Americans must not lose the extraordinary vision and wisdom of past playwrights, nor can we afford to surrender the moorings to our shared cultural heritage.Our mission is also driven by a conviction that communities need theater, and theater needs audiences. To those ends, this company is committed to producing plays that challenge and move all Americans, of all ages, origins, and points of view. In particular, we strive to create theatrical experiences that entire families can watch, enjoy, and discuss long afterward.

Wendy KenneyAnn Marie Plubell Kimberly GinnDavid T. Austern, Richard Barton, Elizabeth Borgen, Rebecca Christy, Vivian Kallen, Jack Marshall, Kim-Scott Miller

Board of DirectorsChair

Vice-Chair Treasurer

Board

StaffJack Marshall

Sherri L. PerperJason M. Beagle

Rip ClaassenBrian Crane

Ellen DempseyKate Dorrell

Tom Fuller

CEO and Artistic Director Producing DirectorRhonda HillSteven Scott MazzolaDavid OlmstedGinny Tarris Emma Wolfarth, Intern

Cast, in order of appearanceMary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vanessa BradchulisCarl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hans DettmarAlex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Theodore M. SneadGabrielle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robin Covington*

Production staffDirector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steven Scott MazzolaProducer . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sherri L. PerperStage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elena Maria LowerAssistant Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ian Jordan Scenic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deborah WheatleyLighting Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew GriffinSound Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt OttoCostume Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank LabovitzProperties Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzanne MaloneyTechnical Director/Master Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason M. BeagleSound Board Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Darlene RichardsonMaster Electrician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah MacKowskiCarpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Noel GreerProgram Design and Cover Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael ShermanProduction Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dennis DeloriaArchivist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kim-Scott Miller

Serenading Louie (1970) by Lanford Wilson

As birth order often is remarkably (and unfairly) determinative of success in life, play order has a bizarrely powerful effect on the success and legacy of playwrights.

Those who, like Paul Zindel, have a huge critical and financial hit with their first play (in Zindel’s case, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds), often find that the rest of their careers are stifled by the burden of high expectations, with critics and audiences unable to appreciate subsequent works on their own merits and aspirations. But even more perplexing is the fate of playwrights who produce impressive, even brilliant works before they are fully appreciated. That appreciation usually comes by way of the box office, not the critics, and then is projected only forward . . . after all, it would not reflect well on our judgment to presume that we hadn’t noticed a masterful artist in our midst. No, the playwright must have just become great, after wandering in the creative wilderness.

In fact, it is not uncommon for playwrights to be producing superb works before their first commercial success, and this was certainly the case with Lanford Wilson, born in 1937 and today recognized as one of America’s greatest living (or dead) playwrights. He had been writing plays for small playhouses since 1964, not reaching a major one until his Off-Broadway debut, The Gingham Dog. Critics called it promising, well done; audiences went elsewhere. In 1970 he had two moderately well-received dramas: Lemon Sky, about a deteriorating father-son relationship, and Serenading Louie. Neither received sufficient attention to put Wilson on a Jeopardy! board, but Hot L Baltimore, his 1973 portrait of life in a dingy New York hotel took the city by storm. It ran 1,166 performances, an Off-Broadway record for an American-written non-musical.

Now Wilson was, by definition, a major playwright. Recent studies have shown the remarkable power of “framing” on our judgment and consciousness: sophisticated wine experts will often judge a cheap wine in an expensive bottle superior to a great wine in a Gallo jug. With his creative wine under an appropriate label at last, Wilson was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes in rapid succession, for Talley’s Folly and The Fifth of July.

continued

*Equity Membership Candidate

Download the podcastListen in as Artistic Director Jack Marshall discusses the TACT production of Serenading Louie with director Steven Scott Mazzola and actors Vanessa Bradchulis, Robin Covington, Hans Dettmar, and Theodore M. Snead. Podcast available for listening or download at http://www.americancentury.org/podcasts/TACT_LOUIE.mp3

Jeffrey AkmanDavid AlosiKaren CurrieCaitlin Jones

Michael KahnJ.P. MatierAndrew SchmadelOur great TACT volunteers

Special thanks to—Anacostia Community Boathouse Association

It takes a while for the earlier works of great writers to be discovered, but often they find themselves evaluated with new respect. Novelists in recent years made millions reissuing works that pre-dated their first entry onto the New York Times Best Seller List: All of Dan Brown’s previously ignored thrillers before The Da Vinci Code became best sellers the second time around, as did John Grisham’s largely ignored first novel, A Time to Kill, once he hit the jackpot with The Firm.

It takes longer with plays, but forty years or more after they premiered, the pre-Hot L Baltimore works of Lanford Wilson have been finding their way to more stages, and critics who initially neglected them have been forced to admit that Wilson was a master before his masterpieces. The Rimers of Eldritch (1967) is being included in more theatrical seasons, and thanks to an excellent 1980s Off-Broadway revival directed by John Malkovich, so is Wilson’s first full-length play, Balm in Gilead. Serenading Louie has recently begun to gather new admirers as well, and The American Century Theater is proud to do its part to give audiences another chance to appreciate one of the marvelous works that Lanford Wilson produced when nobody was paying attention.

—Jack Marshall, Artistic Director

Vanessa Bradchulis (Mary) is returning to theatre after a year-and-a-half hiatus working on her master’s degree. Theatrical credits include The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (The American Century Theater), Running in Circles Screaming (Source Festival), and All the Light in the World and Sirens (Rorschach Theatre’s Myth Appropriation). She was recently seen in the following films: Red Light Music Video Project, Stagefright, Boxes, RADIO (which screened at the Venice Biennale Film Festival), and Fracture, which she wrote and directed. Vanessa is a graduate of The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and US Army Basic Combat Medic Training, and is completing her MFA in Film and Electronic Media at American University.Robin Covington* (Gabrielle) is glad to be back at TACT after her debut here early in the season as Sissy in A Piece of My Heart. Most recently, Robin stage managed for Taffety Punk’s Burn Your Bookes. Up next: she will be onstage with The Punks in Bootleg Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen. She earned her BFA at Shenandoah Conservatory.Hans Dettmar (Carl) was last seen at TACT as Shultz in Stalag 17. Other roles include Ludie in The Trip to Bountiful, Irwin in The History Boys, John Merrick in The Elephant Man (which earned a 2008 WATCH Award nomination for outstanding lead actor in a play), Cradeau in No Exit, Cohen in The Underpants, and Chris in All My Sons. Musical theatre roles include John Dickinson (1776), Barber/Quixote u/s (Man of La Mancha), Emile DeBeque (South Pacific), and Harold Hill (The Music Man). Thanks to best friend, Marianne.Theodore M. Snead (Alex) was last seen at TACT in MacBird. Other Washington area credits include The Fall of the House of Usher (Synetic Theater), Breath, Boom (Studio Theatre Secondstage), Hapgood (Washington Shakespeare Company), The School for Scandal (Folger Theatre), The Sandstorm (MetroStage), Richard III (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Urban Legend (Source Festival), 4.48 Psychosis (Factory 449), Bartleby (Journeymen Theater Ensemble), and LA 8 AM, directed by Steven Scott Mazzola (Madcap Players). Credits also include Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (Theater IV), The Wire (HBO), and Prince Among Slaves (PBS).

*Equity Membership Candidate

Steven Scott Mazzola (Director) has directed numerous productions for The American Century Theater, including Edward Albee’s Seascape, Thicker than Water (2008 Capitol Fringe Festival), The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Drama Under the Influence: Celebrating Women

Frank Labovitz (Costume Design) has designed costumes for a number of DC area theatres, including Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Imagination Stage, Studio Theatre Secondstage, Theater J, Theater Alliance, Catalyst Theater Company, Rorschach Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, and National Players. Upcoming projects include Something You Did (Theater J), Mojo (Studio Theatre Secondstage) and Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (Imagination Stage). Frank received his MFA in design from the University of Maryland.Elena Maria Lower (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working with TACT for the first time. Her stage management experience includes guest SM for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (College of William &Mary), and ASM for It’s Lonely Out in Space (Source Festival), Pinocchio (Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia), ART, A Winter’s Tale, and Much Ado About Nothing (Virginia Shakespeare Festival). Elena María received BAs in Psychology and Theatre from the College of W&M.Suzanne Maloney (Properties Design) has loved theater since she helped dress Guinevere for Camelot in 6th grade. Recent projects include props for Sycamore Trees at Signature and dramaturgy for The First Light Festival at Theatre of the First Amendment. Past productions with The American Century Theater include Seascape, Machinal, The Time of Your Life, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, and Emperor Jones. She looks forward to the next projects: designing props for Chess at Signature Theater and directing Almost, Maine at the Vienna Theatre Company. Matt Otto (Sound Design) designed sound for TACT’s productions of Seascape, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, and Ah, Wilderness! Other credits include Dublin Carol and The Importance of Being Earnest (Scena Theatre), Johnny Meister and The Stitch and Everything Between Us (Solas Nua), El Bola—Cuba’s King of Song, Momia En El Closet: The Return of Eva Perón, and El Mejor Alcalde El Rey (GALA Hispanic Theatre), Clybourne Park and K of D (Woolly Mammoth), Four of Us and Benidictus (Theatre J), Black Nativity, Five Flights, and Woman Who Amuses Herself (Theatre Alliance), Kafka’s Dick and House of Yes (Washington Shakespeare Company), Cinderella and Her Three Sisters and Godspell (Olney Theatre), and numerous shows at Imagination Stage. He holds a BFA in Sound Design from Boston University. Darlene Richardson (Sound Board Operator) is a graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, Tempe AZ. She holds a BA in Music Performance and Theory from Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy MA, where she was prop master for The Miracle Worker and accompanist for Carousel. She has worked as an accompanist for the voice studio of Jean Danton, was production assistant on an upcoming album from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and was sound board operator for TACT’s recent world premiere, Treadwell: Bright and Dark.

Playwrights of the Prohibition Era, The Autumn Garden, Tea and Sympathy, A Flag is Born, The Second Man, Picnic, and Hotel Universe. Direction for other area theaters includes: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stoopid Tales (Adventure Theatre); Assistant Director for Translations (Andrew Keegan Theatre, USA and Ireland productions); Cookin’ Up Numbers (2010 Capitol Fringe Festival); Lady Windemere’s Fan and The Philadelphia Story (Little Theatre of Alexandria); The Wizard of Oz (Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington); The Village Fable (Imagination Stage); LA 8 AM and Right Is the Hand (Madcap Players); The Heidi Chronicles, Twelfth Night, Our Lady of Sandwich, and Tantalus (National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Round House Theatre); Assistant Director, Love’s Labor’s Lost (Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford); Director, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and In the Summerhouse and Assistant Director, Strange Interlude, and The Winter’s Tale (Washington Shakespeare Company); and Catch and Little Hero (Source Theatre Festival).Sherri L. Perper (Producer) joined The American Century Theater as Producing Director after having produced their last-season hits, Native Son and Life With Father. Of the many shows she has produced in the DC theatre community, her favorites are The Wiz, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sherri earned her MA in Arts Management from George Mason University. Jason M. Beagle (Technical Director/Master Carpenter) has worked in many capacities for TACT. In addition to carpenter for many TACT productions, he produced The Titans, assistant directed Cops, was volunteer coordinator 2008–2009, and made his Washington metropolitan area directorial debut last fall with A Piece of My Heart. Jason has directed at regional, university, and community theatres across the Midwest and been a directing fellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he assisted on productions of Five by Tenn, The Rivals, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jason earned a Masters in drama with a directing emphasis from the University of Montana.Andrew Griffin (Lighting Design) returns to TACT where he designed Seascape, Native Son, and Ah, Wilderness! Other recent credits include Dante with Synetic, The Receptionist with Studio, Marisol with Forum Theatre, and Brundibar with Michigan Opera Theatre Children’s Chorus. Andrew has created designs for Olney Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Adventure Theatre (where he is resident artist), and Washington Shakespeare Company, as well as the Toledo Opera and Delaware Shakespeare Festival. He is resident Assistant Lighting Designer for Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit.

David T. Austern Wendy and Bob KenneyProvincetown Players ($2,500–$4,999)

AnonymousRebecca and Gene ChristySteve Cohen and Mary McGowanJohn DawsonRobert DuBois

Peri MahaleyDonald Adams and Ellen MalandEleanor MarshallSheldon and Marilyn Wallerstein

Theater Guilders ($1,000–$2,499)

Linda Allen and Ron BassCheryl BaileyTom and Loretta BeaumontSally Beth BergerJanet and David BondElizabeth BorgenRon BrandtAlan and Susan BraniganDavid Briggs and John F. BentonGerald ChapmanWendy CohenRobyn DennisScott Durloo

Janet and Marty FaddenDr. Coralie FarleeJames and Maria GentleLarry George and Brenda PommerenkeJean F. GetleinGabe GoldbergVirginia HarrisStephen HarrisonRhonda Hill Robert HoneygoskyRoger and Katharine HoodThomas HoyaRichard Kamenitzer

The Players ($100–$249)

Thank you to the many generous donors who provided support from July 1, 2009 through July 16, 2010.

Arlington Commission for the Arts Virginia Commission for the ArtsGroup Theater Goers ($5,000+)

John ActonW. Seth CarusDennis Deloria and Suzanne ThouvenelleTracy FisherVivian and Arthur Kallen

Marjie MayerConstance McAdamPatricia PayneThe Plubell Firm

Mercury Theater Backers ($500–$999)

Jean and Richard BartonPete and Cherry BaumbuschJim Bertine and Sharon GalmR.G. BowieMarvin and Ellen CantorJoya CoxEllen Dempsey and Lou GeorgeGloria DuganTom and Kathryn FullerAdriana HardyAlan Herman and Irene SzopoAngela HughesIBMSandra McElwaine

Andrew and Barbara McElwaineRobert J. and Mark L. McElwaineJudith and David McGarveyHarriet McGuireSuzy PlattAnn Marie PlubellRhoda RitzenbergBill and Connie ScruggsDavid and Willa Siegel Marcia Neuhaus SpeckGinny TarrisThe Troy FoundationFrontis Wiggins

Living Theater Lovers ($250–$499)

AnonymousBoris CherneySally Hill CooperMary Kay DavisDorothea de Zafra AtwellMichael deBloisDonna DenneyAlison Drucker and Tom HolzmanSusan DukaWilliam ErdmannTimothy FarrisCharles FeingershDonna FeirtagJay FisetteCathy GarmanMadi GreenJean HandsberryBill and Donna HannayRachel HechtAlan HecklerLinda Hill and Paul SteinmetzTerri HillaertSteve HornsteinElaine HowellHoward and Myrna KaplanShirley KostikR.M. KraftHelen KressSteven LaterraSharon LeiserMark LintonJames Mangi and Kathleen SchmidtMartin Marks

Phebe K. MassonEvelyn and Milan MateyBarbara and Kenneth McLean Michael MeyersMargaret MulcahyUndine and Carl NashThanh NguyenMiah OlmstedRichard and Rebecca PariseauCarol ParowskiRuth and Charles PerrySusan PrytherchMichael and Loretta RoweDennis RyanPaolo SantanyaSharon SchoumacherSusan and Ralph ShepardCarole ShifrinBertha ShostakLinda and William SmithJames and Patricia SnyderRobert L. SpatzPaul StayertKathryn TatkoMarjorie TownsendWilma UckerGeorge and Kay WagnerDoug and Evelyn WatsonAdrienne WhiteCarol and Henry WolinskyLisa ZagaroliAnnette Zimin

The Federal Theater Funders ($10–$99)

Donors-in-kindJason Beagle, The Burdette Smith Group, P.C., Brian Crane, Dennis Deloria, Ellen Dempsey, Kate Dorrell, Bill Gordon, Rhonda Hill, Jack Marshall, Loren Platzman, Ann Marie Plubell

Ellen and Stu KennedyRobert L. KimminsAlan KingPaul KlingenbergNathan and MaryLynn KotzLou and Jane KriserKathryn and Robert KrubsackDavid A. LamdinMary Ann Lawler and Neil SignomMargaret LorenzGudrun LuchsingerWinnie MacfarlanAngus and Sharon MacInnesLory ManningRobert Half International

Daniel RossCharline RugenRobert F. SchiffDiane SchrothJohn SealHenry ShieldsPat Spencer SmithJean V. SmithJennifer Sosin and Adam PosenThe Hon. and Mrs. John M. SteadmanBarbara StearnsRobin Suppe-BlaneyDavid TannousBonnie Williams and Bob Skelly

The Players ($100–$249) continued

Serenading Louie is funded in part by Arlington County through the Cultural Affairs Division of the

Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources,and the Arlington Commission for the Arts.

This arts event is made possible in partby the Virginia Commission on the Arts,

the National Endowment for the Arts,and our many generous donors.

The American Century Theater2010–2011 Season

Comedy, Romance, Suspense, and More! Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man (1959)

A unique comic drama about a Jewish exorcism by TV Golden-Age legend Paddy Chayefsky, author of Marty and Network.

Directed by William Aitken September 17–October 16, 2010

Chip Deffaa’s One Night with Fanny Brice This one-woman musical celebrates Brice’s personality and comic style

with performances of her signature songs and 1920s-30s standards. Directed by Ellen Dempsey

November 5–27, 2010

Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon (1920) The tale of a tragic love triangle that won O’Neill his first Pulitzer Prize.

Directed by Kathleen Akerley January 14–February 12, 2011

George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s Stage Door (1936) A full production of the classic saga of backstage intrigue

in a boarding house full of ambitious actresses. April 8–May 7, 2011

Gore Vidal’s Visit to a Small Planet (1956) A satirical comedy about a confused visitor from outer-space whose perspective on human behavior is hilarious and thought-provoking

Directed by Rip Claassen July 8–August 6, 2011