Different Stages Presents

 

An Ideal Husband

by Oscar Wilde

Director                                                                                                      Norman Blumensaadt

Set Design                                                                                                                  Paul Davis

Lighting Design                                                                                                           Bill Peeler

Costume Design                                                                                                Jeanette Driscoll

Stage Manager                                                                                                         T. J. Moreno

 

CHARACTERS AND CAST

(in order of appearance)

 

Sir Robert Chiltern, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs                                                 Michael Neilond

Lady Chiltern, His Wife                                                                                       Bobbie Oliver

Miss Mabel Chiltern, His Sister                                                                             Aleta Garcia

The Earl of Caversham                                                                                            Steven Fay

Lord Goring, His Son                                                                                              Frank Benge

Mrs Cheveley                                                                                               Rebecca Robinson

Dawn Erinn (11/13-15)

Lady Markby                                                                                                       Karen Jambon

Vicomte de Nanjac                                                                                                   J.R. Dodge

Lady Basildon                                                                                                        Dena Taylor

Mrs. Marchmont                                                                                                  Lucy Jennings

Mr Montford                                                                                                            Jim Arnold

Mason, Butler to Sir Robert Chiltern                                                                        Flakes Parsley

Phipps, Butler to Lord Goring                                                                                      Jim Arnold

Harold, Footman at Lord Goring's                                                                                 J.R. Dodge

James, Footman at Sir Robert Chiltern's                                                                          J.R. Dodge

Duchess of Maryborough                                                                                         Lyn Pierce

Mr. Barford                                                                                                                Jon Berry

Lady Jane Barford                                                                                                  Dawn Erinn

Jessica Medina (11/13-15)

 

 

ACT ONE

The Reception Room in Sir Robert Chiltern's House in Grosvenor Square

ACT TWO

The Morning Room in Sir Robert Chiltern's House

INTERMISSION

ACT THREE

The Library of Lord Goring's House in Curzon Street

ACT FOUR

The Morning Room in Sir Robert Chilterns's House

 

The action of the play is completed within thirty-six hours.

 

 

 

THE PRODUCTION COMPANY

 

JIM ARNOLD (Phipps, Mr. Montford) Ideal Husband is Jim's fourth appearance in a Different Stages production. Thanks,to the cast, crew, and especially Norman. I'm not to mention my wife, my angel and cancer survivor, so forget you read that. I'll see you at the airport.

 

NORMAN BLUMENSAADT (Producer/Director) is the Producing Artistic Director for Different Stages. Recent acting roles include: Millet in Fuddy Meers,  Aunt Augusta/Henry Pulling in Travels With My Aunt and Vanya in Uncle Vanya.  He was given the Austin Circle of Theaters’ Deacon Crain/John Bustin Award in 1998 for his work with Different Stages.  For Different Stages he has directed: The House of Bernarda Alba, Summer and Smoke, and The Cripple of Inishmaan. Next year, he will direct The Misses Overbeck by Tom White.

 

FRANK BENGE (Lord Goring) Frank is making his second appearance with Different Stages tonight. His first was  Limping Man in Fuddy Meers. His most recent roles have been in Slapdash Flimflammery for Loaded Gun Theory, Saunders in Lend Me a Tenor at the Palace Theatre and his B. Iden Payne Outstanding Lead Actor nominated performance as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner for Sam Bass Theatre.  Most recently he has been on the other side of the stage as director for Sam Bass Theatre's The Queen of Bingo and will direct their production of Auntie Mame this coming February.

 

PAUL DAVIS (Set Designer) Most recent design was Quake at Hyde Park Theatre. Other designs include Coyote--A Fence, Marion Bridge, Vigil, Art Stripped Naked, Little FootSteps, Corpus Christi, Angels in America at Connecticut Rep, The Knight-Finborough, England. Scenic Artist for Connecticut Rep, Portland Stage, and Dallas Theatre Center. Now teaches theatre at Leander High School.

 

JON BERRY (Mr. Barford) is an Austin native who works in the flood research industry. He has previously studied and performed at The Michael Chekhov Studio West in North Hollwood, CA, in a production of Spoon River Anthologie, and at Zachary Scott Theater in a performance of An Actor's Nightmare. This is his first performance with Different Stages.

 

J.R. DODGE (Vicomte de Nanjac, Harold, James) is happy to be making his first stage appearance since moving to Austin in August.  J.R. is a recent graduate of Northern Arizona University where he received a B.A. in Theatre Performance.  Some of his favorite projects in the recent past include Bullshot Crummond with Theatrikos Theatre Company in Flagstaff, directing The Shock of Recognition from Robert Anderson’s You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running, and performances in The Crucible, Lost in Yonkers, and Noises Off!.  Thanks to the cast and crew for being so entertaining and helping ease him into Austin life … this place is strange.

 

JEANNETTE DRISCOLL (Costume Design) has a Bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts from UT El Paso. She has been working in the area of costuming for 8 years, mainly on touring shows. She has been in Austin for 2 years and this is her third Different Stages production. She also works regularly with Austin Lyric Opera.

 

DAWN ERRIN (Lady Jane Barford, understudy for Mrs. Cheveley) is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City and has enjoyed doing theatre in NYC and Chicago before moving to Austin to sing the Blues.  This is her first production with Different Stages and she is thrilled for the opportunity to sink her teeth into "the brilliant Mrs. Cheveley".


STEVEN FAY (Lord Caversham) makes his 10th appearance in a Different Stages production.  He most recently played the Duke in Two Gentlemen of Verona.  He has also appeared in "The Scarlet Letter" (B. Iden Payne Award nomination) and Medea at Vortex and in The Designated Mourner for Rubber Repertory.

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ALETA GARCIA (Miss Mable Chiltern) Aleta Garcia moved to Austin from Tucson, Arizona in January, 2001. Previously with Different Stages she was seen as Martirio in The House of Bernarda Alba which earned her a B. Iden Payne Award nomination. Other past roles include: Frances in Alan Ball's Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Marbles in Talking With, Carol in Oleanna and Rachel in Reckless for which she was awarded Best Actress in the annual Arizona College Theatre Festival. In addition to acting, Aleta has worked as a writer and production coordinator for a women's theatre group in Tucson. She received a BFA degree in Acting/Directing from the University of Arizona.

 

KAREN JAMBON (Lady Markby) This is Karen’s 6th show with Different Stages, having directed The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket Fuddy Meers and Betty’s Summer Vacation as well as playing Kate in The Cripple of Inishmann and stage managing The House of Bernarda Alba.

LUCY JENNINGS (Mrs. Marhmont) Lucy graduated in August from Southwest Texas State University with a BFA in acting and recently spent a year studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Her primary interests are Musical Theatre and Shakespeare. She hopes to return to England next year and pursue a MA in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. "Thanks to the cast and crew for your patience and hard work, Faith and Debbie for your friendship and support, my family for the phone conversations, and God - for everything."

 

MICHAEL NEILOND (Sir Robert Chiltern) makes his Austin debut with

Different Stages and is grateful to them to be able to be in his first Oscar Wilde play! Recent roles have included Marc in Yasmina Reza's Art  (Colorado Springs), Peter Teazle in Sheridan's The School for Scandal (Aptos, CA), and Sherlock Holmes in Charles Marowitz's Sherlock's Last Case (Monterey, Ca). He received his BA from Georgetown University, where he trained in theatre with Dr. Donn B. Murphy, and also did graduate drama work at U.C. Berkeley. He has appeared in numerous classics of Shakespeare, Shaw and Moliere, and portrayed Ambrose Bierce in the world premiere of Bill Broder's Abalone. (Carmel, Ca). His favorite productions however are daughter Kiara, 14, and son Kyle, 10!

 

BOBBIE OLIVER (formerly Owens) (Lady Chiltern)) has appeared in theater productions in Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, Lockhart and Wimberly.  Some of her favorite roles are Sylvia in Sylvia, M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias and Juno in Juno and the Paycock.  Bobbie is a newly-wed and wants to thank her husband Larry for his generosity and support.

 

FLAKES PARSLEY (Mason) Gladly took the role of Mason as a last chance to be on stage before 2004. This year he dove into acting doing extra work in two features, parts in a dozen short films and two plays, both Different Stages productions. Finally beardless he's hoping to do commercials so he won't have to find a real job. We've all been curious as to what face was under all that fuzz.

LYN PIERCE (Duchess of Marybrough) Lyn has always known that she wanted to be an actress when she grew up. Three years ago she realized that the growing up thing wasn't going to happen, and threw herself into the other part of the plan with joyous enthusiasm.  Since that time she has appeared in productions of Sam Bass Theatre, Way Off Broadway Community Players, and Austin Community College, as well as

various UT student films; her most recent appearance was as Ann Forbes

in A Sting In The Tale at Way Off Broadway.  She is delighted to be making her Different Stages debut.

 

T.J. MORENO (Stage Manager) is excited to be back in Austin and working behind the scenes on this Different Stages production. He wants to applaud the cast, crew, designers, and director for their dedication to community theater.

REBECCA ROBINSON (Mrs. Cheveley)  is pleased to be performing again with Different Stages, where she last appeared as Alma Winemiller in Summer and Smoke.  Originally from Indiana, Rebecca has been acting and dancing most of her life. She earned her Bachelor‚s degree in Theatre from Hanover College in southern Indiana. Most recently, Rebecca traveled to the South Carolina Repertory Company to play the role of Catherine‚ in Proof.  She also played ŚSally Talley‚ in Talley‚s Folly there. Highlights from her stage credits include Beth Jarritt in Ordinary People, Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, Rose Weiss in A Shayna Maidel, Ann Deever in All My Sons (Different Stages) and the role of  Agnes‚ in Marion Bridge at the Hyde Park Theatre.  She also appeared as May‚ in Last Train to Nibroc with OnStage Theatre Company, for which she received an ACOT B. Iden Payne nomination.  Rebecca would like to thank her friends and biggest fans Robert and Maryann Robinson.

DENA TAYLOR (Lady Basildon) Fresh from Seattle, Dena last performed in Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, as Ellen Van Oss. When she’s not storytelling on stage she can be found counting mosquito bites or contemplating the wonders of air conditioning–something you don’t experience very often in the Northwest.

 

PRODUCTION STAFF

 

                                                                                                                             

Light/Sound Operator                                                                                                                            Larry Oliver

Set Construction                                                                   Norman Blumensaadt, Paul Davis.Steven Fay, Flakes Parsley, Rebecca Robinson

Costumes                                                                                            Allison Terry, Lyn Pierce, Jennette Driscoll

Lady Marby's Ball Gown                                                                                                                   Kendi Erickson

Graphic Artist                                                                                                                             Sarah Hauck Seaton

Photographer                                                                                                                                  Brett Brookshire

Program                                                                                                                                    Norman Blumensaadt

Properties                                                                                                   Irene Dubberley, Norman Blumensaadt

Publicity                                                                                                                                                      Carol Ginn

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SPECIAL THANKS

 

TeraQuest for Rehearsal Space,

Paul Davis, Leander High School,

Buffy Manners, State Theatre,

Margaret Mitchell, University of the Incarnate Word

Special thanks for furniture and his knowledge of the Victorian World - Douglas Kelly

Royce Gehrels

Natasha, Temple High School

Bill Peeler

 

Different Stages, Inc. has been a community-based organization since its inception in 1981 and incorporation in 1984.  It produces works by playwrights whom we believe to be defining forces in theatre.  We seek to entertain with performances that reveal life in all its comedy, tragedy and intensity; and we hope to educate by choosing plays that provide exceptional insight into the human condition.  By challenging ourselves as artists and our audiences as participants, we endeavor to provide the community with vigorous and exciting live theatre.

 

Board of Directors:  Margaret A. (Peggy) Centilli, Henry V. Fitzgerald, Jr. & Randolph Stripling.  Operating Board:  Norman E. Blumensaadt, Mike Groblewski, Royce Gehrels & Paula Ruth Gilbert.

 

 

ABOUT THE PLAY

 

 

WILDE ON THE STAGE

The history of Oscar Wilde's plays in performance is closely linked to the larger history of the author's social and cultural reception. During the 1890's Wilde's dramas helped to inaugurate a series of aesthetic and commercial transactions in which up-market viewers found their worlds

both celebrated and mocked on West End stages. They also formed part of Wilde's personal campaign to secure a place in the 'best circles' of Society. ... Contemptuous of London's avant-garde theatres and makeshift theatre clubs, Wilde turned exclusively to the West End's most fashionable playhouses and flamboyant actor-managers, building upon and responding to the sensibilities of their public.

In February 1895 Wilde had two plays running simultaneously on West End Stages. Waller's Haymarket production of An Ideal Husband, much

praised in the popular press, had opened on 3 January. Six weeks later it was joined by Alexander's St James's premiere of The Importance of

Being Earnest.... The premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest also

contained the seeds of Wilde's demise. The Marquess of Queensberry, who had prowled about the St James's for some three hours, leaving for Wilde an insulting bouquet of root vegetables when his plans for disrupting the production were foiled, would four days later, present his infamous calling card at the Albemarle Club. By the beginning of May, with Wilde's conviction imminent, both The Importance of Being Earnest

and An Ideal Husband had been taken off. Wilde's fables of men with 'shameful' secrets or alter egos that took them Bunburying away from respectability had acquired for the patrons of the Haymarket and St James's unpalatable resonance's.

Joel Kaplan

 

VICTORIAN MALE SOCIETY

In Victorian London no decent woman dined in public - the brilliant after-theatre suppers at the Cafe Royal were exclusively  masculine affairs. Serious conversation took place only in smoking rooms, which no woman ever penetrated - as no "well-bred" woman had been to a university, there was little place for one in serious conservation. It was a society of all-male offices, all-male professions, governed by an all-male Parliament, and its masculine institutions represented an economic fact. The wealth of Victorian England rested on enforcement of protracted male celibacy. The Empire was ruled by subalterns and civil servants who could scarcely hope to marry before forty: only India had developed a small community of white wives, and they belonged chiefly to the senior grades. The riches sent flowing back to London were counted by thousands of unmarried clerks, whose salaries would not support a family until well after thirty. At the universities which moulded the pro-consuls, celibacy had been compulsory for all dons until the 1870s. It was an age of bachelors, when a man could drift into single old age without suspicion of being more than a crusty "woman-hater" - they filled the clubs and smoking rooms and chophouses in which a celibate society consoled itself by evolving a whole separate masculine culture.

Ronald Bryden, Review of "The Letters of Oscar Wilde"

 

Different Stages’ Repertory

Begun as Small Potatoes Theatrical Company

 

1981:  August Strindberg’s Creditors and The Stronger.  1982:  William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  1983:  George Bernard Shaw’s Candida; Anton Chekhov’s The Brute, Swan Song, and Celebration.  1984:  Luigi Pirandello’s Right You Are (If You Think You Are); Jane Martin’s Talking With…  1985:  Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9; William Shakespeare’s As You Like It; Carl Sternheim’s The Underpants; Michael Weller’s Moonchildren.  1986:  Amlin Gray’s How I Got That Story; William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale; Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon.  1987:  Michael Weller’s Loose Ends; Aristophanes’ The Wasps; Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart; Arthur Schnitzler’s Anatol.  1988:  Wallace Shawn’s Aunt Dan and Lemon; Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood; Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky; Jean Racine’s Phaedra; Jean-Baptiste Moličre’s The Misanthrope.  1989:  Caryl Churchill’s Fen; Charles Ludlam’s The Artificial Jungle; William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.  1990:  Eric Overmeyer’s On the Verge; Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Milan Kundera’s Jacques and His Master; Tom White’s The Trouble with Tofu; William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.  1991:  George Kelly’s The Show-Off; George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Keith Reddin’s Life and Limb; Mozart/Lorenzo da Ponte’s Cosě fan Tutte; Jean-Baptiste Moličre’s The Learnčd Ladies.  1992:  Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind; Carlo Gozzi’s The Raven; Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck; Charles MacArthur’s Johnny on a Spot; George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer.  1993:  Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good; Charles Ludlam’s The Secret Lives of the Sexists; Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending.  1994:  Constance Congdon’s Tales of the Lost Formicans; William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline; George M. Cohan’s The Tavern; Marlayne Meyer’s Etta Jenks.  1995:  Pierre Marivaux’s The Triumph of Love; Tom Stoppard’s Travesties; Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me; Alexander Ostrovsky’s The Diary of a Scoundrel.  1996:  Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest; Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee; William Congreve’s The Way of the World.   1997:  Terrence McNally’s A Perfect Ganesh; Dorothy Parker’s Here We Are; Alan Ayckbourn’s Drinking Companion; Terrence McNally’s Noon; George M. Cohan’s Seven Keys to Baldpate; Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock.  1998:  Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia; Aeschylus’ Agamemnon; Giles Havergal’s Travels with my Aunt; Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.  1999:  Edit Villareal’s My Visits with MGM; Jean-Baptiste Moličre’s The Hypochondriac (tr. Martin Sorrel); Edward Percy and Reginald Denham’s Ladies in Retirement; Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.  2000:  Peter Parnell’s The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket; Ann Ciccolella’s Fruits and Vegetables; George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly’s Merton of the Movies; Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan.  2001: Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s Roosters; George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple; J. B. Priestly’s Dangerous Corner; Tennesee Williams’ Summer and Smoke.  2002:  Ann Ciccolella’s Madame X; David Linsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers; Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest; Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.  2003: Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation; Horton Foote The Traveling Lady, William Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Contributors

 

The City of Austin, AT&T Foundation, Tera Quest Metrics, Inc.

Connie McMillan, Norman S. Blumensaadt, Paula Ruth Gilbert, Norman E. Blumensaadt, Steve Chapman, Martin J. Reyes, Karen Kuykendall, Irene Dubberley, Austin Theatreworks, Mary Furse, Neal Jodeit/Vicky Boone, Scott K. Schroeder, John Howrey, Deborah Hamilton-Lynne, Ora and Jim Shay, Terraquest, Inc., Jennifer Underwood, Karen Jambon, Harvey Guion, Don Howell, Corina Del Toro, Don Howell, Carol Smith Adams, Jerry Conn, Valiere D'Antonio,  Betsy Christian, William (Dirk) Van Allen, Arno Blase, Deanna Abshire

 

 

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