2014 STUDY GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Play .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Who’s Who....................................................................................................................................................... 3 About the Production ..................................................................................................................................... 4 The Dust Bowl.................................................................................................................................................. 5 Life in the Dust Bowl....................................................................................................................................... 6 The Traveling Carnival.................................................................................................................................... 7 Creating the Look: Costume Design.......................................................................................................... 8 Setting the Scene: Scenic Design ................................................................................................................. 9 Before & After ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Family & Gender Matters ............................................................................................................................. 11 About the Creators of Pippin...................................................................................................................................12 Production Timeline...................................................................................................................................... 13 Songs to Listen For........................................................................................................................................ 14 About AST....................................................................................................................................................... 15 Works Consulted .......................................................................................................................................... 16
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About the Play The original production of Pippin was set in 780 A.D. in the Holy Roman Empire, during Charlemagne’s reign. Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s production is set in the Dust Bowl of 1930s America in a traveling carnival. All of the characters are in the carnival, and they all have their own acts and parts to perform as part of the carnival. Pippin is a young man who believes he is extraordinary. Pippin has just graduated from college. Now, he wants to know what to do with his life. He goes home to his family - his distant royal father, Charles; his somewhat-evil stepmother, Fastrada; and his self-obsessed half-brother, Lewis. He wants to find something ultimately fulfilling and completely perfect. He sings about finding his place in the world in “Corner of the Sky.” He looks for meaning and purpose in his life and explores the worlds of war, simple joys, politics, religion, love, and family, trying to find the one thing that will make his life worthwhile. While Pippin is home, his father and half-brother are readying themselves for an upcoming battle, and Pippin decides that he will join them in the fight. He hopes to find fulfillment in his father’s wars, but he finds only emptiness and regret. When Pippin encounters trouble and failure, he becomes disillusioned and fatigued, but the ever-present Leading Player and his troupe of players put Pippin back “on the right track.” Pippin goes to his grandmother, Berthe, for advice, and her response is that he should try to live life to the fullest. He tries to find meaning in women, but he soon finds physicality too shallow (and too exhausting). When Pippin hears of trouble in his father’s kingdom, he decides that someone new should lead the people: him. Pippin’s idealism wins him the approval of the people, but he learns that he has no idea how to actually run a kingdom. His subjects, who first admired him, soon turn on him because of his shortcomings as a leader. Exhausted by his failures and inability to find his life’s purpose, a widow named Catherine and her young son, Theo, take Pippin in. Catherine cares for Pippin and tries to persuade him to enjoy life with her and her son. Slowly, Pippin begins to get used to everyday life with her, and eventually they fall in love. When he realizes that he is becoming trapped in a humdrum life, he leaves. This prompts the Leading Player and the Band of Players to prepare for the Finale.
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Who’s Who: Meet the Cast
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About the Production We sat down with Pippin director Jeremy Williams to talk about his artistic vision for the production. Here’s what we found out! Q: Could you tell us your name please, and your title? A: I'm Jeremy Williams, and I'm the director and choreographer of Pippin. Q: What was your first interaction with the musical Pippin? A: I first discovered Pippin when I was in high school at North Little Rock High School. And I think I was in 10th grade and we did a words and music cutting of it. I got to choose that, and I selected Pippin as our show. Q: What do you think is special about our production of Pippin? A: Well, everything is special! (laughs) Special...it's a tricky word. This production of Pippin is really telling the story as the script is telling it. The most recent revival is great, but it has a lot of circus and aerial things and a lot of physicality is kind of put on top of the story, rather than being integrated. And so everything that we're working with in this production is really theatrical, so we're using theatrical language to tell the story as written, and I think that's pretty special. Q: What's your favorite thing about the production so far? A: My favorite thing...the people involved are quite fantastic. The design team is phenomenal. We had an amazing time thinking about the visual world of the play and setting in the 1930s in the Dust Bowl as a traveling carnival really was a really fun experience. And then the cast is just phenomenal. It's a really talented group of people and they are just super willing to get in and play and try things and be a little crazy. And Mark, the music director is fantastic. It's been really great to have a really strong team of people on this project. Q. And could you tell us a little more about the setting about this production? Why did you decide on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s? A: I chose to set Pippin in the Dust Bowl, you know I was thinking about the quality of the story and where it takes place. And also, the setting here, we're in Central Arkansas, and I thought that the Dust Bowl would be a really great setting that we could all relate to, being agricultural. And Arkansas is a bit wild still, even now, which is a lot of fun. I thought that time period, local audiences would be able to relate to it really directly. Also, growing up here there [were] so many different kinds of roadside attractions, kind of pop up carnivals, that's just part of the culture here. So I thought that would be a really fun and familiar setting to be in. Once you have a familiar setting, you can kind of go deeper into the setting. We don't have to invest in a strange world, a world that feels more foreign. It feels really kind of at home and we can really start thinking about the characters and the different elements of the story in a different way…One of the things that I love about Pippin is it is so theatrical. It uses costumes and lights and sets in a way that showcases how magical the theatre is. You know, that opening number “We've Got Magic To Do.” You know, we've got great theatre magic happening all the time. So I really wanted to showcase that, I wanted the setting to be in a theatrical setting. And so that's how we came around to a carnival. And us putting it in the 1930s kind of gets to that desperation—Pippin is so desperate to find his life and his band of players is so desperate to have this person that they’re bringing into their play, to their world, that it seemed like a very fitting type of place. To be in the Dust Bowl was challenging, but some really amazing things came out of that.
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The Dust Bowl
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1929: Stock market crashes
1931: Severe drought begins in Plains
1932: # of dust storms increases
1933: F.D. Roosevelt takes office
April, 1935: Black Sunday
1937: Roosevelt’s 2nd inaugural address
1938: 65% reduction of blowing soil
1939: Drought ends
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Life in the Dust Bowl Life in the Dust Bowl was hard and dirty. Most of the area affected by the Dust Bowl was farmland because farming techniques contributed to the natural disaster. The Dust Bowl began with a terrible drought in 1930 and 1931, which combined with careless farming to produce dangerous conditions. Southern plains farmers over-farmed wheat during World War I, stripping the nutrients from the soil. In the western plains, cattle and sheep overgrazed on the grasses holding the soil down. Firsthand account from Farming the Dust Bowl by 1930s Kansas farmer Lawrence Svobida: “Dust was coming into my system though my mouth as well as my nostrils, and I was choking, wheezing, and gasping for air. My eyes were filled with dirt and they hurt painfully; but when every little while I found myself completely blind, with my eyes wide open, empty blackness engulfing me, I knew that this was not caused by dirt. I was hovering on the verge of unconsciousness, but fought off these spells, with the thought that if I fell it would mean almost certain death.” Firsthand account from an Oklahoma woman published in Reader’s Digest: “In the dust-covered desolation of our No Man’s Land here, wearing our shade hats, with handkerchiefs tied over our faces and Vaseline on our nostrils, we have been trying to rescue our home from the windblown dust which penetrates wherever air can go. It is almost a hopeless task, for there is rarely a day when at some point the dust clouds do not roll over. ‘Visibility’ approaches zero and everything is covered again with a silt-like deposit which may vary in depth from a film to actual ripples on the kitchen floor.”
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The Traveling Carnival The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, is regarded as the birthplace of the traveling carnival. According to the International Independent Showmens Museum (IISM), this World’s Fair, “sold more than 25 million tickets and introduced the world to a nation not only conceived in liberty but convinced of its own greatness, and eager to try just about anything as long as it was new, electrical, and enormous, or simply bizarre.” This American fascination with the flashy and the bizarre later contributed to the popularity of traveling carnivals and circuses. After the fair, several smaller and larger carnival companies attempted to tour North America and stay in business, but they discovered that it was challenging to make sufficient money outside of America’s larger cities. Several of these companies toured and then died, unable to sustain themselves. Throughout the Fair and the short lives of these companies, however, the taste for this new type of traveling entertainment caught on. According to the International Independent Showmen's Museum, “by 1902 there were seventeen traveling shows in the United States. The number grew to forty-six in 1905 and by 1937 there was an estimated 300 traveling shows touring the country.” The first documented traveling carnival was the Canton (Ohio) Carnival Company, which opened its first show in Chillicothe, Ohio, on May 30, 1899. Carnivals were not the only type of traveling shows. Medicine shows and circuses also traveled, sometimes sharing routes or journeying with a carnival or another group of acts. The mixing of circus, medicine, minstrel, and carnival performers contributed to the creation of vaudeville. Vaudeville became its own type of performance, spawning nearly 70 theatres in the United States by the year 1900.
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Creating the Look: Costume Design The characters in Pippin live in the time of the Dust Bowl, but they live in a unique world: they live in a world of glamour, mystery, and magic. Each character has a specific act they perform as part of the carnival, so their costumes needed to reflect that fact. Charles is a knife thrower, a man whose act requires immense skill and concentration. His coat and hat symbolize his status as king and as a force to be reckoned with in the carnival.
The Leading Player is a carnival barker, a fast-talking and fast-thinking character who keeps everything moving. His outfit is as sharp as his tongue and mind.
Berthe is a graceful woman from a time gone by. Earlier in the century, she danced with the Ziegfeld Follies, and she still wears the costume and the presence she possessed in her prime.
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Setting the Scene: Scenic Design The setting would not be complete without scenic design illustrating the time and place. One important, enduring piece of the scene is the presence of trunks. Throughout the play, trunks and suitcases are used in interesting ways. Much of the set will come flying out of trunks, some of the characters will climb out of them. The trunks show a life of travel; travelers live out of their suitcases, and these traveling carnies are no exception. The trunks are even present in the first scene, during the first song “Magic To Do” and when Pippin is onstage, as pictured here. The stage is not always so bare—another important aspect of the scenic design in Pippin is the glamour and magic that the players bring to the stage. In the next picture, you can see how the stage lights up during one of the musical numbers. The name of the show and the central character is emblazoned above the stage. The sign should be dazzling and bright, but it looks a little crooked and almost sad, as though it has fallen into disrepair. The ideal of Pippin’s name in lights doesn’t translate perfectly into reality—like many of Pippin’s quests for the extraordinary, the reality is just a little bit off.
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Before & After Before you see the show, here are some activities to check out: • In the lobby of Reynolds Performance Hall, you can find a display that will inform you about our production of Pippin. You’ll be able to view swatches from costume materials, costume sketches, and other graphic materials about the play. • Be sure to explore the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre website for news and promotional materials about the play! You may be able to watch an exclusive interview with the director of Pippin (and the directors of AST’s other shows this season.) You’ll also be able to read a synopsis of the play. • If you’re in grades 5-12, don’t forget to submit a sonnet to AST’s Sonnet Contest! You could win free tickets to a show, an AST t-shirt, and the privilege of reading your poem to an audience. Contest rules can be found in the Facebook event on and AST’s website. • If you’re interested in the making of Pippin, the dramaturgy intern for Pippin, Maggie McNeary, has a blog called “Adventures of A Wandering English Major” where she writes about rehearsals and dramaturgy: http://adventuresofawanderingenglishmajor.blogspot.com The fun isn’t over after the play! Here are some discussion questions to help you think about what you’ve just seen: • Do you feel that you are extraordinary? Why? Do you think that’s a good thing? • How are your familial relationships different from (or similar to) Pippin’s familial relationships? • Do you think Pippin got what he wanted or needed at the end of the play? What's the difference? • Do you think Pippin made the right choice? Why do you think he considered the other option? Why do you think he made the choice that he did? • Why do you think Theo sang “Corner of the Sky” at the end of the show? • Do you think Pippin and Catherine were really in love when they sang “Love Song”? Why or why not? Do you think they were really in love at the end of the play? • Do you think Pippin left because he loved Catherine, because he was choosing family life, or for some other reason? Why?
“The fact that I’m special is easy to see. So why doesn’t anybody see it but me? I’m extraordinary, I need to do extraordinary things.” Pippin, “Extraordinary”
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Family & Gender Matters Father and son relationships are a major theme in this play. The father-son relationships are as follows: Charlemagne and Pippin, Charlemagne and Lewis, and Pippin and Theo. Pippin’s relationship with his father isn’t all that he wants it to be: at the beginning of the play, he feels ignored. Lewis and Charles’s relationship isn’t as important: they don’t really seem to have much of one.The other important father-son relationship in the musical is the relationship between Pippin and Theo. While they are not related by blood or by marriage, they certainly bond. While not as obviously important to the events of the show, the relationship between mother and child, specifically, mother and son, is also essential to the musical. The mother-son relationships are as follows: Berthe and Charlemagne, Fastrada and Lewis, Fastrada and Pippin, and Catherine and Theo. The characters of Berthe and Charlemagne do not really interact within the context of the musical, but it is obvious that they had a relationship in the world of the show before it began. One gets the feeling that Berthe was quite a presence in court before Fastrada arrived, and then Fastrada pushed her out. Fastrada and Lewis have a very close relationship. In some productions, the actors show their relationship as a little too close; sometimes it is even rather Oedipal. In AST’s production, Fastrada is simply a very caring mother who is quite manipulative—she just wants the best for her son, and she’ll do anything to get it. Fastrada and Pippin are mother and stepson, and they don’t have a very strong relationship; all of Fastrada’s love is for Lewis. Catherine and Theo lived for some time on their own before Pippin’s arrival. Although Theo is sometimes sullen, he probably cares for his mother—if only because for a while, they only had each other.
Attending a Live Play When the lights flash, it is warning that the play will start soon. When they go dark, the play is beginning or resuming. When the play is in progress, please be quiet. It is terrible theatre etiquette to be on your phone. Whether you are talking or texting, it can wait. Taking video or pictures of the production while it is in progress is a violation of copyright laws and our contract with the publisher of the show. Also, we want everyone interested in this production to attend it themselves. Watching it online just would not give them the full experience. This production is a musical, which means there will be several musical numbers performed by the cast. We hope that you enjoy the play, and if it’s one of your favorites, that’s wonderful! However, please refrain from singing along (unless asked by the characters). It is important to remember that the people onstage are not actors in a movie—they are really in front of you and can really be distracted by you. In order to keep the magic of the play alive, the illusion must continue; this means that you should do your best to not disturb the show or the actors. Laughter or clapping at the right time is appreciated. If you loved the play and think that the production deserves a standing ovation, please provide one. If you are unfamiliar with theatre terms, that’s okay! A standing ovation is when the audience shows their appreciation and enjoyment of a performance by standing and clapping after it is over, usually during the curtain call. The curtain call and bows are when the actors come out and bow after the conclusion of a performance. At this time, it is entirely appropriate to clap enthusiastically, and not unusual to whistle or whoop in appreciation.
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About the Creators of Pippin STEPHEN SCHWARTZ Famous composer Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for Pippin. Pippin was Schwartz’s first Broadway musical, and he had been working on versions of the show from the time he was in college. Stephen Schwartz also wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals Wicked and Godspell, and the movies Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt. ROGER O. HIRSON Roger O. Hirson wrote the book for Pippin, which means he wrote the actual story instead of the music or lyrics. Stephen Schwartz had a version of Pippin before Hirson started work on the script, but Hirson turned it into the production now seen today.
BOB FOSSE The original director of Pippin was named Bob Fosse. He is sometimes credited with editing and writing some of the script. Fosse is generally considered to have made the story of Pippin darker than it was originally intended to be. There were once two endings to the play, one advocated by Fosse and one by Schwartz, but the current ending was created later and has the approval of Schwartz. Schwartz has said in interviews that he thinks it is the perfect ending to Pippin, and he believes that Bob Fosse would agree.
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Production Timeline 1972 - 1977 Original Broadway run at the Imperial Theatre, Director: Bob Fosse • 11 Tony nominations • Won: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Ben Vereen as Leading Player), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design 1973 West End run in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Director: Bob Fosse 2000 Revival at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, NJ, Director: Robert Johanson 2004 Featured as the 2nd annual World AIDS Day Concert in New York, NY 2009 ASL production at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, CA, Director: Jeff Calhoun 2011 Menier Chocolate Factory revival in London, England, Director: Mitch Sebastian 2012-13 American Repertory Theatre production in Cambridge, MA, Director: Diane Paulus • First integration of circus acts by Les 7 Doigts de la Main 2013 Broadway revival (American Repertory Theatre production transferred to Broadway) at the Music Box Theatre, Director: Diane Paulus • 10 Tony nominations • Won: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Patina Miller as Leading Player), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Andrea Martin as Berthe), Best Direction of a Musical
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Songs to Listen For *
“Magic to Do” – This is the opening song. It introduces the characters and the setting.
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“Corner of the Sky” – Pippin’s “I want” song. He sings about what he wants from life.
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“Welcome Home” – Charlemagne welcomes Pippin home from college in this song.
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“War is a Science” – In this song, Charlemagne explains the intricacies of war.
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“Glory” – A song about the glory of war.
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“Simple Joys” – The Leading Player sings about Pippin on his quest for the simple joys of life.
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“No Time At All” – Berthe tells Pippin that life is short.
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“With You” – Pippin sings a love song to the girls he is interested in.
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“Spread a Little Sunshine” – Fastrada sings about her life motto.
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“Morning Glow” – Pippin is hopeful of finally finding the extraordinary.
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“On the Right Track” – The Leading Player assures Pippin that he’s on the right track.
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“There He Was” – Catherine sings about meeting Pippin.
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“Kind of Woman” – Catherine explains that she is an ordinary woman.
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“Extraordinary” – Pippin sings about the fact that he is extraordinary, and should live an extraordinary life.
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“Prayer for A Duck” – Pippin and Theo pray for Theo’s sick duck.
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“Love Song” – Catherine and Pippin fall in love.
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“I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” – Catherine sings about missing Pippin.
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“Finale”
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About AST Founded in 2006, The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre produces a repertory of family-friendly professional productions each summer in Conway. With our missions of artistic excellence, educational opportunities, and community outreach, the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre adds something unique in our region and provides thousands of families with a one-of-a-kind experience in a world- class facility. After seven seasons of outstanding theatre, education, and outreach opportunities, over 10,000 tickets sold to date, over 1000 tickets given away to local students and charities, over 75 intern scholarships created, and over 150 theatre artists hired from all over the country, 2010 is proving to be a great year for this one-of- a-kind festival, and we hope to see you again (and again and again!). For this theatre to most effectively serve our community, we need to represent our community! Become a part of this exciting experiment as a board member, volunteer, season ticket holder, member, or patron. Thank you for supporting your local theatre.
For more details and information about Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, please visit our website: http://www.arkshakes.com/
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Works Consulted "Biopic of Legendary Director Bob Fosse on Tap at HBO." Broadway.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.broadway.com/buzz/154972/biopic-of-legendary-director-bob-fosseon-tap-at-hbo/>. "FAQ | Stephen Schwartz." Stephen Schwartz RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.stephenschwartz.com/faq/>. "History: Traveling Shows in America." . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://internationalindependentshowmensmuseum.org/history/>. "Pippin (musical)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 May 2014. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippin_(musical)>. "Pippin Notes for Directors and Musicians." . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.stephenschwartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pippin-notes-fordirectors.pdf>. "PLAYBILL." Stephen Schwartz. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/7368/Stephen-Schwartz>. "Timeline: Surviving the Dust Bowl, 1931-1939." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/dustbowl/>
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