PLAY GUIDE
EVERYMAN THEATRE G R EAT STOR IES, WELL TOLD.
A NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR By Vincent M. Lancisi, Founder, Artistic Director
H
appy Holidays and welcome to Everyman
talented actors. The resources required are immense. The
Theatre. When I first learned that the
plot is a complex puzzle and suspects lurk around every
lauded playwright Ken Ludwig was
corner. It’s a veritable whodunit and what’s worse, nearly
commissioned by the Agatha Christie
everybody has read the book or seen one of the movies
estate to write the first stage adaptation of her
beforehand. Both Mr. Ludwig and Ms. Christie have great
famous novel, Murder on the Orient Express, I was
senses of humor, so we have laughed our way through
eager to read it in the hopes of producing it at
rehearsals. Everyone working on the play has had so much
Everyman. Ken Ludwig’s plays and adaptations are
fun putting it all together.
always so smart, so dashing, and audiences just love his gift for writing sharp and clever dialogue. Considering that Agatha Christie is one of the finest mystery writers of all time, I knew the resulting play would be loaded with suspense. We love a good mystery at Everyman, especially at the holidays! It’s been wildly exciting and challenging to stage Murder on the Orient Express. It requires multiple settings in exotic locales, elegant costumes, lots of props, and a large cast of
There’s a lot to celebrate these days in our fair city. We have world class cultural offerings in many neighborhoods and around every corner in Baltimore. Let’s all keep working hard together to be sure these institutions continue to thrive as they entertain, enlighten, and improve the quality of our lives. Enjoy the show.
EVERYMAN THEATRE
Vincent M. Lancisi, Founder, Artistic Director presents
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Adapted by KEN LUDWIG Director VINCENT M. LANCISI
Colonel Arbuthnot & Samuel Ratchett......................................................................................................DANNY GAVIGAN* Helen Hubbard.......................................................................................................................................... DEBORAH HAZLETT* Princess Dragomiroff.....................................................................................................................................HELEN HEDMAN* Greta Ohlsson.................................................................................................................................................... BETH HYLTON* Mary Debenham............................................................................................................................................... HANNAH KELLY Michel (conductor) & Head Waiter.......................................................................................................... M. SCOTT MCLEAN* Hector MacQueen....................................................................................................................................................TONY NAM* Hercule Poirot........................................................................................................................... BRUCE RANDOLPH NELSON* Countess Andrenyi...............................................................................................................................................LILIAN OBEN* Monsieur Bouc....................................................................................................................................JEFFERSON A. RUSSELL* Set Design
Lighting Design
DANIEL ETTINGER
HAROLD F. BURGESS II
Sound Design & Original Music
Projection Design
PORNCHANOK KANCHANABANCA Dialects
GARY LOGAN
RASEAN DAVONTE JOHNSON
Fights/Intimacy/FX
LEWIS SHAW
Costume Design
DAVID BURDICK Wig Design
ANNE NESMITH
Props Master
MICHAEL RASINSKI
Stage Manager
CAT WALLIS*, AMANDA M. HALL*
Setting: The principal action of the play takes place in 1934 aboard the Orient Express as it travels from Istanbul to Western Europe.
This production will be performed in two acts with one intermission. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
LEE & CLAIRE MILLER PRODUCTION SPONSORS
SHIRLEY T. HOLLANDER
SEASON SPONSORS
PHYLLIS & JOE JOHNSON FOUNDATION
PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES. NO TEXTING OR EATING IN THE THEATRE.
Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig was originally staged by McCarter Theater Center, Princeton, NJ. Emily Mann, Artistic Director, Timothy J. Shields, Managing Director. The production subsequently transferred to Hartford Stage, Harford, CT. Darko Tresnjak, Artistic Director, Michael Stotts, Managing Director. The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production or distributing recordings on any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author’s rights and actionable under United States copyright law. For more information please visit: https://shop.samuelfrench.com/content/files/pdf/piracy-whitepaper.pdf * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 1
get from movies. Theater used to be a place for large stories with vast settings – stories that moved around the globe, from court to forest, from battlefield to tempests in the middle of the ocean. Elizabethan theater did it to a fare-thee-well. Then by the 1930s, plays were often focused down into living rooms and different psychological and emotional territories. Of course, I’m not suggesting that one is better than the other. Far from it. I’m saying that plays with a more adventurous focus are a part of our theater heritage that we shouldn’t lose.
THE PLAYWRIGHT Ken Ludwig
K
en Ludwig is a two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright who has written over 28 plays and musicals, including six shows on Broadway and seven in London’s West End. His first Broadway play, Lend Me A Tenor, won two Tony Awards and was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. His other awards include the Helen Hayes Award, the 2017 Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in the American Theatre, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Contributions to the American Theater.
His book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare, published by Penguin/Random House, won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of the Year, and his essays are published by the Yale Review. Ken’s best known works include Crazy For You (5 years on Broadway, Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical), Lend Me A Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, The Game’s Afoot, Baskerville, Sherwood, A Fox on the Fairway, A Comedy of Tenors and a stage version of Murder on the Orient Express, written expressly at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate, which will open in the West End next season. His play, The Gods of Comedy, premieres this season at The McCarter Theater in Princeton and The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His newest plays are Moriarty and Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which will premiere this fall at Arena Stage. On Broadway and the West End, his plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shalhoub, Lynn Redgrave, Joan Collins and Kristen Bell. He holds degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, and Cambridge University. His work has been performed in over 30 countries in more than 20 languages, and is produced somewhere in the United States every night of the year.
IN THEIR WORDS On the entrainment value of theatre... I love the notion of the live stage being a place where we can now and then get the same sheer entertainment value we EVERYMAN THEATRE | 2
On Theatre for Young Audiences... I think it’s enormously important to write plays that children can attend because theatre-going is a habit – you want to start it early. Theatre opens our imaginations in a way that nothing else does and we want our children to experience the sense of humanity that theatre embodies. On His Writing Routine... I write every day, which I think is important for a writer. I normally get up very early and write from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon. It usually takes me a month to come down from the last project. Then I lock myself in a room and just think for about three months. During this time, I doodle on a legal pad, then start writing bits of dialogue and ideas for plots and themes. Usually, after three or so months, I’m ready to write something that vaguely looks like a play or a libretto, and that takes about a month or two from beginning to end. After that, it’s a matter of rewriting. And the rest of my year is taken up with meeting colleagues about new projects and of course getting involved in new productions around the country and abroad. On the choice to live in the DC area... I wouldn’t do very well raising a family in New York. It’s just not me. Washington is a great place; it’s sophisticated, it’s beautiful, and it’s big, and it also has one of the biggest theater scenes outside of New York. I get to roll up my sleeves and work with theater people here, and that’s all I want.
THE PLAY SETTING 1934. The story begins in the dining room of the Tokatilian Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. The primary action then occurs aboard the Orient Express as it travels from Istanbul, Turkey towards Western Europe. Action occurs in various train cars and compartments.
CONFLICT Following the murder of the young girl, Daisy Armstrong, three years prior to the action of the play, another murder occurs on the Orient Express. Who did it and why? Hercule Poirot, infamous detective, seeks the truth over the course of 24 hours.
IN THEIR WORDS On her start in writing... Many (people), I fancy, wonder whether to take my answer seriously, although it’s a strictly truthful one. You see I put it all down to the fact that I never had an education. Perhaps I better qualify that by admitting I did eventually go to school in Paris when I was sixteen or thereabouts. But until then, apart from a little arithmetic, I had no lessons to speak of at all.
THE AUTHOR Agatha Christie
A
gatha Christie, in full Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, née Miller, (born September 15, 1890, Torquay, Devon, England—died January 12, 1976, Wallingford, Oxfordshire), English detective novelist and playwright whose books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages. Her work usually made best-seller lists and were serialized in popular magazines in England and the United States.
Educated at home by her mother, Christie began writing detective fiction while working as a nurse during World War I. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), introduced Hercule Poirot, her eccentric and egotistic Belgian detective; Poirot reappeared in about 25 novels and many short stories before returning to Styles, where, in Curtain (1975), he died. Christie’s plays include The Mousetrap (1952), which set a world record for the longest continuous run at one theatre (8,862 performances—more than 21 years—at the Ambassadors Theatre, London) and then moved to another theatre, and Witness for the Prosecution (1953), which, like many of her works, was adapted into a successful film (1957). Other notable film adaptations include Murder on the Orient Express (1933; film 1974 and 2017) and Death on the Nile (1937; film 1978). Her works were also adapted for television. In 1926 Christie’s mother died, and her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, requested a divorce. In a move she never fully explained, Christie disappeared and, after several highly publicized days, was discovered registered in a hotel under the name of the woman her husband wished to marry. In 1930, Christie married the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan; thereafter she spent several months each year on expeditions in Iraq and Syria with him. She also wrote romantic nondetective novels, such as Absent in the Spring (1944), under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Her autobiography (1977) appeared posthumously.
Although I was gloriously idol in those days children had to do a good many things for themselves they made their own dolls furniture and they made Christmas presents to give to their friends. Nowadays they’re just given money and told to buy presents in a big store. I found myself making up stories and acting the different parts and there’s nothing like boredom to make you write. There was a time I was 16 or 17 I had written quite a number of short stories and one long dreary novel. at the time I was 21 I’d finished the first book of mine ever to be published the mysterious affair at styles. I’d sent it to one or two publishers who didn’t want it and eventually, it went to John Lane about a year later I heard it had been accepted. On her writing method... Well, the disappointing truth is that I haven’t much method. I typed my own drafts on an ancient faithful machine I’ve owned for years and I found a dictaphone useful for short stories or for recasting an act of a play; not to the more complicated business of working out a novel. Now I think the real work is I mean thinking out the development of your story and worrying about it until it comes right. That may take quite a while. Then when you’ve got all your materials together, as it were, try to find time to write the thing. My family usually noticed signs of approaching (writings) by saying mommy’s broody again. On the length of time it takes to write... Three months seems, to me, quite a reasonable time to complete a book if one can get right down to it. On the other hand plays, I think, are better written quickly of course writing plays is much more than writing books. You haven’t got to bother about long descriptions of places and people or about deciding how to space out your material and you must write pretty fast keep in the mood and to keep the talk flowing. On her preferred style of writing... Naturally, I prefer to write a play as a play, that is, rather than to adapt a book. The only reason I ever did that was because I didn’t care very much for what happened when other people tried to turn my books into plays so, in the end, I had to do it myself.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 3
CHARACTERS
Meet the characters of Murder on the Orient Express.
COLONEL ARBUTHNOT played by Danny Gavigan
A colonel in the British army. He served in the First World War before relocating from India to Middlesex, Greater London, England.
SAMUEL RATCHETT played by Danny Gavigan
An American businessman specializing in import/export.
HELEN HUBBARD
played by Deborah Hazlett A wealthy woman on vacation in the East.
PRINCESS DRAGOMIROFF played by Helen Hedman
Daughter and only heir to an ancient line of Russian royalty. Currently, in exile.
GRETA OHLSSON played by Beth Hylton
A Swedish nurse and missionary working as the caretaker for the Princess on their way to America.
MARY DEBENHAM played by Hannah Kelly
A young, prim and proper British governess.
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MICHEL
played by M. Scott McLean Longtime conductor on the Orient Express.
HECTOR MACQUEEN played by Tony Nam
Assistant to Mr. Ratchett, primarily helping to navigate the various languages of Europe in his travels.
HERCULE POIROT
played by Bruce Randolph Nelson A talented Belgian detective of great renown. On vacation in Istanbul following a particularly trying case.
COUNTESS ANDRENYI played by Lilian Oben
A Hungarian noblewoman who gained her wealth and title by marrying into it.
MONSIEUR BOUC
played by Jefferson A. Russell A friend of Poirot. He is highranking employee of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the company that operates the Orient Express.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 5
TIMELINE Famous Adaptations
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1988) This play was adapted by Frank Galati from the John Steinbeck novel and was first performed at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Eventually it made its way to the Royal National Theater and Broadway, where it ran for close to two hundred performances.
1952
1988
1990
THE MOUSETRAP (1952) The Mousetrap opened in London’s West End in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. The longest-running West End show, it has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 25,000th performance taking place on November 18, 2012.
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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1990) Harper Lee’s timeless classic was adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel and debuted in Monroeville, Alabama, where it is still performed every spring.
STUPID FUCKING BIRD (2013) FRANKENSTEIN (2011)
A contemporary adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, written by American playwright Aaron Posner. Posner has written multiple adaptations of Chekhov and Shakespeare works. In 2013, Stupid Fucking Bird premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. The play takes a satirical spin on a theatrical classic, but has the essence of Chekhov’s original intent for the piece—what it means to create art.
Nick Dear adapted Frankenstein into a play that ran at the Royal National Theatre in 2011. The play was directed by Danny Boyle and starred Benedict Cumberbatch alongside Jonny Lee Miller. The two actors alternated roles each night, switching between playing Dr. Frankenstein and The Creature.
1996
DRACULA (1996) This classic horror tale by Bram Stoker was adapted for the stage by Steven Dietz. Though the play never made it to Broadway, it is quite popular among regional and community theaters.
2011
2012
2013
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (2012) Adapted by Simon Stephens from the 2003 book by Mark Haddon, the play premiered at the Royal National Theatre and won seven Olivier Awards in 2013, including Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Set Design.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 7
A MAPPED HISTORY OF TAKING A TRAIN ACROSS THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 21, 2013 | By
James Hamblin
THE FIRST STEAM ENGINE RAILWAY TRAVEL TOOK PLACE 209 YEARS AGO TODAY. HERE, THE STORY OF HOW THE CIVIL WAR IMPEDED, AND THEN ACCELERATED, THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA’S TRAINS.
T
hat progress you see in the above three maps was because of the steam engine. 1830 gave us Tom Thumb, the first U.S. steam locomotive, in Baltimore. And from there these machines took off.
But before we could build the transcontinental railroad, the Civil War broke out, which temporarily stalled things. Ultimately, however, the war accelerated the ubiquity of trains. Railway and bridges were destroyed, and Americans learned to rebuild them better and faster. According to William Thomas, in The Iron Way, “The South possessed some of the most beautiful depots and railroad facilities in the nation in 1861. Sherman’s campaigns sought to dismantle the Confederate railroad system and in so doing deny any claim to modernity and progress.” Meanwhile, guerrilla Confederates would attack trains, so the Union soldiers braced their bridges for attack and put up these blockhouses for bridge defenders. Sherman, knowing that his supply lines would be under attack, is said to have trained 10,000 troops in railroad repair before he marched on Atlanta. That his men were so adept at repairing their lines contributed to his success during the March to the Sea. This bridge was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In May EVERYMAN THEATRE | 8
1862 it was rebuilt in nine days. By 1864, they could rebuild it in 40 hours. Thomas notes that bridges like this contributed to the sense that railroad were “thought to defy nature.” After the war, many of these men put their railroadconstruction skills and experience to use for non-military lines, and by 1930 the travel time from Manhattan to LA was down to three days. By 1930, three days brought us 2,500 miles. In 1800, three days would have taken us just 250 miles. Three weeks in 1857 was three days by 1930. But comparing that 1930 map with Amtrak options today, despite the lack of any civil war to impede our growth since then, we’re still at about the same travel times.
Comprehension: How long did it take to rebuild the Union soldiers bridge in 1862 versus 1864? Reflection: Consider your daily travel from your house to your school. What is the slowest mode of transportation from your house to school and what do you imagine would be the fastest? How long would each mode of transportation take?
TRAVEL FASHION 1930s
PACKING LIST
Patrick Leigh Femor - Backpacking across Hungary and Romania, to the ‘Iron Gates’ on the Southern Danube
p one pair of trousers p two extra pairs of trousers p a tweed jacket p several shirts p two ties p 12 handkerchiefs ;) p a wash bag p a compass p a knife p candles p matches, a pipe, tobacco, & cigarettes p a hip flask of alcohol p a watch (pocket watch) p a greatcoat p a walking stick In 1934, hair is pushed back across the head at a sharp angle and hats, worn on one side of the head, look almost like vinyl records. Many women curl their hair like Jean Harlow, wear red lipstick, rouge and nail polish. Most women also penciled in their eyebrows. A new passion for sports ushered in a new era of smaller, tighter sportswear.
p sketchbook, pencils
On the beach, shapely women wore what was called “corset bathing suits” that were slashed and backless and molded very closely to the woman’s body.
p gym shoes
p a map p a journal p a minimum of 4 books p sleeping bag
Finally, high-fashion designs were making their way to the average woman in the form of ready-to-wear clothes. The style that was seen in the magazines was being seen in middle-class neighborhoods. The tailored look, Chanel’s collection, and the new surrealism design all experienced great success. Chanel embraced “understated elegance” by keeping the easy skirt and pairing it with a jersey jacket. Schiaparelli pursued “hard edge chic” and fantasy, with prints designed by Dali and Cocteau, accompanied by wild button shaped like fish, horses or stars. Padded shoulders were even more pronounced in 1934. The “little black dress” is the new evening style, but some women loved to express themselves in loud-colored long dinner suits. Hot colors combos in 1943 are brown & pink, and prune & turquoise. Women still loved gloves and silver fox broadtail.
Reflection: What sort of things do you pack to travel and what do you wear? How different is your packing list and travel clothes differ from the ones in the 1930s? What was surprising about the fashion of the time?
HOW EUROPE WENT TO WAR IN 1939 JANUARY 10, 2018 | By
IWM Staff
T
he Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history. Years of international tension and aggressive expansion by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany culminated in the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.
The decisions that led to war reflected the ambitions, rivalries, fears and anxieties that developed in the two decades that followed the end of the First World War. The European powers were willing to go to war to extend or protect what each nation saw - in dramatically different ways - as matters of vital interest, great power status, international prestige, and national survival.
In Germany, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and established a totalitarian one-party state under the Nazis. Political opposition was violently repressed. Hitler exploited the popular belief that Germany had been humiliated after the First World War. He promised economic recovery, national revival and that Germany would return to international prominence through a revision of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany withdrew from the League of Nations in October 1933. In 1935, Hitler announced German rearmament and re-introduced conscription, which was prohibited under Versailles. The ultra-nationalist governments of both Italy and Germany each pursued aggressive foreign policies of territorial expansion that threatened to destroy the world order established by the post-war peace settlement.
THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
ITALY AND GERMANY ON THE MARCH
The First World War and its subsequent peace settlements gave rise to new ambitions, rivalries and tensions. People had high expectations that the post-war peace settlement would create a new world order and ensure that the slaughter of the First World War was never repeated. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, created the League of Nations - an international body intended to promote peace and prevent war. However, the treaty was an uneasy compromise as each of the victorious Allies - Britain, America, France and Italy - looked to pursue their own interests. Germany was forced to surrender territory, disarm and pay for the war’s damage. These divisive conditions were criticised as overly vindictive by many in Britain and America. The treaty’s terms caused immediate outrage and lasting bitterness in Germany. The sense of defeat, humiliation and injustice would have a significant impact on German foreign and domestic policies, and calls to revise the terms of the treaty became a major aspect of international politics in the 1920s and 1930s. The period between the two world wars was one of instability and insecurity. Political, economic and social unrest was made worse by the collapse of the international economy in 1929.
On 3 October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia). Both countries were members of the League of Nations, and Italy’s aggression compelled the League to intervene. However, Britain and France struggled to coordinate an effective response. They imposed limited economic sanctions, which only pushed Italy away from Britain and France and into closer co-operation with Germany. Encouraged by the weak response to Italy’s attack on Abyssinia, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland on 7 March 1936. This demilitarised zone had been established under the Treaty of Versailles as a buffer between Germany and France. Britain did not see the occupation as a threat to its interests or overall security and did not respond militarily. France, already politically and militarily insecure, was left feeling isolated internationally and did little to resist the occupation. Hitler’s success in the Rhineland encouraged him to pursue an even more aggressive foreign policy. Intervention in the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in July 1936, reinforced the divide between Italy and Germany on one side, and Britain and France on the other.
THE RETREAT FROM DEMOCRACY The instability and insecurity of the 1920s and 1930s gave rise to political extremism in many European countries. People looked to authoritarian leadership as a political alternative. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922 and almost all aspects of Italian life came under state control. EVERYMAN THEATRE | 10
Comprehension: What caused many German citizens to feel defeated, humiliated, and dismissed throughout much of the 1930s? Reflection: When conflicts in your life threatened to turn violent, what are some ways you have found helpful to de-escalate the situation?
THE GRUESOME HISTORY OF FAKE BLOOD IN HOLLYWOOD OCTOBER 24, 2016 | By
Alex Swerdloff
Blood. Blut. Sangue. Veri. Krof. Rakta. Chi. Dam. Xuè. Whatever you want to call it, it’s literally in us all. Given blood’s obvious centrality in all things human, it’s no wonder that theatrical blood has been around for as long as there have been theaters. Once the old red handkerchief trick ran dry—which was probably really, really early on—performers needed a substance that would replicate with some authority the real, ichorous thing. Without an extensive knowledge of mid-16th-century stagecraft, you might think that animal blood was used onstage in early performances of plays like Titus Andronicus, the bloodiest of Shakespeare’s works. But experts today are increasingly doubtful that animal blood was ever widely used, for practical reasons. As Farah Karim-Cooper, the Head of Higher Education & Research at the Globe Theater in London puts it, “The question of whether or not animal blood was used on the stage is difficult to answer in the light of evidence about the expensiveness and quality of actors’ costumes and their inability to launder them.” In other words, no dry cleaning, no animal blood. Given that, a recipe for stage blood has been required for centuries, and several different recipes developed over the years as productions moved from the stage to film to television and now to high-definition, computer-generated sources of entertainment. So if stage blood has long been cooked, how was it made way-back-when? Well, one early recipe came from bugs. The Grand Guignol—the Parisian theater that opened in 1890 and was known for its horror plays—made stage blood using red pigment derived from boiling dried insects. When that recipe cooled, it coagulated and created some delightful-looking scabs. With the development of the movie industry, early black-andwhite films used a quick and easy shortcut for their bloody needs: chocolate syrup. Yes, in a world of blacks-and-whites, chocolate syrup stood in stark contrast to light backgrounds. Overbearing censorship guidelines helped—they did not allow much blood to be shown on screen at all. And to apply the syrup in realistic-looking drips, another unlikely solution presented itself: the squeezable bottle. These had just started to hit the markets when Hitchcock’s makeup supervisor on the iconic thriller Psycho, Jack Barron, was devising a way to make a blood-centric movie appear
authentic. He told author Stephen Rebello, who wrote The Making of Psycho, that syrup in a squeeze bottle was a new, space-age innovation that did the trick: “Shasta had just come out with chocolate syrup in a plastic squeeze bottle. This was before the days of the ‘plastic explosion,’ so it was pretty revolutionary. Up to that time in films, we were using Hershey’s, but you could do a lot more with a squeeze bottle.” With the advent and adoption of color in Hollywood-made movies, the pressure on fake blood to look real mounted exponentially. Fake movie blood became known as “Kensington Gore,” after a retired British pharmacist, John Tynegate, began to manufacture and sell a popular stage blood named after Kensington Gore, a street in London. Tynegate’s formula was heavily used throughout the 60s and the 70s. The most famous recipe for stage blood, however, comes from Dick Smith, a Hollywood makeup artist who died a year ago at the age of 92. Smith was responsible for the blood you enjoyed in such classics as The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, and The Godfather. Called by some “the greatest makeup artist who’s ever going to live,” Smith’s recipe for fake blood is a classic— but it also happens to be, like, super poisonous. Why, you may ask, is Smith’s poisonous recipe so famous if blood is so often required to trickle from actors’ mouths? It turns out that edible versions—all variations on Smith’s original formula— abound. Today, the vehicle for disseminating stage blood has also advanced beyond the squirt bottle—to the condom. Warren Appleby, a special-effects coordinator who has worked on such films as the 2013 re-make of Carrie, points out that the condom is the perfect way to make a nice, bloody mess: “It’s cheap, and it already has a reservoir that you can fill with blood. You affix that to the wardrobe, then put a small explosive charge called a squib between the blood bag and the performer. We used vacuum seal bags so we could make a nice square—sometimes the condoms don’t break, sometimes they do.” Alas, the craft of making stage blood may soon come to a coagulated close—at least for film and television productions. More and more, sleek CGI blood, made purely of pixels, is becoming the method of choice for directors.
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THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS NOVEMBER 7, 2017 | By
David Zax
T
o most people, the Orient Express is more of an idea than a tangible entity. We are most familiar with its life in fiction and cinema: Hercule Poirot solved his most famous case on it, Alfred Hitchock’s lady vanished from it and James Bond rode it from Istanbul to London.
one of Europe’s finest hotels; they marveled at the intricate wooden paneling, deluxe leather armchairs, silk sheets and wool blankets for the beds. The journey from Paris to Istanbul lasted a little over 80 hours.
Now, the latest iteration of the legendary train is chugging back. But what was the real Orient Express like, how did it first attain its aura of mystery and intrigue and what was the famous train’s ultimate fate?
Some kings traveling onboard the train infamously exhibited very odd behavior. Ferdinand of Bulgaria, scared to death of assassins, was observed locking himself in the bathroom. Belgium’s King Leopold II rode the train to Istanbul after making elaborate arrangements to infiltrate a Turkish man’s harem. The king of Bulgaria, an amateur engineer, insisted that he be allowed to drive the train through his country, which he did at perilous speeds. Czar Nicholas II demanded that special cars be built for his visit to France, and some decades later the French President Paul Deschanel clumsily tumbled from one of these cars in the dead of night, an event that prompted such ridicule that he eventually resigned.
A CONTINENTAL VISION In 1865, a prominent Belgian banker’s son named Georges Nagelmackers first envisioned “a train that would span a continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1,500 miles,” as E. H. Cookridge writes in Orient Express: The Life and Times of the World’s Most Famous Train. During a trip to America, Nagelmackers witnessed the many innovations in railway travel there—chief among them George Pullman’s unprecedented, luxurious “sleeper cars”—and he returned determined to realize his vision. In 1883, after a number of false starts, financial troubles and difficulties negotiating with various national railway companies, Nagelmackers’s Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (wagons-lits being French for “sleeper cars”) established a route from Paris to Istanbul, then called Constantinople. The newspapers dubbed it the “Orient Express”—though Istanbul was as far toward the “Orient” as this train would ever travel—and Nagelmackers embraced the name. On October 4, the Orient Express set out on its first formal journey, with many journalists aboard to publicly marvel at the train’s luxury and beauty. (Nagelmackers, a clever showman, even arranged to have shoddy, decaying old Pullman cars stand in contrast on the tracks adjacent to the Express as it left Paris’s Gare de Strasbourg.) Aboard the train, the delighted passengers felt as though they’d entered EVERYMAN THEATRE | 12
THE KING OF TRAINS
In its heyday, the train duly earned another nickname: “Spies’ Express.” Continent-hopping secret agents loved the train, writes Cookridge, since it simply “made their jobs so much easier and their travels much more comfortable.” One of the most remarkable of these agents was an Englishman named Robert Baden-Powell, who posed as a lepidopterist collecting samples in the Balkans. His intricate sketches of the forms and colors of butterfly wings were actually coded representations of the fortifications he spotted along the Dalmatian Coast, which served as great aids to the British and Italian navies during World War I. Though the two World Wars severely limited Orient Express service, a single-car played a fascinating symbolic role in both. On November 11, 1918, German officers signed a surrender document in an Allied commander’s Wagons-Lits car, which he used as a mobile conference room. The French proudly exhibited the car in Paris until June 1940, when Hitler ordered that it be hauled to the precise spot where the Germans had been forced to surrender 22 years before; there he dictated the terms of French surrender. Four years later, when Hitler’s
loss seemed imminent, he ordered that the car be blown up, lest it “become a trophy of the Allies once more.” A TRUE ORIGINAL What remains of the Orient Express? The pedigree of the train became rather complicated in later years, as Nagelmackers’s original line spawned similar ones following slightly different routes, and as other providers began to use the phrase “Orient Express” for promotional purposes. The Direct Orient Express, the Simplon Orient Express (the train Poirot rode), the Nostalgic Orient Express and many others have existed over the years. One descendant of the original Orient Express became rather shabby, crowded and cheap—a disillusioned journalist called it a “roving tenement.” Today’s VeniceSimplon Orient Express aims for the opulence of the original, and for the right price, a person can still go for a ride in its restored original Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits cars.
ART DECO What is Art Deco?
Art Deco is an international decorative arts movement, most popular between the years 1924 - 1940. It is a style of drawing, that relies on bold designs, clear lines, vibrant colours, and patterns. Geometric shapes and intense color schemes are prominent. Art Deco’s main characteristics are derived from the various painting styles of the early twentieth century, ranging from Cubism to Italian Futurism. Art Deco is usually associated to the architecture of the 1930s and speed and luxury. Recently it has seen a revival.
But attempts to maintain the old glamour of the Orient Express have largely fallen into self-parody—promoters of the line have encouraged patrons to dress in 1920s garb, and even once staged a murder mystery game during a journey. Writing in 1976 for the Los Angeles Times, one reporter meets a tired and cranky contessa who says, on the trip’s last leg, “If there are going to be any murders on this train, it will be the Turk that wakes me up at 5 a.m.” Modern versions of the Orient Express are a far cry from the original that Cookridge lovingly and nostalgically portrays: “Kings and crooks, millionaires and refugees, big-game hunters and smugglers, prima donnas and courtesans traveled on it; tycoons and financiers clinched their deals across its sumptuous dining tables; diplomats, spies, and revolutionaries on board the train moved secretively to their moments of history.” The era of such intrigue and excitement aboard the Orient Express is over. But in a world that becomes more connected every day—and one in which there is no shortage of luxury travel—much of Nagelmackers’s vision lives on. The Orient Express became the train of choice for Europe’s wealthy and high-born, a rolling symbol of the economic disparities of its age. “Peasants in half-a-dozen countries would pause in their work in the fields and gape at the glittering cars and the supercilious faces behind the windows,” writes Cookridge. It came to be called “the King of Trains and the Train of Kings.”
Art Deco had an extensive influence on architecture in the 1930s and 1940s. Many buildings on the coast of Florida have an Art Deco exterior, tending to be symmetrical with distinctive windows and colours.
Comprehension: Why was the Orient Express was called “The King of Trains and the Train of Kings”? What were some of the strange behaviors King’s showed while on the train? Reflection: If you were able to create your own Express train, what would be your routes and your destinations?
Many car designs for the 1930s and 1940s were influenced by Art Deco. The automobile seen opposite has a streamlined and elegant appeal. The design suggests speed, style, and luxury.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE MODERN DETECTIVE AUGUST 14, 2019 | By
Timothy Roufa
Time to Go to Work
It’s Monday morning and your alarm pulls you from your sleep, which you didn’t get a lot of last night. Because you work in the Criminal Investigations Division (CID), you get to work a day shift with weekends off, which is great. This past weekend, though, you were the detective on call, and it was a busy one. You’re holding three new cases before the workweek has even started. You ease out of bed, shower, shave and put on a shirt and tie. You can’t decide if you miss wearing a uniform; on the one hand, you’ll always be a patrol officer at heart. On the other, and especially when it’s 95 degrees out with 80% humidity, you’re thankful you’re not working traffic or walking a beat in a dark wool outfit like your police officer buddies on patrol have to do. You grab a travel mug of coffee, strap on your sidearm, and head to the office in your unmarked car. At first, you were excited about getting an unmarked car, until you realized that instead of the sleek new Dodge Charger you were expecting you were issued a 5-year-old, low-end import to avoid conspicuity. CID, you were told, tries to avoid standard patrol car models so that they’re not as easily pegged as cop cars.
Just Another Day at the Office
When you get to the office and check your voicemail, you have five new messages, all from the family of the victim from the murder scene you worked Saturday night. They’re understandably hurt, shocked and desperate for answers, and they’re calling with what they believe are more leads and evidence for you to look into. You return the calls and take down the information, which turns out to be promising. You assure them you’re going to do everything you can to get answers, and you give them your
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mobile number so they can get in touch with you more easily. It’s a small gesture and an even smaller comfort, but it brings a little more relief to the family and lets them know you really do care about their plight.
“THE CHALLENGE IS TO SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE SPECULATION...” After you get off the phone, you look through your case files and plan your day. You’ve got five witnesses you need to interview, as well as the primary suspect from Saturday’s murder scene. He “lawyered up” and has declined to answer questions to date, but his attorney reached out to you and said he’s ready to talk. You set up the interview for late afternoon to give you time to talk to the witnesses and get as much extra information as you can to help you look for holes in the suspect’s story.
The Detective’s Waiting Game
You spend the rest of the day making notes in your file, reviewing photos and contacting the crime scene unit to follow up on an older case. You’re hoping for some breakthroughs from either the DNA analysts or the fingerprint examiners or, better yet, both. You don’t hold out a lot of hope because you know that—despite how TV shows portray CSI cases—it usually takes months, not hours, to get any kind of actionable evidence analysis back from the lab. Interviews, Interviews and More Interviews With no new progress from the evidence techs, you leave the
office, grab a quick lunch, and make your way to meet your witnesses. You take recorded interviews with each of them. Most of the information you get confirms what you already knew from the evidence, but a couple of new pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Progress. A few statements contradict each other, which is a frustrating but common occurrence when dealing with different people who have different perspectives; witnesses’ minds often try to make sense of what they saw after the fact. The challenge is to separate the facts from the speculation—a challenge to be sure, but nothing you haven’t dealt with a hundred times before. After your last witness interview, you pull into a vacant parking lot to make some notes and go over your facts before you meet with your suspect. You develop a line of questions and devise a game plan and then make your way to the suspect’s attorney’s office for the interview. Your suspect’s answers are short and somewhat evasive, and it’s clear he’s been coached. He offers an alibi, but you’ve got some witnesses who contradict that. You’re not ready to play that card just yet, though. You can tell he’s lying, but you want to get more proof to back it up before you call him on it. When the interview is over, you play nice with the suspect and the lawyer and assure him you’re exhausting all leads.
ART DECO Continued...
Playing by the Rules
With the new information you gathered, you’ve got some good leads and ideas of where to look for some key evidence. You head back to the office and draw up a search warrant so you can collect the evidence you expect to find. You send a draft to the district attorney’s office for review. Since it’s not time-sensitive, you know you won’t get a thumbs up or thumbs down until at least tomorrow.
The Art Deco movement even influenced the design and layout of posters. The poster shown above has typical Art Deco colours and displays the fashion and architecture of the 1930s.
It Doesn’t End at the End of the Day
It’s been a long day, coming off of a long weekend. As quitting time rolls around, you head out to your car and make the short drive home. When you get home, you pine for a shower and a cold beer to wash away the day. The shower, you can do. The beer is out because you’re still on call. After a few hours of reading and watching TV, you’re ready to turn in for the night. You rest your head on your pillow and hope for sleep to come. Sometimes, when you close your eyes at night, you see the faces of the victims whose deaths you’ve investigated. Sleep doesn’t always come easily, but fortunately, it does tonight.
A Detective Never Sleeps
You’re not sure how long you’ve been asleep when the ringing telephone wrenches you awake. A glance at the clock tells you it’s 2:30 a.m. The fog of sleep slowly lifts as you answer the ringing phone. It is dispatch calling. “Good morning Detective,” the dispatcher says. “We’ve got a signal 7 for you. Are you ready to copy?” You grab the pad and pen you keep by the bed and start to take notes. It’s going to be another long day.
Two typical Art Deco patterns are seen above. Art Deco patterns tend to have: • Distinctive circular patterns. • Bold straight lines. • Subtle use of color and shade. • Often look rather abstract.
CURTAINS UP ON CAREERS:
LIGHT DESIGN Interview with Lighting Designer, Harold F. Burgess II
Where are you from originally and when did you first develop an interest in theatre? I am originally from Columbia, MD where I first became involved in lighting while working on plays and musicals at my high school. It’s been all downhill ever since! When and why did you decide to pursue theatre professionally? How has your background shaped your career path? I didn’t really know that lighting design was an actual job until I entered the theater program at the University of Maryland where I quickly got involved in all manner of technical theater from working as a student assistant carpenter in the scene shop to performing on run crews for productions and eventually assisting on the design of shows. I’ve stuck with theatre since I first got started so I can say I’ve stayed true to following my creative interests for the last….many years. Define the Light Designer’s responsibilities or the scope of their work in relation to bringing a story to life on stage. This is a big question so I’ll only provide a brief response as there are textbooks written on this very subject. The primary responsibility of an LD as I see it, is to facilitate communication by providing light, mood, rhythm and timing that supports the performers and the story they are trying to tell. Everything beyond that is gravy on top but there are many nuances to design that I’m glossing over here. How do you feel inspired by Murder on the Orient Express? Who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned murder mystery set on a train, with a great ensemble cast and assembled production team all under the supervision of the train conductor in Vinny Lancisi that will somehow get us to our destination with nary a mishap or two along the way? It’s a fun script with some interesting twists, lots of opportunities for design elements to support the action and provide audiences with a compelling evening of live theatre.
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When you come to a story for the first time, walk us through your thought process from the first read to the final renderings? In reading a play for the first time, I try to stay in the moment and read the play for what it is without too much thought, if any, about how it will be produced or whether or not I think I know how to design for it. Subsequent passes of the script can yield more information (and questions) about supporting the premise behind the play. In truth, I really don’t know how the lighting is going to work until I’m in the theatre with all of the elements, and most importantly the actors, before me. I conduct visual research for most designs I produce but those images are mostly a reference point but not necessarily representative of how the lighting design will materialize. How does a light designer communicate their vision? How does a light designer use the technical rehearsal period? I think of lighting design as a measured balance of being proactive and reactive. On one hand, you need to understand the story being told and the concept the director/design team has devised yet you must also be able have the dexterity to create new lighting ideas on the fly in response to ongoing changes while in rehearsals on stage. Talking about light is an abstract exercise given you are working with a medium that is ephemeral and only exists in time and space. The key to good communication always begins with being a good listener and observant of what’s going on around you. I use everyday interactions with light, whether witnessing a gorgeous sunset or catching an interesting shadow created by a streetlamp outside my home or taking note of the eerie glow that emanates from my laptop late at night. All of these daily interactions translate to how I attempt to articulate a particular mood or feeling when describing the light I see in my mind’s eye for a particular scene or action. There is significant preparation leading up to tech which includes the development of a light plot, a schematic technical drawing, that serves as the blueprint from which all of the tools (e.g. lighting instruments) are arranged in the theatre to
Murder on the Orient Exp Murder on the Orient Express
Lighting Research Lighting Research Everyman Theatre Everyman Theatre Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient Express Lighting Research Lighting Research Murder Everyman Theatre on the Orient Express Everyman Theatre
distribute light to the stage. As a designer, my primary goal with the light plot is to ensure I have all of the “paint brushes” I think I’ll need to render light effectively on stage. To use a different analogy, it’s like a really big golf bag with many clubs to hopefully keep the ball in play at all times and occasionally hit a hole in one! Most of tech is used to set light levels (also known as light cues) for each scene or movement within the play and allows the team to stitch together the proper or desired sequence as per the ebb and flow of the script. Some plays may only need 30 cues, others may require over 200 or more. Murder will be closer to the latter.
Which character are you most entranced by in this story and where is your biggest challenge? Bruce as Poirot will of course be an adventure but I think I’m most looking forward to the ensemble acting. Each character is written as a caricature of archetypes we’ve seen in films; it’s a great opportunity to see our resident company members and guest artists reveal those characters as the play unfolds. My most significant challenge will be to resist watching our talented actors perform and actually pay attention to getting them lit!
Lighting Research Everyman Theatre
What advice might you give someone interested in pursuing the profession of lighting design as a career path? As for lighting design, there are many in roads to pursue a career in theatrical lighting, event lighting, film, TV, concert lighting and more. I think the common thread is developing one’s ability to see light and how it permeates everything we experience every day. I’ve found that photography has helped me to see better and understand composition, texture, color and movement more than any class I’ve ever taken. Lighting for the stage is similar to being behind a camera in that you get to choose what to illuminate, how much light you need for a good exposure and what things you don’t want in your composition to ensure the subject is undeniably within the frame. This is the basis of lighting in all forms; visibility, selective focus, composition.
While you have worked here many times, what does it mean for you personally and professionally to be a new company member at Everyman Theatre? I am probably my worst critic by far when it comes to evaluating my work as an artist and have always felt the need to work hard to produce designs that I feel are representative of what suffices as good design. Becoming a resident designer at Everyman is an affirmation of my professional work (I think) which is both comforting and a call to work harder. I am in awe of the host of talented people I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with who inspire me to continue to hone my own craft and elevate my creativity. It’s a very special place to call “home” and I am so very appreciative of the opportunity to be included within the inner circle of the Everyman family.
ABOVE: Images from Harold’s lighting research for Murder on the Orient Express.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 17
GLOSSARY Alibi: the plea of having been at the time of the commission of an act elsewhere than at the place of commission Barbarians: a person from an alien land, culture, or group believed to be inferior, uncivilized, or violent —used chiefly in historical references
mineral that is a hydrous magnesium silicate found chiefly in Asia Minor and is used especially for tobacco pipes. Popullarized by the fictonal character Sherlock Holmes Methodical: Arranged, characterized by, or performed with method or order
Belgrade: city and capital of modern day Serbia, today’s population: 1,120,092. At the time of the play in 1934, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia, and had a population around 270,000
Modesty: The quality of not being too proud or confident about yourself or your abilities
Bolshevik: a member of the extremist wing of the Russian Social Democratic party that seized power in Russia by the Revolution of November 1917
Moron: A very stupid person
Calais: city and port in northern France on the Strait of Dovere Cardiac: of, relating to, situated near, or acting on the heart Concierge: a resident in an apartment building especially in France who serves as doorkeeper, landlord’s representative, and janitor. Broadly : a person employed (as by a business) to make arrangements or run errands Cyrillic: of, relating to, or constituting an alphabet used for writing Old Church Slavic and for Russian and a number of other languages of eastern Europe and Asia Deception: the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid : the act of deceiving Exotic: introduced from another country : not native to the place where found Fabrication: The act or process of making up for the purpose of deception Forbid: To command against Incidentally: In an incidental manner : not intentionally Iodine: A nonmetallic halogen element that is an essential nutrient in the human diet and is used especially in medicine, photography, and analytical chemistry used especially as a topical antiseptic Istanbul: City in northwestern Turkey partly in Europe and partly in Asia on the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara; capital of Turkey before its independence in 1923 and earlier capital of the Ottoman Empire population 12,500,000 Lausanne: Commune in western Switzerland on Lake Geneva population 132,800 Locales (as in a location): A place or locality especially when viewed in relation to a particular event or characteristic Lord Byron: Lord George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, an English poet Maddening: Tending to craze or infuriate Mahjong: A game of Chinese origin usually played by four persons with 144 tiles that are drawn and discarded until one player secures a winning hand Meerschaum (like Holmes pipe): A fine light white clayey EVERYMAN THEATRE | 18
Monger: A broker or dealer. An alemonger sells beer. A fishmonger sells fish. A warmonger promotes war and conflict No, No, Nanette: No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel’s 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends. The farcical story involves three couples who find themselves together at a cottage in Atlantic City in the midst of a blackmail scheme, focusing on a young, fun-loving Manhattan heiress who naughtily runs off for a weekend, leaving her unhappy fiancé. A popular myth holds that the show was financed by selling baseball’s Boston Red Sox superstar Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, resulting in the “Curse of the Bambino.” However, it was My Lady Friends, rather than No, No, Nanette, that was directly financed by the Ruth sale Odyssey: A long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune Pablo Picasso: 1881–1973 A Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement Primal: Original, primitive, at times barbaric Rubbish: Trash, something that is worthless or nonsensical Sofia: City in western Bulgaria, modern capital of Bulgaria Spirit Lamp: A lamp in which a volatile liquid fuel (such as alcohol) is burned Succumb: To yield to superior strength or force or overpowering appeal or desire Tokatilian Hotel: A European style luxury hotel built in Istanbul, demolished in the 1950s Tootsies: Feet Wagon-Lit: A passenger car that has berths for sleeping Yugoslavia: Former country in southern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Yugoslavia was established 1918 as a kingdom (the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) and became a federal republic in 1945 with Belgrade as its capital Zagreb: City and capital of Croatia, modern population 687,500
FRENCH Ah non: Oh no Ah Oui: Oh yes
Extension Project
Alors: So
Be the Dialect Coach...
Attends: Hold on
We know the main job of the actor is to bring a character to life, believably. When actors have to play characters from different cities, countries, or continents and in order to do that actors must enlist the help of some resources and a dialect coach.
C’est magnifique: That’s wonderful C’est tout: That’s all Eh Bien: Well Helas: Alas Ja (German): Yes Je vous en pris: You’re welcome Mademoiselle: Miss Merci: Thank you Mon Dieu: My God Monsieur: Mr.
Be the dialect coach. Using the lines below, try to deliver the lines in all of the dialects of the each of the characters in the show. Poirot. Good evening. The story you are about to witness is one of romance and tragedy, primal murder and the urge for revenge. What better way to spend a pleasant evening together? Tools actors use: https://youtu.be/NvDvESEXcgE https://youtu.be/IDUZ4vaECok
N’est-ce pas: Is it not Regardes: Look S’il vous plait, mon ami: Please, my friend Voila: Here it is
YOUR THOUGHTS...
Use this space to jot down any thoughts that arise before, during, and/or after the performance. You can bring this with you to the theater and log your thoughts during intermission or on the bus
after the show. Then, bring this to the Post-Show Workshop to share with a guest artist.
I was surprised by/when…
The most memorable scene was when… because...
I was impacted most by the scene where...
I was confused by… or I wonder why...
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 19
SOURCES
Sources used to curate this Play Guide include... https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agatha-Christie https://youtu.be/G-l52NS-fEk https://youtu.be/i59-jskFreY https://www.breakingcharactermagazine.com/a-whopping-good-time-ken-ludwig-on-bringing-the-robin-hood-legend-to-life-atthe-old-globe/ https://mdtheatreguide.com/2011/12/an-interview-with-ken-ludwig-on-twas-the-night-before-christmas-at-adventure-theatreand-other-new-works/ https://www.washingtonian.com/2011/12/08/playwright-ken-ludwig-talks-christmas-alec-baldwin-and-the-jersey-shore/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orient-Express_Routes_Historiques_(fr).svg https://www.retrowaste.com/1930s/fashion-in-the-1930s/ https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/europe-western-europe/topics/1934-packing-list https://www.thebalancecareers.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-police-detective-974874 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-europe-went-to-war-in-1939
DEEPER DIVE AGATHA CHRISTIE Youtube: https://youtu.be/bmS5n_kp0xU, https://youtu.be/q9e7w35Emy0, https://youtu.be/nso3ZPNEQlI, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=i59-jskFreY https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/where-agatha-christie-dreamed-up-murder-158908115/ THE MYSTERY & HISTORY OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/rail-journeys/orient-express-mystery-and-history/ https://www.10best.com/interests/explore/you-can-actually-still-travel-on-the-orient-express/ https://www.amdigital.co.uk/about/blog/item/international-spies-and-french-royalty-the-mystique-of-the-orient-express https://www.sncf.com/en/group/history/orient-express https://www.alyaka.com/magazine/orient-express-journey-history/ ART DECO https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/kuhler-dreyfuss-and-lowey-modernism-streamliners-and-art-deco-trains/ https://www.widewalls.ch/what-is-art-deco-decorative-style/ http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/artdeco/artdeco.htm TRAVELING IN STYLE Traveling by air in the 1930’s? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_Kw8ZGpro Traveling by train in the 1930’s? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a04rNtg7DTE HISTORY https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-trappings-of-dictatorship https://inter-wars.weebly.com/country-analysis-1919-1941.html https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-europe-went-to-war-in-1939
THIS PLAY GUIDE CREATED BY Brianna McCoy, Director of Education & Community Engagement Genna Styles-Lyas, Education & Engagement Program Manager Hugh Raup, Education & Engagement Associate Mel Prather, Graphic Designer
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EVERYMAN THEATRE IS LOCATED AT 315 W. Fayette St. Baltimore, MD 21201 Box Office 410.752.2208 Administration 443.615.7055 Email boxoffice@everymantheatre.org
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT If you have questions about the Play Guide, contact our Education Department at education@everymantheatre.org or 443.615.7055 x7142
THEATRE ETIQUETTE When you come and see a play, remember to...
Respectfully enjoy the show. While we encourage you to laugh when something is funny, gasp if something shocks you, and listen intently to the action occurring, please remember to be respectful of the performers and fellow audience members. Please turn off or silence all electronic devices before the performance begins. There is no texting or checking your cell phone during the show. The glow of a cell phone can and will be seen from stage. Photography inside the theatre is strictly prohibited. Food and drinks are not allowed in the theatre. Food and drinks should be consumed in the Everyman lobby before or after the show, or during intermission. Be Present. Talking, moving around, checking your phone, or engaging in other activities is distracting to everyone and greatly disrupts the performance’s energy. Stay Safe. Please remain seated and quiet during the performance. Should you need to leave for any reason, re-entrance to the theatre is at the discretion of the house manager. In case of an emergency, please follow the instructions shared by Everyman staff members. Continue the conversation. After your performance, find Everyman Theatre on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and use #bmoreeveryman to tell us what you thought!
In this production, please be aware of... Strong Language and Racial Slurs Simulated Physical Violence Strong themes
CURRICULAR TIE-INS From the stage to the classroom...
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.C Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS Anchor Standard #6. Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work. Anchor Standard #7. Perceive and analyze artistic work. Anchor Standard #8. Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work. Anchor Standard #11. Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS PLAY GUIDE | 21
DESIGN YOUR OWN PRODUCTION IMAGERY
For each production at Everyman, our Marketing Department works with designers to create imagery that conveys a visual story. What story does the Murder on the Orient Express artwork on the cover convey? Now it’s your turn! Think about the play and design a new image to brand the show. Keep in mind, this image could be used on posters, advertisements, billboards, television, social media, etc. Share your reactions to the performance using #bmoreeveryman.
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