2014 Benefit Newsletter - April 2014 by Mint Theater Company

first priority club News April 28, 2014 The Cosmopolitan CluB

122 E 66th St, New York

6:30pm Reception 7:30pm Dinner & Parodies Please see the enclosed invitation for more information on the evening.

Thank you to our attendees & supporters Gretchen Adkins Kim & David Adler Linda & Lloyd Alterman Louise L. Arias Catherine Cahill & William Bernhard Jane Condon & Kenneth G. Bartels In honor of Gus Kaikkonen Jo Ann Corkran Bob Donnalley & The Cory & Bob Donnalley Charitable Fdtn Marjorie Ellenbogen Barbara G. Fleischman Ruth Friendly Agnes & Emilio Gautier Gene C. Gill John Harrington Brian & Darlene Heidtke Linda Irenegreene Joan Kedziora Fran & Carter Keithley Sarah-Ann Kramarsky Mildred C. Kuner Jann Leeming & Arthur Little Mary Rose Main Mrs. Larry Morales George Morfogen Enid Nemy & Dorothy Strelsin Fdtn Barbara & Milt Strom Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Swanson Mary Elizabeth Swerz Kathryn Swintek Joan Vail Thorne Litsa Tsistera Helen S. Tucker Robert G. Walsh Please contact us with any inaccuracies or omissions to this list, we’ll be happy to remedy them.

For further information call Christina Roussos at 212-315-9434 or see the enclosed invitation.

Discovering a Parody and a Playwright’s Versatility One of the most exciting elements of my job, here at the Mint, is helping to conduct the research necessary to bring new life to each “lost” play we produce. I was especially lucky, while researching our current production of London Wall, to have access to a comprehensive collection of the playwright’s personal papers, which are stored at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The collection is a fascinating one, containing boxes of John Van Druten’s private letters, diary entries, and typescripts. I spent hours poring over the contents of his papers—finding that each discovery further revealed Van Druten as a deeply thoughtful, humble, and versatile artist. Van Druten’s versatility became even clearer to me when I came upon a box that contained thirty typescripts for short parodies he had written, each lovingly burlesquing the work of such established writers as A.A. Milne, St. John Ervine, J.B. Priestley, John Galsworthy, and William Shakespeare. His humility shined even brighter when I had found that he had even parodied himself—twice. I was especially delighted to find that one of these parodies, titled Maiden Lane, was of London Wall. Sure enough, the parody was spot on, and I found myself laughing aloud. I brought a copy of Maiden Lane to Mint’s Producing Artistic Director, Jonathan Bank, and we swiftly decided that it should be the centerpiece of our Spring Benefit. Now, we had to find the story behind these parodies. Where did they come from? Had they been written just for fun, or had any of them been published? I decided to further pursue these questions by seeking out a second batch of John Van Druten’s personal papers, stored at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. I was thrilled to find that the second collection of papers proved just as revealing as the first. In it was stored a folder of clippings—many of which contained the same parodies I had read at the Performing Arts Library, but this time in published form. I found that at least eleven of Van Druten’s

parodies had been published anonymously in Punch, a weekly British magazine of humor and satire, between the years 1922 and 1932. Maiden Lane, it appeared, had been published in that magazine on May 27, 1931—nearly a month after the West End opening of London Wall. Also in this second collection of papers was a large stack of letters between Van Druten and Dodie Smith, a close friend and confidant of the playwright who remains best known as the author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians. In a letter dated April 5, 1942, Smith writes: The parodies have arrived safely. I will take good care of them and register them back to you. I am reading them rather slowly because I find it spoils them to bolt them. Most of the ones I’ve read are quite brilliant, I think—indeed, I am sure of it—though, surprisingly, I’ve seen hardly any of the plays. Although I had recognized many of the authors Van Druten was burlesquing, I too was unfamiliar with some of the plays. Nevertheless, I found Van Druten’s sharp skewering of theatrical conventions and literary tropes irresistible. I found myself in full agreement with Ms. Smith, who writes later in her letter, “The parodies are very revealing of yourself in one way. They show how acutely your sense of criticism is alive when watching a play… your sense of satire is obviously keenly alive in the theatre.” Our upcoming benefit has been named “With Apologies to the Author” as a nod to Mr. Van Druten, who subtitled each of his parodies with a formal apology to the author being lampooned. I hope you’ll join us on April 28th at The Cosmopolitan Club for this special evening of levity and laughter—an evening dedicated to a talented and prolific playwright who, despite his success, wasn’t above having a little bit of fun at his own expense.

-Jesse Marchese Assistant to the Producing Artistic Director

Jules Romains June 3

A note from translator and director

Gus Kaikkonen

At the Peterborough Players, a venerable summer theater in New Hampshire, 81 seasons of scripts have been collected into a haphazardly organized library. I am fortunate enough to be the Players’ Artistic Director and somewhere around the year 2000, a script on one of those shelves caught my eye: Jules Romains’ comedy DR. KNOCK. I had never heard of the writer, but his play had been adapted from French into English by the fascinating actor/director/playwright, Harley Granville-Barker, three of whose plays I’ve directed at the Mint. The Players had in fact produced KNOCK in 1935, (a rare American production) and a handsome poster for that production (Admission $1) now decorates our lady’s room. Jonathan Bank and I began talking about a possible Mint production of KNOCK, because of the Barker connection, but we soon discovered that the Romains estate would no longer license Barker’s very English version. In further researching the play I found that outside the United States, KNOCK is one of the most famous and often produced 20th century plays. On a trip to Paris I bought a French copy and fell in love with Romains’ wickedly juicy skewering of the medical profession. I took on my own translation, and with the blessing of the Romains estate, the Mint produced it quite successfully in New York in 2010. Jonathan mentioned at that time that Romains had another play—an enormous epic, DONOGOO. It has a cast of nearly 70 and 27 settings ranging from Paris, to Southeast Asia, to San Francisco to

the jungles of Brazil. What could we do to stage that one? It had premiered to great acclaim in 1930 at the Rothschild’s elaborate Theatre Pigalle in Paris, but in 2012 there was no English translation available. I ordered a French copy via the internet, and sat down to several months work, translating and whittling the cast to 13 actors playing 55 characters. The Mint also applied to the New York State Council on the Arts for a translation grant and happily NYSCA came through for which I am deeply grateful. In DONOGOO, Romains takes on not just one profession, but seemingly all of them: banking, psychiatry, science, advertising, real estate, the academy, politics, the arts, even prostitution. What could be more timely? It’s a play that originally took a Rothschild to produce. Now it takes a Mint.

through

July 27 In DONOGOO, ambition and imagination collude to create fact out of fraud. Lamendin is a desperate man suffering from an existential crisis. Le Trouhadec is a professor of geography who longs for election to the Academy of Sciences. Together they unwittingly set in motion a stock market swindle of global proportions. Investors, pioneers and prospectors alike are driven to seek their fortune in Donogoo, a place that doesn’t exist—or does it?

Gus Kaikkonen directed N. C. Hunter’s A Picture of Autumn to critical acclaim at the Mint last season. Also for the Mint: his own translation of Jules Romains’ Dr. Knock, three plays by Granville-Barker: The Madras House, The Voysey Inheritance, and Farewell To The Theatre, as well as Hankin’s The Charity That Began At Home and George Kelly’s The Flattering Word. For eighteen years he has been the Artistic Director of New Hampshire’s Peterborough Players. Awards include two NYSCA grants, the Lecomte du Nouys Playwriting Award, a MacDowell Fellowship, seven New Hampshire Theatre Awards for Direction, and the James Thurber Fellowship.

Join Gus for brunch!

Did you know? Gus Kaikkonnen is not only an accomplished director at the Mint but an actor as well. Here he is above in our production of The House of Mirth opposite Lisa Bostnar.

before our June 21st matinee performance See opposite page for details

Upcoming EnrichMINT Events SUNDAY, JUNE 8 after the matinee: JEANINE PARISIER PLOTTEL PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HUNTER COLLEGE & THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY Jeanine Plottel is the former chair of the Hunter Department of Romance Languages, and the author of many articles and books in both French and English. The French government has decorated her twice for her contributions to French Language, Literature and Culture. She presently serves on several boards, including Barnard College, where she is a trustee, the Society for French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), the Columbia University Maison Française, and the NYU Institute of French Studies. She traces her intellectual genealogy to Jules Romains: her Ph. D. thesis advisor, friend, and mentor, Jean Hytier, was one of Jules Romains’s students. She will discuss the playwright’s unique position in French literary history.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 after the matinee: LISE SCHREIER ASSOCIATE CHAIR, MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY In DONOGOO, Jules Romains skillfully satirizes the patriotism and pioneering spirit that drove French imperialism. Lise Schreier will discuss the play in the context of French colonial literature. Professor Schreier teaches nineteenth-century French literature and twentieth-century French and Francophone literature at Fordham University. Her research interests include colonial and postcolonial literature, North African literature, material and visual culture. Her publications focus on travel writing, constructions of national and artistic identities, and the connections between imperialism and early feminism. She is currently working on a book tentatively titled “The Playthings of Empire: Exoticized Children and the Politics of French Femininity, 1780-1895.”

Special event! SATURDAY, JUNE 21 before the matinee: GUS KAIKKONEN TRANSLATOR AND DIRECTOR OF DONOGOO $75 includes brunch and ticket to matinee. 12:00pm – Brunch and discussion at BEA (403 West 43rd Street) Join Gus Kaikkonen, Translator and Director of Donogoo by Jules Romains, for a delicious pre-matinee brunch at BEA, where he will discuss the process of translating and adapting Romain’s ambitious and sprawling play for the Mint Theater Company. To make reservations call the FPC hotline at 212-315-0231.

Thank YOU!

Learn more about the world of Donogoo at our post-show EnrichMINT Events Tickets on Sale Now FPC Hotline: (212) 315-0231 Address: 311 W. 43rd St. Suite 307 New York, NY 10036 Box Office: Mon.- Sat Noon-6pm Sun.- Noon-3pm (until 4/20) Performances: Tues., Wed., Thurs. 7pm Friday & Saturday 8pm Saturday & Sunday 2pm Wednesday Matinees: 6/18 & 7/9 No Performances: 6/17, 6/24 & 7/8 Full Price: $55 FPC Price: $38.50 (Use Code: FPC) CheapTix: $27.50 (when available) www.minttheater.org

to everyone who attended our two most recent events.

JOHN VAN DRUTEN: A WRITER’S WRITER