Philip Goes Forth by George Kelly

New York, NY Pe r m i t N o . 7 5 2 8

At the Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd St, 3rd floor

special discount offer!

P R O D U C I N G artistic director

j onathan b ank F inance & P roduction

Save 30% August 24 & 25 at 2:00: Pay Only $39.50 (use code Mint39) Save 20% August 27-September 22: Pay Only $45 (use code Mint45) Save 10% September 24 through October 13: Pay Only $49.50 (use code Mint49) (Regular Price $55. $2.75 per ticket service charge applies to all orders)

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PERFORMANCES

Phone: 866-811-4111

M-F 9am - 9pm; S&S 10am - 6pm

Tuesday-Thursday at 7pm Friday and Saturday at 8pm Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

In person: 311 W. 43rd St, Ste 307 M-F 12-6pm

Wednesday Matinees: September 4, October 2 & 9

Online: minttheater.org

No performances: August 24 at 8pm, September 3, September 17, & October 1

CHEAP TIX

August 24 through October 20

pa i d

August 24 through October 20, 2013

non - profit u . s . postage

866-811-4111 or minttheater.org

SHERRI KOTIMSKY

by G e o r g e K e l l y directed by J e r r y R u i z

You don’t have to be a cheapskate to appreciate a bargain, especially these days. We offer a limited number of half-price tickets ($27.50) for every performance.

Visit our website for more information.

COMING NEXT:

LONDON WALL

Cliff Bemis Teddy Bergman Bernardo CubrÍa Carole Healey Christine Toy Johnson Kathryn kates Natalie Kuhn Brian KEITH MacDonald Jennifer McVey Rachel Moulton

Directed by Davis McCallum Performances Begin February 1st

LONDON WALL by John Van Druten explores the tumultuous lives and love affairs of the women employed as typists in a busy solicitor’s office in London.

The play premiered in May of 1931 at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London and was acclaimed for its hyper-realistic depiction of office life as well as its soulful probing of the dreams and desires of its female characters.

“RIVETINGLY ENTERTAINING” Michael Billington, The Guardian

LONDON WALL recently received an acclaimed revival at London’s Finborough Theater: “It hasn’t been revived until now, yet comes up fresh as paint,” hailed Charles Spencer of The Telegraph, calling LONDON WALL “a fascinating and sometimes deeply touching play.” Time Out called LONDON WALL “A smart indictment of the meagre circumference of a woman’s life as part of the urban workforce of the ’30s, wrapped around a heartfelt romantic drama.”

311 W. 43rd St. 3rd Floor New York, NY 10036

By John Van Druten

with -

Steven C. Kemp Costumes Carisa Kelly Lights Christian DeAngelis Sound Toby Algya Props Joshua Yocum Casting Judy Bowman Production Manager Sherri Kotimsky Production Stage Manager Michael Bradley Block Assistant Stage Manager Laura Kathryne Gomez Illustration Stefano Imbert Graphics Hey Jude Design, Inc. Advertising The Pekoe Group Press David Gersten & Associates Sets

866-811-4111 or minttheater.org

“I’d go to the only place that a person can go to do this kind of thing, —and that’s New York. There’s more drama around there in ten minutes than there is in a city like this in ten years.” - Philip PHILIP GOES FORTH is the story of a young man who rebels against his father and a career in the family business and goes to New York to be a playwright.

He leaves home without his father’s support or blessing, but with this warning: “Don’t imagine, whenever you get tired floating around up there in the clouds, that you can drop right back into your place down here;—that isn’t the way things go—” George Kelly’s comedy made its debut at the Biltmore Theater on Broadway in January of 1931—just four months before the completion of the Empire State Building, beating the Chrysler Building for the title of “world’s tallest building.” That same year the George Washington Bridge would open, welcoming young people from all over the country, each seduced by the promise of fame and fortune. New York was the city of dreams—and Kelly’s humorous examination of one young dreamer remains an exquisite portrait of coming-of-age in modern America.

“Nothing Mr. Kelly has written is lacking in distinction and PHILIP GOES FORTH is no exception,” wrote Robert Garland in the New York World-Telegram calling the play a “gripping character study—human, unhurried and gently edged with satire.” Arthur Ruhl of the Herald-Tribune echoed the praise, calling the play, a “deft piece of work…an evening full of delightful humor and light satire.” Commending Kelly’s rhythmic, witty dialogue, the New York American wrote, “he laps thick, rich conversational cream.”

PHILIP GOES FORTH is “George Kelly at his best, which ought to be good enough for anybody.” Outlook, 1931 PHILIP GOES FORTH has some discouraging words for its title character, the aspiring young author, and this rubbed a few critics the wrong way—the Times’ Brooks Atkinson in particular: “To discourage the neophytes about coming to New York and trying their fortune with the arts is to accept considerable responsibility,” Atkinson grumbled, while missing the point of the play. Kelly responded in the Times a few days later: “The playwright is often bewildered when he reads the distorted accounts of his play the next morning in the papers….I have been accused of discouraging incipient dramatists.Yet I have made it clear that Philip doesn’t want to write plays.” Kelly was so disappointed by the lack of critical perception that he gave up writing for the theater for the next five years. Talk about discouraging!

enrichMINT events

EnrichMINT Events are supported in part by a grant from The New York Council for the Humanities and the Michael Tuch Foundation.

All events take place immediately after the performance and usually last about fifty minutes.

They are free and open to the public. Speakers and dates subject to change without notice.

Saturday, September 7 after the matinee: Foster Hirsch, author of George Kelly—a critical biography published in Twayne’s United States Author Series

George Kelly Pulitzer Prize-winner George Kelly wrote ten full-length plays during a distinguished career in the New York theatre. Kelly crafted indelible American types in his classic “plays of character” The Torch Bearers,The Show-Off, and Craig’s Wife, as well as underappreciated works like Philip Goes Forth.

George Edward Kelly was born on January 16th, 1887 in Schuykill Falls, Pennsylvania, the eighth of ten children born to the remarkable Irish-Catholic family known as the “Philadelphia Kellys.” George’s siblings included Walter C. Kelly, a vaudevillian famous for his dialect comedy as “The Virginia Judge.” After early training as a draftsman, the shy but stage-struck George followed Walter into the theatre, where, beginning in 1911, he acted in touring companies and vaudeville sketches. After serving in France during World War I, Kelly began to write his own one-act plays for the KeithOrpheum circuit, where he found success with his comedies Finders Keepers (1916) and The Flattering Word (1918), the first of numerous plays with theatrical subjects.

The early 1920s lifted Kelly to the height of popular and critical acclaim, with plays that he both wrote and directed. While 1922’s The Torch Bearers convulsed audiences with its “travesty on the amateur actor,” 1924’s The Show-Off was hailed as a masterwork by many critics, including Heywood Broun, who called it “the best comedy which has yet been written by an American.” Although Kelly decried the Twenties as “The Vulgar Age,” the era’s go-getting business spirit satirically fueled The Show-Off, whose title character Aubrey Piper became a synonym for a blustering braggart. Kelly created another American archetype in the obsessive, destructive housewife of his next play, the 1925 psychological drama Craig’s Wife, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. By this time, notes Foster Hirsch, “a new play (by Kelly) was as keenly anticipated as a new one by Eugene O’Neill.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout recently observed (in reviewing the Westport Country Playhouse’s June 2013 revival of The Show-Off), “If any of Mr. Kelly’s other plays....are as good as this, then he’s definitely ripe for revaluation.”

Indeed, the twenty-first century seems poised, once again, to bear the torch for this theatrical master. Mint Theater is thrilled to allow George Kelly’s PHILIP to crusade once more—presenting the play’s first New York revival in 82 years.

Foster Hirsch, George Kelly biographer and Professor of Film at Brooklyn College, will discuss the playwright, his life and work. He is the author of sixteen books on subjects related to theatre and movies. A native of California, Hirsch received his B.A. from Stanford University, and holds M.F.A, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. Hirsch joined the English Department of Brooklyn College in 1967, and in 1973 became one of the first professors to join the school’s newly established Film Department.

Sunday, September 8 after the matinee: Dr. Mark Caldwell, Senior Professor of English, Fordham University PHILIP GOES FORTH depicts the life of a few young artists living in a rooming house in New York in the 1930’s. Dr. Caldwell will help to put the play into a social and historical context. He is the author of New York Night: The Mystique and Its History (2005). Other books by Caldwell include: The Prose of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1987); The Last Crusade: America’s War on Consumption, 1862-1954 (1988), Saranac Lake: Pioneer Health Resort (1993), A Short History of Rudeness: Manners, Morals, and Misbehavior in Modern America (1999)

Sunday, September 15 after the matinee: Trav S.D., author of No Applause—Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous George Kelly began his career in vaudeville as an actor and sketch writer. His brother—Walter C. Kelly—was also famous on the circuit for his dialect comedy as “The Virginia Judge.” Trav S.D. will discuss the Kelly brothers’ place in the famous American tradition of vaudeville. Performer, writer and producer Trav S.D. is the author of over 100 plays, 300 published articles, and two books. He has contributed to The New York Times, American Theater, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Villager, Downtown Express, Chelsea Now, and many others. He has also presented many of New York’s top variety acts through his American Vaudeville Theatre.

Saturday, September 21 after the matinee: James J. Kolb, Professor of Drama, Hofstra University The 1920s saw George Kelly’s greatest success as a playwright. His three most popular plays— The Torchbearers (1922), The Show-Off (1924) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Craig’s Wife (1925) were all financial and critical triumphs of the era. Professor Kolb will discuss Kelly’s significant place in the American theater at this time. A teacher of theatre history and dramatic literature since 1969, Kolb is co-editor (with Arthur Gewirtz) of Experimenters, Rebels, and Disparate Voices: The Theatre of the 1920s Celebrates American Diversity (2003) and Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in 1920s America (2004).

Check our website for updates and more information.