4 minute read
MEET MISS BAKER
THE PRICE OF THOMAS SCOTT
January 19, 2019 – March 17, 2019
EDITH & MISS TASSEY
March 3, 2019
CHAINS
June 7, 2022 – July 23, 2022
PENELOPE FORGIVES
June 29, 2022
PARTNERSHIP
September 30, 2023 – November 12, 2023
Our online Production Archives are organized by author making it easy to see how often I’ve picked a second (or a third) play by an author. Crothers, Granville Barker, Hankin, Schnitzler, Milne, Lawrence, Kelly, Malleson and most recently Elizabeth Baker.
Why? I believe Mint can be much more effective in creating attention for an author and their plays if we prove they are not a flash-in-the-pan. The best example of this would be Teresa Deevy.
When I first came across Deevy’s plays (in 2009) I read everything I could find. I loved WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN and TEMPORAL POWERS equally and I was torn as to which one I should do. They were different in ways that I found remarkable. Then it struck me—I should do them both. I knew if I announced them both at once I might really be able to get some attention for Deevy. And that proved to be true, leading to a 1,000-word feature story in the New York Times and a Sunday Times story in Ireland.
Ultimately, we did four productions of Deevy plays, one per year in 2010, 2011 2013, and 2017. We published those plays and a few more in two volumes. Our activity over a long period of time had a real impact in terms of creating attention for Deevy, inspiring production, dissertations, conferences, feature stories and a recent RTE documentary, in which I have a bit part. And it proved my thesis. If I had only ever produced the one play, I have no doubt that the memory of it would have faded and Deevy would have been forgotten again, just as she had been several times before.
The “Teresa Deevy Project” was the inspiration for “Meet Miss Baker” a three-play project announced in 2018, featuring the work of another woman playwright, long forgotten, and deserving of attention, Elizabeth Baker. “Meet Miss Baker” began with our production of THE PRICE OF THOMAS SCOTT in January 2019.
The plan was to follow THOMAS SCOTT… with two plays running simultaneously in two spaces at Theater Row over the summer of 2020. The illustration featured here was created (by Stefano Imbert) for our two-show flyer, inspired by a photo of Baker sitting outside her hut during the time she lived on the Cook Islands. However, Covid came along and changed everything—except for my belief in Elizabeth Baker and my desire to bring her some attention.
We staged CHAINS last summer. This turned out to be one of my all-time favorite productions and reaffirmed my respect for Miss Baker and my determination to follow through on our commitment to presenting PARTNERSHIP, which I hope you will find as inspiring as I do.
We have made recordings of all our Baker productions, as well as the reading of PENELOPE FORGIVES and we are planning on sharing a virtual Baker festival with the world in the future.
— Jonathan Bank
WICKSTEED: What is the difference between a good strong prejudice and a conviction?
ANNIE: A man would sacrifice things —even his life—for a conviction.
WICKSTEED: And wouldn’t he, if he were mad enough, do it for a prejudice? Read your history and see how many of so-called martyrs have not been bigoted fools.
Mark Kenneth Smaltz and Emma Geer in THE PRICE OF THOMAS SCOTT 2019 photo by Todd Cerveris
Mark Kenneth Smaltz and Emma Geer in THE PRICE OF THOMAS SCOTT 2019 photo by Todd Cerveris
