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Imagine if you can a world emerging from a costly and devastating war. The most prosperous nation in the world brought to its knees, masses of its people struggling in vain to find work, let alone hold onto their homes. Where freak storms obliterate entire neighborhoods. Where entertainment consists of watching couples vie for prizes in merciless ballroom dancing competitions. Where sad and tragic people become performing curiosities. Where film fantasy offers only a brief escape from relentless reality. You can? Think again. It’s the 1930s. There are no safety nets, no Food Stamps, no Social Security, no FDIC to cover your savings, no Affordable Health Care Act. This is the world eighty years ago in which two people in their early twenties were about to become headlines. Their names: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. A few years earlier, the Midwest had become home to the country’s most prolific farming belt, the world’s Bread Basket. By the early Thirties, it was known only for the massive dust storms which forced entire families out of their homes and to become migrants in their own country. And if you were considering finding some escape in a bottle, alcohol was still illegal thanks to the 18th Amendment. The odds were stacked against the entire country — and against two twenty-somethings trying to survive in it. Bonnie and Clyde were criminals who caught the attention of the public and never let go. Tonight, we look beyond the headlines at the two people who became those legendary outlaws. ~ Joseph Russo, Director
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Sincere thanks to all our supporters Artists $5,000+ • Grant & Jacqui Smith • Tillie Page Laird • Theodore Hine • CT Department of Economic & Community Development • Harcourt Foundation Playwrights Circle $1,500+ • The James J. McInerney and Gary R. Fafard Foundation • Connecticut Community Foundation • Allen Greenberg • Savings Bank of Danbury • Marian & Douglas Wise • Mrs. Ishier Jacobson Sponsors $500+ • The Geraldine Stutz Trust • Maria Jacobson • Stephen Sondheim • Michele Shackelford • Norman Adler • Brian Ashfield • Lucinda & David Pollack • CCA • Jude Callirgos • Rich & Suzi Pettibone • Kathy & John Bolster Partners $250+ • Deborah Begin • KC & Jonathan Ross • Ruth & Leonard Diamond • Francis Arcaro • June Baldyga • Harry Cohen • Paul Sinclaire • Glenn & Dionne Couture • Donald Karcheski • Diane & David Lockwood Advocates $100+ • David & Alice Sprintzen • Dr. Marilyn & Robert Gansel • Donald Bickford • Bruce & Ilene Dresner • Anonymous • Penny Palmer • Elizabeth & Roger Smith • Stephen & Gloria Gorell • Anonymous • Margie Bueide • Ronald Olsen • Joe Russo • Bodil & Warren Braren • David & Kathy Elmore • Tom & Carol Broesler • Dr. Joseph Privitera • James Scrimgeour • Emily & Mario Lucibello • Vicki & Kevin Sosbe • Bernice Wollman & Warren Rubin • John & Carole Pettibone • Chicken Liver's Mom & Dad • Henry Spector • Harold & Patty Jacobson • Ann M. KcKinney • Annabella Abrons • Carmela Castro • Catherine Libonate • Chris & Lisa Simo-Kinzer • Laurie Hornbecker • Nancy Hutchinson • Timothy Beard • Jill & Michael Pace • Cynthia Hudak • Heritage Village Theatre Guild • Angela & Joseph Barna Associates $50+ • Philip & Marion Kallinikos • Sonnie Osborne • Ronald Wozniak • Peter & Lucille Cronin • Ellen Alpert • Marilyn Lieff • Ethel Anderson Krenkel • Robert Grossman • Andrew Flatt • Dolores Teleski • Cynthia Hudak • Rebecca Devine • Maura & Frederick Pauli • Norma Hart • Margaret Mongin • Peg Molina • Janet Huntington • Jacky Saulnier & Bruce Becker • Jan King • Christine Daley • Grace & Tom Vetter • Virginia Smith • Vincent Romeo & Edwin Sparn • Lawrence Apolzon • Deborah Gogliettino • E. Bruce Mather • Kevin Taylor • Sharon Francis • Nancy Babington • Charles Ullmann • Lawrence Greenspan Every effort has been made to ensure that all donors’ names are included and listed correctly. If you notice any errors or omissions, please email info@theatreworks.us and let us know so that we may have the opportunity to correct our error and properly recognize your contribution.
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b o n n i e & c l y d e by Adam Peck directed by Joseph Russo
Bonnie Marilyn Hart
Clyde Adam Stordy
time & place 1934 - an abandoned barn The play is performed without intermission.
Banjo accompaniment by John Bolster Produced by special arrangement with Adam Peck
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Production
Staff
Director ....................................................................... Joseph Russo Stage Manager ................................................... Reesa Roccapriore Lighting Design ...................... Richard Pettibone, Scott Wyshynski Set & Costume Design ............................................... Joseph Russo Sound Design ..................................... Joseph Russo, Tom Libonate Builders ................................ ...Scott Wyshynski, Richard Pettibone, ........... Glenn R. Couture, Bill Hughes, Joseph Russo, John Bolster Scenic Decoupage ................................................ Glenn R. Couture House Managers ...................................... Christine Daley, Jill Pace Publicist ..................................................................... Tom Libonate Production Photography ............................ Ghostlight Photography Web Site ........................................................ printplusdesignllc.com Producers ............... Richard Pettibone, Joseph Russo, Bill Hughes Special Thanks FM97.3 WZBG Backstage with Johnny O WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST
MARILYN HART (Bonnie) is thrilled to have this incredible opportunity to play Bonnie. Past performances include Chrissy in Dancing at Lughnasa (Sherman Playhouse) and Linda in Talk Radio (TheatreWorks). This production, although challenging, has been one of the most pleasant and enjoyable shows she’s worked on due to the cast and crew. Joe, Bill and Reesa have made a fantastic production team, and she would like to give a special nod to her stage partner Adam on his first theater performance. She would also like to thank her husband Alex for his unending support. She hopes you enjoy watching the show as much as she has enjoyed playing it. ADAM STORDY (Clyde) is from Sandy Hook CT, and is very excited to be making his theatre debut at Theatre Works. Being very passionate about acting, he hopes to contribute to beautiful pieces of art such as Bonnie & Clyde, and touch even just one person who views them. He would like to thank the great people at TheatreWorks, his family, friends, and wonderful girlfriend, who all give him more love and support than anyone could ask for.
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WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST
REESA ROCCAPRIORE (Stage Manager) is happy to be back at TheatreWorks, this time working behind the scenes. She most recently appeared in Boeing Boeing as Gabriella and as Veronica in God of Carnage at the Brookfield Theatre for the Arts. Reesa is so happy to have a second chance to work with the amazing Joe Russo and she so incredibly proud of Marilyn and Adam.
JOSEPH RUSSO (Director/Designer) has directed numerous shows and readings regionally, including Boeing Boeing, Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer; Oscar Wilde’s Salomé; All About Eve; The Normal Heart; Auntie Mame, Torch Song Trilogy, and the World Premiere of See Dick… In 2010, he assisted Gordon Edelstein on Long Wharf Theatre’s production of A Doll’s House. As an actor, he appeared in The Cripple of Inishmaan (Cripple Billy), Dog Sees God (Beethoven) and Ghost of a Chance (Bob Cratchit). Also a playwright, Joseph is a member of the Dramatists Guild; the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His award-winning works have been seen at Hartford Stage and the HBO Studios in NYC. He is on the Board of Directors at TheatreWorks where he serves as Secretary and the dramaturg of the Page to Stage reading series.
ADAM PECK (Playwright) was born in Leeds in 1979, and now lives in Bristol. He is a playwright and actor, and a co-founder of Fairground. His previous work includes Gilgamesh, Joan of Arc and Chocolate Money for Bristol Old Vic, Out of Touch - A Trilogy and The Red Man for Fairground, and My Bristol Vista for Paines Plough. Since 2006 he has worked extensively with the Bristol Old Vic Young Company as a dramaturge, writer and playwriting tutor.
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Their
World
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Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide Constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. o Organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition. Mafia groups limited their activities to prostitution, gambling, and theft until 1920, when organized bootlegging emerged in response to Prohibition. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. o The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. o The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people across Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. o By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, Tennessee reached a width of 60 miles.
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The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, began in late October 1929 and signaled the beginning of the 10year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries.
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During the Great Depression, cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on cash cropping, mining and logging suffered severely.
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A period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s, creating the Dust Bowl; severe drought and a failure to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon. www.theatreworks.us
o
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The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres that centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and touched adjacent sections of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. During the drought, the soil turned to dust that the prevailing winds blew away in clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. These choking billows of dust – named “black blizzards” – reached as far as New York City and Washington, D.C. and often reduced visibility to a yard or less.
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Aimee Semple McPherson (October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles–based evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. o She conducted public faith-healing demonstrations before large crowds, allegedly healing tens of thousands of people. In San Diego, California, the city called in the National Guard and other branches of the armed forces to control a revival crowd of over 30,000 people. o Her fame equaled Charles Lindbergh, Johnny Weissmuller, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Louise Brooks, and Rudolph Valentino.
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Dance Marathons During the Depression, marathons reflected the status of America at the time. A heavily staged form of forced labor, marathons relied on the amount of time spectators and contestants, out of work victims of the Depression, had on their hands. Promoters found new ways of forcing the marathons to continue for months, enlisting entertainers and staging dramatic situations. They established ways of adding tension and excitement to the dreary competition, including races and complicated tests of endurance for the contestants; elimination contests that likened the marathons to the horrors of spectator sports in the Roman Coliseum. The chance at fame and fortune was there, but at the cost of humiliation at least, and at most, mental and physical health problems or even death. By the depressed 1930s, marathons took on new meanings: the pain and misery of the contestants helped spectators feel better about their own situations, while the prize represented a hope of the American Dream for contestants, probably never to be realized. It was certainly a far cry from the fun, voluntary sport that it had been in the 1920s. www.theatreworks.us
bonnie
&
clyde
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Several accounts describe Bonnie and Clyde’s first meeting, but the most credible version tells that Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow on January 5, 1930 at Clarence Clay’s (a friend of Clyde) house at 105 Herbert Street. Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a female friend with a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl’s house while Parker was in the kitchen making hot chocolate.
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When they met, both were smitten immediately; most historians believe Parker joined Barrow because she was in love. She remained a loyal companion to him as they carried out their crime spree and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as inevitable.
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Although Barrow and Parker claimed to be married, Parker remained legally married to her first husband, Roy Thornton. On the day she died, she still wore his wedding ring and bore a tattoo on her leg with intertwined hearts and their names, Bonnie and Roy.
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Parker was an honor student and a poet, and life as one of America’s most wanted didn’t stifle those interests. Shortly before her death, Parker wrote a poem called “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde,” which was published in several newspapers and immortalized their tale.
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No less than 167 bullets were fired at Bonnie and Clyde.
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The pair attained such notoriety that hordes of people flocked to the scene of their death and later to the coroner’s to retrieve “souvenirs.” Some attempted to cut off Barrow’s ear or finger; others took snippets of Parker’s blood-soaked dress or shattered window glass. One man offered Barrow’s father over $30,000 for Barrow’s body—the equivalent of over $600,000 today. www.theatreworks.us
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