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The Play Guide for The Humans was created by:
Jamie Tymchuk Learning and Engagement Associate
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The Humans runs from March 6 to March 31, 2018 For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447 Front cover art direction and graphic design by Punch & Judy Inc. Photography by David Cooper.
Table of Contents THE BASICS The Company ______________________________________ 1 Who’s Who? ________________________________________ 2 Time and Place _____________________________________ 2 The Story __________________________________________ 2 EXPLORATIONS A Fugue of a Play An Interview with Vanessa Porteous _______________ 3 The Truth of a Set An Interview with Cameron Porteous ______________..6 Terms to Know ______________________________________ 9 Canadian Thanksgiving Facts ___________________________ 9 Pass the Turkey _____________________________________ 10 CONVERSATIONS Conversation Starters _________________________________ 11 Movie Night _________________________________________ 11 Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library ___________ 12 LEARNING Ghosts of Fear _______________________________________ 13 Crossword __________________________________________ 14 Sources ____________________________________________ 15 Answer Key _________________________________________ 16
THE BASICS
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The Company Theatre Calgary presents
The Humans by Stephen Karam THE CAST
Lili Beaudoin Barbara Gordon Elinor Holt Shekhar Paleja Ric Reid Ayla Stephen
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Brigid Blake Momo Blake Deirdre Blake Richard Saad Erik Blake Aimee Blake
Vanessa Porteous Cameron Porteous Jennifer Lee Arsenault Kimberly Purtell Peter Moller Jane MacFarlane
Director Set Design Costume Design Lighting Design Original Music & Sound Design Voice Coach
Ruby Dawn Eustaquio Carissa Sams
Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager
TC Mentors Program: Skylar Desjardins - Set Sarah Uwadiae - Lighting
THE BASICS
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Who’s Who? Erik Blake: A middle class man in his 60’s Deirdre Lake: Erik’s wife Aimee Blake: Erik and Deirdre’s oldest daughter Brigid Blake: Erik and Deirdre’s younger daughter “Momo” Blake: Erik’s mother Richard Saad: Brigid’s boyfriend
Time and Place The Humans takes place in an apartment in New York City’s Chinatown. Present Day.
The Story The Blake family has assembled for Thanksgiving dinner, hosted by the youngest of the Blake family, Brigid, alongside her boyfriend Richard at their newly acquired apartment. Brigid’s parents, Erik and Deirdre, along with Erik’s mother, fondly referred to as ‘Momo”, have travelled from Scranton. Also joining the family is Aimee, the Blake’s other daughter, who is a lawyer in Philadelphia. The Blake parents are a conventional, American, middle class working couple. They take care of Momo, who has dementia, and tending to her becomes a constant for the pair. Brigid and Richard are still aspiring to find their place in the workforce and Aimee is struggling with health problems and her recent breakup with a longtime girlfriend. Together, they are a perfectly relatable family, suffering from fear of the unknown and uncertainty of the future.
EXPLORATIONS
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A Fugue of a Play An Interview with Director Vanessa Porteous
Vanessa Porteous
A Calgary based director and dramaturg, Vanessa Porteous has worked extensively across Canada from The Stratford Festival to The Belfry Theatre. This past July, after eight years as the Artistic Director of Alberta Theatre Projects, Ms. Porteous announced her departure. We spoke with Vanessa during a break in rehearsals to discuss life, The Humans, and her Thanksgiving traditions. You made the difficult decision to step down as Artistic Director of ATP this past July. What have you been up to these past six months? I left ATP, it sounds like a cliché, but to spend more time with my family. I have a five year old son, and my parents were not well, and that’s what I did as soon as I left. I spent more time with them. The job was pretty all consuming and though I enjoyed it, I felt that after 8 years, I had to redirect my energies to some parts of my life that I didn’t have time to give as much attention to as I wanted. I also directed a show at ATP this past fall called To the Light, which is a beautiful play and was a huge experience for me. I head to Stratford for the spring and summer so there’s also been some preparation for that. This in the first time you have directed at Theatre Calgary. How do you feel with The Humans being your Theatre Calgary directing debut?
EXPLORATIONS
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It’s really great to have charge of such a great play. The characters are very complicated, very human, and their problems are very relatable. The playwright, Stephen Karam, has given us everything we need to give a good show for the audience. As a director, it is very comforting to have a great play beneath you. The play wants to be on a big set and in a big room so it’s a great fit for Theatre Calgary’s stage. Speaking of which, The Humans takes place on a two leveled set. How has it been integrating the work in that way? The play is in real time, meaning there are no moments that the audience doesn’t see throughout. There’s a lot of action, several rings of the circus. I have been working with an assistant director, Christopher Hunt, where we have had me working upstairs and him working downstairs. It’s been great to work with someone as theatre experienced as Chris. We are not at all in a mentorship position, it’s working with a colleague. With the simultaneous action, we have to work to direct the audience’s attention to one thing at a time. We have made parallels to a fugue, in music, with things all happening at once. Certain lines come to a foreground and then go back and then another line comes forward. To organize all that is the job of myself and the creative team. We are very careful on where we are focusing the audience’s attention: using highlight and shadow, playing with depth on stage, sound, and being very precise with the dialogue.
The Humans seems so relatable but there is also a somewhat mystical element to it. Why do you think that is important to the story? The playwright, Stephen Karam, commented on this and said he wanted to write a thriller. What came out was actually a kind of family drama based on his relatives in Scranton while still being influenced by that “thriller” element. Every character is going through some sort of crisis and I think the uncanny side of it is to remind us that beneath all of those daily challenges are other things that as human beings we are faced with in life. There’s the past, not just our past but the generations that have come before us. Their struggles. An imprint from previous generations and though the link may eventually disappear there is still a power to the past. Our own mortality and the question of “what is that passage?” and “what is beyond that?”. What is behind us and what is ahead of us is very dark and obscure. Karam is saying those are things that need to be addressed and reckoned with. You must take them into account if you are going to tell a story about being a human. Without the supernatural thriller part in this play, we would have sort of a pedestrian account of a family and their problems, but with it suggests there’s that and more. Stephen Karam also cites the six basic fears that every human suffers at one time or another from the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (see
EXPLORATIONS
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page 13 in this play guide). These and others are revealed in this 90 minute play. How is this done without overwhelming the audience? By having the characters be normal people, and behave normally. You may feel you are living a completely ordinary life but if we took 90 minutes of your life, we could notice these fears. There’s an honour to the humanity of the audience that these issues, such as losing your job is just as profound and significant as Richard II losing his crown. Karam is putting our attention towards ordinary people. That is the impact of the piece on the audience. He is saying the working lower middle class have a story to tell and it is worthy of attention. Is there a character in The Humans that you relate to? Not really. I’m an only child but I’ve been the younger child with her mother. I’ve been the older responsible daughter. I’ve been the wife of a man who doesn’t seem to be dealing with his problems. I’ve been the person contemplating existential problems while everyone around seems to be acting normal, and I’ve been the outsider not being able to join in on cultural references. I haven’t had dementia, like Momo, but my father is in dementia so I can recognize that behaviour. Any interesting Thanksgiving family traditions you observe? My birthday is often on Thanksgiving so when I was a kid we used to have a great big party of all ages to celebrate. As a single child of slightly older parents I loved having mayhem and noise that I was part of but not necessary turned at me. It was always nice to have so many people in the house. I remember those being really great parties. I don’t do that now, however, my son’s birthday is at the end of November and so far I have had a big party for all ages at the house, so I guess I get to recreate it a little bit. What is one play you would love to direct and why? I can never think of one play, but I would love to get my hands onto more classical material. Where you have to create a world for the play and are not mirroring the real world. Where the emphasis isn’t so much on normal life.
“For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings;” -William Shakespeare’s Richard II
EXPLORATIONS
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The Truth of a Set An Interview with Set Designer Cameron Porteous Cameron Porteous served as the head of design at The Shaw Festival from 1980 to 1997 and has continued to design in theatre across Canada as well as films. He is also a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for his contributions to Canadian Theatre. We sat down with Cameron to discuss the difficulties of the two level set and how his career as a designer was a true calling. I read that you initially started as an actor, what attracted you to stage design? I was just out of high school and I won a best actor award and there was an assessment at the end of the program. I was told that my strength was in design. I didn’t take them seriously at first but it really was a calling.
Cameron Porteous
How do you go from vision to execution? Everything I do is based on my own experiences. Everything is based on an organic evolvement, and comes from my personal experiences. I had gone into the film industry in the scenic art department to be a painter for films. Working on my first film, about two days in, the union went on strike and we locked out for a year. So I went to work for a friend who was a carpenter thinking I would paint houses but instead, he said he actually needed a draftsman to design houses and so I did that for a year. That’s how I learned the construction business and codes and that became incredible valuable, especially for this production. Building a house and knowing what the safety factors are, where the bearing walls go, how the foundation is laid and all that. So you’re saying one could actually live in the house onstage? Oh yeah. It’s built according to code. What was the first set you designed and looking back, are you still happy with it? The first set I did professionally was for a show called Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun. I had gone to Europe to study design and it was the first time the city had seen
EXPLORATIONS
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that kind of design, known as heightened realism. I would love to do that one again because I did do a good design but I could have done better. How much does the venue of the set design play into how you design a show? It’s not really the venue, it’s the material chosen. You last were at Theatre Calgary for The Crucible where your set was praised as being minimalistic and greatly symbolic. What can we expect from The Humans set? Naturalism. The absolute opposite. It is what it is. It’s a two level apartment. But it also has a soul. It has a spirit as an old house in Chinatown. It goes back to the turn of the century. The play dictates a lot of things so you have to abide by that. Now reading the script, you’re having the movement run along and then going up a spiral staircase and going along up top-I thought of a double decker bus but you can’t superimpose that concept even though it could work that way. What are the pros and cons of working on this kind of set? Well, there’s not enough room on the top Theatre Calgary’s The Crucible. Set designed by Cameron Porteous. Photo by Trudie Lee level for diagonal acting and because we always keep sight lines in mind, most of the action does happen on the lower level. I’ve drafted nearly half a dozen different spiral staircases and I still can’t get the perfect combination of treads and safety. Most are narrow but this one is wide. You have to enter and exit at a certain point, so you can’t change the formula. If you change even six inches on top, you change six inches on the bottom, but I think we’ve finally found one that works for the action and for the sight lines of the audience. The director, Vanessa Porteous and you share a last name. Any relation? No, this is actually my first time working with her but I know her father, Tim, quite well. He asked me to come in to discuss starting the first design program in Canada. Unfortunately the money was pulled and it didn’t come to fruition, but Tim came over for a drink with his daughter, Vanessa who was probably about 10 years old at the time, and that was the first time I met her.
EXPLORATIONS
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What was your most difficult set to design? This one is up there, but the most difficult was Cavalcade and probably the most rewarding. There were about 25 scene changes, 250 costumes, and I had 100s of projections. It ran for three years at the Shaw festival and was the most difficult but was one of my best. It was also when I changed my approach to how I work. I am a night person usually, but I couldn’t do it. I was head of design and was so tired. I was only designing one or two costume designs a day. So I decided I would start getting up at 4:30 in the morning with a pot of coffee and design for a few hours, then go into work by 10:00 am. Well, I started turning out designs like you wouldn’t believe, they just started to flow out, and I still do that to this day. I do most of my work in the morning and I leave the evenings open for rest. Can you tell me more about the book Risking the Void? Sean Breaugh, one of my previous assistants and a very good friend of the family, came to me one day and asked if he could put together an exhibition of my life’s work. I responded with “so what you’re saying is my career is over with?”, but he convinced me that the Canadian theatre museum was producing it, and that he and Patricia Flood (who worked at Theatre Calgary) would be curating it. So I said, “Okay. Go ahead and do it, just don’t hurt me.” Sean suggested the title Risking the Void. I did not understand until he explained that when he was a student I had said, “When designing a play, you have to walk into this black space, this void and take a risk that you can do it. You have to responsible for what you create”. And so, it became the title of the exhibition and the book. Any show you aspire to design for? Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and, though I have done it in the past, I’d love to do another couple Gilbert and Sullivan operas. I’m older now and know more and would love capture that Edwardian facetiousness that he does with the humour, and bring it alive for today. What advice would you give any young set designers? What I always say is “tell the truth”. That’s the only way you will succeed. It can be bizarre or fanciful but as soon as you start faking it the audience will spot it immediately, so, be sure your work is telling the truth.
EXPLORATIONS
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Terms to Know Chinatown: A district of any non-Chinese town, especially a city or seaport, in which the population is predominately of Chinese origin. Scranton: A city in northeast Pennsylvania. Population of just over 77,200. Ulcerative Colitis: An inflammatory bowel disease that causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in your digestive tract. Peppermint Pig: A peppermint flavoured, pink, hard-candy in the shape of a small pig. It is typically sold with a small nickel-plated hammer and passed around, each person breaking a piece and sharing good fortune from the past year. The confection originated from Saratoga Springs, NY in the 1880s and has become a fun tradition at holiday tables. Internship: The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.
Interesting Canadian Thanksgiving Facts
Algonquin Indians were among the first to harvest wild cranberries. They used them as food, medicine, and a symbol of peace.
The tradition of breaking the wishbone dates back to the Etruscans of 322 B.C. The Romans brought the tradition with them when they conquered England and the English colonists carried the tradition on to America.
Canadians purchase approximately 3 million whole turkeys for Thanksgiving each year, equal to 40% of all turkeys sold in the year.
In 2016, 30% of Canadian households purchased turkeys or turkey products for Thanksgiving
EXPLORATIONS
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Pass the Turkey Thanksgiving Traditions around the World On the second Monday in October, Canadians celebrate the harvest, and other blessings on what is known as Thanksgiving Day. This annual holiday has officially been observed since 1879, however, the date was not fixed until 1957 when the Governor General of Canada, Vincent Massey, proclaimed it “A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed“. Some historians report the first celebration of Thanksgiving was back in 1578 during the voyage of Martin Frobisher and the search of the English Voyage. Many celebrated the day in late October, or early November, prior to it being declared a national holiday. Today, we continue the tradition with a three day weekend of giving thanks, gathering with family, and enjoying a dinner traditionally consisting of roasted turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is observed around the world, but in many different ways and with many different names. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and is observed from Thursday to Sunday giving thanks to God’s bounty and the generosity of Native Americans. Both Canadian and American Thanksgivings historically were celebrated with religious and cultural roots, but it is recognized as a secular holiday in both countries. Though there are obvious similarities with our neighbours to the south, Americans typically enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday, whereas Canadians typically feast on Sunday. While we both enjoy turkey, American pumpkin pie tends to be made with custard, and dinner is usually served with corn bread rolls, muffins, or sliced rolls. Germans celebrate Erntedankfest, not an official holiday, but a festival giving thanks for the year, on the first Sunday of October. Traditionally dinner features foul: chickens, hens, roosters or geese. In Japan, the national public holiday falls on November 23 and is known as Kinro Kansha no HI, translated to “Labour Thanksgiving Day”. It was created officially in 1948 celebrating the right of workers in post-World War II. Today, children celebrate by creating crafts and giving gifts to local police officers. In Korea, a festival and three day holiday named Chuseok, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, and it is a time to remember ancestry. Japchae (sweet and savory dish of noodles and vegetables), bulgogi (marinated slices of beef or pork), and songpyeon (a type of rice cake made of glutinous rice) are popular foods. The August Moon Festival in China is a 1,000 year old tradition and time for the people to reflect on the bounty of the summer harvest. Mooncakes, flaky, round, semisweet pastries are given as gifts as a celebration of the immortal goddess, Chang O, who lives in the moon. Wherever and whatever you celebrate, it is clear that many countries take the time to give thanks for their blessings, and enjoy gathering to celebrate and eat with friends and family.
CONVERSATIONS
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Conversation Starters
What was your first Thanksgiving memory?
Do you relate to any one character or a combination of several?
Have you been in a position where you’ve lost a job? How did it affect other areas of your life?
How does the thriller aspect effect the story? Is it a metaphor for something?
Fast forward one year to next Thanksgiving. What has happened with the Blake family? What has changed or stayed the same?
What family traditions have you observed on Thanksgiving? Have they stayed with you?
The Humans Movie Night No Photo Available
The Corrections TV Movie. 2012. Based on the novel by Jonathan Franzen. Three generations of a dysfunctional Midwestern family meet at the family home for what will be the last Christmas gathering there.
The Family Stone Feature Film. 2005. An uptight, conservative businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family’s annual Christmas celebration and finds that she’s a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.
Home for the Holidays Feature Film. 1995. After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Laron faces spending the holiday with her family.
CONVERSATIONS
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Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library By Kathy McKenzie August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Fiction. 2008. When the Weston family patriarch, Beverly, goes missing, his family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead and long-held secrets are revealed. Another award-winning play, part drama and part black comedy.
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
Fiction. 2014. This brilliant graphic memoir about an adult daughter taking on the care of her aging parents is both an honest and painful account told with the author’s signature humour.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Fiction. 2001. A multi-generational saga about the Lamberts, a post-modern family breaking down in late twentieth century America. As her husband’s health deteriorates, Enid faces the disappointments in her life and tries to bring her three adult children together for one last Christmas.
The Flick by Annie Baker
Nonfiction. 2014. Baker’s award-winning play (Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Obie Award for Playwriting) is set in a rundown movie theatre and follows the three underpaid employees who keep it running. Baker’s comedic yet understated dialogue brings their battles and heartaches to life.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Fiction. 2006. A graphic memoir that is dark, emotional, and funny, about trying to make sense of a parent’s life as well as growing up uncomfortable in your own skin. Fun Home premiered as a musical stage production in New York in 2013.
Click on the book covers to check availability at Calgary Public Library!
LEARNING
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Ghosts of Fear
”The Six Ghosts of Fear are nothing but ghosts because they exist only in one’s mind.” -Napoleon Hill
In Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, he cites “the six ghosts of fear”, with some combination of which every human suffers at one time or another. Most are fortunate to not suffer from all six.
Pair the symptoms with the associated fear. Symptoms of Fear 1. Indifference, indecision, worry, doubt, over-caution, and procrastination 2. Self-consciousness, lack of poise, personality, inferiority complex, extravagance, lack of initiative, and lack of ambition. 3. Auto-suggestion, hypochondria, exercise, susceptibility, self-coddling and intemperance. 4. Jealousy, fault-finding, and gambling 5. Being apologetic of one’s self, trying to appear younger, tendency to slow down and develop an inferiority complex. 6. Lacking purpose, not being busy, thinking about dying.
The Six Common Fears 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Fear Fear Fear Fear Fear Fear
of of of of of of
Death Ill Health Loss of Love of Someone Poverty Old Age Criticism
LEARNING
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The Humans
LEARNING
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Sources “Canadian Thanksgiving: How is it Different from US Version?” Time, Time, www.time.com/4971309/Canadian-thanksgiving-2017-history/. History.com Staff. “History of Thanksgiving.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving. “Thanksgiving in America vs Thanksgiving in Canada.” Thanksgiving in America vs Thanksgiving in Canada –
Difference and Comparison, Diffen, www.diffen.com/difference/Thanksgiving_in_America_vs_Thanksgiving_in_Canada. “Giving Thanks Around the World.” Travel Channel, Travel Channel, 14 Nov. 2017, www.travelchannel.com/interests/holidays/photos/giving-thanks-around-the-world. “How 7 Other Nations Celebrate Thanksgiving.” Mental Floss, 16 Nov. 2016, www.mentalfloss.com/article/60261/how-7-other-nations-celebrate “Catholic Supply Online” Catholic Supply of St. Louis, Inc. Official Site, www.catholicsupply.com/christmas/peppermintpig.html. Post, Paul. “A Tradition Meant to be Broken, Then Eaten and Passed Around.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/nyregion/saratogas-peppermint-pig-is-an-unusualholiday-tradition.html. Pruitt, Sarah. “8 Thanksgiving Celebrations Around the World.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Nov. 2016, www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-thanksgiving-celebratrions-around-the-world. “10 Thanksgiving Celebrations Around the World Slideshow.” The Daily Meal, www.thedailymeal.com/holidays/10-thanksgiving-celebrations-around-world-slideshow. “Top 10 Thanksgiving Quotes” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/lists/topics/top_10_thanksgiving_quotes. Hui, Ling. “Thanksgiving Facts: 10 Things You Didn’t Know about ‘Turkey Day’.” Winnipeg Sun, 1 Oct. 2012, www.winnipegsun.com/2012/09/26/canaidian-thanksgiving-facts/wcm/318c0df5-111e-4c6d-b4a0-f4a22eb6889c. “Industry Facts & Stats.” Industry Facts & Stats – Turkey Farmers of Canada, www.turkeyfarmersofcanada.ca/industry-information/industry-statistics/. “Richard II Quotes by William Shakespeare.” By William Shakespeare, www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1946935-the-tragedie-of-king-richard-the-second. “Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.” Think and Grow Rich – Free Online Ebook – How To Outwit The Six Ghosts Of Fear, www.wyzend.com/tagr/tagr15_01.php. “Movies, TV and Celebrities.” IMDb IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/
LEARNING
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The Humans
Six Basic Fears. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Fear Fear Fear Fear Fear Fear
of of of of of of
Poverty Criticism Ill Health Loss of Love of Someone Old Age Death