Play Guide T H E TA M I N G / /
T
1
2
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
TA B L E O F
CONTENTS P L AY G U I D E A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S :
C O M P I L E D A N D E D I T E D BY:
D E S I G N E D BY:
Elizabeth Kensek Olivia Duncan
Emily Holt emilyfightscrime.com
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N V I S I T WAT E RT OW E RT H E AT R E .O RG O R C A L L 972 . 4 5 0. 62 32
T H E TA M I N G / /
01.
S H OW C O N T E XT A B O U T T H E P L AY W R I G H T
4
BEHIND THE SHOW
6
A B I T O F H I S TO R Y
7
D E S I G N E R F E AT U R E
02.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING •
laurengunderson.com
•
thetamingplay.tumblr.com
•
shmoop.com/study-guides/civics/constitution
•
missamerica.org/organization/history
•
billofrightsinstitute.org
•
constitutionfacts.com
15
3
4
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
About the playwright
LAU R E N GUNDERSON
Lauren is a playwright, screenwriter and short story author from Atlanta, GA. She received her BA in English/Creative Writing at Emory University, and her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch, where she was also a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. She was named the most produced playwright in America by American Theatre Magazine in 2017 and 2019. She has spoken nationally and internationally on the intersection of science and theatre and Arts Activism, and teaches playwriting in San Francisco. She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, a Dramatists Guild member, and was a member of Just Theatre’s New Play Lab. She writes for The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and tweets @LalaTellsAStory. Lauren was awarded the 2016 Lanford Wilson Award from the Dramatist Guild, the 2016 Otis Gurnsey Award for Emerging Writer, and was awarded the prestigious 2014 and 2018 Steinberg/ ATCA New Play Award for her plays I and You (also a Susan Smith Blackburn Blackburn and John Gassner Award finalist) and
Bryan Derballa/ Slate
T H E TA M I N G / /
5
The Book of Will. That play was an NNPN Rolling World Premiere
Bauer, commissioned by San Francisco
that started at Marin Theatre Company and has seen over 40
Playhouse, premiered there and in New York
productions nationwide. She is also a recipient of the Mellon
City at 59E59, with The New Yorker calling it
Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. Her
“beautifully written… brings its audience to
work has received national praise and awards including being a
tears”. Her play Silent Sky (Jane Chambers
Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award finalist, a Susan Smith Blackburn
Award finalist) premiered at South Coast
finalist, a Jane Chambers Award finalist, and winner of the Berrilla
Rep in 2011 and was further developed and
Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project, Young
rewritten for TheatreWorks, which opened
Playwright’s Award, Eric Bentley New Play Award, and Essential
to raves calling it “sheer magic”. Her 2011
Theatre Prize. She received a Sloan Science Script Award (2008) for
3-city rolling world premiere of Exit, Pursued
her screenplay Grand Unification. Leap was published with Theatre
By A Bear, was featured in American Theatre
Emory’s Playwriting Center (2004), her first collection of plays,
Magazine and The Week, and has reached
Deepen The Mystery: Science and the South Onstage, is published
over 20 communities across the US winning
with iUniverse (2006). Her short story, “The Ascending Life”, won
“Best Comedy” accolades. Bear is now
the Norembega Short Fiction Award and was published in the
published by Playscripts, as is her comedy, Toil
anthology, The Shape of Content. Her science play Background
and Trouble and The Taming, which the San
was published in ISOTOPE: A Journal of Nature and Science Writing.
Francisco Chronicle called “a laugh riot with
Her string theory poem “Hook of a Number” was published in
timely food for thought.”
the anthology Riffing On Strings and her monologue “Mass” was published in The Science Creative Quarterly 2015.
6
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Show History: The Taming was commissioned by Crowded Fire Theatre in San Francisco and premiered
THE CHARACTERS OF THE TAMING:
at Crowded Fire and ArtsWest in Seattle in 2013. Initially inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew Gunderson’s farce The Taming is a part of her Shakespeare Cycle along with The Book of Will, Exit; Pursued By Bear, Toil & Trouble, and We Are Denmark. The Taming grew out of Gunderson’s desire to wrestle with potent elements in Shakespeare’s playful and problematic battle of the sexes.
K AT H E R I N E
a southern belle and determined pageant winner in her 20s who also plays George and Martha Washington in 1787 as well as Dolley Madison.
Show Summary:
PAT R I C I A
In this hilarious, raucous, all-female “power-
conservative aide to Georgia’s Senator Peter
play” inspired by Shakespeare’s Shrew,
Baxter, in her 30s-40s, who also plays James
contestant Katherine has political aspirations
Madison in 1787.
to match her beauty pageant ambitions. All she needs to revolutionize the American government is the help of one ultraconservative senator’s aide on the cusp of a career breakthrough, and one bleeding-heart liberal blogger who will do anything for her cause. Well, that and a semi-historicallyaccurate ether trip.
BIANCA
a liberal southern hipster activist in her 20s-30s, who also plays Charles Pickney in 1787.
T H E TA M I N G / /
ABOUT MISS AMERICA: ( F R O M M I S S A M E R I C A .O R G )
P r e pa r i n g g r e at w o m e n f o r t h e w o r l d. P r e pa r i n g t h e w o r l d f o r g r e at w o m e n . The “Atlantic City’s Inter-City Beauty Contest,” known as the first Miss America Pageant, was started by local businessmen to extend the shore tourism season past Labor Day. On September 8, 1921, sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman was crowned the “Golden Mermaid.” It wasn’t until 1922 that the Boardwalk contest formally became “Miss America!” Today, the Miss America Organization is a nationally recognized non-profit and serves as one of the largest providers of scholarship assistance to young women in the world. The mission to prepare great women for the world and prepare the world for great women comes to fruition through the thousands of young women across America working to better their communities through service and scholarship. The public perception of Miss America is often that it’s a one-night telecast, but in reality it’s so much more. This unique program is a year-round opportunity for women to earn scholarships, grow their networks, learn valuable life and career skills, and make a difference in their communities. For nearly 100 years, we have been committed to empowering the advocates and leaders of tomorrow. MISS AMERICA TURNS 100: H T T P S : / / Y O U T U . B E / F R SW T R X J 0 J 0
7
8
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Glossary: C O N ST I T U T I O N A L C O N V E N T I O N :
The Constitutional Convention (contemporarily known as the Federal Convention, the Philadelphia Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia) took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in the old Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of Junius Brutus Steams 1856
many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington of Virginia to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history.
JAMES MADISON:
An American statesman, diplomat, philosopher, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809-1817. He is called the Father of the Constitution for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He co-wrote the Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, and served as the fifth United States Secretary of State from 1801-1809.
John Vanderlyn 1816
T H E TA M I N G / /
9
DOLLEY MADISON:
Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of both political parties, essentially spearheading the concept of bipartisan cooperation, albeit before that term was in use, in the United States. While, previously, founders such as Thomas Jefferson would only meet with members of one party at a time, and politics could often be a violent affair resulting in physical altercations and even duels, Madison helped to create the idea that members of each party could amicably socialize, network, and negotiate with each other without resulting in violence. By innovating political institutions Dolley Madison did much to define the role of the President's spouse, known only much later by the title first lady.
Gilbert Stuart 1804
C H A R L E S P I N C K N E Y:
An American politician and a signer of the United States Constitution. He was elected and served as the 37th Governor of South Carolina, later serving two more non-consecutive terms. He also served as a United States Senator and a member of the House of Representatives.
Gilbert Stuart Portrait circa 1786
10
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
G E O R G E WA S H I N G TO N :
A military general, statesman, and Founding Father. He served as the first president of the United States from 1789-1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led the patriot forces to victory in the Revolutionary War, and presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the Constitution of the United States and federal government. Washington has been called the Father of the Nation.
Gilbert Stuart 1796
M A R T H A WA S H I N G TO N :
Martha Washington (née Dandridge; 1731 – 1802) was the wife of George Washington. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural first lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was often referred to as "Lady Washington". Martha Washington was fashionably dressed, assertive, and a woman of great wealth and independent means. Mrs. Washington joined her husband during the Revolution for all the Continental Army's winter encampments. Before the revolution began, she had kept close to home; during it, she traveled thousands of miles to be with her husband. General Lafayette observed that she loved "her husband madly".
Gilbert Stuart circa 1825
T H E TA M I N G / /
11
THE
CONSITIUTION TIMELINE N OV 1 , 1 78 6
M AY 2 9, 1 787
Troubles Under Articles of Confederation
Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan
During the winter of 1786-87, inflation of paper money
Edmund Randolph proposes the Virginia Plan, which
gets out of hand, riots erupt in Vermont and New
would provide for a centralized government in which
Hampshire, and Captain Daniel Shays launches a
representation would be based on the population of
rebellion of angry farmers in western Massachusetts.
each state.
M AY 1 4 , 1 787
J U N 4 , 1 787
Constitutional Convention Begins
Small States vs. Large States
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 begins
The incendiary question of how to determine each
meeting at the State House (now Independence
state's representation in Congress emerges during the
Hall) in Philadelphia—the same building where the
convention. Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
Constitutional Congress adopted and signed the
and North Carolina (the four most populous states
Declaration of Independence in 1776. Every state
besides New York) unsurprisingly favor the big-state-
except Rhode Island will eventually be represented,
friendly Virginia Plan, which allocates representation
but for the first two weeks of the convention, only
proportional to population. But Connecticut, New
two state delegations are present, and they have to
Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland (all small states with no
keep adjourning daily until more delegations arrive to
prospect of enlargement through western expansion)
establish quorum.
object, holding out for equal representation for all states, large and small. Alexander Hamilton of New
M AY 2 5 , 1 787
Constitutional Convention Reaches Quorum Two weeks after schedule, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 reaches its quorum of seven state delegations, finally allowing the Framers to get down to business.
York favors the Virginia Plan but is rebuffed by his fellow New York delegates, who side with the small states instead.
12
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
J U N 1 5 , 1 787
in the deal is the now-notorious racist three-fifths
New Jersey Plan
compromise, which determines how slaves will be
William Paterson presents the New Jersey Plan, a small-
counted for representation.
state alternative to the Virginia Plan. It calls for equal representation in Congress for each state, regardless of population. Southerners also abandon their attempts to get each of their slaves counted as a whole person for the sake of bolstering their congressional representation. J U N 1 8 , 1 787
Hamilton Proposes Executive Alexander Hamilton presents his plan of constitution. The plan consists of a lifetime term for the president and a very strong executive branch. Most delegates disapprove; having just rebelled against a tyrannical king, they have no interest in creating a new king-like presidency. Hamilton leaves the convention soon afterward.
J U L 1 6 , 1 787
Congressional Veto Rejected The convention votes down a resolution backed by James Madison to empower Congress with a veto over state laws. J U L 2 6 , 1 787
The Presidency The presidency is born; on the motion of George Mason of Virginia, the convention resolves that there shall be a national executive consisting of one person, who will be chosen by the national legislature for seven years. There will be no second terms. This blueprint remains in effect until late August, when John Rutledge introduces a motion to elect the president by joint ballot (from the two houses of Congress). Ultimately it is decided that
J U L 5 , 1 787
the choice will be given to the House of Representatives
Connecticut Compromise
alone, so that future presidents will not become mere
After a three-day recess, a committee chaired by
puppets of the Senate.
Elbridge Gerry votes in favor of the Connecticut Compromise, which has been proposed by Roger Sherman. It combines aspects of the New Jersey and Virginia Plans by allowing for proportional representation in the lower house (which almost
S E P 1 5 , 1 787
Convention Adopts Constitution After four months of debate and deliberation, the convention adopts the Constitution.
everyone wants and expects), but in the upper house— the Senate—every state will have two representatives, regardless of population. J U L 1 6 , 1 787
Great Compromise The Connecticut (or "Great") Compromise is finally (if narrowly) adopted by the full convention. Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia vote against it. Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut vote for it. The compromise resolves the conflict between large and small states over the basis of representation in the new government. Included
S E P 1 7, 1 787
Draft Signed by Delegates The final text of the Constitution is signed by the delegates in Philadelphia. Edmund Randolph, George Mason, and Elbridge Gerry are the only Constitutional Convention of 1787 attendees who refuse to sign because of their objections to the final draft. S E P 2 8 , 1 787
Ratification Begins Congress formally submits the Constitution to the states for ratification.
T H E TA M I N G / /
13
D E C 7, 1 787
A P R 6 , 1 78 9
Delaware Ratifies Constitution
George Washington Elected
Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the
The Senate and the House of Representatives meet in joint
Constitution, by unanimous vote.
session to tally the votes from the first presidential election. George Washington is elected president and John Adams,
M A R 2 4 , 1 78 8
vice president.
Rhode Island Rejects Constitution Rhode Island becomes the first state to reject the
S E P 2 5 , 1 78 9
Constitution. It is the only state that does not hold a
Bill of Rights Proposed
ratifying convention. Instead, the vote is submitted to
Congress proposes twelve amendments to the
town meetings, which are boycotted by most Federalists.
Constitution, including the ten now known as the Bill of Rights, for ratification by state legislatures.
J U N 2 1 , 1 78 8
New Hampshire Ratification
FEB 2, 1790
New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the
Supreme Court Begins
Constitution, by a vote of 57-47, with recommended
The Supreme Court begins its first session, per the Judiciary
amendments. The Constitution can now be put into
Act of 1789.
effect, but it will mean little without the approval of the largest and most populous states, especially Virginia and New York.
MAR 1, 1792
Bill of Rights Enacted Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson announces the
J U N 2 5 , 1 78 8
ratification of the Bill of Rights; the first ten amendments to
Virginia Ratifies Against
the Constitution go into effect.
Patrick Henry's Wishes After a heated internal debate with Patrick Henry leading the antifederalists against ratification, Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the Constitution, by a vote of 89-79, with recommended amendments. J U L 2 6 , 1 78 8
New York Ratifies New York becomes the twelfth state to ratify the Constitution, by a vote of 30-27, with recommended amendments. A P R 1 , 1 78 9
First Congress The first session of Congress under the new Constitution of the United States begins in New York.
14
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
DID THE FOUNDERS INTEND FOR THE C O N S T I T U T I O N T O B E A L E G A L LY B I N D I N G DOCUMENT SET IN STONE, OR A LIVING C O N S T I T U T I O N T H AT W O U L D E VO LV E ?
In their own words: “Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes
deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.
in laws and constitutions, but laws and
They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than
institutions must go hand in hand with
human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment… Each
the progress of the human mind. As that
generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of
becomes more developed, more enlightened,
all which had gone before. It has then, like them, a right to choose
as new discoveries are made, new truths
for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own
discovered and manners and opinions
happiness… It is now forty years since the constitution of Virginia was
change, with the change of circumstances,
formed. The same tables inform us, that, within that period, two-thirds
institutions must advance also to keep pace
of the adults then living are now dead. Have then the remaining third,
with the times. We might as well require a
even if they had the wish, the right to hold in obedience to their will,
man to wear still the coat which fitted him
and to laws heretofore made by them, the other two-thirds, who, with
when a boy as civilized society to remain
themselves, compose the present mass of adults? … That majority,
ever under the regimen of their barbarous
then, has a right to depute representatives to a convention, and to
ancestors.”
make the constitution what they think will be the best for themselves.”
– Thomas Jefferson
– Thomas Jefferson “I confess that there are several parts of “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and
this Constitution which I do not at present
to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution, which
approve, but I am not sure I shall never
at any time exists, ‘till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the
approve them. For having lived long, I have
whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. … If in the opinion of the
experienced many instances of being obliged
people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers
by better information, or fuller consideration,
be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in
to change opinions even on important
the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change
subjects, which I once thought right, but
by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument
found to be otherwise.”
of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are
– Benjamin Franklin
destroyed.” – George Washington “Can it be of less consequence that the meaning of a Constitution should be fixed and known, than a meaning of a law should be so?” – James Madison
T H E TA M I N G / /
D E S I G N E R F E AT U R E :
Costumer, Sarah Mosher PAT A S C H I E F O F S TA F F & JAMES MADISON
Sarah Mosher (s/her/s) is honored to make her WaterTower Theatre debut on this wonderful production! Sarah is a Designer, Educator, and Theatre Artist based on the lands of the Hueco, Tickanwa-tic (Tawakoni), Tonkawa, and Numunuu (Comanche) in Waco, TX. Sarah has worked as a costume designer in theatre, opera, film, and dance with a specialization in new and devised works. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Costume Design and Technology at Baylor University, where her scholarship focus is on intersectional sustainability of labor and materials. Sarah received an MFA in Theatrical Design from the University of Texas at Austin. Favorite production credits include: The Agitators, Eurydice, Sea Change Within Us a collaboratively devised dance performance produced by Karin Stevens Dance, and Love and Information.
BIANCA AS BIANCA K AT H E R I N E A S K AT H E R I N E & D O L L E Y M A D I S O N
& CHARLES PICKNEY
15
16
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
B OX O F F I C E : 972 . 4 5 0 . 62 32 WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E .O R G