For two weeks in 1982, Caryl Churchill and the Joint Stock Theatre Company lived in Upwell, a village in the flat, marshy fens of England’s “breadbasket,” East Anglia. They talked with the locals in their homes, at work in the fields, and over pints at the local pub. The ensemble then returned to London to create Fen. Churchill has said that almost every line comes from something that was actually voiced during this process, and that no one character is based on a single person. Thus, the inhabitants of Fen each speak for a community, a time, and a place as much as they do for themselves. Upwell must have seemed a world away from the rush of ’80s London, but the inflation, unemployment, and labor strikes that drove the country into the cold embrace of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, had deeply affected fen life. In response to its 1983 U.S. premiere, a Times reviewer joked that the play could be called Bottom Girls—a riff on Churchill’s Top Girls, written a year earlier. Though we are thirty years out from this play, the human cost of economic crisis is deeply resonant. There are as many, if not more, people at the “bottom” today, whose work sustains the world.
YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA PRESENTS
FEN
—LAUREN DUBOWSKI AND DANA TANNER-KENNEDY, PRODUCTION DRAMATURGS
DIRECTOR’S NOTE For me, Fen is an ode to the hard work and suffering of girls and women, and the men who love and employ them. In this play, unlike in Top Girls, there are no female bosses—only the lowest workers, who can’t see a way out, and cope with the oppression of their lives in many remarkable ways. We dedicate our work to them.
by CARYL CHURCHILL directed by JOAN MACINTOSH
“It was work work work, it was all their lives.” —RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHER
“What’s the point of working till you drop?” —UNION BRANCH SECRETARY
THURSDAY, APRIL 19 AT 4PM FRIDAY, APRIL 20 AT 4PM AND 8PM SATURDAY, APRIL 21 AT 4PM
2011–12 SEASON
The Studio Series productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at Yale School of Drama to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes that process.
STUDIO 217 PARK STRET
APRIL 19–21, 2012 YA L E S C H O O L O F DR A MA J A M ES B U N DY, DEA N V I C TO R I A N O L A N , D EP UTY D EA N P R ESE N TS
FEN CARYL CHURCHILL by
directed by
JOAN MACINTOSH
ARTISTIC STAFF
CAST
PRODUCTION STAFF
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Technical Stage Manager NICOLE MARCONI
Associate Managing Director JAEEUN JOO
Crew BENJAMIN FAINSTEIN MARK NAGLE ELLIOT B. QUICK
Management Assistants ANNE FLAMMANG MELISSA ZIMMERMAN
in alphabetical order
Dramaturgs LAUREN DUBOWSKI DANA TANNER-KENNEDY Production Stage Manager IRIS D. DODGE
Japanese Businessman, Nell, May, Mavis MONIQUE BARBEE Mrs. Hassett, Becky, Alice, Ivy MOLLY BERNARD
House Manager ETHAN HEARD
Boy, Angela, Deb, Mrs. Finch ASHTON HEYL Wilson, Frank, Mr. Tewson, Geoffrey MATT McCOLLUM Val, Ghost MARISSA NEITLING Shirley, Shona, Miss Cade, Margaret CARMEN ZILLES
SPECIAL THANKS: Professor Adam Tooze FEN IS PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. PHOTO BY BOB JONES.
APRIL 19–21, 2012 YA L E S C H O O L O F DR A MA J A M ES B U N DY, DEA N V I C TO R I A N O L A N , D EP UTY D EA N P R ESE N TS
FEN CARYL CHURCHILL by
directed by
JOAN MACINTOSH
ARTISTIC STAFF
CAST
PRODUCTION STAFF
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Technical Stage Manager NICOLE MARCONI
Associate Managing Director JAEEUN JOO
Crew BENJAMIN FAINSTEIN MARK NAGLE ELLIOT B. QUICK
Management Assistants ANNE FLAMMANG MELISSA ZIMMERMAN
in alphabetical order
Dramaturgs LAUREN DUBOWSKI DANA TANNER-KENNEDY Production Stage Manager IRIS D. DODGE
Japanese Businessman, Nell, May, Mavis MONIQUE BARBEE Mrs. Hassett, Becky, Alice, Ivy MOLLY BERNARD
House Manager ETHAN HEARD
Boy, Angela, Deb, Mrs. Finch ASHTON HEYL Wilson, Frank, Mr. Tewson, Geoffrey MATT McCOLLUM Val, Ghost MARISSA NEITLING Shirley, Shona, Miss Cade, Margaret CARMEN ZILLES
SPECIAL THANKS: Professor Adam Tooze FEN IS PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. PHOTO BY BOB JONES.
For two weeks in 1982, Caryl Churchill and the Joint Stock Theatre Company lived in Upwell, a village in the flat, marshy fens of England’s “breadbasket,” East Anglia. They talked with the locals in their homes, at work in the fields, and over pints at the local pub. The ensemble then returned to London to create Fen. Churchill has said that almost every line comes from something that was actually voiced during this process, and that no one character is based on a single person. Thus, the inhabitants of Fen each speak for a community, a time, and a place as much as they do for themselves. Upwell must have seemed a world away from the rush of ’80s London, but the inflation, unemployment, and labor strikes that drove the country into the cold embrace of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, had deeply affected fen life. In response to its 1983 U.S. premiere, a Times reviewer joked that the play could be called Bottom Girls—a riff on Churchill’s Top Girls, written a year earlier. Though we are thirty years out from this play, the human cost of economic crisis is deeply resonant. There are as many, if not more, people at the “bottom” today, whose work sustains the world.
YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA PRESENTS
FEN
—LAUREN DUBOWSKI AND DANA TANNER-KENNEDY, PRODUCTION DRAMATURGS
DIRECTOR’S NOTE For me, Fen is an ode to the hard work and suffering of girls and women, and the men who love and employ them. In this play, unlike in Top Girls, there are no female bosses—only the lowest workers, who can’t see a way out, and cope with the oppression of their lives in many remarkable ways. We dedicate our work to them.
by CARYL CHURCHILL directed by JOAN MACINTOSH
“It was work work work, it was all their lives.” —RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHER
“What’s the point of working till you drop?” —UNION BRANCH SECRETARY
THURSDAY, APRIL 19 AT 4PM FRIDAY, APRIL 20 AT 4PM AND 8PM SATURDAY, APRIL 21 AT 4PM
2011–12 SEASON
The Studio Series productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at Yale School of Drama to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes that process.
STUDIO 217 PARK STRET