About This Production - Geffen Playhouse
coney island christmastable of contentssection 1About this productionartistic director’s comment 4play synopsis & Setting 5artistic biographies 6section 2themes and ideas to exploreartistic influences on setting 7scenic design 9nostalgia 10immigration & identity 11hebrew and yiddish words used in the play.12section 3personnel profileAn Interview with Artistic Associate / Literary Directoramy levinson 13section 4supporting materials and sites 15geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas3
section 1about thisproductionartisticdirector’scommentrandall arneyConey Island Christmas is a play that came to us through acommission. Commissioning a play means that we pay writers a fee tocreate something specifically for the Geffen Playhouse. In this instance,Gil Cates, the Geffen’s founding producing director who passed awaylast year, approached Donald Margulies about writing a holiday play.We have commissioned Margulies before, so we know that his playstake time to write and develop, but he was determined to have itready for the fall of 2012. With the passing of Mr. Cates, Margulies’purpose was thrown into high gear — he wanted to have a play thatnot only represented the work that the Geffen has supported andnurtured through the years, but moreover, a play that in some wayencapsulated the spirit of the man who had thought to commissionit. When we saw the first draft of Coney Island Christmas, we knewthat Donald Margulies had accomplished all of these things. Further,he has created a play that epitomizes what is wonderful about theholiday season — that it is a time where we focus on good will towardsone another and set aside our petty differences.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas4
about this productionPlay Synopsis & SettingSynopsisPulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies weaves together nostalgia,music and merriment in the world premiere of this new seasonalclassic. A holiday show for people of all ages and all faiths, ConeyIsland Christmas introduces us to Shirley Abramowitz, a young Jewishgirl who (much to her immigrant parents’ exasperation) is cast asJesus in the school’s Christmas pageant. As Shirley, now much older,recounts the memorable story to her great-granddaughter, the playcaptures a timeless and universal tale of what it means to be anAmerican during the holidays.settingThe play takes place in Los Angeles, California, in the present andBrooklyn, New York, during the Great Depression.dedicationPlaywright Donald Margulieswrote Coney Island Christmason commission from the GeffenPlayhouse and dedicated theplay to the founder and lateProducing Director Gil Cates.Gil and Donald Marguliesfirst collaborated in 1999 onCollected Stories. This sparkeda subsequent film, as well as13 years of friendship andcollaboration. Coney IslandChristmas is Donald’s fifthplay and second commissionproduced at the GeffenPlayhouse.inspirationConey Island Christmas was inspired by the Grace Paley short story,The Loudest Voice, which appeared in a 1959 collection entitledThe Little Disturbances of Man. Paley was, herself, a first-generationAmerican daughter born of Jewish European immigrants who grew upin the Bronx in New York in the 1930s. She was an academic, a writerand an activist, and in 1989, she was named by New York GovernorMario Cuomo as New York’s first official State Writer.DISCUSSION POINTAll around the country, theaters celebrate the holidays by programmingseasonal favorites. A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story and The Nutcrackerare presented year after year to sellout houses. Geffen Playhouse’s worldpremiere answer to that call is Coney Island Christmas.What stories do you think of around the holidays? Year after year, what eventor happening signifies the beginning of your holiday season?geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas5
about this productionartistic biographiesBART DeLORENZO (Director)Founding Artistic Director of the Evidence Room theater in Los Angeles.At the Geffen, he previously directed Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked: AnEntertainment and the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress bya Life in Progress. Recent credits for the Evidence Room include Chekhov’sIvanov and Len Jenkins’s Margo Veil produced with the Odyssey Theater. Otherrecent directing includes Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at A Noise Within, theworld premiere of Justin Tanner’s Day Drinkers at the Odyssey, Karen Zacarias’Legacy of Light and Around the World in 80 Days at the Cleveland Playhouse,King Lear for the Antaeus Company, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Doctor Cerberusand Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone at South Coast Repertory, and MichaelSargent’s The Projectionist at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He is on the faculty atCalarts. For his work, he has received six LA Weekly awards, three BackstageGarlands, three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, and is the 2012 recipient ofTCG’s Alan Schneider Director Award.DONALD MARGULIES (Playwright)Donald Margulies’ plays include Time Stands Still (Geffen Playhouse),Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Geffen Playhouse), Brooklyn Boy, Dinnerwith Friends (Geffen Playhouse), Sight Unseen, Collected Stories (GeffenPlayhouse), The Loman Fam ily Picnic, God of Vengeance, The ModelApartment, What’s Wrong with this Picture?, and Found a Peanut. He has wona Lucille Lortel Award, an Ameri can Theatre Critics Award, two Los AngelesDrama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, two Dramatists Guild Hull-WarrinerAwards, one Tony Award nomination, five Drama Desk Award nominations,two Pulitzer Prize nominations and one Pulitzer Prize. His works have beenper formed on and off Broadway; at major theatres across the United Statesincluding South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages,Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown TheatreFestival, Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and Joseph Papp’s New YorkShake speare Festival; and in Paris, London, Rome, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam,Copenhagen, Syd ney, Berlin, Vienna and many other cities around the world.Mr. Margulies has received grants from the National Endow ment for the Arts,The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Me morial Foundation. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy ofArts and Letters with an Award in Literature, by the National Foundation forJewish Culture with its Cultural Achievement Award, and was the recipient ofthe 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatreby a playwright. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves onthe council of The Dramatists Guild of America. He is an adjunct professor ofEnglish and Theatre Studies at Yale University.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas6
section 2themes and ideasto exploreArtistic Influences on SettingIn his playwright’s notes,Donald Margulies writes:“The Los Angeles prologue andcoda may use projections orbrightly-painted scrims inspiredby the L.A. paintings of DavidHockney, while the Brooklynbackdrops evoke ReginaldMarsh’s sepia-toned New Yorkpaintings of the 1930s.”Following is some informationon these artists and their workpertaining to the period.DISCUSSION POINTPicasso said, ”Good artistsborrow, great artists steal.”What are some instanceswhere one piece of art hasbeen the foundation orinspiration for another?david hockneybiographysourced images sourced h/hockney/David HockneyBorn in Bradford, England in 1937, David Hockney attended art school inLondon before moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s. Here, he made hisfamous swimming pool paintings. In the 1970s, Hockney began workingin photography as well, creating photo collages he called “joiners.” Hecontinues to create and exhibit art, and in 2011 he was voted the mostinfluential British artist of the 20th century.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas7
themes and ideas to exploreArtistic Influences on SettingThere is at least half a century’sexpanse between DavidHockney’s representationsof “modern” southernCalifornia and ReginaldMarsh’s representations of athen modern New York City.Similarly, there is a generationalgap between two of thefeatured characters in the play— Clara and her grandmotherShirley Abramowitz.Throughout the play – in itsframing device as well as itscore themes – a conversationconcerning “the new way”and “the old way” figuresprominently.DISCUSSION POINTIf you were to create a scenicbackdrop in front of whichyou would perform a majorevent in your life’s story, whatwould it look like?What are the specific imagesthat immediately come to mind?reginald marshbiographysourced from:New York Historical SocietyMuseum and ges sourced y.uca.edu/mikea/picaresque.htmlReginald MarshWith his calligraphic brushstrokes and densely-cluttered, multi-figuredcompositions, Reginald Marsh recorded the vibrancy and energetic pulseof New York City. In paintings, prints, watercolors and photographs, hecaptured the animation and visual turbulence that made urban New Yorklife an exhilarating spectacle. His work depicted the visual energy of thecity, its helter-skelter signs, newspaper and magazine headlines and thecrowded conditions of its street life and recreational pastimes.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas8
themes and ideas to explorescenic designScenic Designer Takeshi Kata was generous enough to share the following renderings for Coney IslandChristmas. Note the influence of Reginald Marsh’s New York works:geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas9
themes and ideas to explorenostalgiaNostalgia – (n.) a wistful desireto return in thought or in factto a former time in one’s life .a sentimental longing for thepast From WIKIPEDIA:. The scientific literature onnostalgia is quite thin, butthere are a few studies thathave attempted to pin downthe essence of nostalgia andwhat causes it. Smell andtouch are also strong evokersof nostalgia and memories ingeneral due to the processingof these stimuli first passingthrough the amygdala, theemotional seat of the brain.These recollections of our pastare usually important events,people we care about andplaces where we have spenttime. Music can also be astrong trigger of nostalgia.SHIRLEY ABRAMOWITZThere is a certain place far from sore throatsand the scent of hibiscus and eucalyptus Farfrom freeways packed like parking lots and allthe noise and dreck we call the Here and Now,there is a certain place where everything is theway it was, the color of faded old pictures. Andthe smells are potato latkes, gefilte fish, andsour pickles.CLARAWhat is this place?SHIRLEY ABRAMOWITZIt’s a place called Brooklyn!The framework of Coney Island Christmas involves a grandmother(Shirley) and her granddaughter (Clara) sharing stories of Shirley’schildhood growing up Jewish in New York in the 1930s. There is a greatsense of nostalgia in Shirley’s memories.In one of her remembrances, Grandma Shirley (as young Shirley) iswalking home with her father as he sings something in Yiddish. She askshim what his song means. He translates:MR ABRAMOWITzBeltz, my little town!The little house where I grew up!DISCUSSION POINTPerforming in her school’sholiday plays figuresprominently in ShirleyAbramowitz’s memory of herchildhood. She credits thoseevents with helping her “findher voice.”What, if any, activity fromyour youth can you point toas having influenced somefacet of your adulthood andin what way?Every shabbos I would run to the riverbank toplay with other children under a little greentree.My little town where I dreamt such wonderfuldreams!He finishes: “Come, kiddo, let’s go home.” Through the song, sung in anative tongue and his reference as it ends to going home, we are madeprivy to this kind of quiet longing that is frequently part of a nostalgicexperience. We inevitably think of our own parents, our own children,our own music — our own home.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas10
themes and ideas to exploreimmigration & identityEllis IslandImmigration StatisticsBy the NumbersWhile the play is generally fun and lighthearted, there are someunderlying themes that carry great weight — and have for centuries forAmerican immigrants. Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1880s: 5.2 millionGrandmother Shirley, as a young girl, wanted very much to participatein “American activities” like the holiday plays at her school; however, hermother, Mrs. Abramowitz, felt that involvement in non-Jewish events,especially those celebrating rituals of another faith or custom, wouldcompromise the integrity of their own Jewish faith: Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1890s: 3.7 million Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1900s: 8.8 million Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1910s: 5.7 million Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1920s: 4.1 millionMRS. ABRAMOWITZAm I the only one in this house who sees this forwhat it is?MR. ABRAMOWITZ Total immigration to the UnitedStates during the 1930s: 0.5 millionIt’s only a play! It’s not the end of the world. Number of European immigrantsprocessed through theImmigration Station at Ellis Island,New York, between 1892 and 1954:more than 16 millionOh, no? The end of our world, maybe If we camehere to get away from tyrants and people who hateus, and instead we fall into a creeping pogrom,that eats away at us slowly, so slowly we don’teven notice what it’s doing to us, and makes ourchildren forget who they are and where they camefrom, who’s the joke on then, huh, Misha?. Record number of immigrantsprocessed through the ImmigrationStation at Ellis Island in a single dayin 1907: 11,747MRS. ABRAMOWITZMR. ABRAMOWITZBend a little, Clara.sourced tics.htmlDISCUSSION POINTImmigrants frequently strugglewith issues of identity — howto immerse oneself in a newculture while holding on to apreviously experienced one.How important is it to be ableto define where you comefrom, and does that necessarilyeffect, where you are?MRS. ABRAMOWITZBend too much, and you break.Throughout the play, this cultural tug-of-war plays a large role in thefamilial relationships, especially between young Shirley and her mother.There are tensions between where this family came from and wherethey now find themselves, between articulating an individual identityand doing what’s necessary to “fit in.” Shirley is torn between what isexpected of her and what she wants for herself in the moment. Evenas we’re listening and laughing, first at young Shirley’s elementaryschool Thanksgiving play, then at the Christmas pageant, the themesof self-identification and personal reconciliation are pervasive andphenomenally relevant.geffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas11
themes and ideas to exploreHEBREW AND YIDDISH WORDSUSED IN THE PLAYClassical Hebrew, also sometimes referenced as Biblical Hebrew, is the original language of the Jews. Some2,000 years ago, Aramaic became the more common spoken language, but Hebrew was still used in formalwriting and temple services. Modern Hebrew refers to the spoken language of today, and its revival iscredited to Eliezer Ben Yehuda who, after immigrating to Israel in 1811, advocated diligently that the ancientlanguage should once again be spoken in schools and in Jewish homes. Yiddish is a European language thatis a fusion of Aramaic, Hebrew and Germanic roots and structures. It is a principal literary language in Jewishhistory and has also seen many of its words adopted into the contemporary American vernacular.Mishugeh – (adj. Yiddish) Crazy, senseless.Potato latkes – (n. Yiddish) A fried potato pancakeeaten during Chanukah to symbolize the miracle thatthe oil in the Temple lasted eight days when it wassupposed it would only last one.Gefilte fish – (n. Yiddish) Minced and balled orcaked, de-boned fish, usually whitefish or pike, oftensimmered in a fish stock, then eaten cold. Used duringthe Passover Seder.Bubeleh – (n. Yiddish) Term of endearment, oftenfrom older generations to younger.Shabbos – (n. Hebrew) Friday sundown to Saturdaysundown, signifying the seventh day of Creation andcelebrated as the Day of Rest.Shtetl – (n. Yiddish) A settlement inhabited by a highconcentration of Jews.Shanda – (n. Yiddish) Shame or disgrace.Goyim – (n. Yiddish) A group of Non-Jews.Mamaleh – (n. Yiddish) Term of affection akin to“Mother, dear.”Schlepped – (v. Yiddish) Drag, carry or haul,particularly unnecessary things, parcels or baggage;to go somewhere unwillingly or where you may beunwanted.Pogrom – (n. Russian) An organized attack and/ormassacre targeted toward a particular ethnic group.Guy shluffen – (v. Yiddish) Go to sleep.Brucha – (n. Hebrew) A blessing.Ferkokta – (adj. Yiddish) Gone bad/awry, messed up.Yiddish theater – (n. English) Originating in EasternEurope, the Yiddish theater made its way over toAmerica with European Jews, beginning in earnestin the 1880’s. The large immigrant audience in NewYork City rallied around performances as communityevents featuring traditional plays, adapted toimmigrant culture, and performed in a flamboyantstyle in the language of their home.Chanukah – (n. Hebrew) An eight-day Jewish holiday,also sometimes called “The Festival of Lights,”commemorating the rededication of the SecondTemple of Jerusalem in 165 BCE. On each evening ofthe celebration, a new candle on the menorah – aneight armed candelabra – is lit to recall the story of aone-day supply of oil that miraculously burned in theTemple for eight days until new oil was obtained.Wisenheimer – (n. Yiddish) A person who behaves inan irritatingly smug or arrogant fashion, typically bymaking clever remarks and displaying their knowledge.Farshtinkeneh – (n. Yiddish) A rotten person;someone who behaves badly.Dreck – (n. Yiddish) Crap, garbage or trashgeffen playhouse study guide Coney island christmas12
section 3personnel profileAn Interview with Artistic Associate /Literary Director Amy Levinson1. What is your official title at the Geffen Playhouse?AL: I am the Artistic Associate / Literary Director at thetheater. I am also the dramaturg on productions thatrequire one.2. How would you describe what you do?AL: My jobs have numerous facets. As the artisticassociate and literary director my main job is to read andsee plays to consider for production. Along with KristinaLeach, the literary associate at the theater, I makerecommendations to Randall Arney, the
Christmas is Donald’s fifth play and second commission produced at the Geffen Playhouse DiSCUSSion point All around the country, theaters celebrate the holidays by programming seasonal favorites A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story and The Nutcracker are presented year after year to sellout houses Geffen Playhouse’s world
-A teacher can come to Playhouse on the Square and check out one of the scripts.-If you read it at Playhouse, there is no deposit.-If you prefer to take the script with you, there is a 10 charge.-If the script is brought back to Playhouse, your 10 is refunded. OR-A teacher can have the scr
numerous Playhouse shows The Wizard of Oz (Cowardly Lion) and How I Became a Pirate (Sharktooth). He is a member of the Friday Funday Playhouse gang and was a recipient of a 2017 Volunteer of the Year Dionysos Award. He was assistant director for The Playhouse producti
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Playhouse will charge the teacher 15 and the script will be mailed to them priority.-If the script is brought back to Playhouse 10 will be refunded. ACT ONE: The Upstairs Nursery of the Darling Home in London Mr. and Mrs. Darling prepare for an evening
The Playhouse provides both a thriving focal point for the communities of West Yorkshire, and theatre of the highest standard for audiences throughout the region and beyond. West Yorkshire Playhouse produces 16 of its own shows each year in its two auditoria, appro
Bucks County Playhouse Student Theater Festival 3 Welcome! The Student Theater Festival at Bucks County Playhouse is in its 51st year! Originally known as Dramafest for one act plays, the Student Theater Festival has evolved into a multi–week celebration showcas
AAT Advanced Diploma in Accounting Synoptic Assessment – SAMS – Assessment book 2 Notes for students and training providers This is a sample assessment and mark scheme which is reflective of the question types, depth of content coverage, the level of demand, duration and mark allocation of tasks that will be in the live assessment It is not designed to be used on its own to determine .
