THEA 1314 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Great Barrington, Massachusetts, The Berkshires, The Atlantic
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Ice Glenn
Joan Ackermann
• Lives in the Berkshires
• Wrote the play for Shakespeare and Company
• Has written for the stage, television, movies, magazines, and journals
o Stanton's Garage
o Zara Spoon and other Lures
o Off the Map
o The Batting Cage
o Arli$$
• Cofounder of Mixed Company Theater in Great Barrington, MA
Plot Summary
• The poet Sarah Harding lives in a state of seclusion at Stonegate with four others
• Peter Woodburn, an editor from the Atlantic Monthly literary magazine, is determined to publish
Sarah's poems
• To Sarah, the poems are pieces of her innermost, private self
• Woodburn causes a whirlwind of changes for Sarah and all of the residents in the house
The Characters
• Sarah Harding : a poet living at Stonegate; she tends the gardens
• Dulce Bainbridge : the owner of Stonegate
• Mrs. Rosewell : Stonegate's cook and housekeeper
• Peter Woodburn : an editor for the Atlantic Monthly literary magazine based in Boston
• Grayson : the butler of Stonegate
• Denby : a young man who has lived at Stonegate ever since his parents passed away in a fire
The Setting
• The play takes place in and around a "Berkshire" cottage in the Berkshire Hills of western
Massachusetts
o Near the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge
o 1 scene in Boston
• The action is set over the course of a few weeks in October and November 1919
Director's Concept
• What does it mean to share a part of yourself you normally keep hidden with another person?
What does the vulnerability mean? What does it cost?
• Over the course of the play, al of the characters face a choice; to put up walls to protect
themselves, or to reach out to each other to establish connections based on personal vulnerability
• A wild rose blooming
o Something small, closed off, and protected, it takes time to bloom and reveal multiple layers
Design
• How can we bring a sense of place to our production?
o The house
o Nature