FOOD FOR THOUGHT PRODUCTIONS

In Association With

THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA

Presents

FALL 2010 SCHEDULE

FIFTEEN SHOWS--TWELVE DIFFERENT SHOWS--3 SHOWS ARE REPEATED

Monday,  Sept. 13

"REVUE, REVIEW'

Based on an idea by Jamie Rigler, this unusual show will present writings of critics accompanied by staged readings of excerpts from the shows they reviewed.

Tuesday, Oct. 5 

"THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA"

by  TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

The time is the 1940's. The place is a cheap motel on the coast of Mexico. The characters are: an ex-minister, Reverend Shannon, who has been institutionalized rather than defrocked after referring to God as a "senile delinquent" during one of his sermons and is presently working as a  tour guide for a second-rate travel agency; Maxine, Shannon's friend, who is the very sexy owner of the motel; and Hannah, a destitute painter and spinster who is taking care of her elderly grandfather.  Their paths cross as the play opens, and audiences are privy to this poetic and heart-breaking world of Tennessee Williams. 

This is the one-act version of one of Williams' masterpieces which was produced on Broadway in 1961, starring Bette Davis and was later made into a film in 1964, starring Richard, Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr. The film version, which was directed by John Huston, who co-wrote it with Antony Veiller, removed the Nazi tourists from the play.       

Wednesday, Oct. 13

"VISITOR FROM MAMARONECK"

by NEIL SIMON

The is the first of three parts of Simon's "Plaza Suite" which opened on Broadway in 1968 starring Maureen Stapleton and George C. Scott.  The three parts revolve around different characters in different situations with different conflicts.  But they all deal with male/female relationships which take place in Suite 791 of the Plaza Hotel.  Simon wrote the 1971 film version which starred Walter Matthau and Lee Grant but apparently was unhappy with the result.

Thursday, Oct. 21

"THE MAN WHO CLIMBED THE PECAN TREES"

by HORTON FOOTE

and "THE JEWELER"

 by SUSAN CHARLOTTE

Foote's one-act was first produced in Los Angeles in 1982.  It is described in the following way:  "The Man Who Climbed the Pecan Trees" is Foote's darkest short play to that time, because, written after the disorder of the sixties, it reflects the breakdown of the traditional social contracts that the playwright observed during that troubled decade.  Threats of violence are commonplace...familial bonds of trust are fractured.  Sexual license... and a radical narcissism...have left the family and normal social intercourse in shambles...the characters have lost the sense of order and proportion that comes from living with the past." ("Selected One-Act Plays of Horton Foote," edited by Gerald C. Wood).

"The Jeweler," a new one-act by Susan Charlotte, is the perfect companion piece to the Foote one-act.  Charlotte, as usual, explores the personal and societal breakdowns through the breakdown of language.  The Jeweler is haunted by his past, which we learn about when a customer enters his shop and wants to buy a watch.  She insists on a watch which the jeweler does not seem to have.  Time plays an important part in this multi-layered play, in which the customer's desire to possess this watch has to do with a deeper desire to control time. The Jeweler, who wants to disconnect from his past, refuses to carry any watches. 

Monday, Oct. 25

"TRIANGLE"

by BETTY COMDEN and ADOLPH GREEN

and "THE DILETTANTE"

by EDITH WHARTON

"Triangle" by the award-winning writing team Betty Comden and Adolph Green, is described as "An old-fashioned burlesque sketch with two variations."  It was first produced in "Two on the Aisle" on Broadway in 1951. The first part, featurung "Hubby and Wifey and Lovey" is a take-off on Burlesque and is to be played in "typical brisk, stylized burlesque manner."  The second part, featuring "Husband and Wife and Close Friend"  is written à la T.S. Eliot and is to be played in "clipped British style."  The final part, featuring "He and She and Him" à la Cole Porter, are described as  "breezily sophisticated" and sing their lines.  A rare one-act.  A rare treat.   Also in this program is another story about a love triangle written by Pulitzer-prize winning writer Edith Wharton almost fifty years earlier, in 1951.  Described as a tale of "love and manipulation," this story revolves around a man who thinks he has outsmarted the two women he is involved with.  But perhaps not!

Thursday Oct. 28

"THE SIX OF CALAIS"

by GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Originally performed in London in 1934 master playwright George Bernard Shaw writes, "The most amusing thing about the first performance of this little play was the exposure it elicited to the quaint illiteracy of our modern London journalists.  Their only notion of a king was a pleasant and highly respectable gentleman in a bowler hat and Victorian beard, shaking hands affably with a blushing football team.  To them a queen was a dignified lady, also Victorian as to her coiffure, graciously receiving bouquets from excessively washed children in beautiful new clothes..."  A delightful and witty play that makes for a perfect afternoon in theatre. Originally performed in Dublin in 1909 Shaw describes his play as "A Sermon in Crude Melodrama."

Tuesday, Nov. 2

"AUTO BAHN"

by NEIL LABUTE

"THE SEXES" and "NEW YORK TO DETROIT"

by DOROTHY PARKER

One very dark contemporary writer (LaBute, “In The Company of Men") and one very wry writer (Parker) whose work (1920's-1960's) feels very contemporary, explores the conflicts between the sexes.

Thursday, Nov. 4 

"REVUE, REVIEW" 

(See September 13th)

Wednesday. Nov. 10

"THE RIVERS UNDER THE EARTH"

by THORTON WILDER

This powerful one-act by Nobel-Prize winning playwright Thornton Wilder is published in a section called "The Seven Ages of Man," which is part of "The Collected Short Plays of Thorton Wilder."  In this collection, editor and researcher F.J. O'Neil writes the following: "The place of “The Rivers Under the Earth" in Wilder's schema of short plays is ambiguous.  In its first draft it was entitled "Children."  That title was dropped in later drafts.  Students of Wilder have speculated that he finally meant the play to represent middle age...Wilder had written in his journal:  'I planned [Rivers] to arrive at a culmination illustrating--so recurrent in me--the relations between a daughter and a father.' "                                   

Monday, Nov. 22

"TRIANGLE”

by BETTY COMDEN and ADOLPH GREEN

and "THE DILETTANTE"

by EDITH WHARTON

(See description Oct. 25)

Tuesday. Nov. 30

"THE HOMECOMING”

by HAROLD PINTER

First produced in London in 1965, this masterpiece by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter deals with a homecoming and the dark dynamics of a family in a way that is haunting, compelling, riveting and entertaining. After viewing this play, it is hard to look at one's own family in the same way.  As Richard Gilman wrote, "‘The Homecoming' is a brilliant piece of writing, one almost no other English-speaking playwright would be capable of."

Monday, Dec. 6

"THE MAN WHO CLIMBED THE PECAN TREES"

by HORTON FOOTE

and "THE JEWELER"

by SUSAN CHARLOTTE

(See description October 21)

Thursday. Dec. 9

Excerpts from "DEATH OF A SALESMAN,"

"A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE" and "THE PRICE"

by ARTHUR MILLER 

Some of the most riveting scenes from the some of the most riveting plays in the American theatre, written by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, and acted by the renowned actress and sister of the playwright, Joan Copeland. This program allows you to see scenes juxtaposed from different classics and experience Miller's writing in an entirely different way.

Wednesday, Dec. 15

AN UNKNOWN WORK by NOËL COWARD

Monday, Dec. 20

EXCITING SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT SEASON