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P.L.A.Y. (Performance = Literature + Art + You) Student Matinee Series Student Matinee 2003-2004 By Arthur Miller Directed by Skip Greer
Transcript
Page 1: Death of a Salesman

P.L.A.Y.(Performance = Literature + Art + You)

Student Matinee Series

Student Matinee 2003-2004

By Arthur Miller

Directed by Skip Greer

Page 2: Death of a Salesman

2

Table ofContents

Synopsis . . . . . . 3

About thePlaywright . . . . . 3

Interview withDirectorSkip Greer . . . . 4

Discussions onDeath of aSalesman . . . . . 5

Miller’s Inspirationsfor Salesman. . . 6-7

On Willy . . . . . . . . 7

CostumeDesigns. . . . . . . . .8

The Structure ofthe Play. . . . . . . . 9

Glossary . . . . . 10

Tell Us WhatYou Think . . . . . . 10

Resources . . . . 11

Dear Educators,I can remember reading Death of a Salesman when I was in highschool. I picked it up again this summer thinking that it probablyhadn’t changed much since then. You can imagine my surprise when Ifound that it had changed, significantly, since the last time I read it.This time, the play had a completely different effect on me. This time,my own hopes, fears and dreams quickly became entangled in theLoman family’s struggle. This time the story was devastating. It wasdevastating partly because I realized the play itself hadn’t changed atall, but over the past 15 years I had. Significantly.

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman was first produced in 1949 andhas just as much of an impact on audiences today. That, in myopinion, is what makes this play a classic. The themes are universaland allow the story to transform over time just as our own hopes,fears and dreams do. As long as we have dreams it will be a storyworth telling.

Although many people have read the play, few have had theopportunity to see it in the theatre. We at Geva are thrilled to beoffering Death of a Salesman as a part of our student matinee seriesthis season. To further enrich the experience, you will find in thisguide a variety of resources including an interview with the directorSkip Greer, suggested classroom activities and backgroundinformation on the play.

Whether this is your first encounter with the play or one of many, Ihope you and your students have a fulfilling experience exploring itboth in the theatre and the classroom.

Andrea Stoner Associate Director of Education

Cast ofCharacters

(in order of appearance)

Willy Loman

Linda

Happy

Biff

Bernard

The Woman

Charley

Uncle Ben

Howard Wagner

Jenny

Stanley

Miss Forsythe

Letta

“You don’t raise a guy to a responsible job whowhistles in the elevator.” Happy

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SynopsisWilly Loman is in the twilight of his career as a traveling salesman. Theplay opens with his return home after finding himself unable to drive onhis latest business trip. Willy lives in Brooklyn with his wife Linda. Histwo sons, Biff and Happy are both home for a visit. Happy has anapartment in town and Biff has recently returned from travels out West.Willy always had big dreams for himself and his boys. At this point,however, he is struggling to make ends meet. He is working forcommission only, and because of this, borrows money each week fromhis neighbor, Charley. Willy is also dealing with the news that his olderbrother, Ben, has recently passed away. Despite the many challenges thatface him, Willy keeps up hope and continues to see in his son Biff thepotential for great success.

Willy struggles to find the solutions to his problems by searching throughhis memories for the answers. This causes him to drift from the reality ofthe present into his memory of the past. As his family realizes that he isunable to distinguish between the two, they start to bring their concernsfor him to each other. Linda reveals her discovery that Willy hasattempted to commit suicide more than once. Biff then acquiesces to hismother’s request to stay at home instead of returning to the West. Hedecides to meet with a man he worked for years ago to discuss a business proposition.

Willy, after asking his boss for a New York position, is fired from his job.He and his sons meet that night at a restaurant where he tells them aboutwhat happened. Biff tries to explain to his father that the meeting with hisformer employer did not go as planned, but Willy refuses to listen. Thisescalates into an argument and Willy again becomes lost in the pastwhere he faces a painful memory that has haunted both him and Biff formany years.

Biff and Happy abandon Willy at the restaurant. When they return home,Linda, furious about what they have done, tells them that they are nolonger welcome in her house. Biff then confronts Willy about hisattempted suicide and struggles to make the entire family face the realityof the situation. Willy is touched by his son’s concern and makes thedecision he feels will solve his family’s problems once and for all. Aftereveryone goes to bed, the sound of his car is heard along with a violentcrash. The play closes with Willy’s funeral attended by his family, Charleyand his son Bernard.

About the PlaywrightArthur Miller was born in New York City on October 17, 1915. He startedwriting plays at the University of Michigan. His first successful stageventure was All My Sons in 1947 and he cemented his reputation as anAmerican playwright with Death of a Salesman in 1949. He won the DramaCritics Award for both plays and the Pulitzer Prize for Salesman. Otherplays include The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955) and After

the Fall (1964). In addition to being a playwright, he has also writtenscreenplays (The Misfits), novels (Focus) and an auto-biography (Timebends).

Resources

Willy has bigdreams for bothhimself and his

sons. Where doour dreams come

from: society,family, films or

television? Do ourdreams change as

we grow? DoWilly’s? Are we

defined by ourdreams? Do they

shape whowe are?

Acquiesce: to agree

without protest, to

give in

“He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.” Biff

Arthur Miller

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Interview with Director Skip Greer This interview was conducted by Andrea Stoner, Geva Theatre

Center’s Associate Director of Education

The last time we spoke with you, you were playing John Hancock in

1776. How does your experience as an actor influence you as a director

and vice versa?

Being an actor is like being a detective and finding the clues that theplaywright has provided to breathe life into the character. The experienceof acting and searching for those clues assists me as a director in askingthe right questions to assist the actors in their search.

Why should young people see this play?

The problems that Willy and Biff face in discovering their own moralcompass are as relevant now as they ever were. In fact, I think thedangers of buying into “image over substance” are more prevalent nowthan ever before.

Death of a Salesman is such a complex play, what has been your greatest

challenge in directing this production?

For me, the greatest challenge of the play is creating a unified order fromthe deliberate chaos that Miller provides us. Since the time and place aremalleable they have to be created within a collaboration of all the artistsinvolved in the project.

How is the structureof this play differentfrom others youhave seen? Does itenhance or detractfrom the story?

s

Malleable: capable of

being shaped or

altered

The director and

design team start

working on the show

long before the

rehearsals begin. It

usually takes six

months to bring a

production from the

page to the stage.

Design team for

Death of a

Salesman:

Erhard Rom,

Scenic Design

B. Modern,

Costume Design

Kendall Smith,

Lighting Design

John Zeretzke,

Composer

Dan Roach,

Sound Associate

“Pop, I’m a dime a dozen and so are you.” Biff

Skip Greer

Photo of Geva’s Death of aSalesman production with

Christian Kohn as Biff and

James Edmondson as Willy

Loman. Photo by Ken A.

Huth

Page 5: Death of a Salesman

5

In Aristotle’sdefinition of tragedy,

the hero must fallfrom greatness like

King Lear orOedipus. In

addressing whetheror not Willy is a

tragic hero, ArthurMiller has said that

the fall of thecommon man is justas tragic as the fall

of a great man. Inyour opinion, what is

it that makesa hero?

Paltry: contemptible

Discussions on Death of a SalesmanIs Death of a Salesman a tragedy? Does it speak of the failure of theAmerican Dream? Is it a social protest or one man’s struggle to find hisidentity? Is it about the quest for truth, the search for love or the need forsuccess? The answer is all the above and the reason Death of a Salesmanhas been such an important part of the American theatre for over 50 years.

Below are three discussion questions followed by various interpretations ofthe play. It is encouraged that you and your class to take a look at one orall of them. Responses can be explored through a writing assignment, adiscussion or both. Along with your students’ own interpretations, theseideas will make for a great dialogue following the performance.

What makes a play a tragedy?“Aristotle said that the tragic hero must be neither all good nor all evil, butrather a median figure. Everything about him is paltry except his battle tounderstand and escape from the pit he has dug for himself. In this battle heachieves a measure of greatness. In the waste of his life, his fate touchesus all.”

Tom Lask, Willy Tyrannos

“I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of acharacter who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing— his personal dignity.”

Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man

“Great tragedy is the tragedy of man’s mind in strong conflict with thestronger fates; minor tragedy is that of mindless man already beaten by them.”

George Jean Nathan, Review of Death of a Salesman, The Theatre Bookof the Year 1948-1949

Does the play speak of the failure of the American dream?“Willy has seized upon the notion of commercial success as a substitute forgenuine identity, and when he begins to fail in the market he translates thisfailure into self contempt and insecurity.”

Michael Spindler, Consumer Man in Crisis: Arthur Miller’s Death ofa Salesman

“The death of Arthur Miller’s salesman is symbolic of the breakdown of thewhole concept of salesmanship inherent in our society.”

Harold Clurman, Review of Death of a Salesman, In Lies Like Truth.Theatre Reviews and Essays

“On the play’s opening night a woman who shall not be named wasoutraged, calling it ‘a time bomb under American capitalism.’”

Arthur Miller, Timebends

What is Death of a Salesman about? “The whole play is about love…love and competition.”

Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller: His Life and Work

“...a need to leave a thumbprint somewhere in the world. A need forimmortality and by admitting it, the knowing that one has carefullyinscribed one’s name on a cake of ice on a hot July day.”

Arthur Miller, Introduction to Collected Plays

“To me…the most profitable way of looking at his [Miller’s] work is throughhis heroes and through the concern of each, however inarticulate, withhis identity.”

Gerald Wales, Understanding Miller’s Heroes

“What you watch is yourself, struggling against the fate you madefor yourself.”

Elia Kazan, A Life

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6

Postscript:additonal

information added

to a book,

article, etc.

What does successmean to you? Whodo you consider tobe successful and why?

“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit.” Willy

Miller’s Inspirations for SalesmanDeath of a Salesman began as a short story that Arthur Miller wrote atthe age of 17 while he was working for his father’s company. The storytold of an aging salesman who cannot sell anything, who is tormentedby the company’s buyers and who borrows change for the subway fromthe story’s young narrator. After finishing the story, Miller wrote apostscript on the manuscript saying that the real salesman on whomthe story is based had thrown himself under a subway train. Manyyears later, on the eve of the play’s Broadway opening, Miller’s motherfound the story abandoned in a drawer.

In his autobiography Timebends, Miller related that he foundinspiration for that short story and the play in his own life. Miller basedWilly Loman largely on his own uncle, Manny Newman. In fact, Millerstated that the writing of the play began in the winter of 1947 after achance meeting he had with his uncle outside the Colonial Theatre inBoston, where his All My Sons was having its pre-Broadway preview.Miller described that meeting in this way:

“I could see his grim hotel room behind him, the long trip up from New York in his little car, the hopeless hope of the day’s business. Without so much as acknowledging my greeting he said, ‘Buddy is doing very well.’”

Miller described Newman as a man who was “a competitor at all times,in all things, and at every moment.” Miller said that his uncle saw “mybrother and I running neck and neck with his two sons [Buddy andAbby] in some horse race [for success] that never stopped in his mind.”He also said that the Newman household was one in which you ‘darednot lose hope, and I would later think of it as a perfection of Americafor that reason…It was a house trembling with resolution and shoutsof victories that had not yet taken place but surely would tomorrow.”The Loman home was built on the foundation of this household.

Manny’s son Buddy, like Biff in Miller’s play, was a sports hero, and likeHappy Loman, popular with the girls. And like Biff, Buddy never madeit to college because he failed to study in high school. In addition,Miller’s relationship with his cousins was similar to Bernard’srelationship with Biff and Happy in Salesman. As Miller stated:

“As fanantic as I was about sports, my ability was not to be compared to [Manny’s] sons. Since I was gangling and unhandsome, I lacked their promise. When I stopped by I always had to expect some kind of insinuation of my entire life’s probable failure, even before I was sixteen.”

In Timebends Miller described Manny’s wife as the one who “bore thecross for them all” supporting her husband, “keeping up her calmenthusiastic smile lest he feel he was not being appreciated.” One caneasily see this woman honored in the character of Linda Loman, Willy’sloyal but sometimes bewildered wife, who is no less a victim than thehusband she supports in his struggle for meaning and forgiveness.

Miller met many other salesmen through his Uncle, and they influencedhis perception of all salesmen. One man in particular struck Miller

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because of his sense of personal dignity. As Miller stated in Timebends, thisman “like any travelling man…had, to my mind, a kind of intrepid valor thatwithstood the inevitable putdowns, the scoreless attempts to sell. In asense [all salesmen are] like actors whose product is first of all themselves,forever imagining triumphs in a world that either ignores them or deniestheir presence altogether. But just often enough to keep them going, one ofthem makes it and swings to the moon on a thread of dreams unwindingout of himself.” Surely, Willy Loman is such an actor, getting by “on a smileand a shoe shine,” staging his life in an attempt to understand its plot.

Because he was so deeply involved in the production of All My Sons, Millerdid not give the meeting with his uncle more than a passing thought, but itsmemory hung in his mind. In fact, Miller described the event as the sparkthat brought him back to an idea for a play about a salesman that he hadhad 10 years previously—the idea that he had written as a short story. InApril 1948 he drove to his Connecticut farm and began to write the play thatwould become Death of a Salesman. As he sat down before his typewriterin his 10 x 12—foot studio, he remembered “all I had was the first two linesand a death.” From those humble beginnings, one of Americantheatre’smore famous plays took shape.

-article courtesy of The Goodman Theatre

On Willy

This is an excerpt from Arthur Miller’s Salesman in Beijing. Miller was

invited to direct Death of a Salesman at the Beijing People’s Theatre in

1983. The book chronicles his experience working on the play. Here he

shares his thoughts about the character of Willy Loman with the cast.

“I want to say a few things about the play and Willy now,” I announce. Theybecome silent quickly. It is now clear, incidentally, that they normallydiscuss a play for days and sometimes weeks before trying to do scenesand, like all actors, would—up to a certain point—much prefer interestinggeneral discussions to hard work. But I am coming to realize that in thistype of theatre there is no rush to do anything. “You are all aware, I’m sure,that Willy is foolish and even ridiculous sometimes. He tells the mosttransparent lies, exaggerates mercilessly, and so on. But I want you to seethat the impulses behind him are not foolish at all. He cannot bear reality,and since he can’t do much to change it, he keeps changing his ideas of it.”I am veering close to ideology; I note some agreement here, but it is uneasy.Charley is especially rapt and unable, I believe, to come down on the sideof my argument. “But the one thing he is not, is passive. Something in himknows that if he stands still he will be overwhelmed. These lies andevasions of his are his little swords with which he wards off the devilsaround him. But his activist nature is what leads mankind to progress,doesn’t it. It can create disaster, to be sure, but progress also. People whoare able to accept their frustrated lives do not change conditions, do they.So my point is that you must look behind his ludicrousness to what he isactually confronting, and that is as serious a business as anyone canimagine. There is a nobility, in fact, in Willy’s struggle. Maybe it comes fromhis refusal ever to relent, to give up.”

Intrepid: brave,

fearless

Ideology: the body

of ideas of an

individual, group,

class or culture

John Zeretzkecomposed the musicfor this production of

Death of aSalesman. How did

it help to tellthe story?

Page 8: Death of a Salesman

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From the Costume Designer – B. ModernDirector Skip Greer and I agreed that the costumes for Death of a

Salesman should be designed with naturalness and simplicity andgrounded in realism. Because the set is conceptual rather thanrealistic, it was important that the characters be seen as real middleclass working people dressed in the appropriate clothing of their time.The story of Willy Loman and his family goes back and forth in timebetween two periods: the present of the play, 1948, for which I chosemuted, earthy colors and textures; and the happier, more hopeful pastof Willy’s memory, 1931, the springtime of his life, which I tried toilluminate with the soft, verdant colors of nature in bloom. Both Skipand I felt that it was very important that the costumes should in no waydraw attention away from the actors that wore them, but that theyshould instead enhance the characters that each actor inhabited. Withthis in mind, after doing the necessary research to understand theperiods and rendering the costumes for the production, I tried toinclude the actors in the development of the details of their costume,informed by their own discoveries in the rehearsal process.

Before students readthe play, have themlisten to the openingstage directions.Ask them to sketchwhat the set mightlook like.

Verdant: green with

vegetation or

covered with a

green growth

“When I was seventeen, I walked into the jungle. And by twenty-one, I walked out. And by God, I was rich!” Uncle Ben

Costume Renderings of Linda and

Willy Loman.

Page 9: Death of a Salesman

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The Structure of the PlayOne of the many reasons the first production of Death of a Salesman

had such an impact was because of Miller’s use of expressionism, astyle that was just beginning to emerge in American theatre at thetime. In his autobiography, Timebends, Miller writes about beinginspired by another ground-breaking production, Tennesee Williams’A Streetcar Named Desire. It was directed by Elia Kazan who alsodirected Miller’s All My Sons. Kazan would later join Miller for thefirst production of Death of a Salesman.

“Streetcar — especially when it was still so fresh and the actorsalmost amazed as the audience at the vitality of this theatricalexperience — opened one specific door to me. Not the story or thecharacters or the direction, but the words and their liberation, the joyof the writer in writing them, the radiant eloquence of itscomposition, moved me more than all its pathos.”

After seeing Streetcar, Miller returned to his idea for Death of a

Salesman. “I had known all along that this play could not beencompassed by conventional realism, and for one integral reason: inWilly the past was as alive as what was happening at the moment,sometimes even crashing in to completely overwhelm his mind.”Miller went on to explore Willy Loman’s mind by playing with theelement of time. Instead of taking his audience directly through 24hours of a man’s life, Miller zig-zags back and forth over 20 yearssometimes colliding directly with the reality of the present day.

In reading the play, it’s easy to see Willy’s memories as flashbacks.This device, used in many plays and films today, takes the audienceback in time to the past. What is different about Death of a Salesman

is that we see the past through Willy’seyes. We watch his own memoriesinvade the present until he cannot tellone from the other. In seeing the play onstage, the scenery, lighting, costumesand sound enhance both worlds as wesometimes gently, sometimes violentlytransition from one to the next.

Even by today’s standards, Death of a

Salesman is remarkable in both itsthemes and its structure. Miller, alongwith his contemporaries, opened thedoor for many other American playwrightsby giving them permission to exploretheatre in new ways. It is a freedom thatcontinues to influence playwrights tothis day.

Theatrical realism:

a style that attempts

to recreate real life

This play is set in avery particular time

and place and ourset designer tried to

bring elements ofthe area onto the

stage. What do yousee on stage that

places you in aparticular

geographicallocation or

time period?

“...and I still feel...kind of temporary about myself.”Willy

Photo of Jeanne Paulsen as

Linda and James Edmondson as

Willy in Geva’s Death of aSalesman. Photo by Ken A. Huth

Page 10: Death of a Salesman

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Glossary of TermsAnemic- lacking vitality

Cliché- an overused expression

Dictation- writing or recording something that was said by

someone else

Gene Tunney- 1897-1978, the world heavyweight boxing

champion from 1926-1928, he beat Jack Dempsey twice

Insurance premium- The amount of money an insurance

company charges for insurance coverage.

Jack Benny- 1894-1979, a popular radio and TV star of the

1930s, 40s and 50s.

J.P. Morgan- 1837-1913, financier, steel and railroad magnate

and philanthropist

Philandering- engaging in love affairs outside of marriage

Red Grange- 1903-1991, college and professional football star,

credited with popularizing and legitimizing

professional football

Simonize- to wax and clean

Watch fob- a short chain or ribbon attached to a pocket watch

Tell Us What You Think We love to get letters from students about the playsthey see at Geva. Tell us what you thought of the play,the production, the direction, the acting. Selectedstudent responses are posted on our website,www.gevatheatre.org. Send your letters to AndreaStoner, Associate Director of Education, c/o GevaTheatre Center, 75 Woodbury Boulevard, Rochester, NY14607 or email them to [email protected].

•How did the production elements —lights, costumes,set, sound — support or detract from the play? What

would you have done differently? Why?

•What was useful in this study guide? Did any of this guide help youunderstand or enjoy the play?

•Which actor do you think gave the best performance? What did theactor portraying this role do which made her/him your favorite actor?

•In your opinion, what is Death of a Salesman about? Would yourecommend it to someone who hasn’t seen it? If so, to whom? If not,why not?

What do you think isnext for theremaining membersof the Loman family?Take a moment towrite a page aboutwhere we find thecharacters oneyear later.

How did the designof the production(the lighting,scenery, costumesand sound) definethe worlds of Willy’spast andthe present?

“After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.” Willy

Photo from the

original 1949

production of Death ofa Salesman.

Page 11: Death of a Salesman

11

Staff

Skip GreerDirector of

Education/ActingArtistic Director*

Andrea StonerAssociate Director

of Education

Shawnda UrieEducation

Administrator

Arthur BrownChristopher Gurr

ConservatoryAssociates

Marge BetleyLiterary

Manager/ActingArtistic Director*

April DonahowerLiterary Associate

John QuinlivanManaging Director

Nan HildebrandtExecutive Director

*Mark Cuddy is onsabbatical during the2003-2004 season.

“Attention, attention must be paid to such a person.” Linda

EducationPartners

Major Support From:ESL Federal Credit Union

Gannett Foundation

The Flanders Group

Xerox Corporation

With AdditionalSupport From:

Jim Alesi, NYS Senator

American Express Company

American Express FinancialAdvisors, Inc.

Ames-AmzalakMemorial Trust

Arts & Cultural Council forGreater Rochester

Mr. and Mrs. Allen Boucher

Bruegger’s Bagel Bakeries

Caldwell Manufacturing Co.,Inc.

The Conable FamilyFoundation

Cornell/Weinstein FamilyFoundation

Democrat and Chronicle

Paul P. Dosberg Foundation,Inc.

Louise Epstein

The Foundation for theJewish Community’s

Zachor Fund

Michael and JoannaGrosodonia

Dawn and Jacques Lipson,MD

Ann M. Mayer

Joseph D. Morelle,NYS Assemblyman

Mrs. Eleanor Morris

Rochester AreaCommunity Foundation

NorthEastern Insulation Co.,Inc.

Panther Graphics, Inc.

Hon. Elizabeth W. Pine

Riedman Foundation

Joseph E. Robach,NYS Senator

Dr. and Mrs. WilliamSaunders

SUNY Brockport

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wellers

Wendy’s Restaurantsof Rochester, Inc.

Fred and Floy WillmottFoundation

Louis S. and Molly B. WolkFoundation

Special Thanks toAmerican Airlines

ReferencesBloom, Harold, ed. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. ModernCritical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

Corrigan, Robert W., ed. Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical

Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.

Gottfried, Martin. Arthur Miller: His Life and Work. Cambridge, MA:De Capo Press, 2003.

Hurrell, John D., ed. Two Modern American Tragedies. ScribnerResearch Anthologies. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961.

Kazan, Elia. A Life. New York: Knopf, 1988.

Martin, Robert, ed. The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller. New York:Viking, 1978.

Miller, Arthur. Salesman in Beijing. New York: Viking, 1983.

Miller, Arthur. Timesbends: A Life. New York: Grove Press, 1987.

www.ibiblio.org/miller/ - The Arthur Miller Society Official Website. Itgives a biography and background on his works.

Photo of Geva’s Death of a Salesman with Jeanne Paulsen as Linda,

James Edmondson as Willy, Stephen Key as Happy and Christian

Kohn as Biff. Photo by Ken A. Huth.

Page 12: Death of a Salesman

75 Woodbury BoulevardRochester, New York 14607Box Office: 232-Geva (4382)

Education Department: 232-1366, ext. 3058www.gevatheatre.org

Tickets Still Available

Lyrics & Book by Alan Jay Lerner

Music by Frederick Loewe

Direction & Musical Staging by Christopher Gurr

June 1, 2, 3 and 4 at 10:30 am

Recommended for Middle School Audiences and up

Call 232-Geva (4382)

LERNER AND LOEWE’S


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