Table of Contents The Play p. 2-3 The Playwright p. 3-4 The Source p. 4-5 Big Ideas p. 6-8 Timeline p. 8-9 Source Poem p. 10 For Students p. 11 Learning Connections & Standards p. 12

Dramaguide 1

Producers

Stephen Brown and Jamie Stern

Director

William Hayes

October 14 – November 13, 2016

Dramaguide written by

Gary Cadwallader

The Characters

The Play

Lawrence Shannon – A de-frocked Episcopalian priest working as a Mexican tour guide Maxine Faulk – Proprietor of the Coste Verde Hotel Hannah Jelkes – an American portrait artist traveling with her grandfather Nonno (Jonathan Coffin) – Hannah’s grandfather; the world’s oldest living poet Miss Judith Fellowes –a music instructor from a Baptist college in Texas; a tourist on Shannon’s Mexican tour Charlotte Goodall – a sixteen-year-old tourist on Shannon’s Mexican tour Hank – a Blake Tours bus driver Pancho and Pedro – young Mexican employees of the Coste Verde Hotel Herr Fahrenkopf, Frau Fahrenkopf, Wolfgang, Hilda – a family of German tourists Jake Latta – a Blake Tours employee

Setting

The play takes place in the summer of 1940 at the Costa Verde Hotel in Puerto Barrio, on the west coast of Mexico.

The Story

“I don't mean what other people mean when they speak of a home, because I don't regard a home as a ... well, as a place, a building ... a house ... of wood, bricks, stone. I think of a home as being a thing that two people have between them in which each can ... well, nest.” Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana

The Rev. Lawrence Shannon arrives at the Costa Verde Hotel, a decaying hotel perched on top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The only guests are a family of German tourists. Shannon, working as a tour guide for Blake Tours, is leading a group of women from a Texas Bible college. He is “at the end of his rope” and seeks his friend, Fred. Fred has died, and Maxine, Fred’s widow, recognizes Shannon’s “nervous condition,” and invites him to stay. Their conversation is interrupted by the constant honking of the tour bus horn. Hank, the bus driver, begs Shannon to hand over the key in order to placate the angry tourists, but Shannon will go no further. He has the ignition key, and wants the tour to stay at the Costa Verde.

Shannon tells Maxine that a teenaged girl on the tour made advances on him, and her angry chaperone, Judith Fellowes, climbs up the hill to confront him. Shannon refuses to hand over the bus key, so Miss Fellowes threatens to call his superiors and asks Maxine to use the phone in the hotel office.

While Miss Fellowes is on the phone, Shannon asks Maxine to send Pancho and Pedro to bring the tour’s luggage up from the bus. Miss Fellowes returns from the office just as Charlotte appears, pleading with Miss Fellowes to allow the tour to stay. Miss Fellowes orders her to leave and, seeing Pancho and Pedro removing the luggage from the bus, runs screaming down the hill.

Hannah Jelkes arrives at the hotel seeking rooms for her and her grandfather Nonno, “the world’s oldest living and practicing poet.” At first, Maxine refuses her rooms as the hotel is closed for the season. However, she relents and offers them one night. Later, she makes arrangements for Hannah and Nonna to move to a rooming house “in town.” German tourists arrive from the beach, share news that London was bombed by the Nazis, and order champagne.

Charlotte escapes from Miss Fellowes’ protection and runs back to the hotel. Shannon retreats into his hotel room, but she demands to see him. He relents, but continually fends off her advances and pleas to marry. Miss Fellowes realizes Charlotte is missing and runs to the hotel, shouting for her. Shannon escapes to his room, and Charlotte hides in Hannah’s room. Fellowes hears Charlotte sobbing, pulls her from the room, and away from the hotel. 2

Shannon emerges from his room wearing his clerical attire. Hannah helps him with his collar, but it is worn and unwearable, and he flings it from the porch. Hannah begins to sketch him. Shannon admits he was excommunicated from the church for committing heresy, removed from his church and sent to an asylum. Hannah is determined to sell her art to Shannon’s tour group and hurries off down the hill.

The Story, continued

Pancho and Pedro catch an iguana and tie it underneath the porch. The iguana will be fattened for eating. A crash is heard from Nonno’s room and Shannon, realizing he’s fallen, helps him to his feet and onto the verandah. Maxine sets tables on the verandah for dinner and offers cocktails. Hannah returns without success and Maxine sees a deep, thoughtful connection forming between Shannon and Hannah. She becomes jealous, and tells Hannah to keep her distance from him. However, Hannah asks Shannon to sit with her at dinner. A large thunderstorm approaches producing wind and rain.

Later that evening, Jake Latta, a representative from Blake Tours arrives to demand the bus key from Shannon. Shannon refuses, and he and Hank physically remove the key from Shannon’s pocket. After the tour leaves, Shannon has a panic attack and Maxine orders Pancho and Pedro to tie him into the hammock. Shannon tries to convince Hannah to untie him, but when she won’t he becomes violent and Maxine sits on top of him. When Shannon is alone he escapes from the binding and pacifies himself with a drink from the cocktail cart.

Hannah comforts Shannon and together they create a deep, honest connection. After she learns that the iguana is tethered below the porch she asks Shannon to set it free. He, at first, refuses but relents and releases the iguana from its ropes. Nonno calls to Hannah to dictate a poem he has created in his mind. Maxine returns from the beach and implores Shannon to stay with her. She coaxes him to go for a swim in the ocean, and Hannah is left with her grandfather.

The Author: Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams III on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi) was one of the preeminent American dramatists of the 1940s to 1960s. He first found fame and critical success with his 1945 Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, and achieved greater fame with his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Several of his significant plays include Summer and Smoke (1948), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961).

Williams’ early life was spent in Mississippi and Tennessee living with his maternal grandparents. His father, Cornelius, traveled as a salesman, but finally settled the family in St. Louis after taking a management position at International Shoe Co. Here Williams spent his youth developing skills as a writer, publishing poems and short stories in his school’s literary journals. Williams was nationally published at 16 in the literary magazine, Smart Set, with his essay in response to the question, “Can a Wife Be a Good Sport?” The following year he sold a horror tale, “The Vengeance of Nitocris” to Weird Magazine for $35. He was convinced he could have a career as a writer.

Williams attended three universities, finally graduating with a degree in theatre from the University of Iowa in 1938. Throughout his college years Williams wrote plays, and the first, “Beauty is the Word,” was written for the Dramatic Arts Club while he was a freshman at The University of Missouri-Columbia. At that time, Williams was a journalism major.

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The Author, continued

After college, Williams relocated to New Orleans, where he wrote constantly. On the move south, he mailed a package of plays to the prestigious Group Theatre in New York City for an “under 25” playwriting contest. He won a $100 prize for four one-acts titled “American Blues.” He submitted, for the first time, under the name “Tennessee.” Most importantly, it brought him to the attention of the powerful literary agent Audrey Wood. She encouraged him to apply for a $1,000 Rockefeller grant, which he won in 1939. He moved to New York, newly represented by Wood, and attended the playwriting seminar at The New School.

Williams had his first full-length play, Battle of Angels, produced by The Theatre Guild in 1940 (the play was revised and produced in 1957 under a new title, Orpheus Descending). While the production closed in Boston, and it was an unhappy experience for Williams, it gave him an understanding of writing for the “profit-oriented” commercial theatre.

In 1943, Wood secured Williams a job as a scriptwriter at MGM Studios in Hollywood. Williams vehemently hated working on screenplays, but while there wrote a story about a girl with a collection of glass figurines, “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.” Encouraged by Wood, Williams developed the story into his first major success, The Glass Menagerie.

Throughout his life Williams suffered from severe anxieties, and they became increasingly acute as the stresses of receiving poor critical reception for his plays persisted. In 1963, after the death of this longtime partner, Frank Merlo, Williams suffered a severe depression that compounded his anxieties. Consuming huge quantities of alcohol and barbiturates only exaggerated his problems, and Williams was temporarily committed to a mental health facility in 1969. Though hurt by the negative reception of his later plays, Williams never stopped writing: “I’m very conscious of my decline in popularity, but I don’t permit it to stop me because I have the example of so many playwrights before me. I know the dreadful notices Ibsen got,” he told an interviewer for the New York Times in 1981. “So I keep writing. I am sometimes pleased with what I do – for me, that’s enough.”

Williams died on February 25, 1983, in a New York City hotel room. He choked on the plastic cap from a prescription pill bottle. His brother, Dakin, claims that Tennessee was “murdered,” though it was never proven. Williams was buried in St. Louis.

Today, Williams is an icon of the American theatre, and his plays are revived and performed constantly throughout the world.

The History of the Play

Many of Tennessee Williams’ full-length plays are expanded from earlier, shorter pieces. The Night of the Iguana began as a poem, “How Still the Lemon on the Branch,” written in Mexico in 1940 while Williams was still unknown. On the poem he noted, “Written on the verandah of the Hotel Costa Verde, over the Pacific Ocean, as I watched the daylight fading on a tree of big golden lemons.” In his poem lemons reach their height of perfection while on the tree and then, after passing their “zenith,” fall to the ground, lose their color, and are incorporated into the earth without regret or fear of the natural process. With slight alterations, Nonno is able to clearly and eloquently recite this poem at the end of the play. (The original poem is included at the end of this guide)

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Williams adapted the poem into a short story in 1946, and it was sent to magazines for consideration. However, it was deemed “immoral” and unpublished. It was eventually included in the One Arm and Other Stories anthology in 1948. In the original version of the story, Edith Jelkes, an art teacher from Mississippi, travels to Mexico to recuperate from a nervous breakdown. There she meets two male authors and is abused by the elder. Williams wrote: “The Night of the Iguana is rooted in the atmosphere and experiences of the summer of 1940, which I remember more vividly, on the emotional level, than any summer I have gone through before or after — since it was then, that summer, that I not only discovered that it was life that I truly longed for, but that all which is most valuable in life is escaping from the narrow cubicle of one’s self to a sort of veranda between the sky and the still water beach (allegorically speaking) and to a hammock beside another beleaguered being, someone else who is in exile from the place and time of his heart’s fulfilment.”

The History of the Play, continued

Williams adapted his short story into a one-act play, which premiered at the Festival of Two Words in Spoleto, Italy in the summer of 1959. It was on a double bill with William Inge’s one-act, Tiny Closet. After writing Period of Adjustment for a production on Broadway in 1960, Williams expanded The Night of the Iguana into a full-length play.

The full-length version of The Night of the Iguana was workshopped and premiered at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami in August 1960. After tryouts in Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago, it opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on December 28, 1961. It ran for 316 performances. It starred Bette Davis as Maxine, Patrick O’Neal as Lawrence, and Margaret Leighton as Hannah. Shelly Winters replaced Bette Davis halfway through the run. Williams won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, and was nominated for a Tony Award. Margaret Leighton won the Tony Award for Best Actress. Broadway revivals were a 1976 production starring Richard Chamberlin as Lawrence, Dorothy McGuire as Hannah, and Sylvia Miles as Maxine, a 1988 production starring Maria Tucci as Hannah, Nicolas Surovy as Shannon, and Jane Alexander as Maxine, and a 1996 production starring William Peterson as Lawrence, Marsha Mason as Maxine, and Cherry Jones as Hannah. The 1964 film adaptation, directed by John Huston, starred Richard Burton as Lawrence, Ava Gardner as Maxine, and Deborah Kerr as Hannah.

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The Big Ideas: Poetic Reality and Symbolism in The Night of the Iguana

Tennessee Williams was more than a playwright. He was a man of letters who, in addition to his plays and screenplays, wrote novels, poetry, essays, and short stories. In all literary styles Williams applies rich, poetic language to his work, imbuing his storytelling with metaphor, symbolism, and imagery. Williams created a melody with his dialogue by choosing and arranging words that heighten the lyricism. This expression uncovers the character’s deep feelings and philosophies and reveals each character’s nature. For example, Hannah doesn’t simply say she’ll walk to Acapulco. She says, “I will go on shank’s mare, Mrs. Faulk.” Williams crafts an interesting metaphor and captures the essence of Hannah’s New England qualities.

Literary critics consider The Night of the Iguana the last of Williams’ major plays, and a “bridge” from his earlier, plot-driven work to more character-driven, poetically lyrical work written later in his career. Williams told an interviewer in 1961: “Where [The Night of the Iguana] is concerned, the influence of Chekhov is much stronger. I call this a dramatic poem, this play, more a dramatic poem than a play … in the sense that it’s composed rather like a poem. It’s not constructed very well as a play, but it has more the atmosphere of a poem, I think.”

Rather than plot or action, Williams focuses this play on character development and relationships, and how individuals reach out and connect with one another. Williams wrote: "The drama in my plays, I think, is nearly always people trying to reach each other. In The Night of the Iguana Hannah and Rev. Larry Shannon meet on the veranda outside their cubicles, which is of course an allegorical touch of what people must try to do...the only truly satisfying moments in life are those in which you are in contact, and I don't just mean in physical contact, I mean in deep, a deeper contact than physical, with some other human being...I think it's the only comfort we have, of a lasting kind." Lawrence and Hannah connect deeply and spiritually, unveiling their innermost secrets. They find in one another an empathy and kindness. They’ve created a safe environment in one another’s presence, and though strangers when they first meet, they soon become confidantes, revealing personal truths. Shannon feels safe enough to confess his fear of “spooks” and the maternal source of his anxieties, while Hannah admits she was haunted by “blue devils,” and has experienced an uncommon romantic encounter.

Williams believed that humans live on two levels, a realistic, day-to-day level, and a fantasy level. In the introduction of The Glass Menagerie he wrote: “...and truth, life or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance.” Williams explores this viewpoint in many of his plays, in characters such as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Alexandra in Sweet Bird of Youth, or Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Each is trying to leave the painful “real” world and retreat into a seemingly safer, fantasy world. In “Iguana” Shannon longs to escape from the difficult realities of life, but continually self-inhibits his retreat:

Shannon: “Fantastic…fantastic..” Hannah: “That word ‘fantastic’ seems to be your favorite word, Mr. Shannon.” Shannon: “Yeah, well, you know we … live on two levels, Miss Jelkes, the realistic level and the fantastic level and which is the real one, really…?” Hannah: “I would say both, Mr. Shannon.” Shannon: “But when you live on the fantastic level as I have lately but have got to operate on the realistic level, that’s when you’re spooked, that’s the spook … I thought I’d shake the spook here but conditions at the Costa Verde have changed. It’s being managed by a widow – a sort of bright widow spider.”

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Lawrence and Hannah meet when both are at the “end of their ropes,” indeed at their final breaking points. Williams wrote about his “Iguana” characters: "These people are learning to reach a point of utter despair and still get past it with courage. That is the theme of the play, how to live with dignity after despair." Their connection is instantaneously respectful and dignified, and they extend to one another the courage to embrace self-respect.

Shannon: “Can you look at me and tell me, truthfully, that this reptilian creature, tied up down there, doesn’t mostly disturb you because of its parallel situation to your grampa’s dying out effort to finish one last poem, Miss Jelkes?” Hannah: “Yes, I…” Shannon: “Never mind completing that sentence.”

The “one last poem,” a slightly modified version of the poem in which Williams expanded into this play, represents the cycle of life, symbolized by an orange tree and its fruit.

Setting the play in Mexico is also symbolic. The country itself represents the oppressive descendent of religious tyranny. Shannon says, “…here I am on this – dilapidated verandah of a cheap hotel, out of season, in a country caught and destroyed in its flesh and corrupted in its spirit by its gold-hungry Conquistadors that bore the flag of the Inquisition along with the cross of Christ.” Shannon believes that the seed of religious oppression and the domination of the Inquisition was planted by the Spanish in Mexico, and its persecution reverberates and flourishes centuries later.

Other symbolic elements found in the play include the hotel Costa Verde’s setting perched high on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The location represents all characters “perched” on the edge of change and at a social or moral precipice in their lives. The hotel’s verandah represents a safe haven, a place for spiritual renewal, where visitors confess their innermost thoughts and develop deep connections. Adjacent to the verandah are “cells” or small, individual rooms occupied by Shannon, Hannah, and Nonno. These cells symbolize the trapped, confined prison where these characters end after desperately seeking to find meaning in their lives. The jungle surrounding the hotel is dense, twisted, invasive, and difficult to move through, and it encroaches on the safety of the hotel’s verandah. The jungle and the surrounding area represent darkness, chaos, and cruelty, while the verandah is a place of communion, truth, and light. The harsh world threatens to intrude upon the verandah’s openness, safety, and a place of true human connection .

The German tourists are also symbolic. They represent the oppressive, brutal disposition of man. The play is set in 1940 when the Nazi party was at its height, and the German tourists find glee in the bombing of London. They also mock Hannah’s artistic portraits and her grandfather’s age, and tease and ridicule Shannon when he is having an anxious episode.

Religion and Spirituality in The Night of the Iguana

Many of Tennessee Williams’ plays contain religious references and symbolism, and spirituality is a topic Williams wrestled with throughout his life. In this play, Rev. Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked Episcopalian minister, is having a spiritual crisis, and comes to the hotel wracked with guilt, fearing God’s retribution for his sins. Shannon’s constant need for spiritual attainment and physical satisfaction are at cross-purposes in his faith. Shannon’s father and grandfather were both ministers, and he was raised with a firm focus on religious loyalty and fidelity. When sexual urges developed in puberty he was severely punished by his mother, instilling in him a shameful association with sexuality. As sexual urges began to

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Symbolism is a strong, poetic component in all of Williams’ work, and is an essential element in The Night of the Iguana. The iguana is the central, symbolic theme in the play and it represents the trapped circumstances of each of the play’s characters. Shannon’s entrapment is his internal struggle between spirituality and religion, his inner “spook,” self-destructive behavior, and his repressed sexuality. After Shannon, in a fit of rage, decides to commit suicide in the ocean he is tied into the hammock, reflecting the fate of the iguana tied under the porch. Shannon is unable to escape his sexual repressions and feels he is being sacrificed by “the teenage Medea and the older Medea,” Charlotte and Miss Fellowes. The tied-up iguana also symbolizes Hannah and her grandfather Nonno’s trapped life of nonstop roaming and hustling for tips. The world has changed, become uncompromising and unfriendly, and they are no longer able to make a living. They are, like the iguana, at the “end of their rope.” Shannon verbalizes the iguana’s symbolism for Nonno’s desperate efforts to complete one final poem:

Religion and Spirituality, continued

In order to restore his faith in spirituality, Shannon secured work as a tour guide, allowing him to search the world and “collect evidence” that “God Almighty” was present “in the world He created.” He is retreating from a world dominated by “Western religion,” and searching for proof of God, or spirituality, in nature.

When an anxious Shannon arrives at the Costa Verde Hotel, he is met by two vastly different women: Hannah, a kind, strong, honest and nurturing artist, and Maxine who, according to Williams, is a “pagan presence,” and the “living definition of nature: lusty, rapacious, guileless, and unsentimental.” Hannah displays dignified and saintly qualities, expressing a need for emotional intimacy, comforting Shannon in his anxious state with her spiritual and intellectual reassurance. Maxine represents a physical honesty, a carnal nature exuding sexuality, and she entices Shannon with physical comfort. Each woman represents one facet of the moral dilemma that Shannon is experiencing, forcing him to confront and deal with his inner torments.

Timeline: 1940 and 1960 While the full-length version of The Night of the Iguana was written in 1960, the play is set in 1940. Here are important events taking place in both years.

1940 • In 1939 Thomas Williams moves to New Orleans, wins a Rockefeller Grant, and changes his name to Tennessee • In 1940 Williams travels to the Pacific coast in Mexico to write. Here, he writes the poem that would later become The Night

of the Iguana. Williams then moves to New York and his first professional play, Battle of Angels, tries out in Boston but closes without success

• Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact, strengthening their relationship • War in Europe escalates. Germany bombs and occupies Paris, and invades Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark

and Norway • Great Britain bombs Berlin on August 25. Germany bombs London for 57 straight nights beginning on September 7. • The Nazis open Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. More than 1.1 million people will be murdered there • Italy invades Greece, and declares war on France and Great Britain • The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia • Franklin D. Roosevelt wins his third term as President of the United States continued

Shannon: “….So the next Sunday when I climbed into the pulpit and looked down, over all of those smug, disapproving, accusing faces uplifted, I had an impulse to shake them, so I shook them. I had a prepared sermon: - meek, apologetic : - I threw it away, tossed it into the chancel. Look here, I said, I shouted – I’m tired of conducting services in praise and worship of a senile delinquent, yeah, that’s what I said, I shouted! All your western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent and, by God, I will not and can not continue to conduct services in praise and worship of this, this – this … angry, petulant old man, I mean he’s represented like a bad-tempered childish old, old, sick, peevish man…”

emerge Shannon repressed them, igniting an inner struggle between physical expression and religious principles. Even becoming a minister was Shannon’s attempt to contain and inhibit his sexual thoughts and feelings. This inner conflict created “spooks,” or urges that arise “after sundown.” Shannon’s continued attempts to repress his sexuality force his “spooks” to emerge inappropriately. He is projecting his guilt and self-disgust onto young women, raging against them and naming them as the aggressors. After a sexual encounter with a young Sunday school teacher, Shannon’s self-loathing boiled over into an “anti-God” tirade during a Sunday sermon, shocking his congregation and resulting in his excommunication:

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1960 • Williams’ The Period of Adjustment opens on Broadway starring Barbara Baxley and James Daley • The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union escalates after the Russians shoot down a U.S. Air Force jet in

the Barents Sea, and in a separate incident, capture Air Force pilot Frances Gary Powers • The African continent sees massive change in colonial domination with the end of French rule in Mauritania, Ivory Coast,

Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Benin, Niger, Madagascar, Cameroon and Togo, the end of Belgian rule in the Belgian Congo, and the end of British rule in Nigeria and British Somaliland.

• The first 3,500 American troops are sent to Vietnam • Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina, and eventually tried and convicted in Israel • Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes the world’s first democratically elected female head of state • John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States • Elvis Presley earns an Honorable Discharge after serving two years in the Army • The Fantasticks opens at the Sullivan St. Playhouse. It will play for 42 years. • Domino’s Pizza opens its first store in Ypsilanti, MI • The average cost of a new house is $12,700; the average cost of a new car is $2,600 • The biggest-selling songs of the year are “A Theme from a Summer Place” by Percy Faith, “He’ll Have to Go” by Jim Reeves,

and “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers. • The top three grossing movies are “Spartacus,” “Psycho,” and “Exodus,”

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• McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, CA • The average cost of a new house is $3,920; the average cost of a new car is $850 • The biggest-selling songs of the year are “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, “Only Forever” by Bing

Crosby, and “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra • The top three grossing movies of the year are “Rebecca,” “Boom Town,” and “The Great Dictator.”

Timeline: continued

How Still the Lemon on the Branch (1940) How still the lemon branch Observes the sky begin to blanch Without a cry, without a prayer, With no expression of despair. Sometime while night obscures the tree The Zenith of her life will be Gone past forever, and from thence A second history will commence. A chronicle no longer gold, A bargaining with mist and mold, And finally the broken stem, The plummeting to earth, and then An intercourse not well designed For creatures of the golden kind Whose native green mists arch above The earth’s obscure, corrupting love And still the lemon on the branch observes The sky begin to blanch Without a cry, without a prayer, With no expression of despair. O courage will you not as well Select a second place to dwell, Not only in the lemon tree But in the frightened heart of me?

Palm Beach Dramaworks Founded in 2000, Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional theatre company in downtown West Palm Beach with a mission to engage and entertain audiences with provocative and timeless productions that personally impact each individual. We are dedicated to our vision “to enhance the quality of life through the transformative power of live theatre.” Consistent artistic excellence over the course of our history places Palm Beach Dramaworks at the forefront of the artistic landscape of Palm Beach County.

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Further Reading

• One Arm and Other Stories by Tennessee Williams. This collection includes the original short story version of the play.

• Memoirs by Tennessee Williams; edited by Margaret Thornton. The writer’s journals, previously unpublished poems and short stories, and photographs showing Williams’ family, friends, and professional acquaintances.

• Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr. An insightful look at Williams’ personal life and how it influenced and informed his work.

• Tennessee Williams: An Intimate Biography by Dakin Williams and Shepheard Mead. A biography by the playwright’s brother

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Before Coming to PBD for a School Day Performance What Should I Wear? Comfortable, appropriate, respectable dress is ideal for attending the theatre. Think “special occasion” casual! Be prepared by bringing a sweater or jacket as the theatre may be cold.

What Should I Bring? It isn’t necessary to bring anything to the theatre, except a sweater or jacket. Please leave all food, drinks and chewing gum in the lobby.

Can I take photographs or videotape portions of the performance? Copyright laws and union agreements prohibit anyone from taking pictures or video during the performance.

Please remember to…. Arrive to the theatre approximately 30 minutes before the performance time, turn off your cellphone and put it away, and use the restroom before entering the auditorium.

What if I have to leave during the performance? Please remain in your seat for the entire performance. If you must leave during the performance, please leave during a scene break or at intermission.

How do I respect the other theatregoers? You can respect other theatregoers by not talking (or whispering), by leaving your cell phone off, and by making appropriate responses during the performance.

What should I do before the show? Please use the restroom prior to entering the auditorium, and turn off your cellphone.

What should I do at intermission? Please use the restroom and feel free to use your cellphone in the lobby. Remember to turn off your cell phone before returning to the theatre.

What should I do after the show? Please remain in your seat for a Q&A with the actors

Especially for Students In live theatre, unlike movies and television, the actors can hear and often see you as easily as you can hear and see them. If you comment out loud during a live show, eat, text or answer your phone, you disturb not only other members of the audience but also the actors on stage, thus diminishing the performance and, ultimately your enjoyment of it. This doesn’t mean you have to remain silent. Actors want you to respond with laughter and applause; but such responses should always be genuine and appropriate to the moment. Such inconsiderate behavior as shouting, catcalling or sustained whispering, even during blackouts, can ruin the concentration of the actors and audience members alike. And throwing paper or objects of any kind toward the stage is not only rude, it’s also extremely dangerous to the performers. Please help us to respect the professional actors and technicians who are working hard to give an amazing performance. In the event of any student misbehavior, the relevant school will be contacted and its principal informed. We want you to enjoy your visit to Palm Beach Dramaworks, and we rely on you to exercise your common sense and mature judgement. Thank you for being a valuable part of our audience this season!

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When you are seated in the theatre … Observe/Infer/Predict 1. What do you notice about the scenery? What colors, lines, and shapes did the set designer use, and why? How do

you think the scenery will be used during the play? 2. Look up and around the theatre? What do you notice about the space? Do you see lighting instruments? Do you

hear any sounds or music being played? How do you think these elements will be used during the play?

After seeing the performance, write explanatory texts on the following: 1. Why did the playwright choose The Night of the Iguana as the title of the play? 2. Analyze Tennessee Williams’ poem, “How Still the Lemon on the Branch.” How does the author use imagery,

symbolism, metaphor and/or allegory? Analyze how the author transformed the poem into a full-length play. 3. Describe in detail and write down observations about the character of Lawrence T. Shannon. Who is he? What

does he do? Why does he come to the Costa Verde Hotel? Is he a victim of circumstances, or is he responsible for what happened in his life?

4. Describe in detail and write down observations about the character of Hannah Jelkes. Who is she? What does she do? Why does she come to the Costa Verde Hotel? What is her relationship with Lawrence Shannon and how does it change during the story?

5. Describe in detail and write down observations about the character of Maxine Faulk. Who is she? What does she do? What is her relationship with Lawrence Shannon and how does it change during the story?

6. Describe in detail and write down observations about the four German characters and Pedro and Pancho. Why are the German and the Mexican characters in the story? How and why do they support the storytelling?

7. How did the scenic designer capture the location? 8. How did the lighting designer capture the mood, time of day, and location of the play? 9. How did the costume designer capture the era, mood, and personalities of the characters in the play? 10. How did the sound designer capture the era and mood of the play? 11. Journal about your experience attending this play at PBD. What was it like seeing this story onstage? What did

you learn during the post-performance talkback? 12. Write a review of PBD’s The Night of the Iguana and include thoughts about the play, its themes and symbolism,

and include opinions about the performances, scenery, props, costumes, lighting, and sound. Please send reviews to gcadwallader@palmbeachdramaworks.org

13. Use one of the following set of circumstances in The Night of the Iguana to write a new short story or poem. • The United States and Mexico…cultures collide • Traveling to the “end of the world” • Try to escape… • Try to forget… • A young woman tries to…

14. Write a short story, poem, or play about what happens after the end of the play. What happens to Lawrence Shannon, Maxine, or Hannah? What happens to Charlotte? What happens to Miss Fellowes and the rest of the ladies on the tour? What happens to the German tourists?

Learning Connections

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Standards

The following are Florida State Standards for attending this production and using this Dramaguide.

TH.68.C.2 LAFS.1112.RL.1.3 TH.912.C.2 LAFS.910.RL.3.9 TH.912.C.3.3