This is the season for new shows based on Dorothy Parker material. We heard from playwright-actress Maureen Van Trease, a member of the Dorothy Parker Society and a volunteer at our mentoring program, about her new show. Those Whistling Lads! the Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker has been accepted into the prestigious 2008 New York City Midtown International Theatre Festival. It will run Sunday, July 20, through Friday, August 1, at the Workshop Theatre Mainstage, 312 West 36th Street, 4th floor (all showtime and ticket info below). Maureen was kind enough to play Five Questions with us about the show:
1. How did you come to produce this show?
About five years ago, I picked up The Portable Dorothy Parker on a whim in the library, I guess because I saw her as a bit like me, independent and “one of the boys”, so to speak. I realized as I read the stories that they were quite conversational in style and, being an actress for some untold number of years, the idea was born to find stories that fit together thematically and also spoke to Dorothy’s personal history. After choosing 5 stories and 5 poems and doing copious amounts of research on her life, I acquired the rights from the N.A.A.C.P. and started writing. It’s been about two years since I started putting it together.
2. Why do you think Dorothy Parker is popular in 2008, forty-one years after she died?
Dorothy’s stories have so much to say about human nature. For this reason, her stories are never outdated or insignificant. Women still wait for telephone calls, couples still get jealous of each other, men still get drunk and say things they don’t mean or remember, women still know how to make a guy feel guilty, and men still and will probably always run the other way when women get too clingy. I think that the feminist movement has only grown stronger, too, with the advent of Women’s Studies departments in universities and women taking on more powerful corporate and political roles. Dorothy Parker is a standard bearer for the independent woman who can hold her own with “the boys”.
3. What will audiences take away from seeing Those Whistling Lads?
I hope audiences will take away the humor with which Dorothy saw the world and relationships, that she could take her personal trials and turn them into comedy. She was witty and sarcastic, and I want audiences to see that side of her, as well as the dark side of her personal life that inspired her work. She’s so much more than a woman at a table in a bar with a martini. It’s her life as a woman that I want audiences to experience as well, BUT, remember, don’t dare call her a “woman writer”.
4. Who is in the cast and what can you tell us about them?
We have a professional Equity cast of seven and every one of us has the comic timing and delivery so necessary to the stories. Four of us are members of the Dorothy Parker Society, Bricken Sparacino, our amazing director whose eye for comedy and relationships is unparalleled, myself, Maureen Van Trease, as Dorothy Parker, and Natalie Wilder and Glenn B. Stoops. The cast is rounded out by Ethan Angelica, Annalyse McCoy, Justin Herfel, and Hannah Wolfe. The men are not only in the stories, but also playing the roles of Eddie Parker, Robert Benchley, Frank Crowninshield, Harold Ross, John Wiley Garrett, Charles MacArthur, and John McClain, so they really have their work cut out for them.
You’ll see “Here We Are,” “The Sexes,” “You Were Perfectly Fine,” “A Telephone Call” (with ALL the women in it including Dorothy, by the way), “Dusk Before Fireworks,” and the poems “For an Unknown Lady,” “General Review of the Sex Situation,” “Chant for Dark Hours,” “The Choice,” and “Unfortunate Coincidence.”
5. What is the best part of putting on a performance of Parker’s work?
We get to share Dorothy Parker’s humor in a very immediate and engaging way. The cast is having a ball with the material and the audience will, too, but the best part of performing Parker’s work is without a doubt that it’s FUN!
THANKS!
Show Schedule:
Sunday July 20 at 5:30 pm
Tuesday July 22 at 6:30 pm
Thursday July 24 at 6:30 pm
Saturday July 26 at 5:00 pm
Sunday July 27 at 6:30 pm
Friday August 1 at 8:30 pm
Featuring Maureen Van Trease* as Dorothy Parker, with Ethan Angelica*, Justin Herfel*, Annalyse McCoy*, Glen B. Stoops*, Natalie Wilder*, and Hannah Wolfe
*actors appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
Tickets
$18.00 at the door OR visit ticketcentral.com and use DISCOUNT Code: HIST to get $3.00 off!