The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - 2008
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Opens April 18
The April show is a prize-winning drama with a long title, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Written by Paul Zindel, the play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, and it won the Obie Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best American Play of 1970. It is a powerful and moving look at a dysfunctional family, with sadness and hope mingled.
Marigolds opens Friday, April 18, on the RTG stage and runs two weekends through April 27. Daytime performances will be given to seventh-graders, who also receive study guides and participate in talk-backs after the show. It was presented on the RTG stage in 1974, when the RTG became one of the first community theatres in the country to produce this award-winning drama.
The Hunsdorfer family is living a bleak life. The mother, Beatrice, whose husband left her long ago, is raising her two high-school-aged daughters in a cramped and messy house that used to be her parents’ vegetable store. Beatrice drinks too much to cope with the bitterness she feels about life’s disappointments. She has largely withdrawn from the outside world.
Ruth, the older daughter, is an epileptic, and she is very concerned about how she dresses for school. She tries desperately to look attractive and be popular.
Tillie is the younger daughter, rather nerdy and laughed at by other students, but who shows a surprising ability in science. She is nurtured by a teacher who helps her to develop the science project that is the title of the play.
Nanny is an elderly woman that Beatrice has taken in as a boarder. She is nearly blind, deaf and decrepit, and provides the only source of income for the family.
As Tillie’s science project is chosen to be one of the finalists in the school competition, hope enters the family. Tillie displays the flowers grown from her marigold seeds, which were exposed to varying degrees of radiation. Beatrice begins to show pride in her daughter, and Ruth sees something good in her awkward and unpopular sister.
Tillie manages to show triumph of the human spirit over withering negative circumstances. Just like her science experiment, she shows that some plants (and people) are able to grow and develop in spite of being exposed to negativity.
Critics praised Marigolds when it first appeared on stage in 1970. “Paul Zindel has written a masterful, pacesetting drama. It combines moments of pain, poignancy, beauty and hope. It is the most compelling work of its kind since Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.”
“Tillie emerges a potential winner, for her thirst for knowledge. Her scientific experiment with the marigolds has given her confidence in her own self-worth.”
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds opens at the Racine Theatre Guild April 18 and runs seven performances through two weekends to April 27. Make sure you get tickets for this wonderful bonus play that is a classic of the American stage, inspiring hope out of desperate circumstances.
From the Managing/Artistic Director - Doug Instenes
A Meaningful Story
We always try to select a play that has special meaning for our spring Outreach production. In addition to the general public, this play is given to seventh- and eighth-graders who are bussed to the Racine Theatre Guild. The plays are chosen to spark discussions about issues important to families and young people.
You can’t get much more meaningful than The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. We hope the important message of hope triumphing over despair will strike a note with audience members of all ages, but particularly for the young people who are going through difficult times. We hope that these kids realize that they are not alone.
When a play wins the Pulitzer Prize, it has to be special. Paul Zindel’s drama has been called one of the most significant plays of our time, and we are honored to be bringing it to our stage for the second time. Don’t let the idea that it is a “serious” drama keep you away. The lesson is that something beautiful and full of promise can emerge from even the most barren, afflicted soil.
As always at this time of year, we encourage our season ticket holders to renew for next season with its great slate of shows. We invite continuing and new people to become ticket holders for a season that emphasizes humor and music. You’ll find three favorite shows from the past, three sensational new musicals, and comedy in all its variety.
Join us at the Racine Theatre Guild for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and for all of our shows in the upcoming Season 71!
From “Marigold’s” Director – Norm McPhee
This is not my first acquaintance with The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. The “love affair” began shortly after the New York opening of the play in 1970. Always interested in new plays, my eye caught a critical analysis of this production in a popular theatrical publication. Acquiring a script took some doing, but finally, after the play had garnered a plethora of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, it was published.
After reading the play, I was intrigued with the beauty of the writing and its universal theme concerning the triumph of the human spirit against overwhelming odds. This led to a production at the Racine Theatre Guild. The first production was presented to our audience in January of 1974 and became one of the first community theatre presentations of this play in the U.S. It hardly seems possible that literally hundreds of plays and 34 years have flown by since that opening night; yet, my interest in Marigolds has not flagged.
After that 1974 opening, I received a phone call from an angry patron expressing extreme displeasure with our production. As I recall them, some of the comments were: “This is the worst production we have ever seen! It was so horrible that we had to make hot chocolate when we left so that we could take away the nasty taste that was left in our mouths! There are no mothers like the one in your play. It was just appalling!” Really, or was it just that some people want to view the world through the famous “rose-colored glasses”?
Marigolds is a tough play dealing with real issues that affect the human condition. It is a challenge to direct, perform and/or participate in as audience members. The challenge for the director and the actors is to show the beauty of this outstanding work in such a way that the theme speaks clearly to the audience, while realizing, of course, there are those who prefer rose-colored glasses that don’t reveal shadows and darkness. By always wanting to see only things that do not disturb their comfort level and sense of well-being, they often miss the main purpose of theatre, which is to portray the human condition in all of its guises. Many times a play is meant to disturb, to offend our sensibilities, or to get us to laugh at the things that make us human; always, trying to evoke an emotional response from observers.
There are many pieces of dramatic literature that present the dark and ugly side of humanity, but those that are the most accessible and appealing are those, such as Marigolds, that show the metamorphosis of a character who, like the flowers in our play, will rise above the contaminated environment. That environment is represented by the gamma rays or the squalor and confusion and the garbage pile of human wreckage that exist in the play. The character not only will survive, but like our flowers, become more beautiful and triumphant as the “phoenix rising from the ashes.”
What then is the most interesting and appealing story? Could it be about someone going into a convenience store, buying a lottery ticket for $5, and winning a multi-million dollar prize? Could it be the life of Anne Frank, who found beauty in an adverse environment and influenced many people through her courage and spirit? Could it be the story of Lance Armstrong, who triumphed over seemingly insurmountable odds to become one of the world’s greatest athletes? The latter two stories, to my mind, are much more inspiring than the first.
Another appealing part of “Marigolds” is the character of the teacher, Mr. Goodman, who is never seen on stage, but nevertheless, recognizes potential in a student, profoundly influences that student, and so touches her with knowledge and education that her life is remarkably changed forever. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we found the ability to reach out to people and help them along the path of life? Perhaps life’s greatest reward is to lift up those who have trouble climbing the path, rather than rejecting them because they are different.
Survive! Realize your potential! You are important to yourself and to our world and can make your way through the “gamma rays.” Life sometimes treats us poorly, but let’s choose to be like Tillie in our play, or Anne Frank, or Lance Armstrong and millions more who have survived. Let’s make them our heroes.
Norm McPhee
The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds
Adapted for the stage by Robert Bella
CAST
Beatrice ........................... Mona Lewis
Tillie ............................... Kelsey Hoff
Ruth ............................. Kathryn Perry
Nanny ...................... Donna Peterson
Janice ...................... Erin Zimmerman
CREW
Director ....................... Norm McPhee
Scenic Design ............. Skelly Warren
PSM .................................. Russ Stetler
Stage Mgr. .......................... Rose Bliss
ASM ........................... Jim Rasmussen
Costume Design ...... Melissa Warner
Wardrobe .............. Karen Reisenauer
Props .................... Heather Bumstead
Makeup ............................... Sue Blaha
Light Design .................. Brian Schalk
Light Tech. ................ Ron Halvorsen
Sound Design .............. Eric Goodwin
Sound Tech. ............... Jon Eckblad
Sponsored by ........ SC Johnson