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Society

Furman-Miller KAP Play at Yaddo and LSU

Two additional performances of Laura Furman and Lynn Miller's one-woman play, Passenger on the Ship of Fools, based on the life and work of Katherine Anne Porter, took place in 2002. The May 2002 issue of this newsletter reported on the first performance of this work in April 2002 at the University of Texas at Austin, featuring Mary Frances HopKins, Professor Emerita at Louisiana State University. The playwrights have requested that a correction or clarification be issued about the sources for the play. Although they drew from various sources, the work is based on the life and work of Katherine Anne Porter, and everything in the play, except for Porter's own words, is their creative work transformed through their collective sensibility.

A performance of a portion of the play was the centerpiece of the Yaddo Summer Benefit on the evening of June 27, 2002, in the Music Room of the Yaddo Mansion in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Yaddo Summer Benefit is an annual event that raises funds for Yaddo's artist residency program, which hosts approximately 200 creative artists a year. This year's event is organized by a Benefit Committee chaired by Joann Long. Charles V. Wait, President of Adirondack Trust Company, is Chairman of the Corporate Committee. Founded in 1900 by the financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, herself a poet, Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York, the mission of which is to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.

Directed by David Esbjornson, the interpretation by respected Broadway, film, and television actress Kathleen Chalfant was electrifying. Although this was not a full production of the entire work, Chalfant's moving performance was informed by brilliant insight into the deeply psychological sources of Porter's creative energy and work. Ms. Chalfant received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Obie awards for her work in a production of the critically acclaimed drama Wit. She has won praise for roles on and off Broadway (Angels in America, M. Butterfly), on television (Masterpiece Theatre, Law & Order: SVU), and in film (Murder and Murder, The Last Days of Disco, Random Hearts). She has a recurring role as Laurie Solt in the CBS drama The Guardian. In June 2002, Mr. Esbjornson was directing the Broadway production of Edward Albee's Tony Award-winning new play, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?and had recently completed a seven-year tenure as artistic director at New York's Classic Stage Company with a production of Neal Bell's Therese Raquin, which earned him an Obie Award for Outstanding Direction. Yaddo was an especially fitting venue for a production of the play, as Porter not only spent significant periods of time in residence there but was also, like playwright Laura Furman, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo.

A second performance of the play took place on October 4, 2002, in the HopKins Black Box Theatre at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mary Frances HopKins, LSU Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Alumni Professor, so enjoyed performing the script in April 2002 that she sought and received the permission of the playwrights to develop the performance further. Characterized by Dr. HopKins as a "performance in progress," this more fully staged production of the entire play included sound, lights and a set. Chair of LSU's Department of Speech Communication from 1982 to 1991 and assistant Dean of the Graduate School from 1979 to 1982, Dr. HopKins is the co-author of a widely used textbook in the performance of literature and is a pioneering scholar of narrative theory, southern fiction, and its performance. During her tenure at LSU, she adapted, performed, and staged numerous works of literature. In February 2002, the HopKins Black Box Theatre was renamed to honor her long and distinguished career.

The University of Maryland Libraries in conjunction with the university's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has begun to make plans to stage a full production of this play in 2005. Look for an account of progress on this effort in the next issue of the Society's newsletter.