teacher study guide

TEACHER STUDY GUIDE
Written and Researched by Taylor M. Wycoff
Sponsors:
SAN DIEGO | OLD TOWN
Kamaya Jane & Diane Zeps
In honor of their Mother, Elaine Lipinsky
619.337.15251 • WWW.CYGNETTHEATRE.COM
About this Guide
This Study Guide contains a variety of resource material to accommodate different classes and levels.
Teachers need not use all the material found here but rather choose the most appropriate materials
given their current curriculum. Topics may be used separately or in any combination that works for you.
Table of Contents
page(s)
About the Play………………………………………………………………………………………….….……….. 3
Play Synopsis………………………………………………………………………………………….….…… 3
Characters ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 4
Glossary of Terms……………………………………………………………………..……..……………….. 5
Arabic 101: Translations from the Play………………………………………………………………………5
Our Production…………………………………………………………………………………………...………… 6
The Artistic Team…………………………………………………………….……………………………...... 6
The Cast……………………………………………………………………….………………….……….……6
From the Director….………..………………………………………….……………………….…..………… 6
About the Playwright, Stephen Karam…..…………………………………….………….…………….….….… 7
Setting the Scene..…………………………….………………………………………………………………..…..8
Drawing on Real Life…………………………………………………………………………………………….….9
Kahlil Gibran and The Prophet……………………………………………………………………………………11
Healthcare in America………..…................…………………………………….….…………………………....12
Theatre Etiquette…………………………………………….……………………….…….………………..........14
Recommended Resources………………………………………………………………………………….…….15
Cygnet Theatre Company values the feedback of teachers on the content and format of its Study Guides. We would appreciate
your comments or suggestions on ways to improve future Study Guides. Comments may be directed to Taylor M. Wycoff by
email at taylor@cygnettheatre.com.
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About the Play
If to live is to suffer, then Joseph Douaihy is more alive than most. With unexplained chronic pain and
the fate of his reeling family on his shoulders, Joseph’s health, sanity, and insurance premium are on
the line. Sons of the Prophet is a brutally funny comedy about family, culture, and how we cope with
wounds that just won’t heal.
Maggie Carney, Alex Hoeffler, Navarre T Perry, and Dylan James Mulvaney
in Cygnet's production of Sons of the Prophet. (Photo credit: Darren Scott)
Plot Synopsis
The play opens with Joseph Douaihy, a 29 year old former athlete suffering from a multitude of medical
issues and mysterious pains, doing some medical stretches at his book-packaging company when his erratic boss,
Gloria arrives. After revealing that she has finally been made aware of his Lebanese heritage and distant relation to
Kahlil Gibran, she tries to convince Joseph to collaborate on a family biography. Joseph dodges this and let’s slip that
his father was recently involved a car accident when he swerved off the road to avoid what turned out to be a deer
decoy put in the middle of the road as a prank by the local high school football star. We later find that Joseph’s father
has passed and he and his younger brother Charles are left to care for their aging, ailing uncle, Bill. The family
eventually agrees to see Vin, the football player, and listen to an essay he has been assigned to write about the
incident. While waiting to pick him up at the bus station, Joseph meets Timothy, a reporter assigned to cover the
story of his father’s accident and the impending controversy over Vin’s sentence. Back at the house, the three family
members hear Vin out when Gloria shows up unexpectedly. Joseph discovers his mysterious pains will require a
spinal tap, and finally escapes the stress of his family and health and seeks solace in Timothy. The play climaxes at
Vin’s school board hearing where Timothy chooses his career over Joseph, Gloria chooses attention over social
propriety, and Joseph chooses himself… finally. The piece closes with Joseph reaching a state of acceptance and
reflection as he reminisces in physical therapy with his Kindergarten teacher.
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Characters
JOSEPH- 29, Lebanese-American, former competitive runner, now struggling with his health. Despite his setbacks,
Joseph is not self-pitying. He’s a hopeful guy trying his best.
GLORIA- 59, in her heyday, Gloria was a successful editor/book packager in NYC. Now she’s in Nazareth, PA.
Gloria says some ridiculous things but her mannerisms are not ridiculous. She’s as human as everyone else in the
play. If anything we should be frightened by just how real she is.
CHARLES- 18, Lebanese-American, Joseph’s brother, born with one ear.
BILL- 74, Lebanese-American, Joseph’s/Charles’ uncle.
TIMOTHY- 28, likable handsome TV reporter. Don’t be fooled by the occasional arrogant, off-putting comment.
Timothy is sincere.
VIN- 18, African-American, bounced around foster homes growing up, a good high school football player, tough kid,
not articulate, but not stupid. Vin’s possibly the most grounded person in the play.
PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT- female, 40s/50s
DOCTOR MANOR- female, 40s/50s
BOARD MEMBER #1- female, 40s/50s
TICKET AGENT- female, 60s
BOARD MEMBER #2- female, 60s
MRS. McANDREW- female, 60s, Joseph’s Kindergarten teacher.
The roles of the Physician’s Assistant, Doctor Manor and Board Member #1 are played by the same actress. The
roles of the Ticket Agent, Board Member #2 and Mrs. McAndrew are played by the same actress.
Faeren Adams as Swing 1
Maggie Carney as Gloria
Navarre T Perry as Bill
Li-Anne Rowswell as Swing 2
Alex Hoeffler as Joseph
Xavier Scott as Vin
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Dylan James Mulvaney as Charles
Austin Vaccaro as Timothy
Glossary of Terms
(in order of appearance)
Book Packaging: (or book producing) a publishing
activity in which a publishing company outsources the
myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—
writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even
printing—to an outside company called a bookpacking company.
Once the book-packaging
company has produced the book, they then sell it to
the final publishing company.
Hamas: a radical Palestinian Islamic organization
founded in 1987 in opposition to the moderate
policies of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Hezbollah: a Shi’a Islamist militant group and political
party based in Lebanon founded in 1985 after the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Hypoplastic Trochlea: a congenital abnormality where
trochlea or the femur did not develop fully, leading to
instability of the knee joint.
Pre Existing Condition (in the context of healthcare in
the U.S: a medical condition that started before a
person’s health insurance went into effect.
Mulatto: a derogatory term for a person of mixed white
and black ancestry.
Saint Rafka: a Lebanese Maronite saint canonized by
Pope John Paul II on June 10, 2001.
Phalangist: (or the Lebanese Phalanges Party) a
Maronite paramilitary youth organization formed in
1936 whose motto was “God, Nation and Family.”
Their ideology places a primacy on preserving the
Lebanese nation and consistent with its authoritarian
beginnings, Phalangist ideology has been on the right
of the political spectrum.
American Legion: a congressionally chartered
corporation formed in Paris on March 15, 1919 by
veterans of the American Expeditionary Forces.
Spinal Tap: (or a lumbar puncture) a diagnostic and at
times therapeutic medical procedure that is used to
either collect cerebrospinal fluid to confirm or exclude
the diagnosis of various medical conditions or to
reduce increased intracranial pressure.
Occam’s Razor: a problem-solving principle devised by
Willam of Ockham (c. 1287-1347) which states that
among competing hypotheses, the one with the
fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more
complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct,
but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer
assumptions that are made, the better.
Arabic 101: Translations from the Play
(in order of appearance)
Skot, ma tehko: Quiet, don’t speak.
Mwarneh: We are Maronite.
Btehke Arabé: Do you speak Arabic?
Shwa shway: A little.
I Marune: I am Maronite.
Marhaba, kifak: Hi, how are you?
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Our Production
The Artistic Team
Director………………….………...…..……….Rob Lutfy
Stage Manager…………...…….....Chandra Anthenill°*
Set Designer………………………….…Sean Fanning°
Lighting Designer………..…….……....... Chris Rynne°
Sound Designer………….………Matt Lescault-Wood°
Properties Designer………………...…..…Syd Stevens
Costume Designer….….….………..Veronica Murphy°
Wig & Makeup Designer……...….…...Peter Herman°
Dramaturg..…………………….….……...Taylor Wycoff
Assistant Stage Manager………...........Ryan Heath*
Assistant Lighting Designer……………..Chad Shelton
Dresser…………………………… Maria Orozco-Smith
Charge Artist…………..………………...Ashleigh Scott
Artistic Director…………….………………Sean Murray
Executive Director…………………………..Bill Schmidt
Production Manager………..……..….…..Jenn Stauffer
Technical Director…………….....……....…Sam Moore
Lighting & Sound Supervisor……………....David Scott
Wardrobe Maintenance….…………...….Sarah Marion
Wig Maintenance….……………………..….Katie Knox
The Cast
Joseph………...………….……...........…..Alex Hoeffler*
Gloria………………….….………...……Maggie Carney*
Charles…………………….……Dylan James Mulvaney
Bill……………………..……..……...….Navarre T Perry*
Timothy……..…………………...........…Austin Vaccaro
Vin……………………..……………………..Xavier Scott
Dr. Manor/Ensemble…………………….Faeren Adams
Mrs. McAndrew/Ensemble……….... Li-Anne Rowswell
Understudy……………………………………Sean Boyd
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, °Cygnet Resident Artist
From the Director
“You can’t stand in your pain too long. It’s like quicksand,
you’ll sink, never get past it,” Mrs. McAndrew tells us in the
play.
Sons of the Prophet is a comedy about human suffering.
The play ends and opens with motion. “The rhythm is
simple, slow, mellow, steady, like a heartbeat,” the stage
direction reads. “The space feels a bit bigger, more open”
for the characters and for us. Stephen Karam’s play
explores the messy portions of our lives- the times in which
you find yourself coping with huge physical and emotional
issues that are unrelenting. Everyone in this play is at a
palce where medication will do very little for them. They
must start the slow, painful and complicated process of
coping.
The play was inspired by a news story about high school
football players who put a deer decoy in the middle of a
road as a prank. Two passengers swerved to avoid it and
both were left severely injured. The judge decided to
suspend the football players’ sentence so they could finish
the season. He prefaced his ruling by acknowledging, “I
shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m going to. Stephen also
takes his inspiration from Kahlil Gibran’s the Prophet.
Every scene is titled after a chapter in the book and is a
way for Karam to explore the lessons in Gibran’s great
poem.
Karam’s play emerges from scenarios of grief, wrecked
pasts, uncertain futures, and so—in a different, though not
unrelated, way00 does our design. The towns in our play
are all named after middle eastern cities and all are hurting.
The towns in the rust belt of Pennsylvania built their entire
identity around industries that are no longer there. Joseph
built his entire identity around being an athlete, in a flash it
is all taken from him. The play explores how people
endure the unendurable, and not only survive but also
move forward through their lives with sustaining measures
of hope, love and good humor. The question of why we
suffer is unanswerable, but how we deal with the suffering
defines our character and shapes our lives.
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About the Playwright, Stephen Karam
Stephen Karam is the author of Sons of the Prophet, a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and the recipient of the
2012 Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Hull-Warriner Awards for Best Play. Other plays
include Speech & Debate, the inaugural production of Roundabout Underground; columbinus (New York Theatre
Workshop); and his forthcoming play, The Humans. He wrote the libretto for Dark Sisters, an original chamber
opera with composer Nico Muhly (co-produced by Gotham Chamber Opera, MTG and Opera Company of
Philadelphia).
His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, American Theatre Magazine, Northwestern University Press
and Dramatic Publishing Co.
Stephen is a MacDowell Colony fellow, and the recipient of the inaugural Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Drama Desk
Award. He teaches playwriting at The New School.
Born and raised in Scranton, PA, he’s a graduate of Brown University.
-Source: http://www.stephenkaram.com/bio/
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Setting the Scene
Even the towns featured in the play (all in Eastern Pennsylvania) are all hurting. Parts of
Pennsylvania built their entire identity around industries (steel, coal, etc.) that are no longer there.
–Stephen Karam in an interview with Ted Sod for Roundabout Theatre Company
The Hampton Inn in Easton,
where Timothy is staying
Nazareth, where Joseph lives
and works.
Lehigh Valley Hospital in
Allentown, where Joseph sees
his doctor.
The Bethlehem Bus Station,
where Joseph waits to pick up
Vin.
Did You Know?
Bethlehem Steel Corporation was America’s second-largest steel producer and largest shipbuilder. Bethlehem Steel
and a subsidiary company, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, were two of the most powerful symbols of American
industrial manufacturing leadership. Their demise is often cited as one of the most prominent examples of the U.S.
economy’s shift away from industrial manufacturing, its failure to compete with cheap foreign labor, and management’s
penchant for short-term profits. After a decline in the American steel industry and other problems leading to the
company’s bankruptcy in 2001, the company was dissolved and the remaining assets sold to International Steel Group
in 2003.
In his opening notes, Stephen Karam writes “The play takes place in a pocket of Pennsylvania that’s getting increasingly worn
down; small towns whose best days are gone. Cracked sidewalks, weathered siding, leaning porches.” But as Lisa Timmel
with Huntington Theatre Company keenly points out, there’s a second geographical location referenced in the play: the Middle
East, specifically Lebanon, which is the ancestral home of the main character’s family. So the setting of Eastern Pennsylvania
not only references the lost of economic prestige (in its collapse as an industrial powerhouse), but in some ways it also leads
us to think about the loss of a historical sense of striving: “…if the immigrants who named these towns knew that in a few
hundred years, their legacy would be reduced to a handful of reminders on green road signs…” muses a character in the play.
In Sons of the Prophet, we are faced with a world of layers—layers that evoke a stripped down legacy and a fall from a more
prosperous, meaningful past. Present over past, the new world over the old world… and by drawing out and highlighting the
humor and suffering in those layers, side by side, Karam portrays a uniquely American phenomenon. As Lisa Timmel states,
“it’s an immigrant story for the rest of us.”
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Drawing on Real Life
“I always get obsessed over real incidents,” Karam says, and it’s easy to understand why when
faced with a controversy such as the one that inspired Sons of the Prophet. This CBS article by
Sean Alfano sheds light on the 2006 event in Kenton, Ohio that became the catalyst for Karam’s
family play.
Teens' Near-Fatal Joke Roils Ohio Town
This northwest Ohio town is abuzz over a judge's
decision to let two high school football teammates play
this fall despite their role in a crash that injured two
other teens, who swerved to avoid a deer decoy that
had been placed in the road.
Gary McKinley, a retired Union County juvenile court
judge hearing the case in Hardin County Common
Pleas Court, suspended 60-day juvenile detention
sentences for Kenton High School junior quarterback
Dailyn Campbell and senior safety Jesse Howard until
after the season.
Jesse Howard, 17, right, addresses Judge Gary McKinley, not pictured, Tuesday,
Aug. 15, 2006, at the Hardin County Courthouse in Kenton, Ohio.AP Photo/The
Lima News, Craig Mack) AP Photo
Tammy Minter, a 35-year-old auto plant worker, said Wednesday she thinks Howard, 17, and Campbell, 16, got
special treatment.
"I have a 13-year-old son. This shows him you can get in trouble, and as long as you're a football player, you can
get away with it," said Minter, who also has a daughter in the high school band.
A group of teens stole the two-legged decoy from a man's home last November, created a base to help it stand
upright and watched as drivers swerved to avoid the decoy, investigators said.
When Robert Roby Jr. of Kenton swerved to miss the decoy, he crashed his car into a pole and fence. His neck,
collar bone, arm and leg were broken. His mother said he's facing his 11th surgery and isn't able to work or go to
school.
His passenger, Dustin Zachariah, has brain damage, Prosecutor Brad Bailey told the judge.
Amy Purcell, a 39-year-old office manager with a son on the team and another child at the high school, had mixed
feelings about the ruling. Organized sports usually help keep kids out of trouble, she said.
"But to put their sentences on hold, I'm not sure that's fair," Purcell said.
Kenton schools Superintendent Doug Roberts said he doesn't think people would be as upset if the students played
a sport other than football, which has a large following in the district.
The Wildcats, who won Division IV state championships in 2001 and 2002, draw about 4,000 fans for games in a
community of about 8,000 surrounded by farm fields.
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Last fall, Campbell was named first team northwest all-district and second team all-Ohio, and Howard earned an
honorable mention on the all-district team.
"Being a small school and a small community, we look at these things as a small family, and when your family has
problems, you try to help them, rather than turn your back on them," Roberts said.
McKinley also placed the two teens on house arrest. They must pay fines and restitution, perform community
service and each write a 500-word essay titled "Why I should think before I act."
The judge suspended two one-year juvenile prison sentences for each boy. He said he knows the decision will be
criticized.
"I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to. I see positive things about participating in football," McKinley told
Campbell at Tuesday's hearing.
A court administrator said McKinley had no further comment Wednesday because of pending trials against other
defendants in the case.
"None of these guys will ever know what our sons have gone through," Mary Roby wrote in a statement to the court.
"If they get nothing for what they've done, they'll do something worse later. They need more than a slap on the
wrist."
Howard's father, C.J., said he wants the ordeal to be over for his son.
"Jesse has never ever been in trouble before. He doesn't drink, he doesn't do drugs, he doesn't go to parties, he
doesn't go out very much," the father said.
He said he punished his son by taking away his driver's license, keeping him at home and preventing him from
playing sports before the sentencing, "for just going out and not stopping what happened."
Older children have taunted Jesse Howard's younger siblings over the crash, and others in town have come up to
the family to criticize them, C.J. Howard said.
In July, Campbell and Howard each pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular vandalism and juvenile charges
of delinquency by possession of criminal tools and misdemeanor theft. Trials are scheduled in the fall for three other
defendants.
Zachariah now has the cognitive ability of a sixth grader, said his mother, Kathy Piper. When he applied for a job
two weeks ago, he couldn't do the simple math on the application test, she said.
The teens' medical bills have reached $700,000 and are expected to top $1 million, Bailey said.
Campbell and Howard apologized during their sentencing hearings.
"I think every day that I hurt someone, and that hurts me inside," said Howard.
-Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-near-fatal-joke-roils-ohio-town/
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Kahlil Gibran and The Prophet
“You are far, far greater than you know—and all is well.”
A Poet's Life
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Born to Maronite Catholic family in Lebanon, 1883
Moves to US aged 12 with mother and siblings after
father imprisoned for embezzlement
Settles in South Boston's Lebanese community
Clerical error at school registers his name as Kahlil,
not Khalil
He was a talented pupil and came to the attention of
local artist and photographer Fred Holland Day
Returns to Lebanon at 15 to study Arabic
Soon after, he lost his mother, sister and brother to
TB and cancer within months of each other
Back in the US in 1904, he meets Mary Haskell
In 1908, goes to Paris for two years to study art in
the symbolist school
First book of poetry published in 1918, then The
Prophet five years later
Dies in 1931 from cirrhosis of the liver and TB
Inspires a play Rest Upon the Wind, which tours UK
and Middle East in 2012
-Source: BBC News, “Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet: Why is it
so loved?”
Since it’s publication in 1923, The Prophet, Kahlil
Gibran’s most famous work, has never been out of
print. It has been translated into more than fifty
languages, and the American editions alone have sold
more than nine million copies. This collection of
poetic essays tells the story of Almustafa, a young
prophet who has lived in exile for twelve years on the
fictional island of Orphalese and is waiting for the ship
that will take him home. When Almustafa refuses the
townspeople’s pleas for him to stay, they in turn ask
him to speak to them one more time- to share his
words of wisdom on the big questions of life. The 26
prose poems that comprise The Prophet cover such
sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving,
eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing,
clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment,
laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self
knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good
and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
Did You Know?
Each scene title in Sons of the Prophet corresponds
to the title of a chapter in Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet?
SCENE TITLES
Prologue—July
Scene 1—On Work—August
Scene 2—On Pain—September
Scene 3—On Talking—November
Scene 5—On Friendship—November
Scene 6—On Reason & Passion—December
Scene 7—On Yesterday & Today—March
Scene titles (in bold) appear before each scene.
Read The Prophet online through Project Gutenberg at: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200061h.html
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Healthcare in America
Sons of the Prophet features many characters that are struggling with the healthcare system.
Below you’ll find some statistics HealthPAC Online from a few years ago that will provide you with
some context from the time in which the show is set.
Health Insurance
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The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system.
Source: Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
In 2010, the percentage of Americans without health insurance was 16.3%, or 49.9 million uninsured people. Source:
US Census Bureau
Of the 83.7% of people with health insurance in 2010, coverage was 55.3% employment-based, 9.8% directpurchase, and 31.0% government funded (Medicare, Medicaid, Military). (Overlap reflects coverage by more than
one type of health insurance). Source: US Census Bureau
The primary reason given for lack of health insurance coverage in 2005 was cost (more than 50%), lost job or a
change in employment (24%), Medicaid benefits stopped (10%), ineligibility for family insurance coverage due to age
or leaving school (8%). Source: National Center for Health Statistics
More than 40 million adults stated that they needed but did not receive one or more of these health services (medical
care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses) in 2005 because they could not afford it.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Medicaid, which accounted for 15.9% of health care coverage in 2010, is a health insurance program jointly funded
by the federal and state governments to provide health care for qualifying low-income individuals. Source: US
Census Bureau
Medicare, a federally funded health insurance program that covers the health care of most individuals 65 years of
age and over and disabled persons, accounted for 14.5% of health care coverage in 2010. Source: US Census
Bureau
Medicare operates with 3% overhead, non-profit insurance 16% overhead, and private (for-profit) insurance 26%
overhead. Source: Journal of American Medicine 2007
Since the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was created in 1997, the percentage of children ages 0-17
with health insurance has increased from 86% to 93%. Source: National Center for Health Statistics: December 2011
2.5 million young adults have gained health insurance as a result of the provision in the Affordable Care Act that
allows them to remain on their parents insurance plans until age 26. Source: National Center for Health Statistics:
December 2011
Health Care Expenditures
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Health care expenditures in the United States were nearly $2.6 trillion in 2010,
an average of $8,402 per person. Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services
In 2009, national health care expenditures were paid by households 28%,
private businesses 21%, state and local governments 16%, and federal
government 27%. Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic
conditions, many of which can be prevented, including diabetes, obesity, heart
disease, lung disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. Source: Health Affairs
Half of health care spending is used to treat just 5% of the population. Source:
Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2012
Since 2001, employer-sponsored health coverage for family premiums has
increased by 113%. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2012
The share of the economy devoted to health care has increased from 7.2% in
1970 to 17.9% in 2009 and 2010. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, May
12
Did You Know?
In the play, Joseph has to get a
spinal tap. Thanks to his
insurance he may only have to
pay 30% of the cost of the
procedure. But did you know
that a spinal tap can cost
anywhere from $3,000-$5,000?
That’s still up to $1,500 out of
pocket!
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2012
The U.S. spends substantially more on health care than other developed countries. As of 2009, health spending in
the U.S. was about 90% higher than in many other industrialized countries. The most likely causes are higher prices,
more readily accessible technology, and greater obesity. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2012
Infant Mortality
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In 2005, the United States ranked 30th in infant mortality. Singapore has the lowest rate with 2.1 deaths per 1000 live
births, while the United States has a rate of 6.9 deaths per 1000 live births. Infant mortality is considered an important
indicator of the health of a nation. Source: CDC, NCHS Data Brief, Number 23, November 2009
Approximately 30,000 infants die in the United States each year. The infant mortality rate, which is the risk of death
during the first year of life, is related to the underlying health of the mother, public health practices, socioeconomic
conditions, and availability and use of appropriate health care for infants and pregnant women. Sources: CDC and
National Center for Health Statistics, 2008
The main cause contributing to the high infant mortality rate in the United States is the very high percentage of
preterm births. One in 8 births in the United States were born preterm, an increase of 36% since 1984. Source: CDC,
NCHS Data Brief, Number 23, November 2009
Life Expectancy
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Life expectancy at birth in the United States is an estimated 78.49 years, which ranks
50th in highest total life expectancy compared to other countries. Source: CIA
Factbook (2011)
Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44,789 deaths per year in the
United States. Source: Harvard Medical School Study, American Journal of Public
Health, December 2009
People without health insurance had a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with
private health insurance, a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care.
Source: Harvard Medical School Study, American Journal of Public Health,
December 2009
Bankruptcy
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Nearly two-thirds, or 62%, of all bankruptcy filings in the United States in 2007 were due to illness or medical bills.
Source: American Journal of Medicine, June 2009
Among the medical bankruptcy filers in 2007, most were well-educated, owned homes, employed in middle-class
occupations, and three-quarters had health insurance. Source: American Journal of Medicine, June 2009
-Source: http://www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-statistics-in-the-united-states.htm
13
Theatre Etiquette
When we visit the theatre we are attending a live performance with actors that are working right in
front of us. This is an exciting experience for you and the actor. However, in order to have the
best performance for both the audience and the actors, there are some do’s and don’ts that need
to be followed. And remember that we follow these rules because the better an audience you can
be the better the actors can be.
1. Don’t allow anything that creates noise to go off during the performance—cell phones,
watches, etc.
2. Don’t take pictures or video recordings during the performance. All of the work is
copyrighted by the designers and you could face serious penalties.
3. Don’t eat or drink in the theatre.
4. Don’t stick gum on the bottom of the seat.
5. Don’t place things on the stage or walk on the stage.
6. Don’t put your feet up on the back of the seat in front of you.
7. Don’t leave your seat during the performance unless it is an emergency. If you do need to
leave for an emergency, leave as quietly as possible—and know that you might not be able
to get back in until intermission.
8. Do clap—let the actors know you are enjoying yourself!
9. Do enjoy the show and have fun watching the actors!
10. Do tell other people about your experience and be sure to ask questions and discuss what
you experienced after the show!
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Recommended Resources
Books and Articles:
 The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
 “Playing with Real Life” by Beth Schwartzapfel, Brown Alumni Magazine
http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/2816/40/
Websites and Organizations:
 Roundabout Theatre Company’s Sons of the Prophet Upstage Guide
http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Roundabout/media/Roundabout/PDF/Sons_of_the_Proph
et.pdf
 HealthPAC Online: A Vision of Quality Healthcare For All
http://www.healthpaconline.net/
Movies and Video Clips:
 Hezbollah and the Modern History of Lebanon
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL46D6A6F711C8FECF
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