Program - Tabard Theatre

Presents
FAREWELL, FITZGERALD
March 7 - 23, 2014
Theatre on San Pedro Square
29 N. San Pedro Street • Downtown San Jose
Welcome / Author’s Note
I
From Cathy Spielberger Cassetta, Producing Artistic Director
n keeping with our season of “twists and turns,” we are thrilled and proud
to welcome back to Tabard Kurt Gravenhorst in his powerful star-turn as
F. Scott Fitzgerald in Farewell, Fitzgerald.
W
From Kurt Gravenhorst, Author
hen F. Scott Fitzgerald’s alcohol-ravaged heart finally gave out at the age of
44, he was an unemployed Hollywood screenwriter living in obscurity with
columnist Sheilah Graham, desperately trying to complete The Last Tycoon,
the novel he hoped would restore his forgotten place in American literature. His last
royalty check from Scribners for his six novels that were still in print — including
The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and This Side of Paradise — was for $13.13.
The New York Times obituary, alluding to the title of a collection of his short stories,
wrote that Fitzgerald’s life epitomized “all the sad young men” of his generation.
When Fitzgerald died in Hollywood in 1940, he was dismissed as a failed writer who
never fulfilled the literary promise of his youth. No one then could anticipate that he
would later be recognized and revered as one of America’s greatest writers.
The mysterious process that somehow renders genius from a life of anguish and
torment has always fascinated me. I have always been drawn to writers who struggle
with their own maladjustment to life, and how this struggle becomes the engine that
drives their own fiction. Perhaps more than any other American author, Fitzgerald’s
life is inseparable from his work — he seems to have stepped right out of one of his
own stories: an emblem of the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the Lost Generation,
wandering through the dark side of the American Dream. But Fitzgerald was far more
than just a chronicler of his age. He once wrote, “Genius is the ability to put into
effect what is in your mind,” and to accomplish this, Fitzgerald was not afraid to dig
into the darkness of his own character. This, I believe, is why his work transcends the
limits of time. With incomparable tenderness, his work has touched some dark place
of loss and anguish that is in us all. And I think, perhaps, we all, like Fitzgerald,
believe in “the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us.”
As a writer, I want to explore this connection between anguish and art in the life of
F. Scott Fitzgerald, but my own words always fail me. As an actor, however, I feel I
have a much better chance of conveying his mystery of genius if I can embody it and
let Fitzgerald tell his own story in his own words so that it will be true. Perhaps genius
is something than can only be perceived and felt, and not ever wholly understood.
But if I let Fitzgerald tell his own story, I think then I will have a better chance of
communicating the incommunicable heart and soul of this American literary icon.
Experience the magic. Tabard.
The Tabard Theatre Company
Presents
FAREWELL, FITZGERALD
Starring
Kurt Gravenhorst
as
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Written by
Kurt Gravenhorst
Original music composed and performed by
Jeremy Harris
Originally directed by
Brian Conroy
© 2012, 2014 Kurt Gravenhorst
Theatre is more than a show. Tabard.
Production Staff
Meet the Artists
Producer Cathy Spielberger Cassetta
Technical Director / Stage Manager Andrew Marshall
Technical Consultant Joe Cassetta
Program Layout Barbara Reynolds
Pre-Show Musicians Piano: Gary Dugan, Bob Sunshine,
Bob Visini, Christopher Wemp
Bass: Terry Shoup
Sincere and grateful appreciation to...
all our season subscribers, donors, sponsors,
and community partners who helped make this season possible.
Kurt extends his thanks to the people who contributed their time, effort,
and invaluable insight to the development of his show: Brian Conroy,
Annette Stenger, Lori Basuino, Carol George, Doug Baird, and
Cathy Cassetta and The Tabard Theatre Company.
You are invited to stay for an informal Question & Answer session
with Kurt following the performance.
A portion of Tabard’s
concession proceeds from this
production will be donated to
The Tabard Theatre Company is a proud and active member of:
The Tabard Theatre Company is grateful for the support provided, in part,
by the Farrington Historical Foundation, a Cultural Affairs grant from the
City of San Jose, and a Regional Arts Fund grant from Silicon Valley Creates.
Making memories. Tabard.
Kurt Gravenhorst (F. Scott Fitzgerald) returns for
an encore performance of his third production with
The Tabard Theatre Company, Farewell, Fitzgerald,
following appearances in It’s a Wonderful Life, The
Gifts of the Magi and the award-winning Trying.
Other recent Bay Area performances include My
Antonia and Red Clay (TheatreWorks), The
Kentucky Cycle (Willows Theatre), Santos &
Santos (Teatro Vision), and A Moon for the
Misbegotten (Pear Theatre). A recipient of a Dean
Goodman Award, Kurt also has performed for the
Exit, Dragon, and City Lights theatre companies.
Cathy Spielberger Cassetta (Producer) is a theatre/television veteran and
entrepreneur who created/produced/co-hosted the weekly TV program Theatre This
Week in the 1990s before founding Tabard in 2001. For Tabard she’s directed
Scapin, Dames at Sea, The Gifts of the Magi, The Dog Sitters, Sabrina Fair, A
Taffeta Wedding, It’s a Wonderful Life, Crossing Delancey, Babes in Hollywood,
and the award-winning production of Trying; she created and co-wrote More Than
Petticoats; and she both directed and wrote Stompin’ at the Savoy, Bandstand
Beat, and The Duke, The Count, and Me as well as the upcoming Love, Laughter
and Linguine.
Joe Cassetta (Technical Consultant) continues to lead Tabard’s technical team,
which he has done since the company was founded in 2001. With a B.S. in
mechanical engineering and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, Joe’s steady and
skilled leadership has led to Tabard’s increased ability to explore and expand what
we do technically.
Jeremy Harris (Composer, Pianist) has composed and performed background
music and featured solos for other Tabard shows, including It’s a Wonderful Life and
Trying. He also wrote the music and lyrics for The Elves and The Shoemaker. Born
and raised on the East Coast, Jeremy graduated from the Indiana University School of
Music, served as pianist and arranger in the U.S. Air Force Band, and worked in the
theater for many years in New York City.
Andrew Marshall (Technical Director, Stage Manager) returns to Tabard after
stage-managing 1776 and The Elves and the Shoemaker. He was previously a theatre
student at Ohlone College, where he directed two plays and wrote and directed a
short film. Most recently, he was a technician at California’s Great America where he
built mazes and did the show Blades of Horror for Halloween Haunt. Outside of
theatre, Andrew is a video game developer.
Experience infinite possibilities. Tabard.
Fitzgerald’s Works
Friends of Tabard
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896 - 1940
Husband of Zelda
Father of Frances “Scottie”
Lover of Sheilah
Novels
This Side of Paradise (1920)
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Tender Is the Night (1934)
The Last Tycoon (published posthumously 1941)
Short story collections
Flappers and Philosophers (1920)
Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
All the Sad Young Men (1926)
Taps at Reveille (1935)
Afternoon of an Author (1957)
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories (1960)
The Pat Hobby Stories (1962)
The Basil and Josephine Stories (1973)
The Price Was High: Fifty Uncollected Stories (1979)
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1989)
Notable short stories
“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (1920)
“Head and Shoulders” (1920)
“The Ice Palace” (1920)
“The Offshore Pirate” (1920)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (1921)
“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” (1922)
“Winter Dreams” (1922)
“The Baby Party” (1925)
“The Freshest Boy” (1928)
“The Bridal Party” (1930)
“A New Leaf” (1931)
“Babylon Revisited” (1931)
“Crazy Sunday” (1932)
Other notable works
The Vegetable, or From President to Postman (play 1923)
The Crack-Up (collection of essays, notebook excerpts, and letters 1945)
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Thank you for joining
our journey. We
apologize for any
omissions due to our
print deadline.
Special thanks to:
Farrington
Historical
Foundation
for providing the
funds needed to
replace all of our
drapes and curtains.
Be a part of it. Tabard.
Executive Director Nick Nichols
Producing Artistic Director Cathy Spielberger Cassetta
Operations Director John DiLoreto
Associate Artistic Directors Doug Baird, Susannah Greenwood,
Diane Milo
Director of Engagement Irene Trapp
Social Media Advisor Ruby Stone (StoneMediaConsulting.com)
TOSPS Guest Company / Non-profit Liaison Jeanie Burgess
Education Artistic Director Jennifer Packard
Technical Director Joe Cassetta
Lighting Consultant Nick Nichols
Head Audio Engineer John DiLoreto
Costume Designer / Box Office Manager Marilyn Watts
TOSPS Concessions Manager Lynne Rice
TOSPS Mixologist Josh Salans
Web Master, Graphic Artist Betty Gott
Tabard Logo Don Barnes (cellarideas.com)
TOSPS Logo Mike English
Tabard Website Gott Design? (gottdesign.net)
Tabard Buttons Harley Goes
Board of Directors
President Joe Cassetta
Vice President Rich Hemmerling
TreasurerKeith Thomas
SecretaryPatricia Burleigh
Recording SecretaryMarj Mancuso
Members Karen A. Lapinski, Robert Lewis, Leslie Stepanek, Kathy Sutherland
Board Member Emeritus Cathy Spielberger Cassetta, Founder
Advisory Board
Ed Correia, Mike Haimson, Jonathan Jackel, Jim Kabel, Butch Kruse,
Jason Minsky, Lorrie Wernick
Tabard Audience Advisory Panel (TAAP)
Sherry Bevis, Joanne Johnson Felt, Alma Guillot, Harley & Esther Goes,
Clare Landry, Marcia Lawson, Nicole Letellier, Betty Newton,
Suzanne Rostamizadeh, Bob & Winnie Schlossareck, Barbara & Ed Soohoo,
Jack & Sally Stallard, Grace Vaccaro, Bob & Anne Welker
Explore new horizons. Tabard.
‘tab’ard: \’tab- erd also -ärd\ n: 1. An ancient
London inn featured in Chaucer’s C­ anterbury Tales, from
which pilgrims began their journey to Canterbury Cathedral
and at which the innkeeper offered a free meal to the best
storyteller. 2. A tunic worn by a knight over his armor
and e­ mblazoned with his sovereign’s arms. 3. The name
appropriated by numerous contemporary collegiate
literary fraternities. 4. A dynamic and imaginative
theatre company in Silicon Valley, CA
e
Administrative Office:
5663 Chambertin Drive
San Jose, CA 95118
408-979-0231
cathy@tabardtheatre.org
www.tabardtheatre.org
A 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation
Executive Director: Nick Nichols
Producing Artistic Director: Cathy Spielberger Cassetta
Our Mission Statement: The Tabard Theatre Company is committed to
making a difference in the community through the arts by providing
professional-quality theatre experiences such as productions and workshops that
are appropriate and affordable for audiences of all ages. Tabard focuses on new
works or works not commonly produced. Especially engaged with altruism and
philanthropy, Tabard reaches out to the under-served, such as the blind/visually
impaired and children in low-income areas, and donates a portion of each
production’s concession proceeds to a designated local charity.