teacher study guide

 TEACHER STUDY GUIDE
Written and Researched by Taylor M. Wycoff
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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
Important Terms & Slang from the ‘50s……………………………………………..……..……………….. 5
Our Production…………………………………………………………………………………………...………… 6
The Artistic Team…………………………………………………………….……………………………...... 6
The Cast……………………………………………………………………….………………….……….……6
From the Director………..……………………………………………….……………………….……………6
About the Playwright, Jordan Harrison…..…………………………………….………….……………….….… 7
Biography…….…………………………………………………………….………….…………..………… 7
Jordan Harrison on ‘Maple and Vine’….……………….…………………………………..………….…… 8
A Better Life: Creating the American Dream………………………………….……..….…………..……………9
How to be a Good Wife: Women’s Roles in the 1950s …………….…………………………..…..........10
The Beginning of the LGBT Rights Movement……..….……….………………………………..…..........13
A Brief Timeline of 1950s Asian-America………..…….……….………………………………..…...........15
How Do You Define Happiness?..................…………………………………….……………………………...16
Theatre Etiquette…………………………………………….……………………….…….………………….......17
Recommended Resources………………………………………………………………………………….…….18
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.
2 About the Play
Katha and Ryu have become allergic to their 21st-century lives. After they meet a charismatic man
from a community of 1950s re-enactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and
Tupperware parties. In this compulsively authentic world, Katha and Ryu are surprised by what their
new neighbors - and they themselves - are willing to sacrifice for happiness.
Plot Synopsis
We first meet Katha and her husband, Ryu, in the bleak predawn hours. Katha lies awake cycling through various
sleep-inducing soudscapes, rejecting Ryu’s suggestion of a pharmaceutical alternative. She’s on the verge of
burning out at her New York City publishing job, and Ryu’s profession as a plastic surgeon, fixing and re-fixing the
faces of pampered women, is no more fulfilling. The weight of their dissatisfactions has been doubled by the loss of a
much-hoped-for baby six months ago. So when Katha meets a perky fellow named Dean in the park one day, her
willingness to lend an ear to his sales pitch for a kooky-sounding community — the Society of Dynamic
Obsolescence (SDO) — doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched. In order to appease Katha, Ryu reluctantly goes along to
a consultation with Dean and his lovely wife Ellen. While Ellen raids Katha’s closet for period appropriate attire and
enlightens her to the duties of the 1950s woman (and the subtle power she wields), Dean suggests to Ryu that they
live in the North due to their relationship status as a mixed-race couple. Katha manages to convince Ryu to agree to
the 6-month trial period in the SDO where the couple trades their fast-paced 21st century New York City lives for the
roles of housewife and box-factory-worker in 1950s suburbia.
Things get off to a cautious start in their new home on the corner of Maple and Vine where Katha and Ryu make their
first efforts at maintaining an authentic 1955 home. As Katha and Ryu begin to settle into the community, things get
simultaneously more comfortable and more disjointed. Ryu witnesses his boss Roger kissing Dean, Katha becomes
a member of the Authenticity Committee at Ellen’s urging, and Katha and Ryu’s relationship begins to find its footing
again. But soon Ryu finds himself leveraging the information he has on Roger against him in an effort to get a raise
at the factory and Ellen starts to feel threatened by Katha’s increasing influence in the community. On top of
everything else, 2 months before their trial-run is up, Katha and Ryu discover they’re going to have a baby and must
decide in which century they want to raise their child. The play comes to a climax when Roger spray-paints
“GOOGLE” onto the side of a building, throwing the community into fear and confusion as he desperately asks Dean
to run away with him back to the city and their modern-day lives. As the two men return to their former lives in the
21st century, Katha and Ryu choose to remain in 1955 to raise their newborn daughter.
3 Characters
KATHA: Mid to late 30’s, Caucasian.
RYU: Mid to late 30’s, Asian American. Katha’s husband
DEAN: Late 30’s, Caucasian
ELLEN: Late 30’s, Caucasian. Dean’s wife.
ROGER: Late 30’s, Caucasian.
JENNA: Katha’s co-worker, played by the same actress as Ellen.
OMAR: Katha’s co-worker, played by the same actor as Roger.
Jo Anne Glover as KATHA
Jordan Miller as DEAN
Amanda Sitton as ELLEN
Greg Watanabe as RYU
4 Mike Nardelli as ROGER
Important Terms & Slang from the ‘50s
Back Seat Bingo: (v) kissing while in the car.
Ex. How ‘bout we jump in my hot rod and play a little
back-seat bingo?
Beatnick: (n) a member of the counterculture.
Ex. He is a beatnik who hangs around the
underground coffee shops downtown.
Blast: (n) a good time.
Ex. I had a blast at the party.
Cat: (n) A guy. He was a real cool cat.
Communists: (n) a radical viewed as a subversive or
revolutionary, and a supporter of the Communist
movement which aimed to create a classless,
moneyless, and stateless social order structured
upon common ownership of the means of production.
Ex. I bet the Communists are responsible for that
graffiti!
Kamikaze: (n) suicide attacks by military aviators from
the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in
the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World
War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively
than was possible with conventional attacks.
Ex. This is a Kamikaze mission.
Make Out: (v) to hug and kiss.
Ex. Their parents caught them making out on the
couch in the living room.
Mason-Dixon Line: (n) a cultural boundary between the
Northeastern and the Southern United States (Dixie).
After Pennsylvania abolished slavery, it was a
demarcation line for the legality of slavery.
Ex. We live north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Mimeograph: (n) a lowcost printing press that
works by forcing ink through
a stencil onto paper.
Ex. Does your office have a
mimeograph? Cool it: (v) relax, settle down.
Ex. You need to cool it!
Dewey Decimals: (n) a proprietary library classification
system first published by Melvil Dewey in 1876 which
makes use of three-digit Arabic numerals for main
classes, with decimals as expansions for more detail.
Ex. Can you look this book up in the Dewey
Decimals?
Dubonnet: (n) a sweet, wine-based
aperitif.
Ex. I’ll have a Dubonnet, please.
Mulatto: (n) a term used to refer to a person who is born
from one white parent and one black parent.
Ex. He had a mulatto wife.
Rattle: (v) to get upset.
Ex. He was just trying to rattle you.
Razz My Berries: (v) excite or impress me.
Ex. You really razz my berries!
Hot rod: (n) a fast car (hot-rodders).
Ex. Delmar has the hottest rod on the block.
Sanka: (n) a brand of instant
decaffeinated coffee, sold
around the world, and one of
the earliest decaffeinated
varieties.
Ex. Do we have anymore
Sanka in the pantry?
Ikebana: (n) the Japanese art of flower arrangement,
also known as kadō.
Ex. Do you practice Ikebana?
Word from the Bird: (np) the truth.
Ex. No school tomorrow, and that's the word from the
bird!
5 Our Production
The Artistic Team
Director……………………………...………..Igor Goldin
Stage Manager………….…….....Jennifer Kozumplik°*
Scenic Designer…………....…..………Sean Fanning°
Lighting Designer………..…….……... Michelle Caron°
Sound Designer………….……….……Kevin Anthenill
Properties Designer……………..…Angelica Ynfante°
Costume Designer….………..…….……Jeanne Reith°
Wig & Makeup Designer……...….…...Peter Herman°
Dramaturg……………………….….……Taylor Wycoff
Assistant Stage Manager………................Ryan Heath
ASM/Dresser………………..…………..Sunny Haines°
Run Crew………………………...…………Jay McNabb
Run Crew……………………….…………Sarah Marion
Wig & Makeup Assistant………………Danielle Griffith
Wig Maintenance……………………….……Katie Knox
Artistic Director……………………...……..Sean Murray
Executive Director…………………………..Bill Schmidt
Production Manager………..……..….…..Jenn Stauffer
Technical Director………….……....…Rogelio Rosales
Technical Director…………….....……....…Sam Moore
Master Electrician……………..……….….. Jay Schenk
Wardrobe Maintenance….…Jacinda Fischer Johnson
Charge Artist…………..……Jessica Harriman-Baxter°
The Cast
Katha …………………………..………Jo Anne Glover°
Dean………………………………. ………Jordan Miller*
Roger/Omar …………………………....…Mike Nardelli*
Ellen/Jenna …………………………….Amanda Sitton°
Ryu…………………………………..….Greg Watanabe*
Dean/Roger/Omar Understudy………….William Shore
*Member of Actors Equity Association, °Cygnet Resident Artist
Do we create deeper and more meaningful relationships in
times of struggle and opposition?
Do we risk losing our identity and individuality living in a
world of equality, integration and political correctness?
With our increasing reliance on social media and hand held
devices, are we actually less connected than ever before?
What does it mean to live life authentically?
These are only a few of the many questions that playwright,
Jordan Harrison explores in Maple and Vine. Mr. Harrison
challenges us to compare the downfalls of life in 2011 to
the benefits of life in 1955 and poses the question, “Was
life better in 1955?” Initially it made me uncomfortable to
consider the validity of a way of life so outside of my liberal
orientation. But that discomfort led me to think, to consider
all sides of the argument and ask myself; “In living in the
low tech, socially conservative oppression of the 50’s,
would I be more connected with the people I loved? Would
I feel more connected to my heritage and culture? Would I
benefit from less freedom and, as an outcome, be more
connected to life and live it with more authenticity?” As I
pondered these questions, I was surprised to conclude that
there was something to Mr. Harrison’s hypothetical
scenario. It put into focus what I have personally lost by
living in this modern age of instant information, immediate
gratification and, in my case, gay equality. Everyone will
have their own opinion which will be informed by their own
histories, but with every answer will come a contradiction.
That’s what I love about this play. As in life, nothing is
black and white. Life is messy and untidy. There are no
easy answers, nor does Mr. Harrison try to create any. He
just presents the hypothetical and leaves the rest for us to
debate.
Enjoy the play and happy debating!
Igor Goldin, Director
6 About the Playwright, Jordan Harrison
Jordan Harrison’s plays include Maple and Vine, Futura, Doris to Darlene, Amazons and their Men, Act a Lady,
Finn in the Underworld, Kid-Simple, The Museum Play, Standing on Ceremony (written with Doug Wright, Paul
Rudnick, and many others), and a musical, Suprema, written with Daniel Zaitchik. His work has been produced at
American Conservatory Theater, American Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, Clubbed
Thumb, Minetta Lane Theater, NAATCO, Next Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Portland Center Stage, and SPF.
Five of Jordan's plays, including the forthcoming The Grown-Up, have premiered in the Humana Festival at Actors
Theatre of Louisville. His children’s musical, The Flea and the Professor, commissioned and produced by the Arden
Theatre, won the 2011 Barrymore Award for Best Production. Jordan's new play, Marjorie Prime, will premiere at
the Mark Taper Forum in 2014, under the direction of Pam MacKinnon.
Jordan is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, the Kesselring Prize, a Theater Masters’
Innovative Playwright Award, the Roe Green Award from Cleveland Play House, the Heideman Award, the Loewe
Award for Musical Theater, Jerome and McKnight Fellowships from The Playwrights' Center and a NEA/TCG
Playwright-in-Residence Grant with The Empty Space Theater. A graduate of the Brown MFA program, Jordan is
an alumnus of New Dramatists. He is an Affiliated Artist with Clubbed Thumb, the Civilians, and The Playwrights'
Center.
7 Jordan Harrison on ‘Maple & Vine’
For nearly a month now, I’ve been throwing away old papers in anticipation of moving to a new apartment. This is harder than
it sounds, mostly because I never throw anything away. My partner insists that these papers -- bursting from drawers, holding
up short table legs -- are threatening to take over our lives. “Do you really need this envelope of receipts from 2006?” he asks.
I hug it to my chest protectively. “What about this Christmas card from the dentist’s office?” Sentimental value, I tell him.
Steam comes out of his ears.
Many of these papers are plays that never were. Or plays that became something better. These are the most difficult to part
with. Sure I have digital copies, but there’s the impulse to save the scribbles in the margins, the X-ray of the creative process.
(There is also my faint distrust of technology and its transience: today’s USB drive is tomorrow’s floppy disk.) Dwarfing the
receipts and Christmas cards are the reams of pages that led to Maple and Vine. Back then it was called Untitled Modern
World Project. Obviously there was room for improvement.
In spring of 2008, director Anne Kauffman approached me about working on a project with The Civilians, a theater company
that specializes in investigative, documentary-style plays. But Anne didn’t want me to make an investigative, documentarystyle play. She and a team of Civilians actors had already conducted hundreds of interviews with people who “retreat” in
different ways from the modern world: the Amish, Civil War re-enactors, cloistered nuns, prospective Mars colonists, off-thegrid artists living in Maine. Anne hoped that, as a newbie with no direct attachment to the interview subjects, I could be
unsparing with the material, I would play fast and loose, I would make something new. No one had told her about my problem
throwing things away.
The interviews were irresistibly colorful: A Civil War re-enactionist explains how to make a fake wound out of raw chicken
thighs; a Mars Society member talks about his wife’s reluctance to move to Mars; a cloistered nun discusses her relationship
with her cell phone. It was unthinkable to throw any of this out, so I wrote a reverent first draft that was literally about the lives
of Civil War re-enactors and Mars Society members, with sequences quilted together from the interview language. Something
wasn’t working. The problem, Anne and I came to agree, was that most of the interviewees were simply proselytizing their way
of life; they weren’t interested in the ambiguities or challenges of escaping the modern world. Their way was the way.
The project was already six months of my life -- giving up wasn’t an option. So I did something I’d never done before: I threw
the entire first draft out, and the interviews along with it. (Or, more precisely, I shoved them into a dusty corner under the bed.)
I started a new play -- simply making things up this time, the way I’m used to -- about a contemporary couple who move to a
society of 1950s re-enactionists. Setting the new draft in a fictitious society allowed me to explore the condition of existing in
two worlds -- and two time periods -- at once. Making things up also allowed me, paradoxically, to invest the play with personal
experience. (I’m probably not the first person to fret that the modern world leaves me increasingly disconnected from other
people, and from my own body and mind.)
Something I never anticipated was that the cast-off interviews lingered, happily, underneath the surface of the new play.
Maple and Vine's central ideas, the surprising benefit of limitations, has its genesis in the interviews. Many of the escapees
had said that they were scared by how much freedom they had in the modern world; they were compelled to go to a world
where their choices were more limited, where a path was laid out for them. It's a somewhat queasy-making idea, that
someone could be happier with fewer freedoms (a friend of mine, having lived through the first wave of feminism, was
dismayed by the idea that someone would elect to be a '50s housewife), but if I've done my job, it's a comprehensible one.
The interviews resurfaced, too, in the form of "farbing," a Civil War re-enactor term, which refers to anachronistic gaffes like
wearing sneakers with your Gettysburg uniform. Writing Maple and Vine, farbing or "disrupting," as the denizens of the
"Society of Domestic Obsolescence" call it, became a major structural and dramatic cue. The danger of disrupting hovers over
all of Act Two.
Tomorrow morning the moving truck will be here. Reluctantly I toss the dusty pages of the Untitled Modern World Project into
a trash bag. I toss the interviews in with it. My partner nods his approval. I feel all right. A little lighter, even. Writing Maple and
Vine taught me to be less scared of throwing things away: the most valuable parts still stick with you.
- September 2011 for Playwrights Horizons
8 A Better Life: Creating the American Dream
from American RadioWorks
The "American Dream" has powered the hopes and aspirations of Americans for generations. It
began as a plain but revolutionary notion: each person has the right to pursue happiness and the
freedom to strive for a better life through hard work and fair ambition. But over time, this dream has
come to represent a set of expectations about owning things and making money. So what exactly
is the American dream? How did we come to define it? And is it changing?
The American Dream has roots in the nation's loftiest ideals - the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So
when did it also come to mean a house, a car and a college education? Centuries before the "American Dream"
became a standard phrase, immigrants and observers knew what it was. The ideals that undergird the American Dream were
formed early in the nation's history. Jim Cullen, author of The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a
Nation, writes:
The Pilgrims may not have actually talked about the American
Dream, but they would have understood the idea: after all, they
lived it as people who imagined a destiny for themselves. So did
the Founding Fathers. So did illiterate immigrants who could not
speak English but who intuitively expressed rhythms of the Dream
with their hands and their hearts. What Alexis de Tocqueville
called 'the charm of anticipated success' in his classic Democracy
in America seemed palpable to him not only in the 1830s, but in
his understanding of American history for two hundred years
before that.
This expansive belief in possibility - "the charm of anticipated success" - is deeply embedded in the nation's psyche.
It's a compelling message political leaders call on when the nation is in crisis, reminding Americans of their can-do
spirit, that individuals have the power to bring about change.
Perhaps it's no coincidence that historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" during the
depths of the Great Depression. A popular writer at the time, Adams wanted to write a history of the United States
for the general reader, one that underscored what he saw as the nation's central historic theme: the American
Dream. In his book, The Epic of America, which was published in 1931, Adams describes that Dream:
[It] is a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each
according to ability or achievement … It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of
social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they
are innately capable and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous
circumstances of birth or position.
Adams was careful to say the American Dream was not just a desire for affluence, but historian David Farber says
the term quickly came to include it. The American Dream "became closely linked to material comfort, to the
consumer abundance America was producing. 'A better life' started to connote not just an economically secure life,
but an abundant life. So there's a kind of linkage between mobility, a better life, and the good stuff that would make
it so."
-read more at http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/americandream/a1.html
9 How to be a Good Wife: Women’s Roles in the 1950s
I know, you think a housewife is just someone in a pretty dress. But a housewife makes things
work. If there’s a silence, she fills it. If there’s a wound, she dresses it… It’s a different kind of
power. It’s not about shaking a big stick. We aren’t trying to be men. What we do is more indirect.
But in the end, we get what we want.
–Ellen, Maple and Vine
It has become fashionable to portray outdated societal
behaviors and attitudes — ones we now consider
desperately wrongheaded — to be worse than they really
were as a way of making a point about how much we've
improved. When we despair over the human condition
and feel the need for a little pat on the back, a few
startling comparisons between us modern enlightened
folks and those terrible Neanderthals of yesteryear give
us that. We go away from such readings a bit proud of
how we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and with
our halos a bit more brightly burnished.
The juxtaposition of wonderful modernity with a tawdry
past also serves to reinforce the 'rightness' of current
societal stances by making any other positions appear
ludicrous. It reminds folks of the importance of holding on
to these newer ways of thinking and to caution them
against falling back into older patterns which may be
more comfortable but less socially desirable. Such
reinforcement works on the principle that if you won't do a
good thing just for its own sake, you'll surely do it to avoid
being laughed at and looked down upon by your peers.
A typical vessel for this sort of comparison is the
fabricated or misrepresented bit of text from the "olden
days," some document that purportedly demonstrates
how our ancestors endured difficult lives amidst people
who once held truly despicable beliefs. Want to prove that
American slaveholders were even more vile than we
could possibly imagine? Just point people to the
apocryphal Slave Consultant's Narrative. Remind
someone what easy lives we lead these days by showing
him an alleged list of rules for teachers from 1872. Or
poke fun at Victorian sexual attitudes (or modern day
feminism) by trotting out a piece of Advice to Young
Brides.
10 The question here is whether the piece quoted above really came from a home
economics textbook. Is it real, or is it yet another of those "look how far we've come"
fabrications? We know the graphic reproduced above (supposedly from the 13 May
1955 edition of a magazine called Housekeeping Monthly) is a fabrication: It didn't first
appear until well after the "How to Be a Good Wife" list had begun circulating via email, and it's clearly a mock-up produced by adding the text of the e-mail around an
image taken from a 1957 cover of John Bull magazine. (The image itself even bears
an "Advertising Archives" legend along its side, indicating its source.) As for the text
itself, nobody has turned up the infamous textbook that supposedly included these
eighteen steps. The list is often attributed to Helen B. Andelin's book Fascinating
Womanhood, first published in 1963 to provide instruction in "The Art of Winning a
Man's Complete Love," but no such list appears in that work.
However, before we head off to go dancing in the streets over this, safe and secure in our knowledge that this list of
housewifely tips was just a bit of cooked-up nonsense, we'd better take another look at the wife's role in the 1950s.
And before we entirely write off Fascinating Womanhood as the source of the piece now in circulation, let's take a
peek between its covers, because it certainly contains plenty to make everyone from the diehard feminist to the
"start the revolution without me" matron shudder, including these entries from a list of "Do's and Dont’s":
Do's
Dont's
Accept him at face value.
Don't try to change him.
Admire the manly things about him.
Don't show indifference, contempt, or
ridicule towards his masculine abilities,
achievements or ideas.
Recognize his superior strength and ability.
Don't try to excel him in anything which
requires masculine ability.
Be a Domestic Goddess.
Don't let the outside world crowd you for
time to do your homemaking tasks well.
Work for inner happiness and seek to
understand its rules.
Don't have a lot of preconceived ideas of
what you want out of life.
Revere your husband and honor his right to
rule you and your children.
Don't stand in the way of his decisions, or his
law.
We don't want to believe any woman, even half a century ago, was willing to submit herself to a life of servitude in
order to be considered successful at her "most important role in life," that of the wife. And we certainly don't want to
believe our schools were used to inculcate young women with these skewed notions of the proper role for women.
Yet we'd be wrong on both counts: Women did, and young gals were.
11 Whether or not the piece at hand is a genuine excerpt from a yetundiscovered home economics textbook, it is nonetheless a
relatively accurate reflection of the mainstream vision of a
woman's appointed role in post-war America, as evinced by such
educational training films as "The Home Economics Story" (made
familiar to a whole new generation of youngsters through its
spoofing on the popular Mystery Science Theater 3000 program).
We needn't paint a mental picture of those times as being one of
master and slave, "his every whim a command, his every
utterance golden," because they weren't. But it is true in those
days a woman's province was understood to be the home. To her
fell the housework and the childrearing, tasks considered her
indisputable purpose in life, her highest calling; not something voluntarily undertaken.
It was seen as only right and proper that the wife should keep the home running smoothly, making it a quiet haven
of peace and joy for her husband, the breadwinner. Her role in the marriage, though still important, was simply not
considered to be on the same level as his. Certainly, the tribulations of running a home were never to be openly
compared with a man's daily travails. He earned money, she didn't; thus his work was important.
So, given all that, how to view this ten-point list which supposedly came from a 1950s home economics textbook?
After having leafed through Fascinating Womanhood, I want to see it as a condensation of the worst of this
particular "joy through subservience" era, a precipitate that showcased only the most servile aspects of what
women were led to believe was their right and proper function (all the parts that didn't portray them as handmaidens
to the lord and master having been discarded to make the story better). Call it an exaggeration with a point, if you
will.
- from Urban Legends Reference Pages at Snopes.com
Sources:
Andelin, Helen B. Fascinating Womanhood.
Santa Barbara: Pacific Press, 1963. 0-553-29220-X.
Elder, Larry. 10 Things You Can't Say in America.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. 0-312-26660-X (pp. 133-134).
Smith, Ken. Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970.
Blast Books, 1999. 0-922-23321-7.
12 The Beginning of the LGBT Civil Rights Movement
…I wake up next to her and for the first second I’m awake I think I’m with you—and then it all
comes back to me and there’s still a whole day of being someone else ahead of me.
–Roger, Maple and Vine
Introduction
In the United States, few attempts were made to create advocacy groups supporting gay and lesbian relationships
until after World War II, although prewar gay life flourished in urban centers such as Greenwich Village and Harlem
during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The disruptions of World War II allowed formerly isolated gay men
and women to meet as soldiers, war workers, and other volunteers uprooted from small towns and posted
worldwide. Greater awareness, coupled with Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigation of homosexuals holding
government jobs during the early 1950s, led to the first American-based political demands for fair treatment in
mental health, public policy, and employment.
1. Advances in the 1950s and 1960
The primary organization acknowledging gay men as an oppressed cultural minority was the Mattachine Society,
founded in 1950 by Harry Hay and Chuck Rowland. Other important homophile organizations on the West Coast
included One, Inc., founded in 1952, and the first lesbian support network, Daughters of Bilitis, founded in 1955 by
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Through meetings and publications, these groups offered information and outreach to
thousands. These first organizations soon found support from prominent sociologists and psychologists. In 1951,
Donald Webster Cory published The Homosexual in America (Cory, 1951), asserting that gay men and lesbians
were a legitimate minority group, and in 1953, Dr. Evelyn Hooker won a grant from the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) to study gay men. Her groundbreaking paper, presented in 1956, demonstrated that gay men were
as well adjusted as heterosexual men, often more so. But it would not be until 1973 that the American Psychiatric
Association removed homosexuality as an "illness" classification in its diagnostic manuals. Throughout the 1950s
and 60s, gay men and lesbians continued to be at risk for psychiatric lockup, jail sentences and the loss of jobs or
child custody when courts and clinics defined gay love as sick, criminal, or immoral.
ONE Magazine was founded by members of the Mattachine Society.
13 2. The civil rights movement
In 1965, as the civil rights movement won new legislation outlawing racial discrimination, the first gay rights
demonstrations took place in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, led by longtime activists Frank Kameny and
Barbara Gittings. The turning point for gay liberation came on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the popular
Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village fought back against ongoing police raids of their neighborhood bar.
Stonewall is still considered a watershed moment of gay pride and has been commemorated since the 1970s with
"pride marches" held annually across the United States. Recent scholarship has called for better acknowledgement
of the roles that drag performers, minorities, and transgender patrons played in the Stonewall Riots.
3. The gay liberation movement
The gay liberation movement of the 1970s saw myriad political organizations spring up, often at odds with one
another. Frustrated with the male leadership of most gay liberation groups, lesbians formed their own collectives,
record labels, music festivals, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing houses and called for lesbian rights in
mainstream feminist groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW). Expanding religious acceptance for
gay men and women of faith, the first out gay minister was ordained by the United Church of Christ in 1972. Other
gay and lesbian church and synagogue congregations soon followed. Formed in 1972, Parents and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) offered family members greater support roles in the gay rights movement. And
political action exploded through the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the
election of openly gay and lesbian representatives like Elaine Noble and Barney Frank, and, in 1979, the first march
on Washington for gay rights.
4. 1980s through today
Through the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the AIDS epidemic, demands for compassion
and medical funding led to renewed coalitions between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups
like AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Nation. Enormous marches on Washington drew as
many as 1 million gay rights supporters in 1987 and again in 1993. A different wing of the political rights movement
called for an end to military expulsion of gay and lesbian soldiers, with the high-profile case of Col. Margarethe
Cammermeyer publicized through a made-for-television movie, Serving in Silence. The patriotism and service of
gay men and lesbians in uniform eventually resulted in the uncomfortable compromise "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as an
alternative to decades of military witch hunts and dishonorable discharges. Finally, in the last decade of the 20th
century, millions of Americans watched as actress Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television in April 1997,
heralding a new era of gay celebrity power and media visibility. Celebrity performers, both gay and heterosexual,
have been among the most vocal activists, calling for tolerance and equal rights. As a result of hard work by
countless organizations and individuals, helped by Internet and direct-mail campaign networking, the 21st century
heralded new legal gains for gay and lesbian couples. Same-sex civil unions were recognized under Vermont law in
2000, and Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in 2003. With the end of state
sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), gay Americans were finally free from criminal classification. Gay marriage
is now legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, although the recognition of gay marriage by church
and state continues to divide opinion worldwide.
Reference
Cory, D. W. (1951). The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach. New York: Greenberg.
-Source: American Psychological Association
14 A Brief Timeline of 1950s Asian-America
…we have a Japanese-American fellow moving in right now. And it’s interesting, what the
research tells us, what we have by 1955 is already a kind of counter-prejudice… People have
started to feel a little uncomfortable that American citizens were interned, during the war?(Is this
SUPPOSED to be a question mark?)
–Ellen, Maple and Vine
• 1951
o Truman signs a peace treaty with Japan, the Treaty of San Francisco, officially ending WWII.
• 1952
o In Sei Fujii v. California, the California Supreme Court declares the state’s Alien Land Act
unconstitutional. The 1913 law had been used to prevent Asian immigrants from owning property,
regardless of their length of residence in the Unite States.
o The McCarren-Walter Immigration Nationality Act abolishes the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917,
making Japanese and Korean-born immigrants eligible for U.S. citizenship.
o Tommy Kono, Yoshinobu Oyakawa, and Ford Kono become the first Japanese-Americans to win
Olympic gold medals. Evelyn Kawamoto becomes the first Japanese-American woman to win an
Olympic medal.
• 1955
o The Chinese Chamber of Commerce is established in Los Angeles to promote and encourage the
development of the Chinese-American business community.
• 1956
o Harry Holt returns from Korea with eight Korean orphans whom he adopted. He later established the
Holt Adoption Agency, which brought thousands of Korean orphans to the United States.
• 1957
o Harry Holt returns from Korea with eight Korean orphans whom he adopted. He later established the
Holt Adoption Agency, which brought thousands of Korean orphans to the United States. (was in the
1956, as mentioned above, or in 1957?)
o The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1957 also known as the Refugee-Escapee Act further
differentiates the terms “refugee” and “immigrant” limiting the ability for “aliens” (born in the US or
naturalized) to become citizens of the US.
• 1959
o The Immigration and Nationalization Service creates the Chinese Confession Program, which offered
legalized status in exchange for confession of illegal entry into the country.
o The South Korean female trio The Kim Sisters appear on Ed Sullivan where they would appear 21 more
times over the next 14 years.
15 How Do You Define Happiness?
I think…people aren’t happy. People have never been happy. The whole idea is a tyranny.
Slaves building the pyramids… Serfs. They didn’t have enough time to ask ‘Am I happy?’ This is
not even a hundred-year-old idea: ‘Am I happy.’? … Maybe that’s what happy is… Not having
enough time to wonder if you’re happy.
–Ryu and Katha, Maple and Vine
Its pursuit is enshrined as a fundamental right in the United States and occupies most of
us. But what do we really know about happiness? Can we study it? Are we born with it?
Can we make ourselves happier? Who’s happy and who’s not, and why? What makes
us happy? Researchers are learning more and more about the answers to these
questions. Defining Happiness
Defining happiness can seem as elusive as achieving it. We want to be happy, and we can say whether we are or
not, but can it really be defined, studied and measured? And can we use this learning to become happier?
Psychologists say yes, and that there are good reasons for doing so. Positive psychology is “the scientific study of
the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.” These researchers’ work includes
studying strengths, positive emotions, resilience, and happiness. Their argument is that only studying psychological
disorders gives us just part of the picture of mental health. We will learn more about well-being by studying our
strengths and what makes us happy. The hope is that by better understanding human strengths, we can learn new
ways to recover from or prevent disorders, and may even learn to become happier.
So how do these researchers define happiness? Psychologist Ed Diener, author of Happiness: Unlocking the
Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, describes what psychologists call “subjective well-being” as a combination of life
satisfaction and having more positive emotions than negative emotions.
Martin Seligman, one of the leading researchers in positive psychology and author of Authentic Happiness,
describes happiness as having three parts: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Pleasure is the “feel good” part of
happiness. Engagement refers to living a “good life” of work, family, friends, and hobbies. Meaning refers to using
our strengths to contribute to a larger purpose. Seligman says that all three are important, but that of the three,
engagement and meaning make the most difference to living a happy life.
Measuring Happiness
Since happiness is so subjective, can it really be measured and studied scientifically? Researchers say yes. They
believe that we can reliably and honestly self-report our state of happiness and increases and decreases in
happiness. After all, isn’t our own perception of happiness what matters? And if we can report it, scientists can
measure it. Psychologist Daniel Gilbert compares this to optometry: “Optometry is another one of those sciences
that is built entirely on people's reports of subjective experience. The one and only way for an optometrist to know
what your visual experience is like is to ask you, ‘Does it look clearer like this or (click click) like this?’
-Source: PBS’s This Emotional Life
16 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!
17 Recommended Resources
Books and Articles:
• Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin
• Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki
• The American Dream: The 50s (Our American Century) by Time-Life Books
Websites and Organizations:
• 50s slang
http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/?term=&beginEra=1950&endEra=1959&clean=true&s
ubmitsend=Search
• American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org/index.aspx
• American RadioWorks
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/
• PBS: This Emotional Life
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/happiness/what-happiness
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