The Creative Minds Behind Doubt: A Parable – John Patrick Shanley

Next Tuesday, February 21, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center will present Doubt: A Parable performed by the Montana Repertory Theatre. The play centers on controversy within a Catholic school set in 1965, where the strict Sister Aloysius suspects there may be a dark side to the charismatic Father Flynn. But is hard-headed Sister Aloysius protecting children from harm, or is she falsely accusing an innocent man of a shocking abuse of power and trust?

There are more layers to this incredibly powerful play, and you may find even more to enjoy with a closer look at the playwright, John Patrick Shanley. His own life and those of his friends and family have taken shape in many of his plays, and as Alex Witchel wrote about Shanley in The New York Times, “the curse of having a writer in the family is that everything - sooner or later - becomes material.”

About the Playwright

Born in 1950, John Patrick Shanley grew up the youngest of five children in an Irish-Catholic family in the Bronx neighborhood of East Tremont. His father, a meatpacker, was an Irish immigrant, and the neighborhood was home to similar working-class Irish and Italian families. “It was extremely anti-intellectual and extremely racist, and none of this fit me,” the playwright revealed to The New York Times, recalling that he was “in constant fistfights from the time I was six,” though he asserted he rarely picked the fight himself.

Shanley spent the first eight years of his formal education at a Catholic school run by the Sisters of Charity. He went on to the all-boys Cardinal Spellman High School, where he rebelled against strict, no-nonsense priests, spending time every week in after-school detention. He next attended a private Catholic school in New Hampshire, where he began to thrive as teachers encouraged his writing talents. After briefly attending New York University, Shanley enlisted in the Marine Corps. Following his service in the Vietnam War, he returned to NYU and graduated in 1977 as the valedictorian of his class.

Shanley had already started writing plays. In his early twenties, he later recalled, “I tried the dialogue form, and it was instantaneous. I wrote a full-length play the first time I ever wrote in dialogue, and it was produced a few weeks later.” By the early 1980s he had written a half-dozen works, and some of the one act plays were staged together in a late 1982 production titled Welcome to the Moon. Featuring fanciful characters and props, the play explored themes of love and love’s absence. Critics were less than kind.

He had somewhat better luck with Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, a play about two star-crossed lovers who meet in a seedy Bronx bar, which was produced in New York and London in 1984 and toured with the Louisville Festival.

Next, Shanley turned to writing a screenplay based on his experiences with voluble Italian-American families. The resulting film, Moonstruck, starred Cher and Nicolas Cage. A strong supporting cast and interesting subplots centering on love and infidelity rounded out the work, which won Shanley the 1987 Academy Award for best screenplay. Following Moonstruck, Shanley had little success in Hollywood. "The January Man" and "Joe Versus the Volcano," despite the presence of big-name stars, were panned by critics and did poorly at the box office. He was more successful with his script for HBO’s "Live from Baghdad," which won a 2003 Emmy Award.

Shanley’s playwriting during this time included Italian American Reconciliation (1988) and Beggars in the House of Plenty (1991), featuring the dysfunctional characters who had become the hallmark of his work. In 2001 Shanley became involved with New York’s LAByrinth Theater Company, where his play Where’s My Money? was staged.

Doubt, A Parable began its off-Broadway run in November 2004 and went on to Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre the following March. The play earned outstanding praise from critics and the most impressive honors for which a playwright could ever hope: the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award® for best play of the 2004-2005 season. Shanley adapted his play for the screen, and in 2008, the film, directed by Shanley and starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, was released to critical acclaim. The movie’s many awards included an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and a Golden Globe for best screenplay.

A world premiere, fully-staged production of Shanley’s new play, Pirate, was one of the highlights of Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater 2010 summer season.

For more information and tickets to Tuesday night’s performance, visit foxcitiespac.com.

Sources:
Montana Repertory Theatre (montanarep.org)
Encyclopedia of World Biography (notablebiographies.com)
The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Show & Tell Review of Million Dollar Quartet

Lori was at Million Dollar Quartet this week and shared the first Show & Tell video review.

Check it out!

Show & Tell: Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Their name says it all: the Shabalala’s were destined to sing. If family names speak at all, it’s no surprise that Joseph Shabalala, the founder and leader of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and four of his sons, followed that path.

In his 52^nd year leading his family and four other members (two of whom are also brothers), Joseph shares his music, culture, and spirituality with the world. Offering audiences the sound of “peace, love, and harmony,” this enlightening troupe arrived this Wednesday at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.

Taken from their new album, “Songs From a Zulu Farm,” most songs told stories of life in Ladysmith, the hometown of Shabalala and the namesake of the company. From the humorous story of a pesky ankle-nipping chicken to a prayerful melody to chase away the clouds, Ladysmith Black Mambazo fluently translated South African daily life into infectious a cappella music. Without interference by instruments or distortion of technology, the lucid voice of the Mambazo’s soared with open clarity and honesty. Joseph Shabalala, who writes and arranges the music, also conducted the group, though he shared this honor with Sibongiseni – his youngest son and a relatively recent Mambazo member. Sibongiseni lead with a sincere voice and obvious enjoyment, and his effervescence shone through the music. 

The family aspect of Ladysmith Black Mambazo lent itself well to the dynamic of the group. Even sitting rows away, the seemingly tangible connection between performers radiated from the Mambazo’s synchronized movements and uplifting message of hope. The amalgam of nine individual voices into one deep, sonorous tone filled the theater and enraptured the audience. While the esoteric syllables and interwoven clicks and calls were foreign, the clear spirit and rhythms of each song beguiled listeners of all backgrounds and ages. In addition to the Shabalala’s native Zulu tongue, the Mambazo’s performed in English, from the soothing, “Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain,” to their famous 1985 collaboration with Paul Simon titled, “Homeless,”both of which were met with glorious admiration by the audience. 

Beyond the earnest message and soulful singing, Ladysmith Black Mambazo offered a performance laced with cheeky shenanigans. Histrionic dancing and playful mockery from all nine performers garnered laughter, cheers, and whistles from the lively audience and displayed the Mambazo’s endearing brotherhood. 

Joseph Shabalala was right. It truly was an experience filled with peace, love, and harmony.

Show & Tell: Ladysmith Black Mambazo

One of the best parts of living in Appleton is minutes from our doorstep my teenage son and I can walk through the doors of the Fox Cities P.A.C. and be immediately transported transcontinentally as we were last night with the South African a cappella sounds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Their incomparable, distinctive musical style allowed us to temporarily leave our surroundings and immerse ourselves in a night of song, education, and entertainment.

Last night’s performance combined songs from two distinct South African musical traditions. A majority of the songs came from their most recent album, “Songs from a Zulu Farm,” which the group’s seventy year old founder and lead singer, Joseph Shabalala, drew upon traditional farm songs from his childhood. “Yangiluma Inkukhu” (Biting Chicken) and “Wemfana” (Bad Donkey), among others, demonstrated their playful side with songs dedicated to youthful wonderment of birds, animals and forces of nature. Young and old equally enjoyed the pieces which featured vocalizations of chickens, donkeys and other farm animals amidst chants and call-outs in their signature, multi-layered style. Intermixed with “Songs from a Zulu Farm” album, they performed pieces from the musical tradition they are more notably known for, those of the South African mining song rhythms, like the iconic “Homeless.”

Their music is as organic as that which they sing about. As cultural ambassadors of song, their lyrics focusing on nature, love, and social issues, which transcend cultural boundaries and reminds us beauty exists all around us in the quotidian of life.

As a cappella group, there is nothing to hide behind. They bare themselves to us. My son, a percussionist, was most impressed with the group’s ability to use their voices percussively and in the absence of instrumentation, create it so simply, beautifully and uniquely with clucks, whistles, rhythmic clapping and other tools they have developed over the fifty-two years of making music in a style which is uniquely their own. As they combined their music with traditional dance moves, we marveled at the agility, not only of the younger members, but more impressively, for the members of the group who are nearing their 70s, with their high kicks and dances of athleticism.

What is clear is Ladysmith Black Mambazo has broken, and continues to break, musical boundaries with no end in sight. Last month they released their newest album, “Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Friends,” a two-disc collaborative set of music in virtually every genre with artists from around the globe. Averaging nearly one recorded album every year, combined with an abundance of young talent in the group of nine (four of the nine are Shabalala’s sons), assures me the next time I see them in concert, which would be my fifth time, will be as equally enjoyable and fresh as it was the first time nearly twenty years ago.

Discover Doubt: A Parable with Insights from the Cast

On February 21, Montana Repertory Theatre will tackle faith, trust, mendacity, friendship and the Church with a deft and insightful touch at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center with Doubt:A Parable. 

It’s 1964 and the impressionable Sister James reports a dubious exchange between a young student and the charismatic Father Flynn to the strict principal of St. Nicholas Church School. Sister Aloysius, unsatisfied by an elementary explanation, seeks the truth within a cloak of suspicion, mistrust and doubt woven together in a Tony® Award-winning play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley.

Here’s what the cast has to say about Doubt!

Q. Doubt deals with some very serious accusations. How much of the play really focuses on allegations within the Church? 

Caitlin Mcrae While the story of Doubt: A Parable takes place within the Catholic Church, it serves as an illustration of the reality that we, as humans, are often quick to assign blame and judgment. Or, on the opposite side of the argument, we avoid taking a stance. We avoid speaking up for fear of being wrong, and, in doing so, we risk allowing dire problems to continue.

Q. Doubt is largely a character drama, pitting Father Flynn against Sister Aloysius. Which character do you think the audience connects with most? 

Sarina Hart I personally believe the character that audiences will connect with the most is Sister James. She is the audience's voice in the show. Her struggle with the situation is what the audience itself is going through.

Brendan Shanahan Sister Aloysius has that voice of suspicion then accusation before the audience hears anything to the contrary and they, for the most part, go right along with her. Once that seed of doubt is implanted in their minds it’s hard to change it. However, there is a good portion of the audience that will be pulled in both directions along with Sister James from scene to scene, which is what makes this play so good.

Q. How does preparing for a national tour differ from producing a show for your home theater?

Brendan Shanahan Touring is unique in that we don't just come to the theater, perform the show and go home. We work and live with the company members and that's really where the term “theater family” becomes very tangible. And with this particular, thought provoking play, it will be fascinating to see the differing reactions from region to region.

Q. How do you hope audience will react to this play?

Sarina Hart I hope they gasp with astonishment. I hope they shake their heads with incredulity. But mostly, I hope they leave the theater without having their mind made up. 

Brendan Shanahan Applause and standing ovations, of course. I hope the audience is willing to think about and discuss the larger themes of the play. Not just "did he do it or not."

  

Without a doubt, this play will have you on the edge of your seat! To learn more, visit foxcitiespac.com.