Hello Friend,
My name is Mary Elizabeth Scallen, but feel free to call me MB. I’m a long-time company member here. This month, I serve as guest writer for this newsletter while our Director of Community Investment Marcie Bramucci welcomes her newborn daughter to the world.
It feels fitting that this child arrived at the green edge of spring, as leaves unfurl and wintering birds return.
It also feels fitting that right now, as each day offers us more light by which to live, we produce The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The title character, a rather snooty fellow, believes at first that he needs no one and nothing beyond himself. Until he tumbles into adventures that crack open his heart to let in the light.
This is a play for adults and for youth, for those who love and those who are loved. It will crack open your heart, and remind you that despite turmoil, confusion, or worry, you too can be full of light.
Hope to see you at the Theatre,
MB
Artistic Associate
Inside The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
For director
Stuart Carden, these words from author and spiritualist Andrew Harvey capture
the essence of this production:
If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders.
—As reported in The Chicago Tribune, October 2015
To these wonders, add
a dose of adventure and a dash of mayhem, and you’ve got The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The story centers on a
very dignified china rabbit that travels from the arms of a child to the bottom
of the ocean, from a trash heap to a moving train, from the streets of Memphis
to worlds beyond, until he learns how to care for the people he meets.
Playwright Dwayne Hartford adapted the play from a novel by Kate DiCamillo, two-time recipient of the Newbery Award for young adult literature and the author of Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux. Director Stuart Carden expands his acclaimed Chicago production of the play here in Malvern with the help of his original design team:
John Musial, Set Designer
Rachel Healy, Costume Designer
Lee Fiskness, Lighting Designer
Mikhail Fiksel, Sound Designer
Jessie Fisher and Erik Hellman, Composers and
Music Directors
The production team also includes master puppeteer Robert
Smythe, who will create specialized rigging to support the production’s
puppetry; Dialect Coach Eva Brenamen; and Stage Manager Lauren Bieber.
They're joined by four versatile actor-musicians:
Charlie DelMarcelle as The Musician
Dana
Omar as The Woman
Emily Peterson as The Traveler
Reggie D. White as The Man
Dana Omar, Emily Peterson, Reggie D. White, Edward Tulane, Charlie DelMarcelle
Three of the actors portray multiple roles, populating the diverse, far-flung places that the china rabbit visits over decades of travel. The fourth actor, Philadelphia favorite Charlie DelMarcelle, plays only one role, voicing Edward’s thoughts and feelings throughout the journey. (You’ll probably remember Charlie from last season’s Community Matters reading of Touch(ed) by Bess Wohl.)
Here’s a script excerpt to give you a sense of the story’s depth. Near the end of the play, after many adventures, Edward finds himself sitting on a shelf in a shop, next to a much older toy:
OLD DOLL
From the
cracks on your face, I would guess that you have seen much more of life than
what these young ones have seen. Am I right?
EDWARD
Yes.
OLD DOLL
My face
has its share of cracks as well. I too
have seen life. We mustn’t be too hard on the young ones. They will learn. Like
we have, yes?
EDWARD
Yes. Hard
lessons.
OLD DOLL
Wonderful lessons. And we keep learning, don’t we? Every time a new person
comes into our lives, we start off on a new adventure. I wonder who will come
for me this time. Someone will come. They always do—eventually.
EDWARD
I don’t care if anyone comes for me.
OLD DOLL
Don’t say that! You must keep your heart open, ready to love and be loved.
EDWARD
I’m done with being loved. I’m done with loving. It’s too painful.
OLD DOLL
You disappoint me.
EDWARD
What did you say?
OLD DOLL
You heard me. You disappoint me. If you have no intention to love and be
loved, then the whole journey is pointless. You might as well leap from this shelf right now and get it over with.
EDWARD
I would leap if I were able.
OLD DOLL
Shall I push you?
EDWARD
No, thank you. Not that you could, anyway.
OLD DOLL
Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first,
you must open your heart.
Surrounding The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Deepen your experience with this production.
Talk with the artists: You’re invited to post-show conversations with the artists after every performance of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
Open Caption performances on 5/31 @2pm & 7:30pm, 6/4 @2pm. Click here for a list of all open caption performances in the season. If you are interested in the Open Caption services, please notify the box office when reserving your tickets so we can seat you in the ideal section.
Relaxed Performance on 5/28 @2pm. Enjoy an arts experience that welcomes your whole family, and lets you be who you are. These live performances invite and encourage individuals with Autism, ADD, ADHD, Dementia and sensory sensitivities, and anyone else who’d benefit from a non-judgmental, shush-free environment, to attend and enjoy the show.
NEW! Audio Described Performance on 5/28 @2pm. This verbal commentary tells visually-impaired patrons what happens onstage during sections of the performance when there is no dialogue. The description does not interfere with the performance, but fills in the gaps, describing facial expressions, costume, scenery, and action sequences so that anyone with sight issues can follow the plot fully and independently.
Approximate run time for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is 80 minutes with no intermission. Best enjoyed by ages 8 and up.
Around Town & Beyond
with company artists
Susan "Sooz" McKey and frequent guest artist Jessica Bedford make their off-Broadway debuts in Bruce Graham's White Guy on the Bus from 2/5-4/16.
Susan's band Lucky Brown plays at Bellefonte Cafe in Delaware on 4/21.
Greg Wood performs alongside his wife, Susan Riley Stevens, in Happy Birthday at 1812 Productions from 4/27-5/21.
A year after its premiere at People's Light, Zak Berkman's play The Harassment of Iris Malloy takes the stage at Detroit Public Theatre from 5/3-28.
Cast as sisters, Mary Elizabeth Scallen and Julianna Zinkel tackle Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs at Act II Playhouse from 5/16-6/11.
Pete Pryor and Samantha Reading lead the students of Pathway School in a production of A Year with Frog and Toad, Jr. on 5/23 and 5/24.
On Stage Now
I and You opens to rave reviews!
"surprising, visceral, devastating"
The Philadelphia Inquirer
"sparkles with wit and emotional honesty"
Broad Street Review
"magical"
DelCo Culture Vultures
In March, teens who attended our monthly open mic night (Fourth Friday Cafe) got into the I and You spirit with director Samantha Reading. Check out the video they made below!
Theatre News
NEA ArtWorks Grant
People’s Light received a prestigious NEA ArtWorks Grant—the largest theatre grant given out in the state of Pennsylvania—to support the world premiere of Project Dawn by Karen Hartman. Karen based her play, a work of fiction, on the real-life toils of Project Dawn Court, a problem-solving organization that partners with attorneys, safe houses, and social workers to improve the lives of women with multiple prostitution convictions. Project Dawn is the first production to emerge from our New Play Frontiers program, a long-term initiative that develops and produces new plays that explore American identity through stories of deep meaning to specific local populations.
#ProjectDawnCommunityInitiative
In March 2017, People’s Light launched a crowdfunding campaign for Project Dawn. The $7,500 campaign goal will underwrite theatre tickets for targeted communities who could benefit from seeing the play, but who would not otherwise attend, including social workers, teachers, first responders, parole officers, law enforcement, and students training in these fields. Ticket subsidies for these key groups will expand the production’s reach, as well as foster empathy and understanding among those who serve our most vulnerable populations. For more information or to contribute to this fund, please visit https://igg.me/at/XWn5BMRi-6Y
SummerBLAST 2017
Our teaching artists are getting excited for the summer ahead and the return of our perennially popular, summer theatre experiences for youth. This year in SummerBLAST, our Littles (ages 7-9) will explore wacky comedy, Youth (ages 10-13) will examine the questions, Who am I? and Where do I belong?, and Teens (ages 14-18) will dig into improvisation, devising, stage combat, and rehearsal techniques around Romeo and Juliet.
Check out more details here.
Relaxed Performances
April is Autism Awareness month across the country, which makes the following opportunities all the more timely. Here’s a list of Relaxed Performances in the Philadelphia region over the next three months. We encourage you to share this list with friends and family.
Relaxed Performances at our TCG cohort theatres:
Saturday, April 22nd | 3PM
Sisters Of Swing
Montgomery Theater
(Call 215.723.9984, x 10 for more information)
Saturday, April 29th | 11AM
Laurie Berkner Band in concert
McCarter Theatre Center
(Call 609.258.2787, promo code RELAX)
Sunday, May 7th | 7PM
Hetty Feather
Delaware Theatre Company
(Call 302.594.1100 for more information)
Saturday, June 10th | 10am
The Ice Princess
Pennsylvania Shakespeare
Festival
(Call 610.282.9455 for more information)
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