The Pear Avenue Theatre proudly presents
The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard
Director Ray Renati
Producer Diane Tasca
Stage Manager Sara Sparks Set Design Ron Gasparinetti
Lighting Design Costume Design Edward Hunter Diane Tasca Sound Design Ray Renati
Presented with permission from Samuel French, Inc.
The Ensemble (in order of appearance)
Max ............................................. Fred Pitts Charlotte ....................................... Lucy Littlewood Henry............................................ Michael Champlin Annie............................................ Carla Pauli Billy .............................................. Robert Sean Campbell Debbie........................................... Madeline Napel Brodie............................................ Brandon Leland
Directors Note
Perception, belief, faith, love, commitment: we humans base most of our lives on our own personal perceptions of what we decide is real. All of our political beliefs, prejudices, and even our closest personal relationships are based on what we believe to be true. However, when you narrow all things down to their smallest manifestation, you soon find that there is really nothing there. It's all based on our own desires and hopes for what we wish were cast in stone. When we are able to accept this, life becomes much easier. All things become more fluid and we become more understanding and accepting of change. As you move into the world of this performance of The Real Thing, you may at times become confused. What you think you see, will slowly become something else altogether. You may feel amused, frustrated, tricked, or even angry, as what you believe you are witnessing is revealed as something else altogether, a microcosm of our lives: Lance Armstrong, a hero to millions is revealed as a cheat, or is he? Muslim terrorists are evil agents of the devil himself, and then you realize that they believe the exact same thing about the West. Who's right? Someone we decide to love and who we believe loves us, suddenly dies, or maybe even more hard to accept, simply leaves. How do we deal with these things? How do we survive them and carry on? Perhaps, it has to do with staying nimble and holding on to the beliefs that keep us sane: religion, love, charity, the innate goodness of humanity. Perhaps the wisest thing to do is to hold on to your sense of humor. I would like thank to this company of actors that I have been privileged to nudge, cajole, and laugh with for the last four weeks. The commitment and effort that each of them has devoted to this endeavor has been an joy to be a part of. --Ray Renati, November 1, 2012
Act 1: Early 1980s, London (various locations) Act 2: Two years later, London and Glasgow
Time / Place
There will be a 10-minute intermission between Acts 1 and 2.
The Production Team
Director ........................................ Ray Renati Producer ....................................... Diane Tasca Stage Manager ............................. Sara Sparks Production Manager ................... Patricia Tyler Set Designer................................. Ron Gasparinetti Lighting Designer ....................... Edward Hunter Costume Designer ...................... Diane Tasca Sound Designer ........................... Ray Renati Master Carpenter ........................ Charles McKeithan Scenic Painting ............................ Madeline Gibson Costume Consultant ................... Lucy Littlewood Publicity Directors ...................... Jeanie K. Smith & Shannon Stowe Postcard Designer....................... Patricia Tyler Program Consultant ................... Susan Petit Website Designer ........................ Ray Renati
About the Playwright and the Play
Sir Tom Stoppard was born Toms Strassler in Zln, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, where his father, a doctor, worked for the Bata shoe company. On the day in 1939 that Germany invaded what remained of Czechoslovakia, Bata evacuated the Strasslers to Singapore, but Stoppard would not learn until the 1990s that his secular father and Catholic mother were of full Jewish descent and that all four of his grandparents and three of his mothers sisters had died in death camps. When the Japanese attacked Singapore in 1942, Dr. Strassler stayed to treat the wounded and was killed, but his wife and sons managed to reach India. In Darjeeling, Toms and his brother Petr attended an English-language boarding school; their mother ran a Bata store. In 1945 she married Major Kenneth Stoppard, a chauvinistic Englishman who took his new family to England, anglicized his stepsons first names, and gave them his last name. Tom
Stoppard has said that he felt immediately at home in Britain, and he became an enthusiastic cricketer and fly fisher. Stoppard left school at 17 to work as a reporter in Bristol. He got interested in drama when he was assigned a theatre beat, and in 1960 he became a free-lance journalist to have the time to write radio, television, and stage plays. His breakthrough came in 1967 when the National Theatre staged Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which became an international success. (It would be filmed in 1990 under Stoppards direction.) His major plays include Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, Rock n Roll, and The Coast of Utopia. Luckily for local theatregoers, ACT in San Francisco staged each play except the last shortly after its first production. There have also been revivals; one of his most popular plays, Arcadia, which the Pear mounted in 2007, will be revived by ACT in spring 2013. Stoppards many screenplays, all of which are adaptations, include Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun, and this years Anna Karenina. The Real Thing opened in London in 1982 and on Broadway in 1984, where it won five Tonys; I saw a fine revival of it in 2010 at Londons Old Vic. In this play for the first time Stoppard focused more on character than on wit and drew on his own life as husband, father, and playwright. Yet artifice is still very much present, as shownamong other thingsby the doubling and tripling of situations and lines, suggesting that identity and allegiances are unstable. Stoppard dedicated this exploration of desire and infidelities to his second wife, Miriam, the mother of two of his four sons, one of whom is the actor Ed Stoppard; yet in 1990 he would leave her for Felicity Kendal, who originated the role of Annie in The Real Thing. The play asks what the real thing is in love, political commitment, and art. How do we know when love is real? Do political motives matter? Are good writing and good music only a matter of taste, or is there an absolute standard? Does theatre have its own kind of reality? The Real Thing revels in dramatic tradition, as shown not only in scenes from Miss Julie and Tis Pity Shes a Whore but in allusions to Hamlet, Othello, Private Lives, and perhaps Citizen Kane and The Public Enemy. Henry, a sort of caricature of Stoppard, celebrates language, but the play reflects the playwrights more inclusive view, that theatre is not a script but what he calls an event and involves set, costumes, music, action, and all sorts of illusion. Paradoxically, it may be illusions that make a play the real thing. Susan Petit
Whos Who in This Production
Robert Sean Campbell (Billy) completed the Classical Acting Programme for Post-Graduates and Professionals at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and graduated from Santa Clara University, where he was the 2007 recipient of the William H. Leahy Award. Credits include Trofimov (The Cherry Orchard), Jake Quinn et al. (Stones in His Pockets), Merritt et al. (Eat the Runt), Villars (Complete Female Stage Beauty), Joe Pitt (Angels in America Part One), George Gibbs (Our Town), Adam (The Shape of Things), Jesus (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), Young Zeke Rowen (The Kentucky Cycle), Coriolanus (Coriolanus), and Romeo (Romeo and Juliet). He is a proud member of TBA. www.robertseancampbell. Michael Champlin (Henry) is happy to be back on stage once again at The Pear, where he was recently seen in The Cherry Orchard. The Real Thing pushes Michael into double-digits at The Pear, this being his 10th appearance! Michael also directs and will be doing so again this season for The Apple Never Falls, the sequel to 2011s No Good Deed. He has acted and directed at numerous other theaters throughout the South Bay, including TheatreWorks, Dragon Productions, and Bus Barn Stage Company. Michael could not be more thrilled about this role, this cast, this crew! Above all, though, he is happy to have his own Real Thingshis wife, Katie, and his son, Jack. Brandon Leland (Brodie) is very pleased to be back at The Pear for The Real Thing since last being seen here in Our Town! Past credits include George Hay in Moon Over Buffalo and Cinderella/Prince/The Wolf in Into The Woods at Westmont High School, Dingo in The Mystery Spot at SJ City Lights, and Bobby in A Chorus Line. Outside of the theatre world, Brandon tours and records with his band Till i Fall, performs in The Street Drum Corps, and works for Mix 106.5. Lucy Littlewood (Charlotte) is happy to be making her debut at the Pear! Her most recent credits include Mary Smith in Run for Your Wife (Broadway West Theatre Co.), Lucy Steele in the US premiere of Sense and Sensibility (TheatreWorks), Sorel Bliss in Hay Fever (Broadway West), Harper Pitt in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Bus Barn Stage Company), and Margot Wendice in Dial M for Murder (Broadway West). Lucy is a graduate of the Foothill Theatre Conservatory and a proud member of Theatre Bay Area. Thank you for choosing to support live theatre today! Madeline Napel (Debbie) is very glad to be making her Pear Avenue Theatre debut. She cant imagine a better way to spend the fall semester of her senior year! She has appeared onstage at Menlo-Atherton High School in productions of The Rimers of Eldrich (Eva Jackson), Pride and Prejudice (Charlotte Lucas), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Logainne). She would like to thank her friends, her family, and everyone involved in this amazing production.
Fred Pitts (Max) is very pleased to be making his second foray onto the Pear Avenue stage, where he last appeared in Pear Slices 2012. Other recent roles include Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (African-American Shakes), East, Lendall, and Randy in Almost, Maine (Bus Barn), Richard Wright in Waiting for Giovanni (New Conservatory), and Matthew Foster in Private Eyes (Dragon Productions). He has also performed with Hillbarn Theater, Custom Made, Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, and Ross Valley Players, among others. Carla Pauli (Annie) is absolutely delighted to be performing on the Pear stage with such a fun and dedicated cast! Recent credits include Enron (Open Tab Productions), Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (AlterTheater), and Pelleas and Melisande (Cutting Ball); she has also worked with Womans Will, Golden Thread, Brava, and The Magic. Carla studies at A.C.T. Studio. She would like to thank director Ray Renati for his incredible patience and Lynne Soffer and Domenique Lozano for their help in offering her the tools to grow into this role. Carla is a Teaching Artist at Spindrift School of Performing Arts and a recipient of the TBAs Titan Award. Ron Gasparinetti (Scenic Designer) hails from Newark, NJ, but has lived in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. Currently Ron is the production manager, technical director, and resident scenic designer at City Lights (SJ). He has been a part of nearly 500 productions in his 32-year-long devotion to theatre. Some favorite creations: Humble Boy (Dragon), Proof (City Lights) The Clean House (Bus Barn) and Metamorphoses (Pear). His work has also been seen at Los Altos Youth Theatre, Shady Shakespeare, 42nd St. Moon, and New Conservatory. See more of his work at www.TheSetGuy.com. Edward Hunter (Lighting Designer) has been doing theatre in the South Bay since he moved here in 1985. This is his second design for the Pear; his first was for Three Tall Women in 2007. Besides working at the Pear, Ed has worked with TheatreWorks, Sunnyvale Players, Teatro Visin, Shady Shakespeare and Lyric Theater. When not designing, he works in software at Juniper Networks. Ray Renati (Director) Rays prior directorial credits at the Pear include the recent Mrs.
Donors to the Pear
Anonymous * Arts Council Silicon Valley * Evelyn Beamer Norman Beamer & Diane Tasca * The BootStrap Foundation Robyn & Paul Braverman * The Carter Family Foundation Catherine Garber * Kathleen Hall & Leslie Murdock Sharmon Hilfinger & Luis Trabb Pardo * Richard & Anita Inz Ann Kuchins * Roberta Morris & Phil Buchsbaum Valerie Pagendarm * Mark & Theresa Rowland Jan & Don Schmidek * Silicon Valley Community Foundation Abe & Marian Sofaer * Theatre Bay Area Lloyd Watts * Dr. Thomasyne Lightfoote Wilson
Connie Allen & Doug Grieg * Beverley & Lee Altschuler * Anonymous Carol & Ray Bacchetti * Rhoda Bergen * Martin Billik * Robyn & Paul Braverman * Sandy Cademartori * Rosalee & Bob Clarke Jean Colby * Jo Ellen Ellis * Diane Ellsworth * Carol & Ken Emmons * Rebecca Ennals * Nancy Enzminger * Genevieve Firestone Oscar & Theda Firschein * Ryan Fong * Tom & Charlene Giannetti Sharon Graham * Kurt Gravenhorst * Florence & Franklin Howard Barbara Ingram * Robin Jeffs * Margy Kahn Terry & Mauri Kearney * William & Peg Kenney * Coralia Kuchins The Phil Kurjian Fund * Joan Little & Marty Ragno Elizabeth Lowenstein * The Lowney Family Fund Margaret Lynch * Rina & Tom Mandey * Elyce Melmon * Robert & Eloise Morgan * Carole & Edward Mullowney * Mary Murphy Ross Nelson * Alan Phinney * Boaz & Aliza Porat * Lindi Press Bob Purvy * Jo Ann & Doug Rees * Ray & Katherine Renati Vivian Schatz * Martha Seaver * Edna & Dan Shochat John D. Stephens * Dana St. George & Gerry Gras Patti & Wally Summers * Gloria Symon * Time-Warner, Inc Mary Lou Torre * Onnolee & Orlin Trapp * Don & Sylvie Way Barlow Westcott * Mike Wilber * Renee Winick * Adam Wisnewski
Root$ : $1000 +
Branche$ : $200 - $999
Warrens Profession and the production of Death of a Salesman, as well as Speed-thePlow, Pick Up Ax, True West, The Baltimore Waltz, and Pear Slices 2005. This year Ray was nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award in Direction for Death of a Salesman. Sara Sparks (Stage Manager) has previously been the stage manager for Pear Slices 2012, Familiar Strangers, Fifth of July, Connecticut Yankee, and Death of a Salesman here at The Pear. Other favorite positions include lighting designer for Crimes of the Heart (Broadway West), production assistant for Every Christmas Story Ever Told, light/sound board operator for Red, White, and Tuna (San Jose Stage Company), and spotlight operator for Fly By Night (TheatreWorks). Sara graduated from UCSC with a degree in theatre arts.
Creighton Asato * Anne & Greg Avis * Candice Basham * Roslyn & Arthur Bienenstock * Judith Bishop * Tom & Polly Bredt * Lawrence Breed Louise & Robert Burton * Ariel & Pat Calonne * Louis Caputo Mary Carter & Mark Roberts * Harve & Sandra Citrin * Joseph Colletti Susan & Harry Dennis * Charlotte Dickson * Walt Doucett & Sally Hayse Dave & Ruth Eakin * Emily & Par Edsell * Sharon & Grant Elliot * Kathy & Bruce Fitzgerald * Frank Friedlander * Victor & Beverly Fuchs * Bennett & Joan Gates * Dr. & Mrs. B.D. Gaynor * Adrienne Gillespie * Lynn Gordon & David Simon * Martha & Bob Helseth * Gabrielle Higgins & Bill Steinmetz Jeffrey Hungerford * Charlotte Jacobs * Kevin & Melinda Johnson * Christina & Deepak Kamra * Pat Kapowich * Kay Mahon * Terrence McCarthy Brenda Miller * Mary & Thomas Nee * Jim & Barbara Newton * Laura Nuhn Jill ONan * Judy Ousterhout * Natalie & Peter Panfili * Boaz Porat * Alex & Laura Praszker * Frances & Donald Ragno * Jennifer & Donald Ragno Betty & Joe Renati * Tracy & Cynthia Rogers * Gary Rohloff * Antoinette & Dey Rose * Susan Rosenberg * Bill & Sherrean Rundberg * Thomas & Noel Ryan * Elaine Sausotte & Michael Keys Hall * Amy Schenone * Rebecca Schenone * Norma Schleunes * Steve Schumann * Christina & Maurice Sciammas * Lewis Silver * Laura Stefanski * Maggie Streets * Carol & Douglas Tanner * David & Ondrea Tricaso * Elizabeth Truro & James Quinn Lynne Weber * Robert Wenzlau & Julie Jomo * Caryn Huberman Yacowitz
Josephine Abel * Marlene Anderson * Midori Aogaichi * Shawna Bateman Jane Benson * Mitchell Bolen * Gordon & Sharon Bower * Marina Brodskaya Mr. & Mrs. Frank Carney * Daryl Carr * Harold Chapman * Judy Chiasson Frank & Lorraine Collins * Dorothy Comstock * Caroline Cooper * David & Anne-Ly CrumpGaray * Jean Cudlip * Nancy Davidson * Allison Davis * Martie DeGutis * Monica Devens * Bill Dodd * Joseph Durand * Deborah Dutton * Doris Dyen * Nicole & Donald Ellis * Liz Elms James & Dorothy Fadiman * Jewel Seehaus Fisher * Ronald Gentile * Jo Gilbert * Adrienne Gillespie * Elaine Goldman * Dean Goodman Irene Grenier * Frances Hancock * Toni Heren * Byron Hubbel * Patricia Hughes * Christy Jerkovich * Jim Johnson * Earl Karn * Siobhan Kenney * Phyllis Koch * Hilda Korner * Lisa LaRocca * Ernest Lieberman * Dena McFarland * Kathleen McGeary * Cheryl McNamara Richard Medugno * Tekla & Eric Nee * Clare Novak David Payne * Patricia Peterson * Susan Petit * Jack & Susan Pines * Christine Wills Price Toby Reitman * Lester Roberts * Steven Rock * Diana Roome * Elaine Rossignol * Robert Rothrock * Jean Scandlyn * Janine Schenone * Matt Schenone * Ray Schenone * Gerry Schoennauer * Allegra Seale * Julia Seiff * Barbara & Skip Shapiro * Myrna Soper * Verna & Robert Spinrad * Nancy Ginsburg Stern * Burton Sukhov * Kevin & Barbara Susco * Beverley Taylor * Patricia Tyler & Ben Marks * Hava & Oskar Vierny * Sherry Waki * Kristin Walter Marilyn Walter * JoAnn & Bob Will * Lisa Wiseman * Vivie Zau * Irene Zubeck
Pear$: $100 - $199
KICKSTARTER: $11,291
The Pear offers a special thank-you to those who helped to make our Kickstarter campaign a roaring success. We raised $11,291 thanks to the generous contributions of these backers:
$10+ Sharareh Bass * Rhoda Bergen * Randy Carnefix * Martin Horowitz Efim Kelman * Richard Meyer * Jackie Roach * Earl T. Roske * Ilya Sherman Jonathan Shue * Margaret Simmons * Bjorn Svensholt $25+ Jeanne Ahearn * Larry Barrott * Ralph Bernstein *Alexandra Bogorad Vivian Brown * Bear Capron * Melanie Chartoff * Mona Clements * Carol David * Patricia Davis * John Ennals * Annette Glanckopf * Shannon Guggenheim * Leah Halper * Charlotte Jacobs * Carol Lavelle * Elizabeth Lowenstein * Maria Marquis * Betsy Moore * Dinna Myers * Susan Pines Linden Press * Rebecca Rohrkaste * Robert Rothrock * William Rundberg Rebecca Schenone * Ariel Strod * Patricia Tyler * Francine Weinberg $50+ Cara Arellano * Susan Barkan * Max Beckman-Harned * Jane Benson Jayne Booker * Monica Cappuccini * Rosalee Clarke * Jim & Cate DeGraw Karen deMoor * Karen Duncan * Bobbi Fagone * Oscar & Theda Firschein Jeff Hungerford * David Lieberman * Zipi Montano * Richard Meyer * Lucy Owen * Natalie Panfili * Sean Pieper * Tim Perkins * Edna Shochat Judd Smith * Nancy Stoll $100+ Robyn Braverman * Sue & Jim Champlin * Carolyn Compton * Kurt Gravenhorst * Louise Grimm * Angela Grindon * Joe * Margy Kahn * Mauri Kearney * James Kleinrath * Kristen Lo * Elyce Melmon * Elaine Meyer Roberta Morris * Susan Petit * Ray Renati * Allegra Seale * Ellen Smith * Jeanie Smith * Marian Sofaer * Sam & Mary Winklebleck * Lisa Wiseman $150+ Kathleen Bennett * Jo-Ellen Ellis * Barbara Ingram * Tim Toppole Onnolee Trapp $250+ Carol Bacchetti * John & Janet Creelman * Cynthia Gregory Joseph Sturkey * Joyce Tenover * Mary Lou Torre $1000 Anonymous David Stewart Zink
Blossom$: To $99
Still to Come at the Pear This Season
Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
1/11 - 27 This prize-winning play was inspired by Nottages great-grandmother, an African-American seamstress who, stitch by stitch, sewed her way out of grinding poverty. A powerful portrayal of determination and resilience.
NEXT UP AT THE PEAR
The Apple Never Falls by Paul Braverman
2/22 3/10 World Premiere Its 1964, and a Strangler stalks a terrified Boston. Frankie Payne, the gin-soaked but not quite burned-out detective, struggles with toxic family ties and learns the hard way that the apple never falls far from the tree.
Intimate Apparel
by Lynn Nottage
1/11 27
Pear Slices 2013 by The Pear Playwrights Guild
4/5 28 We congratulate our Pear Playwrights Guild on their tenth Slices. What wonderful new confections will they serve up this time? Always a treat, always a surprisedont miss the next batch of these short new plays!
Hanging Georgia by Sharmon Hilfinger
5/24 6/9 Music by Joan McMillen Legendary painter Georgia OKeeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz join forces in a combustible love story. Created by the BootStrap Theater ensemble (originators of Tell It Slant), this new play marks the Pears 75th production!
Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts
6/28 7/14 Arthurs a Polish-American former draft resister, as run down as his Uptown Chicago donut shop. Enter Franco, a young African-American man who dreams of being a writer and making the shop a happening place. Endearing comedy about the redemptive power of friendship.
This prize-winning play was inspired by the authors great-grandmother, an African-American seamstress who, stitch by stitch, sewed her way out of grinding poverty. A powerful portrayal of determination and resilience.
Save the Date!
Sunday, November 4, 7pm: Body Politic by Beverly Altschuler Pear Avenue Theatre Playwrights Guild member Beverly Altschulers play Body Politic will be the first of this seasons Developmental Readings. A modern reimagining of Shakespeares Measure for Measure, Body Politic confronts the misuse of power and a states imposition of moral and religious beliefs on individuals. Tickets at the door; pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $10).
