brecht dossier
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Investor Pitch Book for LA theater group Uranium Madhouse's 2012 production of "A MAn's a Man".TRANSCRIPT
Galy Gay: Alright, Widow Begbick, if you really want to buy this elephant, I am the owner.
A Soldier comes running in from the back: Psssst....Pssst..The .Bloody Fiver is walking around the camp inspecting the train cars.
Soldiers: The human typhoon!
Begbick: Stay here, I’m not letting this elephant
Begbick and the soldiers rush off.
Uriah to Galy Gay: Keep an eye on the elephant for a moment. He hands him the elephant’s lead.
Galy Gay: But what about me, Mr. Uriah, where should I go?
Uriah: Just stay here.
He runs off after the others. Galy Gay holds the elephant’s lead but stands as far from it as possible.
Galy Gay alone: My mother always told me: no one knows anything for sure. But you know nothing.
and now you have a big elephant, and who knows what will happen next. But It doesn’t matter to you, as long you can just get the check.
Uriah looks in : Look at that, he won’t even look at it. He stands as far away from it as he can. Fairchild walks by in the back. The tiger of Kilkoa has left the area.
Uriah, Widow Begbick and the others return.
# II
Uriah calling out: And now, number 2: The elephant auction. The man who doesn’t want to be named sells an elephant.
Galy Gay picks up a bell, and Widow Begbick sets a wooden bucket upside down in the center of the stage.
A Soldier: Are you entertaining any doubts about the elephant?
Galy Gay: I have no doubt it will be sold.
Uriah: If it sells, it’s legit.
Galy Gay: I can’t say no to that. An elephant’s an elephant, especially when it’s up for sale.
He stands on the bucket and auctions of the elephant, which stands next to him in the middle of the group.
Billy Humph, Bengal champion, up for auction. He was born in the southern Punjab, just as sure as you see him here now. Seven rajahs attended his manger. His mother was white. He’s 65 years old. That’s not old for an elephant. Thirteen hundredweight he weighs, and for him clearing a forest is like rolling out of bed. Billy Humph represents a small fortune for the one that claims him as her own.
Uriah: And here’s Widow Begbick with the check.
Begbick: Is this elephant yours?
Galy Gay: Like my foot is.
A Soldier: Billy must be pretty old, since he seems
Begbick: You’ll have to come down on the price.
Galy Gay: He was 200 rupees wholesale, and he’s worth that till the day he dies.
Widow Begbick inspecting the elephant: A sagging belly like that and you want 200 rupees.
Galy Gay: I think nonetheless that he’s right for a widow.
Begbick: Very well. And is the elephant in good
see the elephant is healthy. Five hundred rupees.
Galy Gay: Five hundred rupees going once, going twice, going three times. Widow Begbick, the elephant formerly belonging to me is now yours. The check, please.
Widow Begbick: Your name?
Galy Gay: Must not be mentioned.
Begbick: Please, Mr. Uriah, hand me a pencil so I can write a check to this man who must not be named.
Uriah aside, to the soldiers: When he takes the check, arrest him.
Begbick: Here’s your check, Mr. Man-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Galy Gay: And here, Widow Begbick, is your elephant.
A Soldier putting his hand on Galy Gay’s shoulder: In the name of the British army, what is the meaning of this?
Galy Gay: This? No idea. He laughs nervously.
The Soldier: What’s this elephant doing here?
Galy Gay: Which one are you referring to?
Soldier: The one right behind you. And don’t try to wiggle out of it.
Galy Gay: I’ve never seen this elephant!
Soldier: Oh really!
Another Soldier: We can attest that this man said he was the owner of this elephant.
Begbick: He said it belonged to him like his own foot.
Galy Gay wanting to leave: Unfortunately, I have to go. My wife is anxiously awaiting my return. He pushes his way free from the group. I’ll be back to talk this over with you later. Good evening! To Billy, who is attempting to follow him: Stay, Billy, don’t be so needy. There’s sugar cane growing over there.
Uriah: Halt! Train your guns on this criminal, gentlemen, since that is what he is.
Polly, inside of Billy, laughs out loud. Uriah punches him.
Uriah: Shut the fuck up, Polly!
One of the tarps on top slips, revealing Polly.
Polly: Shit!
Galy Gay, now completely befuddled, looks at Polly, then sees the others. The elephant runs away.
Begbick: What is going on here? That’s not an elephant at all, that’s just some tarps and men. It’s all fake. All my money for a fake elephant.
Uriah: Widow Begbick, the perpetrator will be immediately handcuffed and thrown in the latrine.
The soldiers handcuff Galy Gay and put him in a pit, so that only his face is visible. The artillery is heard rolling by.
Begbick: The artillery is loading up, when are you all go-ing to pack up my canteen? Since it’s not just your man that has to be taken apart, but my canteen as well.
Known Associates
Shadow Advisory Committee
Andrew Utter - Artistic Director
————————————————————
Andrew Utter is the founding artistic director of Uranium
Madhouse. He has an MFA in directing from the Yale School of
Drama and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University.
He founded the Mother of Invention Acting School in 2004.
He has appeared onstage at San Francisco’s Magic Theater, and di-
rected for Syracuse Stage and Fordham University in New York.
Erik Flatmo – Resident Designer
————————————————————
Erik Flatmo is a West Coast-based set designer who works in
theater, opera and dance. His designs have been seen on the
stages of American Conservatory Theater, Asolo Repertory
Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory
Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre,
Opera Santa Barbara, and San Francisco Opera among others.
He designed scenery for Uranium Madhouse’s productions of
Conversation Storm and The House of Cards.
Erik is a graduate of Columbia University and The Yale School
of Drama. He teaches set design at Stanford University.
Yolanda Seabourne - Actor/Producer
———————————————————————
As Director of Licensing for FishBowl Worldwide Media, Yolanda is
responsible for licensing and strategic repurposing of television’s
largest library of user-generated content.
A founding member of Uranium Madhouse, Yolanda appeared in the
company’s inaugural production in Charles Mee’s one-person show
The House of Cards. Madhouse audiences will next see Yolanda as
the lusty, entrepreneurial widow, Leucadia Begbick, in Uranium
Madhouse’s sophomore presentation, A Man’s a Man.
Edward Tournier - Actor
———————————————
Edward Tournier has acted in, directed, and produced multiple
award winning productions in the Los Angeles area. Most recently
he acted in and produced the world premiere of Monkey Adored
for Rogue Machine Theatre Company. For Rogue Machine he also
produced the critically acclaimed Blackbird, directed plays for the
Rogue’s Gallery, Round the Clock, and Shorts and Sweets play series
and assistant directed a long-running production of Cormac
McCarthy’s Sunset Limited which received multiple LA Weekly
Award nominations. He is a graduate of the Boston University
School of Theater and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Futura
(world premiere, Theater @ Boston Court, LA Drama Critic’s Circle
Award nomination)
Supernova
(world premiere, Elephant Theater Company, multiple L.A. Weekly
Award nominations)
Mercury Fur
(needtheater, Ovation Award nomination)
Razorback
(world premiere, Rogue Machine);
Secrets of the Trade
(world premiere, Black Dahlia Theatre, multiple Ovation, Backstage,
LA Drama Critic’s Circle, and GLAAD Award nominations)
The History Boys (Ahmanson Theatre)
Film and Television:
Without a Trace
The Cleaner
Ian Forester - Actor
————————————
Ian Forester is the co-Artistic Director of the Los Angeles theater
company, needtheater. Ian’s acting credits include:
Glint
(needtheater)
The Web
(needtheater)
The Country Club
(HFC)
Katzelmacher (needtheater)
Film Crew
(Goodman Theater: Mamet Festival)
Cadillac
(Chicago Dramatists)
Men of Steel
(Theater Wit)
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and Guinea Pig Solo
(Collaboraction)
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
(Steep)
General Desdemona
(Edinburgh Fringe)
Richard II (A.R.T.). New York: Richard and Anne (Mirror Rep)
Cris D’Annunzio - Actor
———————————————
As a renowned character actor, Cris D’Annunzio has led a
popular shows, including:
Law & Order
Seinfeld
Without A Trace
The District
Mad About You
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures
On the big screen, Cris appeared in:
American Gangster
Across the Universe
Alien: Resurrection
at the 2010 Sundance Festival and won several awards from other
Thomas Sherman - Marketing Consultant
——————————————————————————
Thomas Sherman is a creative director, photographer, graphic
designer, and writer. For over 15 years he has been creating
marketing and communications for Fortune 100 companies,
His primary areas of expertise are in digital innovation, social
media and transmedia marketing. He has developed everything
applications to food trucks with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio.
Thomas was the art director and still photographer on the
David Strathairn).
Dylan Southard - Dramaturg
——————————————————
Dylan Southard is the co-Artistic Director of needtheater and
previously served as their resident dramaturg and literary
manager. Production dramaturgy credits for needtheater include:
Fatboy
Mercury Fur
Scarcity
tempOdyssey
The Web
He also directed needtheater’s world premiere production of
Guided Consideration of a Lamentable Deed.
He is the resident dramaturg for The Robey Theatre Company at
the Los Angeles Theater Center. He is also an associate artist with
the international, new script development group LoNyLa, and
works as a script consultant for theaters, including The Center
Theatre Group, The Geffen Playhouse, The Theatre @ Boston Court,
He trained for two years under a dramaturgy fellowship at Center-
stage in Baltimore and is a graduate of Wesleyan University.
Elisa Carlson was on the Artistic Staff of the Guthrie Theater for eight years where she coached voice, speech and text for 31 productions. Other coaching credits include multiple productions Off-Broadway and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Children’s Theater, Alliance Theatre and Georgia Shakespeare. Elisa has a special interest in new plays, having coached world premieres of plays by Tony Kushner, Kia Corthron and Ellen McLaughlin, among many others, and the premiere of the Michael Korie/Ricky Ian Gordon opera The Grapes of Wrath. Her acting credits include the Guthrie, The Shakespeare Theater and the Alliance. She has performed internationally with companies in Finland, Germany, Greece and The National Theatre of Cyprus. Film credits include acting in and coaching
She was dialect and foreign language coach for the feature
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and created language for the multiple award-winning short Ana’s Playground. Elisa has B.F.A. in acting from Florida State and an M.F.A in acting from the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program. She recently moved home to Atlanta and is a Resident Director and Associate Professor at the Gainesville Theatre Alliance.
David Chambers, a South Coast Rep Associate Artist, is a director, teacher, writer and producer whose work has been seen On and
He directed Broadway premieres of Christopher Durang’s A History of the American Film and Howard Korder’s Search and Destroy, a play which originated at South Coast Rep and for which Mr. Chambers received a New York Drama Desk nomination for best director. Mr. Chambers has served as director at such theatres as The New York Shakespeare Festival, Washington’s Arena Stage (Producer 1979-81 seasons), the Yale Repertory Theatre and the Guthrie, among others. He is currently a professor of acting and directing at the Yale School of Drama where among
with the Saint Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts in Russia which has performed in Europe and the U.S. He also directed South Coast Rep’s Bosoms and Neglect, The Hollow Lands, Tartuffe, Private Lives, Old Times, A Mess of Plays by Chris Durang, The Misanthrope, Hedda Gabler, The Miser, Going for Gold, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Twelfth Night, productions which have won numerous Drama-Logue and L.A. Drama Critics Circle
works in the Bay Area.
Amir Eshel is Charles Michael Chair in Jewish History and Culture, a Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, and Director of The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. His research focuses on German culture, comparative literature, and German-Jewish history and culture from the Enlightenment to the present. He is currently working on a book about the poetic
he has taught courses on German Jewish literature, literature of the Holocaust, modern German poetry and the contemporary German novel.
professor of German studies, he taught at the Universität Hamburg (Germany). He is a member of the American Comparative Literature Association, the Association of Jewish studies, the German Studies Association and the Modern Language Association. In 2002 he received the Award for Distinguished Teaching from Stanford University’s dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. He received an MA and PhD in German literature, both from the Universität Hamburg. He speaks Hebrew, German and English, and has a good knowledge of Yiddish and French.
Theatre Technology. His extensive career in live performance includes work in Direction, Design, Technical Direction, Stage Management and Production Management. From 2005 to 2010, Kerry was Production Manager and Technical Director for
theater ensemble located in Los Angeles. At Cornerstone, Kerry supervised technical elements for productions in 25 different
at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Blue Ox Mill sawmill in Eureka, Ca. Previous experience in Production and Company Management includes the national tour of Broadway On Ice starring Dorothy Hamill and Davis Gaines, Festival On Ice in
US/Canada tour of Camelot for Encore Attractions, and UFO Encounters, an interactive walk-through attraction for Renaissance Entertainment. Kerry’s experience in Stage Management includes Disney Cruise Lines, the US/Mexico tour of Cirque Ingenieux for NETworks Productions, and over 200 productions at the Japan America Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Kerry spent two years in Bochum, Germany as Resident Artistic Director for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express. His design experience includes productions for Heidi Duckler Dance Theater, Cornerstone, the Santa Paula Theater Center, Cal Arts and numerous community and educational organizations. Kerry received a degree in Directing from Brigham Young University.
Elena Faro is a native New Yorker and has been a tax accountant for over twenty years. She has run her own business for the last thirteen years and serves a clientele who work as freelancers
in literature and classics from Hunter College of the City University of New York. In her spare time, she is the mother of two beautiful children.
Alex Fishkin is an intellectual property attorney at Google. He holds an MS in electrical engineering and an MA in Slavic languages and literatures from Stanford University, a JD from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. With his diverse background, Alex has advised
-tions, and Fortune 100 companies on a variety of engineering, legal and business matters. A native of Latvia, Alex spent most of his life in Chicago and is now living in San Francisco.
Karim Javeri is based in Toronto, Canada and is an Economist with the Ontario Financing Authority. His work focuses on
Consulting Limited, where he provided consultancy and advisory
conducted research for the Bank of England through the London School of Economics and completed a dissertation in 2010 on performance measurement in the public sector. He holds a Masters of Public Administration from the London School of Economics in Public and Economic Policy. Karim also holds a Bachelor of Social Work degree from McGill University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Matthew McCray is the Founding Artistic Director of Son of Semele Ensemble. A multi-faceted artist in many theatrical disciplines,
producer, director, performer, musical director, composer and teacher of theatre. In 2004, Matthew was featured on the cover of American Theatre Magazine for his work with SOSE. As a director Matthew’s work includes both original and published work. Most recently, his
Award nominations and Matthew received an award for his work as
His television work includes the recurring role of Jasper on the Emmy Award-winning television show Will & Grace, Boston Legal and, most recently, a pilot called The Cure. He has also been seen and heard singing in a Discover Card commercial, and in 2003 he carried
Martin Sheen, Edward Asner and Martin Landau. Matthew is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.
Costs Covered
theater rental and artist fees (designers: set, lighting, costumes, sound, puppetry, composer, music director, director/producer
production staff fees (stage manager, board operator, etc.)
theater rental for the run of the play
set and props: materials and labor
costumes
lighting: labor, materials, lighting designer fee
props
DonationAmount
Coup$10,000
Heist$4,300
Escapade$4,100
Caper$3,000
Swindle$1,000
Con$1,000 Hoax$500
Your participation will not go unnoticed.
For a donation of $1000, we would like to dedicate a whole page of the program for the show to thanking you for your generous support.
We’d also provide reserved seating so you can be assured that you’ll comfortably stretch your legs in the aisle at the performance of your choice.
If you have other thoughts about how we might thank you, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We could make tickets available to an organization of your choice, perhaps a high school German-language class or a group that serves young people in the arts.