By
Ketti Frings
Adapted
from the novel by Thomas Wolfe
captures the humor and grief, both private and universal, of Wolfe's largely autobiographical novel about a youth coming of age. Concentrating on the last third of Wolfe's story, the play vividly portrays Eugene Gant, his mother who is obsessed by material holdings and who maintains barriers against the love of her family, the father-a stonecutter imprisoned by his failures, the brother who never breaks away, and a host of eccentric residents of the family-run boarding house.
~Winner of the Pulizter Prize and the New York Critics' award as best play of the season.
October 27 at 2:00 p.m.
RHS Performing Arts Center
|
Cast Ben Gant - Tom Lokhorst Mrs. Marie Pert - Kristina Cochran Helen Gant Barton - Paige Christina Hugh Barton - Jesse Boyd Eliza Gant - Kate Lawrey Will Pentland - Curtis Roth Eugene Gant - Cameron Rollins Jake Clatt - Jacob Bauernfeind Mrs. Clatt - Laura Hammond Florry Mangle - Bailey Steffen Mrs. Snowden - Mary Borrel Mr. Farrel - David Allen Miss Brown - Lindsay Doerfler Laura James - Christina Motilall W.O. Gant - Mark Junek Dr. Maguire - John Krueger Tarkinton - Adam Swanson Madame Elizabeth - Cora Macias Luke Gant - Ben Horak |
Production
Staff Technical
Staff Running
Crew
|
Technical Crew
Russell
Andreasen Courtney Behm Steven Bennett Mattie Born Joe Casey Chad Correll Danyelle Davis Malinda Davis Sarah Davis Rachel Duax Patrick Fitzenberger Emily Gustason |
Levi
Halbert Eric Hanson Tone Hoeft Evan Horton Luke Jonas Heidi Kraft Ryan Langenfeld Leigh Maesaka Britt Montgomery Lizabe Mothershead Ryan Naddy Andrew Newman |
Leah
Pasillas Reid Peloquin Shawn Peters Tom Powers David Schwartz Chelsea Stein Ashley Strausser Michelle Thomas Justin Weeks Dan Weiland Rebecca Weiler |
Synopsis
of Scenes
The town of Altamont, North Carolina, in the fall of the year nineteen
hundred and sixteen.
ACT ONE
Scene One: The Dixieland Boarding House; a fall afternoon.
Scene Two: The same; that evening.
ACT TWO
Scene One: Gant’s marble shop; one week later.
Scene Two: The Dixieland Boarding House; the next night.
ACT THREE
The Dixieland Boarding House; two weeks later.
About Thomas Wolfe
Born - Asheville, NC, October 3rd, 1900
Died - Baltimore, MD, September 15th, 1938
Thomas Wolfe emerged to national prominence with the publication of
his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The supposedly
fictional story is a thinly veiled version of Wolfe’s own life,
and residents of Asheville from Wolfe’s day resented their mostly
unflattering portrayal within the text. His father, William Oliver Wolfe,
was indeed a stonecutter whose work can still be seen throughout North
Carolina cemeteries. His mother, Julia Elizabeth Wolfe, did run a boardinghouse
and invested heavily in real estate. The priority that the paying guests
received over the members of the Wolfe family left a deep-rooted sense
of resentment that flows as an undercurrent throughout the story.
Wolfe spent years attempting to build a name for himself as a playwright
before the success of his first novel. Success also brought turmoil,
however, as Wolfe was caught off-guard by the harsh critics of his work
and the hostile backlash from the community about which he had written.
It took him six laborious years to complete his second novel, Of
Time and the River, and his last two novels were published
posthumously.
Thomas Wolfe died of tuberculosis in 1938, and many have speculated
about the greater literary impact he may have made had his life not
been cut so short. His childhood home, the inspiration for Angel’s
Dixieland Boardinghouse, still stands in Asheville today as a museum.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation of Wolfe’s story
serves as a sentimental and appropriate epitaph to the life and work
of a literary master who began it all wishing to write for the stage.