Table of Contents The Play p. 2 The Playwright p. 3-4 The History p. 5 Big Ideas p. 5-6 La Côte Basque p. 7-8 Solo Plays p. 9 Further Reading p. 10 Especially for p. 11 Students Learning Connections & Standards p. 12

Dramaguide

Producers

The John Noffo Kahn & Mark Addison Foundation

Director

Lynette Barkley

December 2, 2016 – January 1, 2017

Dramaguide written by

Gary Cadwallader

The Play

Character

The Setting

The Story

Truman Capote – a popular author at a turning point in his life

Capote's apartment at 870 United Nations Plaza, New York City, a week before Christmas: 1975

“The truth is, I’m very good news for all those women. Those beautiful, intelligent, privileged, lonely women. They are absolutely crazy about me, and that’s a fact. Why? Because damn it, I like them. I pay attention to them. I listen. I understand their problems. I make them laugh. I tell them how to dress, what makeup to wear, what to read and who to love. When they’re miserable, I tuck them into bed and tell them bedtime stories…What they like best is something horrendous about someone impeccable. (beat) Don’t we all.” Jay Presson Allen, Tru

Truman Capote’s “La Côte Basque, 1965,” a chapter from his latest book, Answered Prayers, was recently published in Esquire magazine, and his closest friends are no longer speaking to him. Capote is surprised and astonished at their silence. Alone during the holidays when his social calendar is typically busy, the consequences of his actions become clear and he calms himself with alcohol and drugs, and reminisces about his life, interesting friends, and holidays past.

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The Author: Jay Presson Allen

Truman Capote, Jean Brodie, Sally Bowles, Marnie. Screenwriter, playwright and novelist Jay Presson Allen is best known for writing strong, complex, larger-than-life protagonists. One of the rare, successful female film and television writers in the 1950s and 1960s, her four-decade body of work includes several Hollywood classics.

The Allens and their new baby girl moved to Connecticut in 1956 where Jay wrote The First Wife, a play centered on a young married couple. The play was never produced, but was adapted and filmed in 1963 as Wives and Lovers starring Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, and Shelley Winters. After achieving financial security writing teleplays for television Allen optioned Muriel Spark's novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, for the stage. The story, about an influential schoolteacher and her impressionable students, was produced in London in 1966 with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role, and then on Broadway in 1968 with Zoe Caldwell (Whitehead’s wife). Alfred Hitchcock read the still unproduced play and offered Allen the screenwriting job on his next film, Marnie. The movie, starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery, became one of the top hits of the year.

Born Jacqueline Presson in San Angelo, Texas, on March 3, 1922, “Jay” first dreamed of becoming an actress. At 18 she moved to New York, but unable to find work and disenchanted with her career choice, she married and moved to California. Immediately regretting the marriage, she turned to writing as a way of becoming financially independent from her husband (whose name she refused to mention). Her first novel, Spring Riot, was published in 1948, receiving mixed reviews. In 1955 she submitted a play to the office of Broadway producer Robert Whitehead. At first the play was rejected by an office “reader,” but Presson resubmitted it several months later and Whitehead himself read and optioned the script. Though the play was never produced, she met the reader who rejected the script, Lewis Allen, and he became her second husband.

Next, Allen had success on Broadway with an adaptation of the French farce 40 Carats. Directed by Abe Burrows and starring Julie Harris, the story is about a 42-year-old woman who seduces a man twenty years her junior. While the play was running on Broadway, Allen’s film adaption of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was released, starring Maggie Smith in an Oscar-winning performance.

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The Author: continued

Her next project, Bob Fosse’s screen adaptation of Cabaret, became an enormous box-office success. With a directive from the producer Cy Feuer, Allen based her screenplay on Christopher Isherwood's source material, the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, rather than John Van Druten’s play adaptation, I Am a Camera or Joe Masteroff’s book to the stage musical. Fosse demanded major changes, and Allen clashed with the director. Allen found Fosse “a depressive who drained the script of humor.” She quit the film, but was given full credit for the screenplay. Her work earned her an Academy Award nomination. Other films that Allen wrote include Travels With My Aunt, a 1972 film adaptation of the 1969 Graham Green novel starring Maggie Smith (in which Allen credits Katherine Hepburn with writing a majority of the screenplay), Funny Lady, the 1974 sequel to Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand and James Caan, a 1980 film adaptation of her own 1969 novel Just Tell Me What You Want starring Alan King and Ali McGraw, a 1981 Sidney Lumet-directed film, Prince of the City, starring Treat Williams, and a 1982 film adaptation of the Ira Levin play, Deathtrap, starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. For television she wrote the successful drama Family, which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1980. Allen was also known as a “script doctor,” and contributed to several screenplays without credit, including Streisand’s A Star is Born in 1976, and The Verdict in 1982 starring Paul Newman. Allen returned to Broadway in 1982 with an adaptation of a French play, A Little Family Business, starring Angela Lansbury and John McMartin. Allen’s final two Broadway adaptations were one-character plays that she also directed, Tru in 1989, and The Big Love (co-written with her daughter Brooke) in 1991, starring Tracey Ullman. Allen retired from writing after The Big Love, though she did direct Tru in Wichita and at American Stage in St. Petersburg, in 2002 for what she’d hoped would be a New York City revival. She died of a stroke on May 1, 2006 in New York City. She was 84.

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History of the Play

Tru by Jay Presson Allen premiered in a workshop production with New York Stage and Film Company at Vassar College in 1989. Directed by the author and starring Robert Morse, it first transferred to American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts (performed at the Hasty Pudding Theatre), and then to the Booth Theatre on Broadway, opening on December 14, 1989. It ran for 297 performances, closing on September 1, 1990. Morse won the Tony award for his performance. The play then embarked on a national tour, opening in Los Angeles in January 1991. During the tour’s run at Chicago’s Shubert Theatre it was taped live for PBS’s “American Playhouse.” The program aired in November 1991, earning Morse an Emmy for his performance.

The Big Idea: Truman Capote

Born Truman Streckfus Persons in New Orleans on September 30, 1924, Truman Capote was a novelist and journalist who became a well-known companion for jet-setting society. While writing a comparatively small number of books, the flamboyant Capote became famous for his society and celebrity friendships, biting wit, and his appearances on television talk shows. Abandoned by both his father and mother at age 4, Truman grew up in Monroeville, Alabama in the home of his mother’s relatives. His childhood was solitary, and he turned to writing to cope with the loneliness. “My major regret in life is that my childhood was unnecessarily lonely,” Capote wrote. His only friends were his older spinster cousin, Sook Faulk, and the girl next door, Harper Lee, who later authored “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Recalling his youth, Capote wrote that “I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it.” After divorcing Truman’s father, his mother moved to New York City and married Joseph Capote, a successful, Cuban-born textiles broker. Truman moved to Manhattan in 1933 and, over his absent father’s objections, was adopted in 1935 by his stepfather. From then on he was known as Truman Garcia Capote. 5

While attending Manhattan’s Trinity School, Capote’s mother decided Truman needed “toughening,” and sent him to board at St. Joseph Military Academy. Capote was bullied mercilessly, and after his parents moved to Greenwich, Connecticut he was transferred to Greenwich High School. The family returned to Manhattan, and bored with his classes at the Franklin School (now Dwight School) Capote frequented nightclubs, befriending society teenagers Oona O’Neill and Gloria Vanderbilt. As a senior in 1943 Capote was hired as a copyboy at The New Yorker magazine. Although he made important connections there, the outgoing Capote was disillusioned by the quiet and aloof writers and editors. He was eventually fired in 1944 for angering poet Robert Frost and his superiors at the magazine by allegedly walking out on one of Frost’s readings. Saddened at first for losing the job, he later claimed it accelerated his desire to write. He was published soon afterward. Capote submitted his first short story, “Miriam,” to Mademoiselle magazine editor George Davis, and it was accepted and published in the June 1945 issue. The story created a sensation and opened many doors, earning Capote praise, popularity, an O. Henry Award for “Best First-Published Story,” and the attention of editors and publishers. He subsequently appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in October (“A Tree of Night”) and again in Mademoiselle in December (“A Jug of Silver”). Capote was now being mentioned as one of the best short-story writers in America.

Through his new connections at Mademoiselle Capote befriended author Carson McCullers, who recommended him for a summer residency at Yaddo, the writer’s retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York. There Capote worked on what would become his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, which was published by Random House in 1948. The story is about a boy abandoned by his parents, and Capote, at first, was adamant that the book was not autobiographical. However, he later realized the similarities: “Other Voices, Other Rooms was an attempt to exorcise demons, an unconscious, altogether intuitive attempt, for I was not aware, except for a few incidents and descriptions, of its being in any serious degree autobiographical. Rereading it now, I find such self-deception unpardonable.” While the book received mixed reviews, it sold extremely well. Capote went on to write The Grass Harp in 1951 and Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1958, further solidifying his popularity. Capote’s next major work began as an idea for an article for The New Yorker magazine in 1959. Reading a short news item in the New York Times about the murder of a prosperous Kansas family he became intrigued by the subject. His in-depth portrait of the Clutter family, their murderers Richard Hickok and Perry Smith, and the residents of Holcomb itself became a six-year journey to understand the psychological effects of a horrific murder. In Cold Blood was an instant best-seller, winning raves from critics and readers alike. Other than magazine articles and several short stories Capote never again published a significant work. Suffering from severe alcoholism and drug addiction Capote spent the remainder of his life struggling and oftentimes incapacitated. He died in August, 1984 of liver disease and “multiple drug intoxication.” He was 59.

Truman Capote: continued

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What happened at La Côte Basque in 1965?

“More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” St. Teresa of Avila The dramatic action of Tru focuses on the fallout of a story published in Esquire magazine in 1975. “La Côte Basque, 1965” was to be a chapter in Capote’s as yet unpublished novel, Answered Prayers, and the characters in the story were either actual people in Capote’s circle or thinly disguised pseudonyms of friends and acquaintances. Capote first considered writing this novel in 1958, and in a letter to Random House publisher Bennet Cerf that year wrote that he was working on “a large novel, my magnum opus, a book about which I must be very silent…the novel is called, ‘Answered Prayers;’ and, if all goes well, I think it will answer mine.” However, in 1959 Capote began work on In Cold Blood, and Answered Prayers was shelved. After In Cold Blood was published in 1966 Capote signed a contract (including an advance of $25,000) with Random House to focus on Answered Prayers, and it was to be delivered to the publisher on January 1, 1968. Capote missed the deadline and the deal was renegotiated several times, with the final deadline set for March 1, 1981. Capote’s outline included seven chapters, and knowing that its impact on Manhattan society was going to be great he told People magazine that he was constructing the book like a gun: “There’s the handle, the trigger, the barrel, and, finally, the bullet. And when that bullet is fired from the gun, it’s going to come out with a speed and power like you’ve never seen—wham!” In the story, Lady Ina Coolbirth is stood up for a lunch date by the Duchess of Windsor, and when she encounters her male friend, P.B. Jones, on a street nearby, she invites him to join her at La Côte Basque. There at a table at the front of the restaurant, Lady Ina gossips about the ladies present, exposing their secrets. La Côte Basque was a popular restaurant frequented by New York society, and in the story the ladies, or “swans” as Capote called them, are all there. First, Gloria Vanderbilt and her childhood friend Carol Matthau are overheard speaking negatively about England’s Princess Margaret and others in the royal family. Then, when Vanderbilt’s first husband stops by their table she is too dim to recognize him. Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her sister, Lee Radziwill, appear at the door, and Lady Ina calls Kennedy “unrefined and exaggerated.”

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La Côte Basque: continued

When “Ann Hopkins” appears, Lady Coolbirth speaks at length about Hopkins’ scandalous life. Hopkins’ husband asks for a divorce, but she refuses. One evening Ann fires two shots from a shotgun at an alleged intruder, but instead kills her husband. The story is a description of the 1955 death of banking heir William Woodward Jr. and the charge of murder against his wife, socialite Ann Woodward. She was eventually found not guilty by a grand jury, however she was perpetually shunned by New York society and her guilt constantly debated. Next, Lady Coolbirth delivers the juiciest story she knows. After “Cleo Dillon” leaves town, her businessman husband, “Sidney Dillon,” has a one-night affair with the Governor’s wife. The gossip is that while the Governor’s wife is dowdy (and Cleo is the most beautiful woman in Manhattan), Sidney’s incessant desire for acceptance into upper society leads him to flirt with the governor’s wife at a dinner party. He then takes her back to his apartment. After an evening of passion, Sidney discovers that the bedsheets need cleaning and spends hours attempting to hide the dishonor. Sidney and Cleo are thinly veiled replicas of CBS executive William S. Paley and his wife (and Truman’s close friend), Barbara “Babe” Paley. The morning the magazine reached newsstands the repercussions were instantaneous. After reading the story, Babe Paley called friend Lady Nancy “Slim” Keith and asked if she thought Sidney was her husband. Keith lied saying probably not, but admitted later that Capote told her in an earlier conversation that it was Paley, and the affair was with Happy Rockefeller. Babe later learned that she and her husband were the Dillons and never spoke to Capote again. Nor did Lady Keith, who recognized herself as Coolbirth, the gossiping, many-times divorced American married to a British aristocrat. She even considered a defamation lawsuit against her former friend, but never proceeded. The most tragic consequence was the death of Ann Woodward. Hearing that Capote had written a scandalous rehash of the murder events (and allegedly seeing an advance copy), Woodward took a cyanide capsule and ended her life. While Lee Radziwill and Carol Matthau remained close, the fallout from losing his closest friends was hard on Capote. After confirming the identities of his characters to Liz Smith, the gossip columnist wrote an article, “Truman Capote in Hot Water,” for New York magazine in February 1976 confirming the names. Capote thought his friends would be amused by the story, and his shock at the fallout for exposing the secrets of Manhattan’s rich and powerful was a blow from which he never recovered. And never again did he write anything of substance. He became bloated from drug and alcohol abuse and developed mental health issues. Radziwill confirmed Capote’s downward spiral to George Plimpton by saying, “I just don’t think he realized what he was doing, because, God, did he pay for it. That’s what put him back to serious drinking. And then, of course, the terrible fear that he could never write another word again. It was all downhill from then on.” While portions of Answered Prayers were published after Capote’s death, chapters and pages of the manuscript went missing and were never recovered. It is interesting to note that an event in Capote’s early life foreshadowed this fallout. He wrote that at age 8 “there was this contest for children in the Mobile Press-Register. I wrote a story called ‘Mrs. Busybody.’ My story was not along the customary lines of What-I-Did-On-My-Vacation. It was a sort of roman á clef…about people I knew or knew about in Monroeville. About a very fat woman, very fat, who sat on her porch all day long and tried to murder her own child; a town bachelor who hated all women, even female dogs, and I forget who the others were. But whoever they were, they were real.” He told the Paris Review, "The first installment appeared one Sunday under my real name, Truman Streckfus Persons, only somebody suddenly realized I was serving up a local scandal as fiction, and the second installment never appeared. Naturally, I didn't win a thing."

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Solo Plays in America

The solo play, otherwise known as a one-man or one-woman show, has a long history in America. Born from the 19th century lecture circuit, authors began improving the recitation of their work by adding acting choices and vocal differentiation to the text. Charles Dickens, an avid amateur actor, toured the United States often and distinguished his numerous characters by speaking in the voice of each person. Soon, many authors’ lectures transformed from simple readings to one-person performances, and departed the lecture circuit for vaudeville and the legitimate stage. The solo play became very popular in the mid-20th century, with respected actors portraying legendary icons or successful personalities. As in any play, characters must share their thoughts and opinions with others, giving the play a dynamic dramatic action. It requires creative solutions having one actor tell a compelling story without utilizing long passages of exposition. Just as Shakespeare’s characters sometimes left the dramatic action and turned to speak directly to the audience (known as a soliloquy), many contemporary one-person plays also break the “fourth wall.” Mark Twain Tonight (1954) with Hal Holbrook was a biographical reflection on the author’s career and stories, and was enormously popular. More recent examples of biographical solo plays include Tru (1989), Say Goodnight Gracie (2002) with Frank Gorshin, Golda’s Balcony (2003) with Tovah Feldshuh, and Satchmo at the Waldorf (2015) by Terry Teachout, which was recently performed at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Other types of solo plays include fictional stories as told by one character, such as Shirley Valentine by Willie Russell (1986), or an actor portraying multiple characters in a single story arc: The Belle of Amherst (1976) by William Luce, A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart (1991), and I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright (2004). Jane Wagner’s solo play for Lily Tomlin, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1977) or Whoopi Goldberg’s eponymous Broadway production, Whoopi Goldberg (1984), has single actors playing multiple characters united by a theme: solidarity and contemporary feminism for Wagner’s piece, and black identity in America for Goldberg’s piece. Anna Deavere Smith wrote and performed several documentary-style social issue pieces in which she portrayed a number of real people connected to a singular event: Fires in The Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (1991), and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994). Another type of solo play is the autobiographical retrospective. Recent Broadway productions include Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (2002), Bea Arthur on Broadway (2002), 700 Sundays with Billy Crystal (2005), and Wishful Drinking with Carrie Fisher (2009).

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• Answered Prayers by Truman Capote. The incomplete work that was to include “La Côte Basque, 1965.”

• Capote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke. The definitive biography by an author who spent hundreds of hours with his subject, seeing many events firsthand.

• Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career by George Plimpton. An “oral biography” with remembrances by his colleagues as told to Plimpton.

• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Capote’s masterful and trailblazing “non-fiction novel.”

Palm Beach Dramaworks Founded in 2000, Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional theatre company in downtown West Palm Beach with a mission to engage and entertain audiences with provocative and timeless productions that personally impact each individual. We are dedicated to our vision “to enhance the quality of life through the transformative power of live theatre.” Consistent artistic excellence over the course of our history places Palm Beach Dramaworks at the forefront of the artistic landscape of Palm Beach County.

Further Reading

Before Coming to PBD for a School Day Performance What Should I Wear? Comfortable, appropriate, respectable dress is ideal for attending the theatre. Think “special occasion” casual! Be prepared by bringing a sweater or jacket as the theatre may be cold.

What Should I Bring? It isn’t necessary to bring anything to the theatre, except a sweater or jacket. Please leave all food, drinks and chewing gum in the lobby.

Can I take photographs or videotape portions of the performance? Copyright laws and union agreements prohibit anyone from taking pictures or video during the performance.

Please remember to…. Arrive to the theatre approximately 30 minutes before the performance time, turn off your cellphone and put it away, and use the restroom before entering the auditorium.

What if I have to leave during the performance? Please remain in your seat for the entire performance. If you must leave during the performance, please leave during a scene break or at intermission.

How do I respect the other theatregoers? You can respect other theatregoers by not talking (or whispering), by leaving your cell phone off, and by making appropriate responses during the performance.

What should I do before the show? Please use the restroom prior to entering the auditorium, and turn off your cellphone.

What should I do at intermission? Please use the restroom and feel free to use your cellphone in the lobby. Remember to turn off your cell phone before returning to the theatre.

What should I do after the show? Please remain in your seat for a Q&A with the actors

Especially for Students In live theatre, unlike movies and television, the actors can hear and often see you as easily as you can hear and see them. If you comment out loud during a live show, eat, text or answer your phone, you disturb not only other members of the audience but also the actors on stage, thus diminishing the performance and, ultimately your enjoyment of it. This doesn’t mean you have to remain silent. Actors want you to respond with laughter and applause; but such responses should always be genuine and appropriate to the moment. Such inconsiderate behavior as shouting, catcalling or sustained whispering, even during blackouts, can ruin the concentration of the actors and audience members alike. And throwing paper or objects of any kind toward the stage is not only rude, it’s also extremely dangerous to the performers. Please help us to respect the professional actors and technicians who are working hard to give an amazing performance. In the event of any student misbehavior, the relevant school will be contacted and its principal informed. We want you to enjoy your visit to Palm Beach Dramaworks, and we rely on you to exercise your common sense and mature judgement. Thank you for being a valuable part of our audience this season!

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When you are seated in the theatre … Observe/Infer/Predict 1. What do you notice about the scenery? What colors, lines, and shapes did the set designer use, and

why? How do you think the scenery will be used during the play? 2. Look up and around the theatre? What do you notice about the space? Do you see lighting

instruments? Do you hear any sounds or music being played? How do you think these elements will be used during the play?

After seeing the performance, write explanatory texts on the following: 1. Why did the playwright choose Tru as the title of the play? 2. Describe in detail and write down observations about the Truman Capote character. Who is he? What

does he do? Why is he alone? 3. How did the playwright drive the dramatic action with only actor? Describe the challenges and

successes of a one-person play. 4. How did the scenic designer capture the location? 5. How did the lighting designer capture the mood, time of day, and location of the play? 6. How did the costume designer capture the era, mood, and personality of the character in the play? 7. How did the sound designer capture the era and mood of the play? 8. Journal about your experience attending this play at PBD. What was it like seeing this story onstage?

What did you learn during the post-performance talkback? 9. Write a review of PBD’s Tru and include thoughts about the play, its themes, and include opinions

about the actor’s performance, scenery, props, costumes, lighting, and sound. Please send reviews to gcadwallader@palmbeachdramaworks.org

10. Use one of the following set of circumstances in Tru to write a new short story or poem. • Exposing a friend’s secret • Loneliness during the holidays • Using humor to cover a painful situation • Trying to move on from a difficult ordeal in your life

11. Write a short story, poem, or play about what happens after the end of the play. What happens to Truman Capote in the future?

Learning Connections

Standards The following are Florida State Standards for attending this production and using this Dramaguide: TH.68.C.2 LAFS.1112.RL.1.3 TH.912.C.2 LAFS.910.RL.3.9 TH.912.C.3.3

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