Tag Archive for: Beau Willimon

REHEARSAL JOURNAL

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On Tuesday June 9th we began the rehearsal process with a COMPANY READ-THRU of THE HISTORY OF LIGHT, YANKEE TAVERN, FIFTY WORDS, and FARRAGUT NORTH. (DEAR SARA JANE started rehearsals last week.) It was an amazing day…The COMPANY READ-THRU is one of my favorite days. Eight hours…four new plays…four playwrights…and a solid Acting Company. The actors read the plays sitting around a table to the entire 2009 CATF Company. It was a thrilling experience.

From Beau Willimon: “Thanks again for such a wonderful past few days out in Shepherdstown. It’s such an amazing festival you’ve created and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say a proper farewell to you after the reading, but I’ll see you in July, so it’s only a brief farewell. I thought the reading was very solid, and all the actors seem to have a good initial grasp on the play. Let’s jump on the phone briefly sometime this week or next and I can share a couple small thoughts with you that might be of some use as you press forward. Thanks again! All best, Beau”

Today we break up into our individual rehearsals. Victor Lodato and I will continue our work on DEAR SARA JANE with the talented Joey Parsons. Michael Weller will work with the cast of FIFTY WORDS in a four hour “table work” read-thru. Eisa Davis will work with Liesl Tommy and the cast of THE HISTORY OF LIGHT. Liesl will have a four hour rehearsal with the cast of YANKEE TAVERN… Steven Dietz will join us next week to work with the cast. And I will have a four hour “table work” read-thru with the cast of FARRAGUT NORTH.

The rehearsal process has begun…A rotating Repertory of FIVE new American plays.

Ed Herendeen

FARRAGUT NORTH SET DESIGN

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I want to share the preliminary set designs and story boards for FARRAGUT NORTH by Beau Willimon. Set design by Robert Klingelhoefer.

Our concept for the Set Design: We want to create a “media storm” environment. FARRAGUT NORTH is set in Des Moines Iowa during the presidential caucuses. We’re in Iowa–set your clocks back to January.

“If the television series WEST WING offered up politics as an inspirational highway to hope, Beau Willimon’s spicy, new campaign stage dramedy, FARRAGUT NORTH, returns us to those comforting, cutthroat side streets.” Peter Marks, Washington Post.

Bob Klingelhoefer has created an exciting design that supports the world of the play.

STORY BOARDS:

Prologue

Prologue

Farragut North: Hotel Bar

SCENE 1. The bar of the Hotel Fort Des Moines, Des Moines, Iowa.

resta

SCENE 2. A small, dingy restaurant in East Des Moines, Iowa.

hotel

SCENE 3. Stephen's Hotel room.

air

SCENE 4. The Des Moines airport.

hq

ACT 2. SCENE 2. Morris Campaign Headquarters.

Bob Klingelhoefer has created an exciting set design that captures the “world of the play.” We are in the “world” of American politics. As a one-time volunteer for Senator Charles Schumer of New York and a junior staff member for Howard Dean, the former Vermont  governor, Beau Willimon writes knowingly about political trench warfare…his new play reflects how his own self-described “starry-eyed idealism” dimmed amid the brutality of campaigning.

“Everyone knows to a certain extent that there’s a lot of nasty and duplicitous and unsavory stuff in a campaign, but some people might be surprised at how nasty things are behind the scenes.” Beau Willimon

“Some of the tactics and the way people undercut one another are real…The ambition and fear and passion and amorality and mistrust and loss and friendship and love are things I have experienced in my own life, and they’re all I can draw on, really, trying to create lives on the stage.”Beau Willimon

FARRAGUT NORTH lifts the veil on American politics…I am looking forward to hearing your reactions after you witness this important new American play at the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

Ed Herendeen

Beau Willimon and Farragut North

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Beau Willimon and I had coffee a couple of weeks ago to discuss our upcoming production of his terrific new play FARRAGUT NORTH. We met in Midtown NY at Le Pain Quotidien and we had a very productive conversation about his new political drama. We are both looking forward to working together on the Washington/Baltimore Metro area premiere.

I learned that Beau has first hand knowledge of political campaigns. While an undergraduate at Columbia in 1998, he volunteered for Senator Charles E. Schumer’s Senate campaign against the Republican incumbent, Alfonse D’Amato. He was also a junior staff member for Howard Dean. So he comes to his observations about political campaigns honestly.  His best friend is Jay Carson, who was Governor Dean’s twenty something press secretary in 2004 . . . and in many ways the inspiration for the play.

“I don’t know if I’m critiquing politics as much as being accurate and honest” . . .Willimon said in a recent NY Times interview. “Everyone knows to a certain extent that there’s a lot of nasty and duplicitous and unsavory stuff in a campaign, but some people might be surprised at how nasty things are behind the scenes.”

Beau’s agent sent me an early draft of the script in August and I was blown away by the story. I knew immediately that I had to direct it. It has everything that I look for in a good script: a powerful, timely story; great conflict, terrific dialogue, strong, believable characters and an important message. FARRAGUT NORTH is a signature CATF play. It provides “red meat” for the CATF core audience. I am thrilled that we received the rights to produce the MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE.

FARRAGUT NORTH is a fresh take on old political tricks. Beau Willimon lifts the veil on American Politics. Washington Post theater critic, Peter Marks said in his review of the recent NY premiere: “If the ‘West Wing’ offered up politics as an inspirational highway to hope, Beau Willimon’s spicy, new campaign stage dramedy, FARRAGUT NORTH, returns us to those comforting, cutthroat side streets”.

The play charts the painfully inevitable fall of Stephen, a 25-year-old press secretary working on the presidential campaign of a leading democrat . . . set in Iowa . . . its caucus time . . . and votes need to be counted. Stephen is a whip-smart and cocky, wunderkind who is so chummy with reporters that he thinks he can manipulate them with his charm and charisma. But there is a chill in the Iowa landscape . . . a storm is coming.

Willimon, like Dietz, is a terrific storyteller with an original voice. He has written an aggressive drama that will engage you with the power of story. The play is a potent reminder that politics is a high-stakes game where one wrong liaison can finish you off.

—Ed Herendeen