Tag Archive for: Farragut North

REHEARSAL JOURNAL

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DEAR SARA JANE Thursday June 11th: We worked thru and staged Scene 4. (pages 29-43). Joey Parson’s is making  strong- physical choices as she discovers Lynnie’s character. We learn more information about Jerry, Sara Jane’s husband who is away at war. We also learn important information about Sara Jane’s brother Joe…who was in the military.

          “Are you war people? I come from war people. Military people, long line. From way back. Shake the President’s hand and everything, my grandfather did, oh yeah we got fucking heroes left and right-but not Joe, embarrassing everyone like that.

You see, war is my family’s metier. If you want to get French about it. Mother and me are very much at odds on the subject. Very much at odds. She won’t talk about it with me. Won’t talk about Joe.”

We will review and work thru Scene 4 today…and if there is time…we will begin to read thru Scene 5.

FIFTY WORDS: We accomplished a lot yesterday. We worked thru and staged Scene 1. This is such an important scene, because this is the beginning of the story and the first time the audience meets Adam and Jan. Tony Crane (Adam) and Joey Parsons (Jan) explored and discovered their rituals and marriage routines. Adam and Jan are a couple who have leaned and established “habits.” They are hyper-sensitive to each other. The play takes place in their kitchen. So we worked on developing “stage business” and behavior. Adam and Jan perform the “ritual” of preparing a meal…their nine year old son is away for the evening at his first sleep-over. They are alone…together…for the first time in nine years. Adam wants to create a romantic evening:

JAN: This feels very weird, Adam.

ADAM: Being alone together?

JAN: Talking about…like this, these things.

ADAM: Why?

JAN: How we’ve been lately. Since I started the business…and you got this project in the Midwest…I mean things were bad. We both know it. But now, when you’re home suddenly it’s all champagne, romantic dinner, and now sexy talk. Isn’t it strange that things improve like this when you’re not around so much. Have you noticed?

ADAM: We use to be like this all the time.

JAN: When?

ADAM: At the beginning.”

It is very important that the audience likes both characters. This is a story…a love story about marriage and relationships. Adam and Jan are two very passionate people who love each other. I am inspired by this Leonard Cohen lyric:

             “I’m aching for you baby. I can’t pretend I’m not. I’d love to see you naked in your body and your thought…I got you like a habit…ahh…I’ll never get enough.”

FARRAGUT NORTH: We worked thru and staged Act I-Scene 1. The first scene is set in the lounge/bar of the Hotel Fort Des Moines. We meet Stephen, Governor Morris’ Press Secretary; Paul, Campaign Manager for Governor Morris; Ida, a New York Times reporter and Ben, Deputy Press Secretary.

Tonight we will review Scene 1. and work on the pace…tempo and rhythm of the dialogue.

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