| Summary: | Program of the Auburn University Theatre Department production "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-on-the-Moon Marigolds" performed on February 24 through 28 and March 1 through 2, 1975. The program includes the cast of characters and the production staff.AUBURN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE
presents
THE EFFECTS OF GAMMA RAYS
ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS
by PAUL ZINDEL
May 20-25, 1975
DIRECTOR RALPH E. MILLER
SCENE DESIGNER OSCAR PATTERSON, III
COSTUME DESIGNER JOHN HANCOCK BROOKS, JR.
LIGHTING DESIGNER G. J. KOELLSTED
CAST
BEATRICE HUNSDORFER Cynthia Nicholson
RUTH, HER DAUGHTER Bonner Nelson
TILLIE, HER DAUGHTER Jan Infante
NANNY, A DECREPIT BOARDER Ami Poteat
DR. BERG, PRINCIPAL OF THE HIGH SCHOOL Victoria Baxley
JANICE VICKERY Melanie Reeder
SCENES
Place: One of New Orleans faded neighborhoods. The store-front apartment
left Beatrice by her father. Time: The present. Over a ten week period.
Act I
Scene 1. Late one night in early spring
Scene 2. The following morning
Scene 3. A few days later
Scene 4. Two weeks later
Scene 5. The following night during a storm
Scene 6. A week later
A ten minute intermission
Act II
Scene 1. Six weeks later. The night of the science fair at the high school
Scene 2. Later the same evening at the science fair presentations
Scene 3. The same time at the apartment
Scene 4. Later in the evening at the science fair presentations
Scene 5. The same evening after the science fair
PROGRAM NOTE
Tolstoy once said, "All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." A debatable idea, but one sees what Toystoy means: when all of the relationships are right, happiness results, but when any one or more of the relationships is not right many special kinds of unhappiness may result. In this play the effect of Gamma Rays on marigolds appears to be a metaphor for the impression of a mother on her two children�sensitive but sane Tillie and psychotic Ruth. With plants or animals, man does not yet fully understand why some things are
damaged by radiation while others turn out to be positive mutations. As in society, some people can rise above the currents of their stations and
environments while others are pulled under by the same swift streams.
Zendel's style of writing is fairly typical of the "new free" look at the age-old problems found in parent-child relationships. He makes use of the loose plot structure (a-day-in-the-life-of a person), cinematic techniques, and black comedy (laughing at something destructive and disgusting). Zendel takes science and the atom not as symbols of man's alienation and death, but as symbols of his heavenly origin and link with the sun. The play moves from the chaotic living room, with its litter and disorder, through the mother's crazy dreams of an impossible new life in a tea shop, to the uncorrupted daughter's joyful vision of a rich exciting world. The play won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Dramatic Literature and the Drama Critic's Circle Award. R.M.
Acknowledgements
You are invited to view a special exhibition in the lobby gallery.
A REMINDER: Smoking, drinking, eating, and picture taking are not permitted in the auditorium.
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