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Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, The

  • Thornton Wilder
  • Short Play, Dramatic Comedy, 1930s
  • 3M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573622113

A father, mother and two of their three surviving children drive from Newark, New Jersey to Camden to visit their married daughter, who has recently lost her baby in childbirth.

More information

Description

  • Short Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 30 minutes

  • Time Period: 1930s
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Appropriate for all audiences, Adult, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Dinner Theatre, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student
A father, mother and two of their three surviving children drive from Newark, New Jersey to Camden to visit their married daughter, who has recently lost her baby in childbirth. Their journey is punctuated by talk, laughter, memories (some mundane, some happy, some painful), and appreciation of the Now -- ham and eggs, flowers, family, sunsets and the joy of being alive. In this family drama, nothing much happens -- and yet everything important happens. As Ma Kirby says, "There's nothin' like bein' liked by your family."
REVIEWS:

"It should constantly be borne in mind that the purpose of this play is the portrayal of the character of Ma Kirby, the author at one time having even considered entitling the play The Portrait of a Lady. Accordinly, the director should constantly keep in mind that Ma Kirby's humor, strength and humanity constitute the unifying elementthroughout. This aspect should always rise above the merely humorous characteristic details of the play."

 Thornton Wilder, "Notes for the Producer," 1931

"My earlier one-act plays, before Our Town, were free of scenery too and things went back and forth in time... In my plays I attempted to raise ordinary daily conversation between ordinary people to the levelof the universal human experience."

 Thornton Wilder in an interview with Bob McCoy, 1974.

Premiere Production:

Happy Journey was first produced November 25, 1931, at the Yale University theater in New Haven, Connecticut, by the Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar College Philalethis, with The Long Christmas Dinner, Love and How to Cure It, and Such Things Only Happen in Books.

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Non-Traditional casting, Features Teens, Features Children, Roles for Children
  • Casting Notes: Alternatively, this play can be cast using 1 boy, 1 girl, and 2 male adults, and 2 female adults.

  • THE STAGE MANAGER
    MA - Mrs. Kate Kirby
    ARTHUR - 13, her son
    CAROLINE - 15, her daughter
    PA
    BEULAH - 22, the Kirbys' married daughter who lives in Camden, New Jersey

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, The Script This is optional. Order Now

    A father, mother and two of their three surviving children drive from Newark, New Jersey to Camden to visit their married daughter, who has recently lost her baby in childbirth. Their journey is punctuated by talk, laughter, memories (some mundane, some happy, some painful), and appreciation of the Now -- ham and eggs, flowers, family, sunsets and the joy of being alive. In this family drama, nothing much happens -- and yet everything important happens. As Ma Kirby says, "There's nothin' like bein' liked by your family."

    		$24.95

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