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Theophilus North (Play)

Hope pulses so strongly through Theophilus North.... Burnett injects his script with cosmic scope.... Imaginative, forceful theater

Variety

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1920s
  • Target Audience: Adult, Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18), Appropriate for all audiences, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Large Stage, Dinner Theatre, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, Outdoor, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student, Church / Religious Groups

  • Accolades:
  • Nominee! Helen Hayes Award - Outstanding New Play
From Off-Broadway comes this astonishing charmer of a play, based upon the semi-autobiographical final work of three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning icon of American letters, Thornton Wilder.

Set in the tony resort town of Newport, RI, during the height of the Jazz Age in summer, 1926, Theophilus North follows the exploits of the title character as he searches for adventure and his place in the world. Quitting his teaching position in New Jersey, and stranded in Newport after his jalopy breaks down, thirty-year-old Theophilus takes odd jobs (tennis instructor, French tutor, private reader…) in houses of the wealthy, infiltrating himself into the lives and troubles of Newport’s residents, both upstairs and downstairs. But the greatest adventure in store is not at all what he has imagined…

A dramatic comedy in two acts, Theophilus North was created for seven actors (4M, 3W) playing multiple roles. However, with flexible casting it allows parts for over twenty actors, for non-professional groups that wish to find properties to accommodate larger casting needs. Theophilus North can be easily produced with minimal sets, properties and costumes.
REVIEWS:

Excavates the Wilder play buried in the novel.... This Theophilus North is unmistakably a cousin of Our Town... There are muscles rippling under the play's rose-scented skin.

New York Sun

Charming... Captures Wilder's spirit of genial humor and tempered optimism... Ignites sparks of surprisingly deep emotion.

New York Daily News

Hope pulses so strongly through Theophilus North... Burnett injects his script with cosmic scope... Imaginative, forceful theater... Charming and breathtaking all at once... In the spirit of Wilder and with a dramatic vigor all its own, the play turns large-hearted living into art.

Variety

Undaunted, [it] evokes... tender, unforced humanity... Rich in dry humor, and in Wilder's... philosophy that the cosmic permeates the quotidian... Gently funny, spryly wise...

Time Out New York

Five stars... Purely sparkles with intelligence, wit and humanity... This is a play both for the head and the heart.

TalkinBroadway.com

Beautiful and intelligent... A mixture of Wilderesque sobriety and esprit. The late author would undoubtedly have tipped his boater...

TheaterMania.com
Premiere Production:

Theophilus North received its World Premiere co-production by Arena Stage in Washington, DC, and Geva Theater in Rochester, NY — for which it received a Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award nomination as Outstanding New Play or Musical of the Year. It has since been produced Off-Broadway at the Harold Clurman Theater, by the Drama Desk and OBIE Award–winning Keen Company, and at regional theaters including Organic Theater Company (Chicago, IL), TheatreWorks (Palo Alto, CA), People’s Light and Theatre (Malvern, PA), and Dorset Theater Festival (Dorset, VT), as well as at numerous community, college and high school theaters.

Characters

  • Casting: 4M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Flexible casting, Room for Extras, Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle), Roles for Children
  • Casting Notes:

    Doubling/tripling roles. Flexible casting allows for larger cast size, when desired.

  • THEOPHILUS NORTH - lead, male, 30s, daring, intelligent, but emotionally reserved.

  • MAN 1 - 20s, plays a casino owner; snobbish teen; and a rich, insecure, philandering husband.

  • MAN 2 - 30s, plays a friendly member of the servent class who befriends the lead; a P.E. teacher attempting to elope; and an uptight butler.

  • MAN 3 - 60s, plays Theophilus's father; a worldly mechanic; a blowhard society father; and a housebound millionaire.

  • WOMAN 1 - 20s, plays a captivating young tennis student and a self-centered heiress attempting to run away from home.

  • WOMAN 2 - 30s, plays a concerned society mother; a pregnant socialite learning Shakespeare; and a commanding divorcee.

  • WOMAN 3 - 50s, plays Theophilus's mother; a sweet and simple Irish nurse; and a doyenne of the servant class.

  • All Men and Women also play various locations and objects, which speak for themselves.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Theophilus North (Play) Script Order Now

    From Off-Broadway comes this astonishing charmer of a play, based upon the semi-autobiographical final work of three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning icon of American letters, Thornton Wilder.Set in the tony resort town of Newport, RI, during the height of the Jazz Age in summer, 1926, Theophilus North follows the exploits of the title character as he searches for adventure and his place in the world. Quitting his teaching position in New Jersey, and stranded in Newport after his jalopy breaks down, thirty-year-old Theophilus takes odd jobs (tennis instructor, French tutor, private reader…) in houses of the wealthy, infiltrating himself into the lives and troubles of Newport’s residents, both upstairs and downstairs. But the greatest adventure in store is not at all what he has imagined…A dramatic comedy in two acts, Theophilus North was created for seven actors (4M, 3W) playing multiple roles. However, with flexible casting it allows parts for over twenty actors, for non-professional groups that wish to find properties to accommodate larger casting needs. Theophilus North can be easily produced with minimal sets, properties and costumes.

    		$24.95

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