As To The Meaning of Words

Last updated

As to the Meaning of Words is a stage play written by Mark Eichman, a slightly fictionalized account of a 1975 court case in which a physician who had performed a seemingly legal abortion was afterwards charged with manslaughter. The play premiered in New York in 1981, and while the names of the people involved had been changed, the facts of the case very much remained intact in this courtroom drama.

Contents

Summary

The play opened in June 1981 at the American Theater of Actors in New York. The doctor accused of manslaughter (whose real name was Dr. Kenneth Edelin), here named Dr. Winston Gerrard, is portrayed as a rather passive character; on the opposite end of the scale is the aggressive prosecutor, with the defense counsel in the middle. There is a rather large number of witnesses for both sides. The play does not seem to favor either side or position, but is very much "just the facts".

Reception

Some reviewers criticized the author for not taking sides. The New York Times commented that "Mr. Eichman's scrupulous fairness might serve him better if he were a judge rather than a playwright." [1] Critics were generally satisfied with the "competent cast", [1] but found the material all in all lacked drama. [2]

Cast and crew

Presented by the New York Theater Studio (artistic director: Richard V. Romagnoli; managing director: Cheryl Faraone), written by Mark Eichman, and directed by Ted Snowden, the play premiered in June 1981 at the American Theater of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, with the following cast: [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alec Baldwin</span> American actor (born 1958)

Alexander Rae Baldwin III is an American actor. He is known for his leading and supporting roles in a variety of genres, from comedy to drama, and has received numerous accolades including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and eight Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Thomas (actor)</span> American actor

Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor. He is best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons for which he won an Emmy Award. He also received another Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe Award nominations for that role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jai Rodriguez</span> American actor

Jai Rodriguez is an American actor and musician best known as the culture guide on the Bravo network's Emmy-winning American reality television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He also co-wrote a book with the other Queer Eye hosts. Rodriguez starred as Geoffrey in the sitcom Malibu Country from 2012 to 2013.

Arvid Laurence Bryggman is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of Dr. John Dixon on the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns. He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on As the World Turns in 1984 and 1987. He received six other Daytime Emmy Award nominations. He has had roles in many theatrical productions, including Ulysses in Nighttown (1974), The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977), Prelude to a Kiss (1990), Picnic (1994), Proof (2000), Romance (2005), Festen (2006), and Harvey (2012). He has received two Tony Award nominations and won two Obie Awards. He has also appeared in the films ...And Justice for All (1979), Hanky Panky (1982), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Spy Game (2001).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cullum</span> American actor and singer (b. 1930)

John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Zerbe</span> American actor

Anthony Jared Zerbe is an American actor. His notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in The Omega Man, a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend; as an Irish Catholic coal miner and one of the Molly Maguires in the 1970 film The Molly Maguires; as a corrupt gambler in Farewell, My Lovely; as the leper colony chief Toussaint in the 1973 historical drama prison film Papillon; as Abner Devereaux in Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park; as villain Milton Krest in the James Bond film Licence to Kill; Rosie in The Turning Point; Roger Stuart in The Dead Zone; Admiral Dougherty in Star Trek: Insurrection; and Councillor Hamann in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet that had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two additional showcase productions, it opened on Broadway in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Stone</span> American actor (1923-2011)

Leonard Stone was an American character actor who played supporting roles in over 120 television shows and 35 films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Radnor</span> American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1974)

Joshua Thomas Radnor is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

<i>The Normal Heart</i> 1985 play by Larry Kramer

The Normal Heart is a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer. It focuses on the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the gay founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The play's title comes from W. H. Auden's poem, "September 1, 1939".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cristofer</span> American actor and director

Michael Cristofer is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for The Shadow Box in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip Price in the television series Mr. Robot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sidney Gilpin</span> American stage actor (1878–1930)

Charles Sidney Gilpin was a stage actor of the 1920s. He played in two New York City debuts: the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln and the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premiere of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. In 1920, he was the first black person to receive The Drama League's annual award as one of ten people who had done the most that year for American theatre. He also appeared in films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herb Voland</span> American actor (1918–81)

Herbert Maurice Voland was an American actor, best known for his various roles on the sitcom Bewitched, as General Crandell Clayton on the sitcom M*A*S*H during seasons one and two, and the film Airplane! (1980).

Execution of Justice is an ensemble play by Emily Mann chronicling the case of Dan White, who assassinated San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk in November 1978. The play was originally commissioned by the Eureka Theatre Company, but premiered at Arena Stage on May 10, 1985.

Christopher Shinn is an American playwright. His play Dying City (2006) was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Where Do We Live (2004) won the 2005 Obie Award, Playwriting.

Bradford Ernest Sullivan was an American character actor on film, stage and television. He was best known for playing the killer Cole in The Sting, hockey goon Mo Wanchuk in Slap Shot, mobster George in The Untouchables (1987) and the gruff Henry Wingo in The Prince of Tides (1991).

Offending the Audience is a play by Austrian writer Peter Handke. It is sometimes called an anti-play because of its renouncements of theatricality. It was originally published in German under the title Publikumsbeschimpfung in 1966. It premiered in June 1966 at the Theater am Turm in Frankfurt as part of the "Experimental Theatre Week". The play was first produced in London in 1970 at the Almost Free Theatre in Soho by the Interaction Arts Cooperative's TOC directed by Israeli writer and theatre director Naftali Yavin; the cast included Andrew Norton, Judy Monahan, Jane Bond, Robert Walker and Jan Chappell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Lockin</span> American actor and dancer

Daniel Joseph Lockin was an American actor and dancer who appeared on stage, television, and film. He was best known for his portrayal of the character Barnaby Tucker in the 1969 film Hello, Dolly!.

Orphans is a play by Lyle Kessler. It premiered in 1983 at The Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where it received critical and commercial success and won the Drama-Logue Award. The play has been performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre and on Broadway in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Colvin</span> American actor (1934–2005)

Jack Colvin was an American character actor of theater, film and TV. He is best known for the role of the tabloid reporter Jack McGee in The Incredible Hulk television franchise (1977–1982).

References

  1. 1 2 New York Times, June 3, 1981, "A Drama in Court, 'The Weaning of Words' "
  2. ↑ "The evidence piles up, but the drama remains slight." - N.Y. Times, June 1981
  3. ↑ Theatre World, June 1981
  4. ↑ FilmReferences - Stage Plays
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.