Getting Out

Last updated
Getting Out
Written by Marsha Norman
CharactersArlene
Arlie
Guard Evans
Bennie
Guard Caldwell
Doctor
Mother
School Principal
Ronnie
Carl
Warden
Ruby
Date premieredOctober 19, 1978
Place premieredMarymount Manhattan Theatre
New York City
Original language English
GenreDrama
SettingApartment in a run-down section of downtown Louisville, Kentucky; present day

Getting Out is a play by Marsha Norman. The play was produced at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre in October 1978 and then Off-Broadway in May 1979. The play concerns a female prisoner just released from prison, who returns to her home in Kentucky. Although she tries to have a normal life, her past experiences keep intruding.

Contents

Production history

Getting Out, a play by Marsha Norman, was presented by the Phoenix Theatre at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre from October 19, 1978, to November 5, 1978. [1] It was then produced by Lester Osterman, Lucille Lortel, and Marc Howard at the Off-Broadway Theatre de Lys, opening on May 15, 1979, and running to December 9, 1979. [2] The cast: [2]

The creatives:

Other Productions

The world premiere was held at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky on November 2, 1977. [3] The West Coast premiere was produced by the Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum.

Setting and original performance conditions

"Both acts are set in a dingy one-room apartment in a rundown section of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. There is a sink, an apartment-size combination stove and refrigerator, and a counter with cabinets above. Dirty curtains conceal the bars on the outside of the single window. There is one closet and a door to the bathroom. The door to the apartment opens into a hall." [4]

"A catwalk stretches above the apartment and a prison cell, Stage Right, connects it by the stairways. An apron Downstage and Stage Left completes the enclosure of the apartment in playing areas for the past. The apartment must seem imprisoned." (Dramatists Plays Service Inc.) [4]

Synopsis

"Released from prison Arlene returns to a run-down apartment in Louisville, intent on starting her life over. Rebellious and disruptive as a young girl, she has found strength in religion and wants to put her youth (as Arlie) behind her. But her struggles to find her way in the present (as Arlene) is counterpointed by flashbacks of her past (as Arlie), her two personalities being represented by two performers, who sometimes appear onstage simultaneously. We meet the guards and prison officials with whom Arlie waged a running battle; and the unfeeling, slatternly mother, the lecherous former prison guard, the pimp ex-boyfriend, and the touchingly friendly neighbor with whom Arlene is confronted in the present. Ultimately, the play, like life, offers no simple answers---but it conveys, with heart-rending honesty and compassion, the struggle of someone fighting for her life against incredible odds" (Dramatists Play Service Inc.) [4]

Character summaries

Text

Awards and recognition

Marsha Norman won the 1979 Outer Critics Circle John Glassner Award, [5] and Susan Kingsley won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Talent. [2]

The play was a 1979 Selection, The Burns Mantle Theater Yearbook, The Best Plays of 1978-1979 [6]

Related Research Articles

'night, Mother is a play by American playwright Marsha Norman. The play won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)</span> American singer, novelist, actress and model

Marsha Hunt is an American actress, novelist, singer and former model, who has lived mostly in Britain and Ireland. She achieved national fame when she appeared in London as Dionne in the long-running rock musical Hair. She enjoyed close relationships with Marc Bolan and Mick Jagger, who is the father of her only child Karis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsha Norman</span> American writer

Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play 'night, Mother. She wrote the book and lyrics for such Broadway musicals as The Secret Garden, for which she won a Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and The Red Shoes, as well as the libretto for the musical The Color Purple and the book for the musical The Bridges of Madison County. She is co-chair of the playwriting department at The Juilliard School.

Humana Festival of New American Plays is an internationally renowned festival that celebrates the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, this festival showcases new theatrical works and draws producers, critics, playwrights, and theatre lovers from around the world. The festival was founded in 1976 by Jon Jory, who was Producing Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 1969 to 2000. Since 1979 The Humana Festival has been sponsored by the Humana Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Humana.

Sally and Marsha is a comedy-drama, written by Sybille Pearson and directed by Lynne Meadow. It premiered Off-Broadway in 1982.

Dinner with Friends is a play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in 1999. The play received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenny Baker</span> American actor

Leonard Joel Baker was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kentucky State Reformatory</span> Medium-security prison

Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) is a medium-security prison for adult males. The prison is located in unincorporated Oldham County, Kentucky, near La Grange, and about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Louisville. It opened in 1940 to replace the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort after a flood damaged the original property. The current (2020) capacity of KSR is 1053 inmates.

<i>Not About Nightingales</i>

Not About Nightingales is a three-act play by Tennessee Williams. He wrote the play late in 1938, after reading in a newspaper about striking inmates of a Holmesburg, Pennsylvania prison in August 1938, who had been placed in "an isolation unit lined with radiators, where four died from temperatures approaching 150 degrees.".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Gallagher</span> American writer

Mary Gallagher is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, actress, director and teacher. For six years, she was artistic director of Gypsy, a theatre company in the Hudson Valley, New York, which collaborated with many artists to create site-specific mask-and-puppet music-theatre with texts and lyrics by Gallagher. These pieces included Premanjali and the 7 Geese Brothers, Ama and The Scottish Play. In 1996-97, she directed the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa, and she taught playwriting and screenwriting at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts from 2001 to 2010. She is a member of Actors & Writers, a theater company in the Hudson Valley, and the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, where she developed many of her plays and created and moderated the series, "You Can Make a Life: Conversations with Playwrights" from 1994 to 2001.

<i>Close to My Heart</i> 1951 film by William Keighley

Close to My Heart is a 1951 American drama film directed by William Keighley, written by James R. Webb, and starring Ray Milland and Gene Tierney.

Brooke Berman is an American playwright and author. Her play Hunting and Gathering, which premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York magazine. Her memoir, No Place Like Home, was published by Random House in June, 2010.

Melanie Marnich is an American television writer-producer and playwright. She co-created and serves as executive producer and co-showrunner for the upcoming Amazon series, The Expatriates. She has written for Big Love on HBO; Her episode, “Come, Ye Saints” for Big Love, earned her a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for best drama episode. It was also named Best Television Episode of 2009 by Entertainment Weekly, rated third in TIME Magazine's list of 10 Best TV episodes of 2009, and ranked in TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time.

Craig Pospisil is an American playwright, musical bookwriter and filmmaker. He has written nine full-length plays and musicals, mostly comedies, and more than 40 short plays and musicals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Actors Theatre of Louisville</span>

Actors Theatre of Louisville is a non-profit performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Actors Theatre was founded in 1964 following the merging of two local companies, Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville, operated by Louisville natives Ewel Cornett and Richard Block. Designated as the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974, the theatre has been called one of America's most consistently innovative professional theatre companies, with an annual attendance of 150,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Washburn</span> American playwright

Anne Washburn is an American playwright.

Susan Kingsley was an American actress, with roles in films such as Popeye (1980), Steel (1979) and Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).

Sheri Wilner is an American playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Hnath</span> American playwright

Lucas Hnath is an American playwright. He won the 2016 Obie Award for excellence in playwriting for his plays Red Speedo and The Christians. He also won a Whiting Award.

Arlene Hutton is an American playwright, theatre artist and teacher. She is best known for a trio of plays, set during and after the Second World War, known as The Nibroc Trilogy. The initial play of that trilogy, Last Train to Nibroc, was the first play to transfer from FringeNYC to Off-Broadway. Other works for which she is known include a one-act dramatic work about the aftermath of a sexual assault, I Dream Before I Take the Stand; a one-act musical drama set among the members of a Shaker community in the 19th century, As It Is in Heaven; and a Holocaust-themed work, Letters to Sala, based on actual documents. She has also created plays for young audiences.

References

  1. Getting Out Internet Off-Broaway Database, accessed September 6, 2014
  2. 1 2 3 Geting Out Archived 2014-09-06 at the Wayback Machine Internet Off-Broaway Database, accessed September 6, 2014
  3. Ullom, Jeffrey. The Humana Festival: The History of New Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisvelle, SIU Press, Jun 19, 2008, ISBN   0809328496, p. 55
  4. 1 2 3 4 Norman, Marsha (1979). Getting Out . New York: Dramatists Play Service Inc. ISBN   0-8222-0439-8.
  5. "Marsha Norman Awards" playbillvault.com, September 7, 2014
  6. Guernsey Jr. (Ed.), Otis L. (1979). The Best Plays of 1978-1979 . New York & Toronto: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp.  239–247. ISBN   0-396-07723-4.