The Whales of August (play)

Last updated
The Whales of August
Written by David Berry
CharactersLibby, age 86
Sarah, age 75
Tisha, age 78
Maranov, age 79
Joshua, age 80
Date premiered1980
Place premiered Center Stage Baltimore
Original language English
SubjectDrama
SettingAugust 1954, Maine

The Whales of August is a play written by American playwright David Berry. The play is about two elderly sisters, both widows, who are living together in 1954 in a summer cottage in Maine. The older sister, Elizabeth "Libby" is being taken care of by her younger sister, Sarah. The sisters sit on their porch and watch the whales in the ocean and discuss the trials and tribulations of their lives. The play was adapted as a feature-film, and released in 1987. [1] [2]

Contents

Production history

Berry first started writing the play in 1978 through a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and it premiered in Baltimore at the Center Stage theatre in April 1980, where it was a part of their First Stage series. The play was next staged in 1981 by the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. [3] [4]

After receiving good notices, the play was moved to New York City and staged in 1982 at the WPA Theatre, Off-Broadway. The casts for these stagings were all different except for veteran actress Vivienne Shub in the role of Tisha. [5] Shub died in 2014 at the age of 95. [6] The play made its Chicago debut at the Victory Gardens Theater in 1983. [7]

The play is dedicated to David Berry's grandfather, William Finlay Adams (1886–1977). The play is available for licensing by regional theatre groups. In 2014, an all Japanese cast performed the play at the Art Tower Mito. [8]

Historical casting

Character1980 Center Stage cast1981 Trinity Rep cast1982 WPA Theatre cast1987 film cast
Elizabeth Mae "Libby" Logan-Strong Kate Wilkinson Ruth MaynardElizabeth Council Bette Davis
Sarah Louise Logan-WebberMargaret ThomsonSylvia DavisBettie Endrizzi Lillian Gish
Letitia "Tisha" Benson-DoughtyVivienne Shub Ann Sothern

Adaptations and awards

The play was adapted as a film of the same name and released in 1987. The producer of the film saw the Trinity Rep production, and purchased the rights as a vehicle for Lillian Gish. Berry also wrote the screenplay for the film, which received mixed reviews, with positive recognition for the performances. Ann Sothern was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Barthelmess</span> American actor (1895–1963)

Richard Semler Barthelmess was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920) and was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. The following year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two films: The Patent Leather Kid and The Noose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Gish</span> American actress (1893–1993)

Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Gish</span> American actress (1898–1968)

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American stage and screen actress. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Anderson</span> Australian stage and screen actress (1897–1992)

Dame Frances Margaret Anderson,, known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award. She is considered one of the 20th century's greatest classical stage actors.

<i>The Whales of August</i> 1987 film by Lindsay Anderson

The Whales of August is a 1987 American drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The story is based on the play of the same title by David Berry.

Anne Lockhart is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Lieutenant Sheba in the television series Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Russell</span> American singer and actress

Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, praised for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annabeth Gish</span> American actress (born 1971)

Anne Elizabeth "Annabeth" Gish is an American actress. She has played roles in films Shag, Hiding Out, Mystic Pizza, SLC Punk!, The Last Supper and Double Jeopardy. On television, she played Special Agent Monica Reyes on The X-Files, Elizabeth Bartlet Westin on The West Wing, Diane Gould on Halt and Catch Fire, Eileen Caffee on Brotherhood, Charlotte Millwright on The Bridge and Sheriff Althea Jarry on the seventh and final season of Sons of Anarchy.

Albert Horton Foote Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received Academy Awards for his screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, which was adapted from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, and his original screenplay for the film Tender Mercies (1983). He was also known for his notable live television dramas produced during the Golden Age of Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sellars</span> American theatre director (born 1957)

Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he teaches Art as Social Action and Art as Moral Action. He has been described as a key figure of theatre and opera for the last 50 years.

The 59th National Board of Review Awards were announced on December 15, 1987, and given on 16 February, 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Ruhl</span> American writer

Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright, poet, professor, and essayist. Among her most popular plays are Eurydice (2003), The Clean House (2004), and In the Next Room (2009). She has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career. Two of her plays have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and she received a nomination for Tony Award for Best Play. In 2020, she adapted her play Eurydice into the libretto for Matthew Aucoin's opera of the same name. Eurydice was nominated for Best Opera Recording at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

<i>Orphans of the Storm</i> 1921 film directed by D. W. Griffith

Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Towers</span> American actress and singer

Constance Mary Towers is an American film, stage, and television actress, and singer. She gained prominence for her appearances in several mainstream 1950s films before transitioning to theater, starring in numerous Broadway productions through the 1970s. Her accolades include two Emmy Award nominations.

La Bohème is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor, based on the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini. Lillian Gish and John Gilbert star in a tragic romance in which a tubercular seamstress sacrifices her life so that her lover, a bohemian playwright, might pen his masterpiece. Gish, at the height of her influence with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, asserted significant control over the production, determining the story, director, cast, cinematography, and costume design. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Fawcett</span> American actor

George Fawcett was an American stage and film actor of the silent era.

<i>Tom & Viv</i> (play) 1984 play by Michael Hastings

Tom & Viv is a play written by English playwright Michael Hastings. The play is based on the real lives of T. S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot.

<i>Miss Susie Slagles</i> 1946 film by John Berry

Miss Susie Slagle's is a 1946 American drama film directed by John Berry. It was based on the popular novel by Augusta Tucker. The film was Berry's directorial debut and first starring role for Joan Caulfield.

The Trip to Bountiful is a play by American playwright Horton Foote. The play premiered March 1, 1953, on NBC-TV, before being produced on the Broadway stage from November 3, 1953, to December 5, 1953.

Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company is both a repertory theatre company, and an actor training provider and drama school for young actors.

References

  1. Whales of August review accessed 11/23/2016
  2. The Whales of August Script accessed 11/23/2016
  3. New York Times Trinity Rep Review accessed 11/23/2016
  4. Boston Phoenix Trinity Rep Review accessed 2/25/2024
  5. Whales of August WPA review accessed 11/23/2016
  6. Vivienne Shub obituary accessed 11/23/2016
  7. Victory Gardens history accessed 11/20/2016
  8. Art Tower Mito accessed 11/23/2016
  9. Lillian Gish Makes a Splash accessed 11/23/2016