Actors’ Book and
Play Notes
for the production of
THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF
by
Adam Long, Reed Martin, &
Austin Tichenor
Produced by
Contemporary American Theatre Company
CATCO’s 2006-07 season is being presented in
association with the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA).
Compiled, edited, and written by Bill Childs, Prof. of
History, The Ohio State University (childs.1@osu.edu)
Preface
For every production, CATCO hires a dramaturg to collect information about the play (its structure and setting), the playwright, and past productions. This information, which is put together into an Actors’ Book, furnishes a context for and is supplemental to the research conducted by the artists involved in the production, including the director, actors, and costume, scenic, lighting, and sound designers, and props master.
Dramaturgs prepare not only the Actors’ Book, but also Play Notes (or sometimes, Stage Notes), which is often a shorter version of the Actors’ Book and is made available to the theatre-going public. For this CATCO production, this web site is combining both the Actors’ Book and Play/Stage Notes.
This web site will be updated periodically throughout the rehearsal process.
Once again, CATCO is
very grateful to the Department of
History and the College of Humanities at The Ohio State University for the
opportunity to share with Central Ohio—and
via the web, the world—insights
into the process of "putting on a show." This collaboration has occurred two other
times—in Spring 2001, when CATCO produced Frank Galati’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH (see http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/childs1/grapesOfWrath.htm)
and in Autumn 2005, when CATCO produced the World Premiere of Herb Brown’s YOU’RE MY BOY (see http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/childs1/CATCOPlayNotesBrown.htm)
Introduction
The Play
Historical
and Cultural References in the Play
The Artistic Process
Artists’ Biographies