Purpose of Play Notes
Play Notes is intended to help audience members and students appreciate CATCO’s production of Herb Brown’s You’re My Boy on several levels.
First, it reflects the research that the artists (the playwright, director, actors, and stage, costume, sound, and light designers) undertook to understand the historical and thematic contexts of the play.
Second, the various sections, particularly Artistic Process [Designers’ Page and Rehearsal Process (photos)], furnish a glimpse into how the artists working collaboratively bring “words on the page” into a three-dimensional experience on the stage.
Third, the web site offers numerous opportunities for the reader to develop other interpretations of the play and the history that surrounds it. Many of the web pages include direct links to other sources; and the references cited in each section also furnish opportunities for further research and analysis.
Questions to Consider
- Have the intentions of the playwright been met (Playwright’s Notes)? Have the intentions of the director been met (Director’s Approach)?
- What does the title, You’re My Boy, mean? Are there multiple meanings?
- How do the political themes (individual ambition versus service to one’s country, to the president, and to political party) connect to the social and cultural themes of the times (Cold War, Red Scare, role of the media, social changes)?
- What did you learn about the connection between domestic politics and world affairs during this time period?
- What similarities between the 1950s and the present day do you see in: political parties? the role of the media? the personalities? What differences do you see?
- How much do you believe the experiences of Richard Nixon in the 1940s and 1950s underlay his undoing as a politician and president during the Watergate scandal of the 1970s?
