Porgy and Bess - American Repertory Theater

20
11
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
YOUR GUIDE TO
OFFICIAL
SEASON 2010/11
PRINT SPONSOR
Welcome
The Gershwins’
Porgy and Bess
At the A.R.T.
The moment is finally here for the
American Repertory Theater’s production
of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
This special guide will immerse you in the
incredible history of this iconic American
masterpiece, while giving you a behind-the> Diane Paulus,
scenes look at our production. Inside, you
Artistic Director
Photo: Dario Acosta
will find interviews with the creative team,
an overview of the production history of Porgy and
Bess, personal stories from the A.R.T. cast members, and all the
details you need to buy your tickets and secure your seats.  
Porgy and Bess has a special relationship to Boston. On
September 30th, 1935, Porgy and Bess premiered at the Colonial
Theatre on Boylston Street, right near the Boston Common, where
George Gershwin famously walked after opening night and made
forty-five minutes of cuts to the production. Now, seventy-six years
later, Porgy and Bess returns to Boston for the next chapter in the
history of this masterwork.
I have spent the past year working on Porgy and Bess alongside
two incredibly accomplished women—Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and OBIE Award-winning composer Diedre
Murray. Joining our creative team is the acclaimed choreographer
Ronald K. Brown, who has developed a dance vocabulary for the
production that brings this moving story to life onstage.
Our version of Porgy and Bess takes this work out of the opera
house and brings it to the musical theater stage, where we will focus
on creating an intimate experience that puts the spotlight on the
characters and the story. Of course, the Gershwins’ unforgettable
score remains the centerpiece and we are fortunate to have some of
the greatest stars of Broadway performing it.
On behalf of everyone at the A.R.T., welcome to The Gershwins’
Porgy and Bess!
A.R.T. BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Donald Ware, Chairman
Philip Burling
Paul Buttenwieser
Kevin Cole Costin
Mike Dreese
Michael Feinstein
Lori Gross
Ann Gund
Sarah Hancock
Provost Alan M. Garber
Fumi Matsumoto
Rebecca Milikowsky
Ward Mooney
Diane Paulus
James Rhee
Diana Sorensen
Lisbeth Tarlow
Teal Wicks and Daniel Jenkins in The Blue Flower, 2010/11 Season World Premiere
Photo: Marcus Stern
A.R.T. BOARD OF ADVISORS
Kathleen Connor, Co-Chair
Rachael Goldfarb, Co-Chair
Frances Shtull Adams
Joseph Auerbach*
Page Bingham
Greg Carr
Antonia Handler Chayes*
Susan Cohen
Susan Edgman-Levitan
Erin Gilligan
Barbara Grossman
Horace H. Irvine, II
Dan Mathieu
Natalie Reed
Ellen Gordon Reeves
Linda U. Sanger
Founding Director Robert Brustein
Maggie Seelig
John A. Shane
Michael Shinagel
Sam Weisman
Alfred Wojciechowski
Yuriko Young
*Emeriti
02_ART
SEASON
Catfish Row
Reimagined:
A team of leading artists from American theater,
music, dance and design has gathered at the American
Repertory Theater to reimagine DuBose and Dorothy
Heyward’s and the Gershwin brothers’ fictional
waterfront community of Catfish Row, South Carolina.
Meet the Creative Team
Suzan-Lori Parks
Adapter /
Additional Scenes
Suzan-Lori is a MacArthur
“Genius” Award recipient and the
first African-American woman to
receive a Pulitzer Prize in drama,
for her play Topdog/Underdog.
Interview on page 7
caption: Picnic time: “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” (Vandamm Studio, NYC) courtesy of Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
Diedre Murray
Musical Adapter
Riccardo Hernandez
Set Designer
Riccardo’s stunning set designs
have been featured at the A.R.T.
for over a decade, most recently
for Prometheus Bound and The
Seagull.
ESosa
Costume Designer
Diedre is a Pulitzer Prize finalist,
two-time OBIE Award-winner and
acclaimed cellist.
Interview on page 25
A finalist on Project Runway,
ESosa’s fashion and costume
designs are known for their classic
silhouettes and modern sensibility. ESosa’s costumes made their
A.R.T. debut in Best of Both
Worlds.
Diane Paulus
Director
Christopher Akerlind
Lighting Designer
Diane’s groundbreaking productions of theater and opera have
garnered numerous awards,
including the 2009 Tony Award for
Best Revival of a Musical (HAIR).
Interview on page 14
Christopher is a frequent A.R.T.
collaborator and recipient of
numerous awards, including a Tony
Award for The Light In The Piazza
and an OBIE Award for Sustained
Excellence in Lighting Design.
Ronald K. Brown
Choreographer
Nevin Steinberg
Sound Designer
Ron’s body of work marries the
high-impact immediacy of modern
dance with the beauty of traditional
African forms and rhythms. His
world-renowned troupe Evidence,
A Dance Company, uses movement to express the struggles,
tragedies and epiphanies that
make up the human experience.
In conjunction with Acme Sound
Partners, Nevin has worked for
eleven years on Broadway and
regional productions, including
Johnny Baseball at the A.R.T.
Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks
Writing to the
Rhythm
A.R.T. Outreach and Education
Associate Brendan Shea speaks
with Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright and
adapter of Porgy and Bess.
D I S C O V E R
HARVARD SQUARE
Brendan Shea: How well did you know Porgy and Bess before working on it?
> Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks: I had heard about the piece. I knew it was performed a lot, but I never had a desire to actually
go and see it. Diane [Paulus] sent me the libretto and the music, and my first real experience with it was listening
to the music and following along with the script. I fell in love with it right away.
Through 8/ 31
THINK PINK, DRINK
PINK, SHOP PINK
Breast Cancer Campaign
September 18
October 22-23
THE 47TH ANNUAL
HEAD OF THE
CHARLES REGATTA
THE 3RD ANNUAL
URBAN-AG FESTIVAL
October 28-31
September 18
November 1- 31
THE 8TH ANNUAL
RIVERSING
HARVARD SCARE
FOLK MUSIC MONTH
October 2
THE 33RD ANNUAL
OKTOBERFEST AND
HONK PARARDE
Harvard Square Business Association
For more information about these events
and Harvard Square Shops, Restaurants, Hotels and Culture…
www.harvardsquare.com
BS: As you did this, did anything jump out as something that needed to be adapted or changed?
SP: Different things need to be adapted and changed for different reasons. There are several what I would
consider “anthropological moments” in the original, meaning moments created by people who were probably
not deeply familiar with any African-American community. So, there are several moments in the original that
serve to create an understanding or familiarity, as the original audiences for Porgy and Bess were probably not
predominantly African-American either. These days our culture is more inclusive and familiar across the board
so those “anthropological moments” aren’t as necessary. And there are moments that need additions/rewrites/
tweaks for pure dramaturgical reasons. Sometimes I’m restructuring a sequence of action, sometimes rewriting
an entire scene, sometimes I’m inventing whole new scenes or excavating deeply underwritten original moments,
sometimes strengthening the plot line and individual character through-lines, sometimes, you know, “fleshing out”
and “unpacking” emotional beats; sometimes I just had to add a few words to help something click. For example,
“I Got Plenty of Nothing” needed to make solid dramatic sense. Disturbingly, this moment often came across as
Porgy singing one of those stereotypical “happy darkie” songs. I realized very quickly that the song needed to
be grounded in an actual dramatic context to work more effectively. I added a few words to contextualize the
moment, and now the song is about something vital and joyous that’s going on in the action of the play.
continued>
right > The 1994 A.R.T. production of Suzan-Lori
Parks’ The America Play, directed by Marcus
Stern. From left: Kim Brockington, Terry
Alexander, Royal Miller
Ronald K.
Brown:
“Our job is to discover
and excavate who
these characters are.
When we are looking
at grief within the
piece, we look at
dances that have
grief in them. When
we look at how the
characters celebrate,
we ask: where
would the remnants
of celebration be in
their bodies? From
Africa, but also from
their new world, here
in the U.S.A. These
characters are not
brand new. They
were not created
from the atmosphere.
They’re rooted in
something. And
we’re not coming up
on top of it and telling
you who they are.
We are discovering
who they are.”
Photo: Richard Feldman
Inside the
Movement of
The Gershwins’
Porgy and Bess
BS: Have you had to adjust the way you write
when scripting words that will be sung? You talk
about being influenced by jazz and classical
music.
SP: I write to a rhythm. I write to a beat. With
most of my writing, I’m writing to music that
doesn’t exist. But here, I’m writing to music
that’s written. When I put in alterations, different
lines, I just count out the beats, or sing the
tune, and change the line accordingly.
BS: So in a way, you’re collaborating with
Gershwin’s score.
SP: Right. I’m collaborating with an existing
score, and the adaptation of it that Diedre
[Murray] has provided.
BS: Has anything that Diedre said about rearranging the score inspired you to look again
at another passage or another song?
SP: Working with Diedre has been wonderful.
And I like what she says about how we’re
“modernizing without disturbing.” It’s not as if
we are trying to put our thumbprints all over it;
what we are doing is appreciating what is there,
then trying to make what’s there into a viable
show for today’s musical theater stage.
BS: What you’re saying reminds me of one of
the core elements of your style, the idea of
“repetition and revision.”
SP: Yes, we are revising a classic. It’s along
the same lines—not the same thing, but along
the same lines—as doing a riff on The Scarlet
Letter, as I did in my plays F***ing A and In
The Blood. Or having the Abraham Lincoln
impersonator appear in The America Play and
having him appear again in Topdog/Underdog.
Or having the character of Grace be in Topdog/
Underdog unseen, and then have her be the
centerpiece of The Book of Grace. Repetition
and Revision. Yes. As I work on Porgy and
Bess, I work along these lines. And that’s
probably why I was attracted to this project,
too, because it really is like working on an
historical artifact.
BS: And Porgy and Bess are considered great
American cultural icons, alongside Hester
Prynne and Abraham Lincoln.
SP: Exactly. It’s right up my alley. And it’s been
a lot of fun.
Brendan Shea is the A.R.T.’s Outreach and
Education Associate.
By Jenna Clark Embrey
Courtesy of Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
An American Odyssey:
Porgy and Bess
Through the Years
When the American Repertory Theater reinvents this classic on stage in the
summer of 2011, the production will stand in a century of trailblazing footsteps.
The epic opera first stretched its legs seventy-six years ago at a tryout in Boston, with the largest
all-black cast seen on an American stage. After its premiere at Boston’s Colonial Theatre on September
30, 1935, George Gershwin received a fifteen-minute ovation. The presidents of MIT, Wellesley, and
Harvard leapt to their feet to applaud, and tickets for the week-long run were impossible to obtain. Historian Robert Rushmore remarked, “To the eternal credit of the city of Boston, the audience and critics
were not confused by this strange new kind of folk opera and recognized its greatness.” After this trial
run, Porgy and Bess moved to the Great White Way—Broadway. The official premiere came on October 10, 1935, at the Alvin Theatre in New York. Rouben Mamoulian, who would later go on to direct the
films Blood and Sand and The Mask of Zorro, directed the production. Opera singers Todd Duncan and
Anne Brown performed the title roles, and comedian John W. Bubbles took on the role of Sportin’ Life.
As he could not read music, he compensated by learning the complex rhythm through tap dancing.
Despite reviews from Boston that hailed Porgy and Bess as having reached “the ultimate in
theatrical production,” the New York critics sat on the fence, neither approving nor dismissing. The
mixed reception forced the show to close after a disappointing 124 performances. The Gershwins,
writer DuBose Heyward, and their backers lost their financial investments.
continued>
above> John Bubbles
and Anne Brown in 1935:
Sportin’ Life lures Bess to
New York
below> Scan with a
smartphone to hear the
original Porgy and Bess:
Todd Duncan and Anne
Brown
Winnie Klotz, photographer,
Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc.,
Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023
“This was something unique: famous white American performers had
appeared at [Milan’s] La Scala, but never blacks. Both audience and
company were tense. Every member of the cast was coiled tight like
a spring, wound taut for a shattering release. The moment the curtain
opened, the singers pulled the elegant first-night audience into the
harshness of black Southern life. The love story unfolded with such
tenderness that the singers wept visible tears.”
Maya Angelou, Featured Dancer, 1952 -1956 Porgy and Bess World Tour
1935 Boston, Broadway,
and Beyond
Despite receiving glowing reviews in
Boston, Gershwin and director Rouben
Mamoulian knew that, at nearly four hours
in length, cuts had to be made. Gershwin,
Mamoulian, and vocal director Alexander
Smallens walked around Boston Common
until three in the morning, arguing over
edits. Mamoulian and Smallens suggested
three numbers be cut. Gershwin painfully
agreed. Two days before the Broadway
premiere, Gershwin presented Mamoulian
with a birthday present: pages of
the score tied with a red ribbon. The
composer handed the gift to his director
and said, “Thank you for making me take
out all that stuff in Boston.”
The production opened on Broadway
at the Alvin Theatre on October 10, 1935.
Subsequently, the production toured
to Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh
and Washington, D.C. Todd Duncan, a
longtime resident of Washington, D.C.,
knew that the National Theatre had long
refused entry to non-white patrons. Upon
learning that Duncan and his co-star Anne
Brown refused to perform in a segregated
playhouse, the manager of the National
Theatre, S.E. Cochran, approached
Duncan with a compromise: Wednesday
and Saturday matinees could be opened
to black audiences. Duncan said no.
Cochran returned with a second offer:
black patrons could sit in the second
balcony at any performance. Duncan said
no. Unless every seat be made available
to any patron, regardless of the color of
their skin, Todd Duncan and Anne Brown
would not be satisfied. Finally, Cochran
relented, and the National Theatre
became de-segregated for the first time
in its history.
When the national tour took off in 1936,
Porgy and Bess ignited social change.
After stops in Philadelphia, Chicago, and
Pittsburgh, the opera was scheduled to
finish at Washington D.C.’s National Theatre.
Anne Brown recalled, “As expected we were
told that the National Theatre would be a
segregated house. Todd and I refused to
perform and were threatened by the Theatre
Guild who said we had to sing or there
would be reprisals. We cared less. We were
adamant.” The theater relented. Whites and
blacks sat side-by-side for the first time in the
theater’s history.
Despite the success of the tour,
directors, scared by the disappointing box
office receipts of the Broadway premiere,
hesitated to restage Porgy and Bess.
Finally, producer and director Cheryl
Crawford opened a streamlined Broadway
revival of the opera in 1942. She cut minor
characters, turned the recitatives into
spoken dialogue, and reduced the orchestra
to half its size. The result was a musical
theater version, and ticket sales reflected
the audience’s approval. The
production ran for 286
performances (at the
time a record for a
Broadway revival), left
on an eighteen-month
tour across the
country, and returned
to New York for a
two-week, sold-out
run.
As affection for
Porgy and Bess
boomed in America,
the opera made
its way across the
Atlantic. On March
23, 1943, the Danish Royal Opera premiered
the work in Copenhagen with an all-white
cast in blackface to enthusiastic audiences.
Despite its success, the Nazis tried to close
the production. The theater refused, and for
twenty-one sold-out performances, police
surrounded the building. When the Nazis
threatened to bomb the theater, managers
ended the run.
After the Second World War, Porgy
and Bess found its way back to Europe
under the guidance of Robert Breen and
Blevins Davis. With financing from the U.S.
Department of State, Breen and Davis
restored several songs cut from previous
productions. The production boasted an allstar cast with Leontyne Price as Bess and
William Warfield as Porgy. Cab Calloway took
on Sportin’ Life, a part written with him in
mind, and a young Maya Angelou stepped
in as a featured dancer. In December 1955,
Porgy and Bess navigated a jungle of Cold
War hostility to travel to the Soviet Union.
Audiences in Moscow adored the production,
the first show performed
by Americans since the
Bolshevik Revolution.
With its sweeping
success on the
international stage,
Porgy and Bess
became a hot commodity
in Hollywood. In 1959,
renowned producer
Samuel Goldwyn offered
Sidney Poitier the role
of Porgy. Offended by
the portrayal of AfricanAmericans in the script,
Poitier turned it down.
Goldwyn, however,
exerted pressure on
above> Todd Duncan and Anne Brown
above> Fifty years after the premiere, Anne Brown and
Todd Duncan meet with the leads, Simon Estes and Grace
Bumbry, of the Metropolitan Opera production, 1985
Poitier who ultimately accepted the role. With
Poitier on board, Dorothy Dandridge agreed
to play Bess, and Sammy Davis, Jr. lobbied
hard to play Sportin’ Life. Diahann Carroll and
Pearl Bailey took the roles of Clara and Maria.
Despite a stellar cast, the film ran into trouble.
Early in production, a suspicious fire destroyed
the set. Director Rouben Mamoulian was fired
as a result of artistic disagreements between
him and Goldwyn. The popular Hollywood
musicals of the day—such as Singing in
the Rain, Brigadoon, and Kismet—favored
a more happy-go-lucky tone. Mamoulian, by
contrast, wanted the film of Porgy and Bess
to reflect an authentic, historical Charleston.
Goldwyn ultimately replaced him with director
Otto Preminger. After the tumultuous filming
process, critics lambasted the film’s set as
overly lavish and the action as monotonous.
When Goldwyn’s fifteen-year lease on the film
rights expired, the Gershwin and Heyward
estates blocked the movie from further
distribution.
In 1976, the Houston Grand Opera
assembled the first production of Porgy and
1943 Danish Royal Opera
Porgy and Bess became a symbol
of resistance to Nazi occupation of
Denmark; radio stations would play “It Ain’t
Necessarily So” after Nazi broadcasts.
Bess to use the score from before Gershwin
made his first round of cuts after the opening
in Boston. However, because union laws
mandated overtime for a show that surpassed
three hours, directors John DeMain and Jack
O’Brien had to make edits. Snipping away
reprises and short lines, they finished with a
production that ran two hours and fifty-eight
minutes. The show, the only opera to receive
a Tony Award, was hailed in the New York
Daily News as “the most musical, moving, and
profoundly beautiful production playing in New
York.”
As Porgy and Bess continues its odyssey
and returns to Boston, it does so with a
renewed energy in the present moment. Each
restaging of Porgy and Bess carries the
music of a nation, the history of a people, and
the voice of an ever-changing America.
Jenna Clark Embrey is a second-year
dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT
Institute for Advanced Theater Training at
Harvard University.
The show played in seventy cities
in twenty-nine countries around the
world. Truman Capote chronicled this
government-sponsored production’s tour to
the Soviet Union in The Muses are Heard.
1959 Film Version
Staring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge,
and Sammy Davis, Jr.
1970 Charleston,
South Carolina
Porgy and Bess played for the first time
in Charleston.
1976 Houston Grand Opera
This mostly uncut production of Porgy
and Bess won a Tony Award for best
revival of a musical as well as a Grammy
for its recording.
1985 Metropolitan Opera
On the fiftieth anniversary of its premiere,
the Met produced Porgy and Bess for the
first time.
1986 Glyndebourne
Festival
Trevor Nunn directed an almost four-hour,
uncut version of the opera, featuring
the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The
production was scenically expanded and
filmed for television in 1993.
1995 Cape Town Opera
This South African production was set in
the 1970s in Cape Town, during apartheid.
2006 Savoy Theatre,
SUPPORT
AL P
Cheryl Crawford directed the first attempt
at transforming the opera into a musical
theater work.
1952-1956 Breen-Davis
“Americans Abroad” Tour
N
Courtesy of Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
RIGIN
THE O
CTIO
RODU
1942 Broadway Revival
The creative legacy of George and Ira Gershwin and
DuBose and Dorothy Heyward lives on in the A.R.T.’s new
adaptation of this work. Help ensure the A.R.T.’s future
ability to undertake important projects like this, through
your planned support. Please call the Development
Office at 617-496-2000 X8838 to discuss gift options.
London
Trevor Nunn transforms his celebrated
Glyndebourne production into a West End
musical.
Histor
Production
y
different musical forms. Diedre has the perfect
musical background to immerse herself
completely in Gershwin’s cathedral of ideas.
RM: Had you ever seen Porgy and Bess
before you began working on this project?
At the Heart of an
American Masterpiece
A.R.T. Dramaturg Ryan McKittrick talks with
Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the A.R.T. and
director of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Ryan McKittrick: Could you describe the
way the creative team is adapting Porgy
and Bess?
Diane Paulus: We are trying to create
a more dramatically complete version of
Porgy and Bess that will be the most
powerful experience in terms of story
and character for a twenty-first-century
audience. There have been many different
versions of Porgy and Bess. It is a living,
breathing, enormous masterpiece that
Gershwin was still working on when he died
in 1937, just two years after it premiered
on Broadway. Within this massive creation
lived many potentials, and we are trying
to fully realize the impulses in the story
and the characters. Porgy and Bess has
always had a hybrid energy that fuses jazz
and classical music, but for the past forty
years it has been known primarily as an
opera. We are creating a version for the
musical stage that is less operatic and
epic, and more focused and intimate.
RM: Why did you want to work with the
playwright Suzan-Lori Parks on this project?
DP: Suzan-Lori Parks was the first person I
thought of when the Gershwin estate asked
me to suggest a writer for our production.
I have been an admirer of her work for
years, and while we knew each other
socially, we had never worked together
before. Not only is she deeply gifted as
a playwright, with a vast dramaturgical
knowledge, she is also an amazing human
being, thinker, and philosopher. What’s
incredible about Suzan-Lori is that while
she is able to look at the larger context
of the work, she writes from the inside of
the hearts of the characters. I’ve been
so struck with how she puts herself inside
every single character.
RM: This spring you and Marjorie Garber cotaught a course at Harvard on Porgy and
Bess. Has anything from that course influenced
this production?
DP: Getting to know Porgy, DuBose Heyward’s
novel that was the inspiration for Porgy and
Bess. It is important to understand the context
in which the novel was written. Heyward was
from a white aristocratic family looking as an
outsider at a community that surrounded him.
But he was listening and absorbing, as any
artist does. So the novel is a window—albeit
through the eyes of a particular author—into
the time period. It has been very interesting to
read some of the details about the characters
in the novel; they spark the imagination. So
the novel has become a source for us in the
rehearsal room. And the play that DuBose
Heyward co-wrote with his wife, Dorothy,
after the novel was published has also been a
source. Even Sidney Poitier’s comments about
below, l to r> George Gershwin, DuBose
Heyward, and Ira Gershwin
RM: You’ve collaborated with the composer
Diedre Murray on a number of projects over
the years. Why did you want her on board
as the musical adapter for this project?
DP: I knew that Diedre would be the right
person for this project because of her
background in classical music and jazz.
She has the versatility to understand all
the musical impulses in Porgy and Bess.
Gershwin was way ahead of his time. He
was interested in mashing up all these
Photofest, New York
above, l to r> Diedre Murray,
Diane Paulus, and Suzan-Lori Parks
Interview with Diane Paulus
DP: I had only seen it once, at the New York
City Opera. I was staggered by the number of
hit songs. It was shocking to me to hear hit
after hit after hit. And I also remember being
deeply moved in the second scene, during “My
Man’s Gone,” when Serena is mourning the
death of her husband. I remember thinking that
this is a great drama with big emotions and
incredible music.
“George played with the most beatific smile on his
face. He seemed to float on the waves of his own
music with the Southern sun shining on him. Ira
sang—he threw his head back with abandon, his
eyes closed, and sang like a nightingale! In the
middle of the song George couldn’t bear it any
longer and took over the singing from him. To
describe George’s face while he sang ‘Summertime’
is something that is beyond my capacity as a
writer. Nirvana might be the word!”
Rouben Mamoulian, director of the original production of Porgy and
Bess, on hearing the Gershwin brothers play through the score for
the first time.
regretting making the 1959 film have become
a source of inspiration for us, because we have
been discussing what it means to play Porgy
and how the character can be interpreted in
new ways. So exploring the history of Porgy
and Bess has really informed the choices
we’re making in the rehearsal room.
presenting buildings and shutters and gates,
we’re focusing on the important relationships
and dynamics of the community. We’re also
working with an incredible choreographer,
Ron K. Brown, who is helping us express
the narrative and dramatic tension in the
performers’ bodies.
RM: Where have you decided to set the
production?
Ryan McKittrick is the A.R.T.’s Dramaturg and
co-head of the Dramaturgy Department of the
A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater
Training at Harvard University.
DP: In Charleston, South Carolina, in the late
1930s. The production design breaks free from
the tradition of large sets representing real
architecture. This production will zoom in on
the individuals in the community. So rather than
The Gershwins and the Heywards
On Their Way to
Porgy and Bess
Gershwin Collection
An essay by Gershwin expert
Robert Kimball
unique contribution to Porgy and Bess
included the lyrics to “Summertime” and
“My Man’s Gone Now.” The collaboration
was a fruitful and amicable one for all
concerned.
1933 was not an easy year for the
Gershwins. Their musical comedy Pardon
My English and their political satire Let
‘Em Eat Cake, the sequel to their Pulitzer
Prize-winner Of Thee I Sing, for all their
strengths, were both commercial failures.
But as the year drew to a close, things
started looking up. In early November
1933 the Theatre Guild announced that
it would produce the operatic version of
Porgy. (The Metropolitan Opera, whose
board chairman, Otto Kahn, was a good
friend of George’s, had expressed interest
earlier in an opera based on Porgy. Mrs.
Ira Gershwin recalled Ira telling her that
George and Kahn had spoken about it by
telephone. Kahn offered the possibility of
two Met performances, but George and
Ira both felt that the culmination of their
efforts should not be limited to such a
brief run, even at the prestigious opera
house.)
By late 1933, George was not
only at work on the opera (for which
he had already done some preliminary
composition), but he also found time to
write his “Variations on I Got Rhythm,”
which he dedicated to his brother Ira. The
virtuoso piece for piano and orchestra
was premiered in Boston on January 14,
1934, at the first stop of a whirlwind
American tour during which George and
the Leo Reisman Orchestra, conducted
by Charles Previn, played 28 concerts
in 28 days in as many cities. The
barnstormer was a huge critical success
BLOG
Edwin DuBose Heyward was born into
an aristocratic Charleston, South Carolina,
family on August 31, 1885. He left school
early to take a job on the waterfront. At
eighteen Heyward was stricken with polio
and during his recovery began writing —
poetry at first and later novels and plays.
In 1924 Heyward wrote his first book
and greatest success, Porgy. The idea
for the story he found in a newspaper
article about a maimed black man who
committed murder at the height of
passion. Heyward drew upon his early
experience on the waterfront, re-creating
the teeming life of Catfish Row. In
1926 George Gershwin read Porgy and
immediately wrote Heyward about his wish
to compose an opera based on it. It was
not until nine years later, however, that
Heyward and Gershwin collaborated on
Porgy and Bess.
In March 1932 George again wrote
DuBose Heyward of his desire to set
Porgy to music. They had met in 1926
at the time of the original Theatre Guild
production of the Heywards’ play, Porgy
—a stage adaptation of the novel, which
DuBose had co-written with his wife,
Dorothy. When Heyward informed George
that the operatic rights to Porgy were “free
and clear,” George then informed Heyward
that it would take at least a year for him to
write the music for the opera.
In the meantime, Heyward began
working on the libretto for George.
From the beginning Ira [Gershwin] was a
collaborator on Porgy and Bess. The
lyrics to Act I are by Heyward, the lyrics to
Acts II and III are by Ira and Heyward. Ira’s
greater experience as a lyric writer was
of enormous help to Heyward, whose own
above> George Gershwin in his studio
after the premiere of Porgy and Bess
and a remarkable testament to George’s
prodigious physical stamina: he played
the “Concerto in F,” “Rhapsody in Blue,”
“Variations on I Got Rhythm” and several
of his songs at each of the concerts.
During the 20 months it took George
to compose and orchestrate Porgy
and Bess—he began in late 1933 and
finished in September 1935—Ira had
the opportunity to write lyrics for two
Broadway revues: Life Begins at 8:40
(1934) with E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen
and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 with
Vernon Duke. Both were successful, and
their excellent scores can be heard today.
There is no question in my mind
that Gershwin was not finished with the
score of Porgy and Bess when he died
tragically of a brain tumor just two years
after the Broadway premiere. In the years
since its first performance in 1935 at
Boston’s Colonial Theatre on September
30, the work has been performed in
theaters, opera houses, and concert halls
all over the world. It has been recorded
several times and is constantly being
reappraised. As someone who has known
and loved the work for nearly 60 years and
who was a friend to Ira Gershwin, many of
the original cast members including Todd
Duncan, Anne Brown and John W. Bubbles,
and many others close to the opera, I look
forward with excitement to the American
Repertory Theater’s new version of Porgy
and Bess.
Robert Kimball is the Artistic Advisor
to the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
and author of numerous books on music
including a biography titled The Gershwins.
Learn more about the legendary Gershwin brothers
at americanrepertorytheater.org/blog.
I think where I am
now in my life is
that…I’ve lived a
bit. I’m 40, I’ve
lived a lot.  Bess
is someone who
is looking to
make a change
in her life and doesn’t know how to go about doing
it.  She realizes this can end one of two ways—either
she is going to get out, or the situation is going to kill
her.  [Bess is] someone looking to find the truth of who
they are, to rise from a bad situation and use their own
strength to move on.  As an African-American divorced
single mother, there’s a lot I can identify with in Bess.  I
mean, I’ve never been a prostitute or done ‘happy dust’
or anything like that!  But looking for self-worth, finding
it within one’s self and battling one’s demons.
“
Norm Lewis
I hope to honor
the history of
the show, the
Porgy and Bess
of the past and,
hopefully, of the
future.  Todd
Duncan, who
was the very
first Porgy, refused to go on stage in Washington,
D.C., unless it was an integrated audience.  Duncan
would not go on, no matter how they pressured him
and threatened him…he still stayed true.  And they
integrated the audience.  [Duncan] got his way.  I want
to honor what he—and the Gershwins—did for us.
Norm Lewis
as Porgy
Porgy
and
Me
Audra McDonald
as Bess
“
Audra
McDonald
”
Joshua Henry
as Jake
Nikki Renée Daniels
as Clara
Phillip Boykin
as Crown
David Alan Grier
as Sporting Life
”
BO
STO
N
’S B
Traditionally, Sporting Life is a
song-and-dance guy. He comes
in, and then he goes out.  But in
this version, we’re working on who
Sporting Life is.  He comes from
that community. He’s from Catfish
Row. He grew up there.  Everyone
knows him.  He’s probably the
most well-traveled and worldliest
person there, because he’s gone
away from that community and
he’s found his niche…drugs and
prostitution.  But they all know
him from the neighborhood.  In
previous productions, this hasn’t
been fully dealt with.  Sporting Life
is a more rooted character in this
production, and the stakes are
much higher for him.
”
“
Philip Boykin
When I was a little boy, my
uncle had the album of Porgy
and Bess with Leontyne Price
and William Warfield on it.  As a
poor child growing up in West
Greenville, South Carolina, I
looked at these two wonderful
black African-American people
on the cover of an album, and
something in me just turned on
right away. And I thought:  if
they can be on the cover of an
album singing opera—I didn’t
know what it was at that time—
then I can do it.  And I always
wanted a better tomorrow.  So
it’s really ironic that a Porgy
and Bess album cover started
my career.  And here I am.  It’s
a wonderful gift.
”
BLOG
“
David Alan Grier
“
Nikki Renée Daniels
People know more about
[Porgy and Bess] than they
think.  You have pop stars
today on American Idol singing
‘Summertime.’ I think the
score is going to stand on
its own forever.  But in this
new production, people will
get to know the story, the
characters, and the stories
behind the songs.  I used to
sing ‘Summertime’ in vocal
competitions when I was in high
school.  Now, I’m getting more
towards that point in life where I
want to have a family, and I can
definitely relate to Clara on that
level.  I got married two years
ago.  That strong love between
her and Jake—that she would
do anything for him—I relate to
that today more than I ever did.
”
“
Joshua Henry
I love that it’s a slice of AfricanAmerican life in the 1930s.  It
seems like I’m always around
the ‘30s—my last show was
Scottsboro Boys, which is set
in 1939.  It was a period of
change and moving forward
for this community.  It’s very
exciting that this production
focuses on the authenticity of
the people [of Catfish Row]. 
It’s also a dream come true to
be working with this caliber of
talent.  It’s a rare time when
you feel that there’s something
very special on your hands, and
that’s how I feel right now.  I’m
blessed to be here.
”
Meet more of the cast (and watch some awe-inspiring performances)
on our blog, at americanrepertorytheater.org/blog.
EST
DIS
CO
DA
N
CE
PAR
TY
EVERY
SATURDAY
NIGHT!
OBERON, 2 ARROW ST.
TICKETS from $25
617.547.8300
americanrepertorytheater.org
By Brendan Shea
> Billie Holiday
Porgy and Bess
Hits the Charts
The score of Porgy and Bess is considered one of the greatest entries in the American musical canon. George Gershwin’s inventive
arrangements, which Diedre Murray characterizes as a “hybrid” of jazz and classical music, have helped shape the landscape of
contemporary American music—R&B, soul music, modern jazz, even Top 40 pop owe a debt to Porgy and Bess. The proof? “Summertime”
is among the most recorded songs of all time, with thousands of versions rendered in a wide variety of styles: from Willie Nelson to Kenny G,
from Sam Cooke to Sublime. Below are a few of the landmark recordings of Porgy and Bess tunes:
Clockwise from top left 1) 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. 2) 2010 Walt Disney Records 3) 1958,
1959 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. 5) 2006 Motown Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. 6) 2010 Hallmark
• Selections from George
Gershwin’s Folk Opera Porgy
and Bess (1940)
Members of the Broadway cast of Porgy and
Bess, including Todd Duncan and Anne Brown,
came together to record songs from the original
production.
• Billie Holiday (1936)
Billie Holiday’s recording of “Summertime” was the
first song from Porgy and Bess to break into the
U.S. pop charts, reaching #12.
• Masterworks Heritage
Edition—Gershwin: Porgy
and Bess (1951)
The standard performing version in 1951. While it
is not the complete opera, it did restore some parts
of the opera that had been initially cut.
• Ella and Louis (1957)
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sang a
collection of songs from Porgy and Bess—the
recording marked the final pairing of these two
iconic jazz vocalists.
• Miles and Gil (1958)
Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ Porgy and Bess album
was recorded in anticipation of the Hollywood
film—in the late ‘50s, “jazz versions” of film scores
were in vogue. Davis’s incredible trumpet work on
this album (along with his pioneering use of modal
improvisation) cemented its place in history as one
of the finest jazz collaborations of all time.
• The Film Soundtrack (1959)
Although Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge
starred in the film as Porgy and Bess respectively,
Robert McFerrin and Adele Addison sang the title
roles for the film, as well as for the soundtrack.
Clara, played on-screen by the great Diahann
Carroll, was dubbed by Loulie Jean Norman, a white
coloratura soprano. Sammy Davis, Jr., who played
Sportin’ Life, sang in the film, but could not appear
on the soundtrack as he was already committed
to record a Porgy and Bess album with another
recording company. Cab Calloway sang the role
instead.
• Nina Simone (1958)
Always the iconoclast, Nina Simone performed a
cover of a cover of “I Loves You Porgy”—her 1958
recording was a riff on Billie Holiday’s 1936 jazz
rendition of the ballad.
continued>
• Billy Stewart (1966)
> Nina Simone
• Janis Joplin (1968)
Janis Joplin’s psychedelic rock version of
“Summertime” captured the zeitgeist of
late ‘60s counterculture. It appears on Big
Brother and the Holding Company’s 1968
album Cheap Thrills.
• The Doors (1970)
At the spectacularly rowdy Live in Boston
performance, frontman Jim Morrison sang
a seven-minute rendition of “Summertime”
as a coda to The Doors’ hit song “Light
My Fire.”
• Diana Ross (1974)
Diana Ross performed a lively, upbeat
lounge version of “I Loves You Porgy” on
her album Live at Caesar’s Palace.
• Bronski Beat (1984)
The electronic pop group Bronski Beat’s
New Wave cover of “It Ain’t Necessarily
So” is featured on their 1984 album The
Age of Consent. The song’s theme of
doubting certain statements in the Bible
supported the album’s anti-homophobic
message.
• Sublime (1997)
The alternative hip-hop/ska band Sublime
wrote a loose cover of “Summertime”
for their self-titled third album. “Doin’
BLOG
Counter-clockwise from top 1) 1998 Sony 2) 1996 London Records 90 Ltd. 6) 1958 The Verve Music Group, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. 7) 1997 MCA
This radical R&B reinterpretation of
“Summertime” remains the most
successful on the U.S. pop charts—it
reached #10.
Time” samples a bossa nova version of
“Summertime” by jazz flautist Herbie Mann,
which plays under a hip-hop beat and lyrics
comparing a failed relationship to life in
prison.
• Cher (1998)
Cher lends her iconic vocal style to a
rendition of “It Ain’t Necessarily So” on
the star-studded compilation The Glory of
Gershwin.
• Fantasia Barrino (2004)
Fantasia’s standout performance of
“Summertime” rocketed her into the finals
of American Idol’s third season.
• Brian Wilson (2010)
The former Beach Boy applied his knack
for lush pop arrangements and vocal
harmonies to a number of Gershwin songs
on his album Brian Wilson Reimagines
Gershwin.
Listen to the whole playlist—and add
your favorite Porgy and Bess rendition—
at americanrepertorytheater.org/blog.
Interview with Diedre Murray
In Harmony with History
A.R.T. Dramaturg Ryan McKittrick speaks
with Porgy and Bess musical adapter
Diedre Murray
above> Diedre Murray
Ryan McKittrick: What made you want to work on this project as the musical adapter?
Diedre Murray: Listening to Porgy and Bess is like being in church all day with the most beautiful
music ever written. Each day of this project has been like that for me. I think Gershwin wrote Porgy
and Bess as a kind of valentine to black people. Here was a Jewish guy in the 1930s who was
saying, “Check this out: they have great loves, great desires, great passions, and you’re going
to listen. And it’s going to be sublime.” But he was also on the outside of the African-American
experience. So I believe I can offer an insider’s look at some of the same information. My father
came from a small fishing village on the eastern shore of Virginia, so I can relate to those characters,
those people.
RM: Could you describe your process?
DM: I spent of a lot of time studying Gershwin’s tastes. When you’re arranging you have to be able
to think like that person. So I studied anything I could find that may have influenced him. I listened to
other operas and classical music. And then I started listening to as many recordings and covers of
Porgy and Bess as I could find. I noticed that there were a lot made in the 1960s—it was as if all
those great jazz musicians suddenly discovered Porgy and Bess thirty years after it had premiered.
Porgy and Bess is classical music, but in many ways it looks like a jazz score. There’s music in
there that foreshadows McCoy Tyner and Thelonious Monk.
continued>
below> Angel Blue as
Clara in the San Francisco
Opera 2009 production
continued from 25>
on orchestrating
Porgy and Bess
“Some folk attain their
life’s ambition by
scaling Kilimanjaro
or swimming the
English Channel. But
we couldn’t conceive
a greater challenge
for a contemporary
orchestrator than to
re-imagine Gershwin’s
own complex and
vast orchestral setting
for Porgy and Bess.
Our initial reaction to
this commission was
a concerted gasp (in
unison). How to even
begin climbing that
mountain!  But there
were three artists
mapping the way and
urging us on: Diane,
Suzan-Lori, and Diedre
with their totally fresh
concept that triggered
the course we took. Their
fertile imagining led us
to instrumental gestures
that both speak in the
language of the original
and in the subtle tones
of today.  We fondly
hope this 18-instrument
offering resonates with
their elegant vision.”
DM: It’s a hybrid. There’s such a wide range
of influences and sounds in Porgy and Bess.
Gershwin used to go up to Harlem to hear jazz,
and then he also spent time on the islands
in South Carolina. I also think there’s a lot of
Puccini and Bizet in there. And Wagnerian
flourishes. And ragtime. I even hear R&B and
rap. That’s one reason why I’m so attracted to
the piece—because I’m also a crossover artist.
I’m a composer and cellist with a background
in jazz, opera, and classical music. And I think
that’s part of what makes Porgy and Bess
so modern. Hybrid is where we live now.
Everything is hybrid. The world is smaller.
Everything is coming closer together.
RM: Could you give some examples of how
you’re reworking some of the songs?
DM: At the beginning of the show, Clara is
singing “Summertime” to her baby. But when
I listened to it, I asked myself, “Why is she
singing so high? That would wake the baby
up. It has to be a lullaby.” So I took the whole
thing down. And then I decided that I wanted
to use an accordion, because whenever I
hear an accordion it always transports me
someplace else—a folkloric place that doesn’t
have machines. So the show now opens with
Clara singing “Summertime” as a duet with
the accordion. And then it opens up into those
luscious melodies with the strings. I also put
the “Doctor Jesus” music into a form modern
African-Americans and others would recognize
from a real church today. In some songs I made
the blues elements more manifest. In others I
emphasized the swing elements. And I changed
some of the harmonic structures inside of the
pieces to make them more modern. Of course
my own voice sneaks in through
my choices, but I
Courtesy of Ira and Leonore
Gershwin Trusts
William David
Brohn and
Christopher
Jahnke
RM: Porgy and Bess premiered in a Broadway
house in 1935, but it’s also been staged in
opera houses. Gershwin called it an “American
folk opera.” How would you describe Porgy
and Bess?
“Jazz is the spontaneous
expression of the
nervous energy of
modern American
life...its power in the
depiction of American
sentiment has been
brought to life. The
discord of jazz is today
no mere succession of
meaningless and ugly
grunts and wheezes.
That these are still there
is no doubt true, but
then modern life is,
alas! not expressed by
smooth phrases. We
are living in an age of
staccato, not legato...
No one who knows
America can doubt that
jazz has its important
place in the national
consciousness.”
George Gershwin,
Theatre Magazine, 1925
ultimately have tremendous respect for
Gershwin, because the music is timeless and
sublime.
RM: What makes it sublime?
DM: Gershwin knew how to write a great tune.
A lot of composers today are afraid of melody.
They’re afraid of sentimentality. You can’t be
afraid to simply say “I love you, I need you”
through music. “I Loves You Porgy,” “Bess, You
Is My Woman Now,” and “Summertime”—you
can’t get any better than that. I sit and look at
the score and I’m just in awe of how great it is.
It is just visionary.
Direct from its sold-out run at the New York Theatre Workshop
THREE PIANOS
A lively romp inspired by Schubert’s Winterreise
"Just the cure for seasonal
affective disorder conceived
with hedonistic gusto. Three Pianos is
a fast festive ode to a somber work of art."
ON SALE NOW
TO MEMBERS & SUBSCRIBERS
ON SALE TO PUBLIC: OCT. 11
STARTS DEC. 7
Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Ryan McKittrick is the A.R.T.’s Dramaturg and
co-head of the Dramaturgy Department of the
A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater
Training at Harvard University.
left> Lobby card from the 1959 Samuel Goldwyn film:
Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis, Jr.
VISIT: americanrepertorytheater.org
CALL: 617.547.8300
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on
Reimagining Porgy and Bess
in the 21st Century
My first exposure to Porgy and Bess was through the music—“Summertime” specifically. I was
sixteen when I heard Billy Stewart’s 1966 version; it was a huge hit in Piedmont, West Virginia, and
beyond. After that, I heard Janis Joplin’s version in 1968, and finally, Miles Davis’s sublime rendition
while I was in college at Yale. Miles’s Porgy and Bess album was a decade old by then, but to me
it was brand new. I had left West Virginia for New Haven in the age of Black Power, with the most
profound faith in black art and black artists. Miles Davis was at the top of that list. No one played like
him; no one was as new and exciting as Miles. Although I’d heard the song before—it is one of the
most recorded songs in history!—I was transformed.
But Porgy and Bess? The story was a relic of an ugly past—not the real past of AfricanAmericans, but rather the Hollywood-imagined past of black folks. The coke fiends, the pimps, the
broken black man at the center of the film—no thank you. I was with Harold Cruse, the eminent
black sociologist, who wrote: “Porgy and Bess belongs in a museum and no self-respecting AfricanAmerican should want to see it, or be seen in it.” I was with Duke Ellington, too, who said, “The
times are here to debunk Gershwin’s lampblack Negroisms.” I don’t share those views anymore, and
now I see a character like Sportin’ Life, who used to make my skin crawl, as being in a long line of
tricksters—a figure whose performance of duplicity, whose “shuckin’ and jivin’,” is very much part of
the African-American literary tradition, and even part of a history of resistance.
George Gershwin wanted to write an American opera—a piece that would infuse classical musical
tradition with what he considered the vigor of blues and jazz, two distinctly American musical forms.
This could only be done, he felt, on the shoulders of a truly American story, and he found that story
continued>
Images clockwise from top left: 1) Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and New Deal Culture, George Mason University; 2) Theatre Collection, Museum of the City of New York; 3)
Courtesy of Wilva Davis Breen; 4) Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and New Deal Culture, George Mason University; 5) Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and New Deal Culture,
George Mason University; 6) The George and Ira Gershwin Collection, Library of Congress; 7) Courtesy of Robin Thompson
above, clockwise from top left>
1952 Breen-Davis Tour poster from
Berlin to London, 1935 Theatre
Guild Production, 1953 Breen-Davis
Tour painting for program cover,
1952 Breen-Davis Tour Chicago,
1956 Breen-Davis Tour Warsaw
poster, 1959 Porgy and Bess film
poster, 1976 Houston Grand Opera
below> Henry
Louis Gates, Jr.
BLOG
in Porgy, a 1925 novel by Charleston, South
Carolina, native DuBose Heyward. Heyward
and his wife Dorothy dramatized Porgy as a
straight play in 1927; in it, one can see the
Gullah culture and African-American vernacular
with which they were intimate even in the
segregated world of Charleston. After years of
preparation, George Gershwin as composer,
Heyward as librettist, and Heyward and Ira
Gershwin as lyricists debuted Porgy and Bess
at Boston’s Colonial Theatre in 1935. When
it opened on Broadway later that year, the
“American folk opera” of which Gershwin had
dreamed, and for which he also had immersed
himself in Gullah culture while he wrote,
met with mixed reviews, with some critics
celebrating the characters as humane and real
and others reviling them as base stereotypes.
The music, too, met with mixed reviews, with
some reviewers enjoying the hybrid music
composed by Gershwin and others detesting
its “impurities.”
Despite its initial mixed success, Porgy
and Bess played in Washington, D.C., in 1936
at the National Theatre; it was revived on
Broadway in 1942, and premiered in Europe
in 1943. In 1952, the play embarked on a
major tour that took it around the world, and
to triumphs in Moscow and Milan. After it was
largely absent from the stage in the 1960s and
‘70s, it reemerged in a landmark production
at the Houston Grand Opera, winning both a
Tony and a Grammy Award and establishing its
status as a foundational American opera.
Major black stars of the stage and screen
have been attached to Porgy and Bess
throughout its history, including Todd Duncan,
Anne Brown, Leontyne Price, and William
Warfield. The 1959 film version starred Sidney
Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis,
Jr., Diahann Carroll, and Brock Peters. But in
1959, many blacks—including the film’s stars,
Poitier and Carroll—were not in the mood for
the world the film created. It would seem that
the story—whether one saw it as a profound
human exploration or offensive and base
exploitation—was out of place in the political
whirlwind of the late 1950s. The film was a
commercial failure and was largely forgotten.
As I watched the film of Porgy and Bess,
it struck me that Zora Neale Hurston had
written a similar story in Their Eyes Were
Watching God: the Gullah culture, the devotion
to black vernacular, the porches and back
> John McCurry (Crown) during
the 1952 European tour
alleys, the fast-talking men, and the heroine
who takes three lovers—all reminded me of
Hurston’s masterpiece. Written in 1937, two
years after the Gershwins’ and Heyward’s
Porgy and Bess debuted, was Their Eyes a
reclamation of a black world Hurston thought
these white writers had ill-served?
We can’t know for sure, but we have
some interesting evidence to suggest that
Gershwin and Porgy and Bess were very
much on Hurston’s mind at times. In Harlem
in the 1920s, at the height of the Harlem
Renaissance, Hurston seemed excited by the
direction theater was taking, according to the
great Hurston scholar Carla Kaplan. All-black
theatrical productions were all the rage in New
York, and their roster included the Heywards’
Porgy in 1927. Hurston’s discontent with the
white writers behind these productions only
surfaced in her letters and reported remarks in
the early 1940s, when she was co-writing her
own play, Polk County, with Dorothy Waring.
Hurston’s biographer, Robert Hemenway, wrote
that when Waring, a white woman, “urged Zora
to keep ‘a sort of Gershwinesque feeling’ about
their [musical comedy], Zora’s reply was ‘You
don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’”
As early as 1928, Hurston wrote to Alain Locke
about her worries that white folklorists “had
beat us to it in the matter of songs.” But, she
continued, “my one consolation [is] that they
never do it right and so there is still a chance
for us.” In 1944, writing to the editor Claude
Barnet, she complained that Porgy and
Bess “is not true to our lives and I want to do
something more penetrating.” This was the
same year that she was writing Polk County;
it isn’t far-fetched to think that this play was
an attempt to correct what she saw as the
missteps and misappropriations of Porgy and
Bess.
What Hurston objected to in Porgy
and Bess and other white-authored black
performances was what she saw as “an oversimplification of the Negro. He is either happy
or low, miserable and crying. The Negro’s life is
neither of these,” she continued in an interview.
“Rather, it is in-between and above and below
these pictures.”
Is Janie Crawford a reimagining of Bess?
Is the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God,
a reimagining of the opera, Porgy and Bess?
Perhaps. I’d like to think so. But if perhaps
Hurston didn’t get there in 1937, it is now
high time that we see the world of Porgy and
Bess reimagined, as Suzan-Lori Parks, Diedre
Murray, and Diane Paulus have done.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher
University Professor and Director of the W.
E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and AfricanAmerican Research at Harvard University.
These remarks were given as part of a larger discussion sponsored by the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute.
Watch the full “Reimagining Porgy and Bess in the 21st Century” panel discussion on our blog, at
americanrepertorytheater.org/blog.
THE ENTIRE SEASON IS AVAILABLE WITH A SUBSCRIPTION OR MEMBERSHIP
GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
VISIT: AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG CALL: 617.547.8300
THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS
Loeb Drama Center STARTS AUGUST 17, 2011
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
8/14
8/15
8/16
8/17
7:30P
8/18
7:30P
8/19
7:30P
8/20
7:30P
8/21
7:30P
8/22
8/23
7:30P
8/24
7:30P
8/25
7:30P
8/26
7:30P
8/27
2:00P
7:30P
8/28
2:00P
8/29
8/30
7:30P
8/31
7:00P
9/1
7:30P
9/2
7:30P
9/3
2:00P
7:30P
9/4
2:00P
9/5
9/6
7:30P
9/7
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/8
7:30P
9/9
7:30P
9/10
1:00P
6:30P*
9/11
2:00P
9/12
9/13
7:30P
9/14
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/15
7:30P
9/16
7:30P
9/17
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/18
2:00P
9/19
9/20
7:30P
9/21
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/22
7:30P
9/23
7:30P
9/24
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/25
2:00P
9/26
9/27
7:30P
9/28
2:00Pt
7:30P
9/29
7:30P
9/30
7:30P
10/1
2:00P
7:30P
10/2
2:00P
10/3
10/4
10/5
10/6
10/7
10/8
INDICATES PREVIEW INDICATES OPENING NIGHT
t INDICATES POST-SHOW TALKBACK * GALA PERFORMANCE
BOTH THE LOEB DRAMA CENTER
& OBERON ARE FULLY ACCESSIBLE.
ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES ARE AVAILABLE
AT ALL PERFORMANCES AT BOTH VENUES.
LARGE
PRINT
LARGE PRINT PROGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR USE
DURING EVERY A.R.T. PERFORMANCE.
THE A.R.T. OFFERS ASL INTERPRETATION AT DESIGNATED
PERFORMANCES OF PORGY AND BESS.
EMAIL: [email protected] FOR TICKETS
P
DISCOUNTED PARKING IS AVAILABLE AT CHARLES SQUARE
GARAGE (ONE BENNETT ST.) & UNIVERSITY PLACE GARAGE
(UNIVERSITY RD) FOR BOTH VENUES
ADVANCED PURCHASE PERMIT PARKING IS AVAILABLE
AT THE 1033 MASS. AVE LOT FOR OBERON
REFRESHMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
AT ALL A.R.T. PERFORMANCES
LOOKING TO DINE BEFORE OR AFTER A SHOW?
VISIT: AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG/DISCOUNTS
FOR OUR RESTAURANT PARTNERS AND THEIR GREAT DEALS.
BOX OFFICE
ADDRESS: 64 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE
HOURS: TUE-SUN, NOON-5 P.M.
OR 1/2 HOUR BEFORE CURTAIN
BOOK A GROUP:
AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG/GROUPS
WHAT’S NEXT AT THE A.R.T.
THE SEASON
Three Pianos
By Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy,
and Dave Malloy
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Hilarity and heartbreak unfold on a blustery
winter night, when three friends come upon
a copy of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise.
starts 12/7
As You Like It
By William Shakespeare
Directed by David Hammond
Featuring The A.R.T./MXAT Institute
Class of 2012
An unconventional romance, with everything
from wrestling matches to cross-dressed
shepherds, culminating in a finale so joyful
that spring will seem just around the corner.
starts 1/18
Wild Swans
By Jung Chang
Adapted by Alexandra Wood
Directed by Sacha Wares
As change sweeps over 20th century China,
a family endures their hardships through
sacrifice, courage, and love.
starts 2/11 — WORLD PREMIERE
Futurity:
A Musical by The Lisps
Music and lyrics by César Alvarez
with The Lisps
Book by Molly Rice and César Alvarez
Directed by Sarah Benson
Blending American indie-folk music with
dreams of invention, Futurity follows a civil
war soldier exploring a world where utopia
seems within reach.
starts 3/16 — WORLD PREMIERE
AT OBERON
OBERON IS THE SECOND STAGE
OF THE A.R.T.—A DESTINATION FOR
THEATER & NIGHTLIFE ON THE FRINGE
OF HARVARD SQUARE. 2 ARROW ST.
In addition to A.R.T. season programming,
OBERON is a thriving incubator for local
and emerging artists. Attracting national
attention for its groundbreaking model of
programming, the immersive experience
at OBERON makes the audience a partner
in the theatrical event.
Check out what’s up next:
WWW.CLUBOBERON.COM
The Donkey Show
Directed by Diane Paulus
A magical romp inspired by Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Join the
party under the disco ball on the dance
floor to all the 70s hits you know by heart
as the show unfolds around you.
NOW PLAYING — EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT
FAMILY FUN
The Snow Queen
By Hans Christian Andersen
Directed by Allegra Libonati
Adapted by Tyler Monroe
Featuring The A.R.T./MXAT Institute
Class of 2012
Hans Christian Andersen’s exuberant ode
to childhood comes to life in this new
adaptation of The Snow Queen.
starts 12/10 — WINTER ADD-ON
Our institutional partners help make
the theater’s programs possible:
Woody Sez
The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
Devised by David M. Lutken
with Nick Corley
An inspired, toe-tapping, and heartfelt
theatrical portrait that weaves Woody’s
words and songs, including “This Land is
Your Land” and “Bound for Glory,” into a
compelling narrative of his life and times.
starts 5/5
LOVE
US?
Facebook: americanrepertorytheater
Twitter: americanrep
Blog: americanrepertorytheater.org/blog
Give: americanrepertorytheater.org/support
Custom publising by Dig Publishing LLC
242 East Berkeley St. 5th Fl. Boston, MA 02118
For sales e-mail [email protected]