[NEohioPAL] "Life With Father" -- Weathervane Playhouse

[Janis Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse’s “Life with Father” Pokes Gentle Fun at the Art of Parenting
Classic American Comedy from the 1940s Still Holds the Record
as Broadway’s Longest-Running Non-Musical

 Weathervane Playhouse’s 79th season continues with the charming, classic comedy Life with Father – Broadway’s longest-running non-musical – presented live on stage from March 27 to April 13, 2014.

Written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, Life with Father “is a loving look at a boisterous American family that has no agenda except to make us smile and laugh at ourselves,” says the show’s director, Sarah May.

A loveable curmudgeon stands at the center of this delightful comedy, which pokes gentle fun at the art of parenting. Set in New York City in the late 1880’s, Clarence Day is the “father” of the show’s title, and he’s a patriarch who rules with an iron fist — but mother knows best!

A benevolent despot, Mr. Day is a man with high expectations – and a short fuse! Undermined at every turn by his wife, children and a constantly changing cast of household servants, this headstrong ruler of the roost attempts to bring a stern, business-like approach to everyday household activities. Invariably, no one can match his rigid standards.

Meanwhile, Vinnie – Mr. Day’s tender-hearted “better half” – struggles tirelessly to convince her stubborn husband to be baptized, else he'll never be able to enter the Kingdom of God!

Even though the play takes place in the late 1880s, Americans of all stripes and sizes will smile with identification at the humorous truths revealed in Life with Father. The domestic squabbles between Father and Mother – over such things as household bills, charge accounts, social obligations, child rearing and visiting relatives – demonstrate clearly that some things never change (especially when it comes to family dynamics and the constant negotiations between men and women). 

Life with Father Performance and Ticket Information

Life with Father plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between March 27 and April 13, 2014.

Between March 27 and April 13, 2014, the performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, March 27; the official opening-night performance is Friday, March 28 at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the March 27 preview performance only are $15 each. Tickets for performances after March 27 are $21 each.

For performances after March 27, $19 tickets for seniors are available for Thursday and Sunday performances. Tickets for children (ages 17 or younger) and college students are $5 each at all performances (including the March 27 preview performance). Additional discounts for groups of 10 or larger are also available. 

The Weathervane Playhouse Box Office is open Mondays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and is also open beginning one hour before each performance. For tickets, visit or call the Weathervane Box Office at 330-836-2626 during Box Office hours or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

The Life with Father Cast

JIM FIPPIN
Clarence Day, Sr.

TARI LYN BERGOINE
Vinnie Day

ERIC LUCAS
Clarence Day, Jr.

WILL PRICE
John Day

OWEN DESBERG
Whitney Day

SPENCER DESBERG
Harlan Day

JENNY BARRETT
Cora

ERIN MOORE
Mary Skinner

RICHARD WORSWICK
Rev. Dr. Lloyd

STEVE BOARDMAN
Dr. Humphreys

JOHN GRAFTON
Dr. Somers

APRIL DEMING
Margaret

KAY CAPREZ
Annie

SASHA DESBERG
Delia

MADELYN E. FRANCIS
Nora

JENNIFER DESBERG
Maggie

The Life with Father Backstage Team

SARAH MAY
Director

SCOTT CRIM
Stage Manager

JENNIFER MAXSON DRAHER
Properties Designer

MICHELLE CONNER
Sound Designer

JASEN J. SMITH
Costume Designer

ALAN SCOTT FERRALL
Lighting Designer, Scenic Designer and Technical Director

KATHY KOHL
Assistant Technical Director

About the Show’s Director

SARAH MAY's previous directorial credits at Weathervane Playhouse include Wait until Dark (2006) and The Dinner Party (2004). In the Cleveland area, she has directed at Ensemble Theatre (St. Nicholas, Dividing the Estate, Having Our Say, Valley Song, Paul Robeson, Little Tommy Parker's Celebrated Minstrel Show and Anton in Show Business!) at the Beck Center (33 Variations, Race, Wings, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The History Boys, The Diary of Anne Frank and A Piece of My Heart) at Karamu (Caroline, or Change) and at Cleveland Play House (Tuck Everlasting). Sarah spent 10 years in New York City performing, directing, and developing educational programs for Playwrights Horizons, Henry Street Settlement, and The Roundabout Theatre. She returned to Cleveland to serve as director of education for Great Lakes Theatre Festival, where she developed its Shakespeare School Residency Program. She served as Artistic Director of Karamu Theatre from 1990 to 1997. She has taught acting for the Cleveland Play House and Tri-C Metro. She continues to work with children in the Cleveland schools and serves as Artistic Adviser to Ensemble Theatre. She lives in Shaker Heights. 

About the Play’s Production History and Adaptations

Life with Father is based on a series of stories written by Clarence Day, Jr., which were first published in The New Yorker magazine and then compiled for publication as a book in 1935. The humorous stories are the semi-autobiographical depictions of the writer’s father, Clarence Day, Sr., and depict him as a benevolent despot who clashes with his family over all matters. The stories were adapted for the stage by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (with Lindsay himself playing the role of “Father” in the original Broadway production). Opening in 1939, the play closed in 1947 after 3,224 performance — which to this very day makes Life with Father the longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history. A popular 1947 film adaptation of the play starred William Powell as Clarence (“Father”) and Irene Dunne as Vinnie (“Mother) and was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1953, a television series based on the show premiered on CBS. With Leon Ames as Father and Lurene Tuttle as mother, the TV show ran until July 1955. Weathervane Playhouse first staged Life with Father in October 1948 under the direction of Jesse Skrilitz.

(Sources: the Internet Broadway Database, Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database)

About the Playwrights and Original Author

The Lindsay and Crouse creative partnership stands today as one of the longest collaborations of any writers in theatrical history, lasting for more than 30 years. Their hits include The Sound of Music (with a score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein); Anything Goes and Red, Hot and Blue (with scores by Cole Porter); Call Me Madam (score by Irving Berlin); the long-running play Life with Father (which originally starred co-author Lindsay in the title role) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The State of the Union; and the book for the musical Happy Hunting. Their producing credits included The Hasty Heart, Detective Story and Arsenic and Old Lace.
HOWARD LINDSAY was born in Waterford, New York in 1889 and died in 1968. He became an actor at the age of 19 and in 1913 began a five-year stay with Margaret Anglin’s acting troupe. After Infantry Service in World War I, his first big break was to act and direct in the George S. Kaufman hit Dulcy in 1921. Lindsay wrote many plays before teaming up with Russel Crouse on Anything Goes in 1934. (Trivia buffs will note that among his acting credits is the role of The King in the original television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957.)
RUSSEL CROUSE was born in Findlay, Ohio, in 1893 and died in 1966. At the age of 17, he became a reporter for The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. After serving in the Navy in World War I, he worked on several New York newspapers, gaining his first renown through a signed column in The New York Post. In 1932, he became head of the publicity department for the Theatre Guild and in 1933 wrote his first Broadway show, collaborating with Corey Ford on the musical comedy Hold Your Horses. From 1934 on, he wrote only with Lindsay.
(Source: The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization)

CLARENCE SHEPARD DAY, JR. (Nov. 18, 1874 to Dec. 28, 1935) was an American author best known for his 1935 work Life with Father. Born in New York City, he attended St. Paul's School and graduated from Yale University in 1896, where he edited campus humor magazine The Yale Record. The following year, he joined the New York Stock Exchange, and became a partner in his father's Wall Street brokerage firm. Day enlisted in the Navy in 1898, but developed crippling arthritis and spent the remainder of his life as a semi-invalid. Day's most famous work is the autobiographical Life with Father (1935), which detailed humorous episodes in his family's life, centering on his domineering father, during the 1890s in New York City. Scenes from the book, along with its 1932 predecessor, God and My Father, and its 1937 sequel, Life with Mother, published posthumously, were the basis for the 1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Day was a vocal proponent of giving women the right to vote, and contributed satirical cartoons for U.S. suffrage publications in the 1910s. According to James Moske, an archivist with the New York Public Library who arranged and cataloged the library's Clarence Day Papers, a survey of Day’s early short stories and magazine columns reveals "he was fascinated by the changing roles of men and women in American society as Victorian conceptions of marriage, family, and domestic order unraveled in the first decades of the twentieth century." Day died in New York City of pneumonia shortly after finishing Life with Father, and without ever getting to experience its success on Broadway or in Hollywood. He was survived by his wife, Katherine Briggs Dodge Day, and daughter Wendy.

(Source: Wikipedia) 

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Weathervane Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Weathervane Playhouse’s 2013-2014 Season Support Provided by:
Akron Community Foundation
Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation
Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust (KeyBank, Trustee)
OMNOVA Solutions Foundation
Sisler McFawn Foundation
Ohio Arts Council

Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2626 X16
jharcar at weathervaneplayhouse.com



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