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Lillian Hellmania!, a moveable feast of a festival celebrating the work of one of the most talented and controversial American writers of the twentieth century, will play a broken run this fall and winter as three of her best known works are staged by Eclipse Theatre Company, Shattered Globe Theatre and City Lit Theater Company. A festival pass will enable audience members to see all three productions at discounted rates.
Eclipse will stage Hellman's favorite of her plays, the 1951 drama The Autumn Garden, from November 13 through December 21, 2008 in the downstairs mainstage space of the Greenhouse Theater Center at 2257 North Lincoln Avenue, Shattered Globe will stage her most popular play, 1939's The Little Foxes from January 8 through March 8, 2009 in the upstairs studio space of the Greenhouse, and City Lit will stage its world premiere adaptation of her 1976 memoir Scoundrel Time from January 30 through March 8, 2009 in its space at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue.
"Like a lot of good ideas, Lillian Hellmania! wasn't planned out in advance," said Eclipse artistic director Nathaniel Swift, "it just kind of happened. When the three of us realized we were each doing a Hellman show, we all realized it was an opportunity to connect audiences to a cross-section of her work."
"The key to it all is the festival pass," Shattered Globe artistic director Kevin Hagan added. "Each passholder, even if not a subscriber to any of the three theatres, gets admitted to all three shows at subscriber rates. We want to make it easy for someone interested in one of these shows to decide to explore more fully the range of Hellman's writing."
"It's an exploration that will pay off in a couple different ways," agreed City Lit artistic director Terry McCabe. "There's so much controversy around Hellman that it's easy to lose sight of the simple fact that she produced three decades of first class work. The festival also offers the opportunity for each theatre's audience to sample the work of the other two. We hope to stimulate some cross-fertilization."
The Lillian Hellmania! festival pass costs $65.00 and is available through any of the three theatres. The price reflects the subscriber rates, applied to one show, of all three theatres; patrons who already subscribe to one of the theatres will receive a corresponding further discount in the price of the festival pass.
The plays In order of opening nights:
Eclipse Theatre's The Autumn Garden focuses on seven adults in the autumn of their lives. In a guest house on the Gulf, a hundred miles from New Orleans, six friends gather each summer to rediscover connections, rekindle lost relationships, and find peace. In this introspective and rarely produced play, the old friends find that they can't escape the choices of their past. Eclipse artistic director Nathaniel Swift directs. The Autumn Garden begins previews on November 13, opens on November 15 and runs through December 21.
Shattered Globe's The Little Foxes depicts a cycle of revenge as ripe and bloodthirsty as that in any classic Greek tragedy. The title comes from the Song of Solomon: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." The Hubbard siblings plot against each other in their efforts to invest in one of the first cotton mills to industrialize the New South, a plan that stands to win them millions of dollars. Brandon Bruce directs. The Little Foxes begins previews on January 8, opens on January 11 and runs through March 8.
City Lit's Scoundrel Time is a world premiere adaptation of Hellman's legendary memoir of going up against the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy era. In 1952 Hellman refused to name names before HUAC, telling the committee, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." She was blacklisted for years, but lived to tell the tale—her way. Adrianne Cury directs the adaptation by City Lit artistic director Terry McCabe. Scoundrel Time begins previews on January 30, opens on February 3, and runs through March 8.
Lillian Hellman is the playwright of the American classics The Children's Hour, Another Part of the Forest and Toys in the Attic, among other plays. She contributed lyrics to the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide, and was nominated twice for the Academy Award as a screenwriter, for the World War II drama The North Star and for her screen adaptation of The Little Foxes. From 1935 through 1946, she wrote regularly for Hollywood studios, but by the late '40s she had fallen victim to the blacklist and did not write another movie until she adapted The Children's Hour for the screen in 1961. A vocal Stalinist, she was spied on by the FBI at various points from 1938 to at least 1970. Her first memoir, An Unfinished Woman, won a 1970 National Book Award. A chapter from her second memoir, Pentimento, was made into the film Julia, though a scandal ensued when it became known that the chapter was fictional. She lived off and on for most of three decades with the mystery writer Dashiell Hammett, who based The Thin Man's fearless and playful Nora Charles-as well as that book's villainess, the compulsive liar Mimi Jorgenson-on her.
Lillian Hellmania! festival passes can be ordered online by going to www.shatteredglobe.org/lillianhellmania.html, or from Eclipse Theatre by calling 312-738-0704, from Shattered Globe Theatre by calling 773-770-0333, or from City Lit Theater by calling 773-293-3682.