Fontbonne Theatre Programs

Season

1967-1968

Performance Dates

February 8, 9, 10, 11, 1968

Director

Don Garner

Files

Download

Download Program (10.1 MB)

Download The Member of the Wedding - flyer (4.5 MB)

Description

Fontbonne Theatre

"What is a Play"

"First, I doubt the wisdom of arbitrary qualifications when an art form is concerned; and, secondly, my creative life has done nothing to equip me for formal aesthetic evaluations. For the writing of prose or poems is a wandering creation. By that I mean that a given passage or paragraph draws astray the imagination with sensual allusions, nuances of feelings, vibrations of memory or desire. The function of the artist is to execute his own indigenous vision, and having done that, to keep faith with this vision. The parallel function of a work of art is to be communicable. Of what value is a creation that cannot be shared? At the same time , any form of art can only develop by means of single mutations by individual creators. Any growing thing must go through awkward stages.

The Member of the Wedding is unconventional because it is not a literal kind of play. It is an inward play and the conflicts are inward conflicts. The antagonist is not personified, but is a human condition of life; the sense of moral isolation. In this respect The Member of the Wedding has an affinity with classical plays where the protagonist and antagonist are [not] present in palpable conflict on the stage. The play has other abstract values; it is concerned with the weight of time, the hazard of human existence, bolts of chance. The reaction of the characters to these abstract phenomena projects the movement of the play.

Some observers have wondered if any drama as unconventional as this should be called a play. I cannot comment on that . I only know that The Member of the Wedding is a vision that a number of artists have realized with fidelity and love."

Carson McCullers

Theatre Arts 1950

Document Type

Program

Publisher

Fontbonne University Archives

City

St. Louis, MO

The Member of the Wedding

Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.