MCCARTER THEATRE CENTER EMILY MANN Artistic Director / Resident Playwright
TIMOTHY J. SHIELDS Managing Director
presents
Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of
AMERICAN BUFFALO by DAVID MAMET directed by AMY MORTON
Featuring
Patrick Andrews, John Judd, Tracy Letts set design Kevin Depinet costume design Nan Cibula-Jenkins lighting design Pat Collins original music and sound design Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen fight choreographer Rick Sordelet dialect coach Cecilie O’Reilly production stage manager Christine D. Freeburg producing director Mara Isaacs
director of production David York
2009-2010 Theater Season Sponsored by The Official Airline of McCarter Theatre Center
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
March 9 – March 28, 2010 Matthews theatre
Emily Mann on American Buffalo
Dear Patrons, You are in for a rare treat. When I first heard that Steppenwolf Theatre would be producing David Mamet’s American Buffalo, I knew that we had to bring it to McCarter. I’ve known Mamet since we were in our early 20’s—he’s a fellow Chicagoan, and American Buffalo is the play that put him on the map. It’s a hilarious, wry look at manhood, set in a gritty and very real Chicago. When David began writing, he wrote in a language which audiences had never before heard on the stage. His heightened and ever-crackling language shocked audiences in the 1970's. But times change. Now the play contains electrifying language, but the language is no longer shocking. It is simply accurate, and it's gold for actors to mine. Who better to bring Mamet’s particular and singular voice to life on our stage than Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre? One of the great theater ensembles in this country, they are finally being recognized for the work they’ve been doing for decades. In Chicago, they’ve become known for their wild, emotional, physical acting style, which is perfectly suited to Mamet’s savage world. Amy Morton, the director, has found the audacious rhythm at the heart of all of Mamet’s work, as well as the incredible passions under the seemingly mundane details of the play. She and her extraordinary company truly understand this play. As the recent Wall Street Journal review of the Steppenwolf production puts it: “Mr. Mamet is one of the great theatrical originals, and anyone who wants to know how his plays should be done can scarcely do better than going to see this exemplary production.” What makes this production of American Buffalo so rare is how incredibly authentic it is. It is revelatory to finally see Chicagoans realize this great Chicago play. Don't miss it. This production is the real thing. Enjoy!
Emily Mann
About David Mamet David Alan Mamet was born in Chicago on November 30, 1947, the son of Bernard, a labor lawyer, and Lenore, a teacher. Mamet grew up on Chicago’s South Side and while he was a teenager he began working as a busboy at Second City (an improvisational comedy club) and backstage at Hull House Theatre in Chicago. He studied at Goddard College in Vermont, graduating with a B.A. in Literature. During his junior year, he studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York under Sanford Meisner (whose acting method was later to have a marked influence on Mamet’s acting theories). Mamet’s first real successes occurred after he moved back to Chicago, where his play Sexual Perversity in Chicago won Chicago’s esteemed Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play in 1974. In 1975, Mamet’s play American Buffalo (with William H. Macy in the cast) premiered at the Goodman Theatre, directed by Gregory Mosher. Eventually there were New York productions of Sexual Perversity (first off-off Broadway and then off-Broadway, on a double bill with Duck Variations) and American Buffalo (first off-Broadway and later on Broadway). In 1976, Mamet received an Obie for Distinguished Playwriting for Sexual Perversity and American Buffalo. Over the years, Mamet has been an extremely prolific playwright. Since the mid-70s, his work has seldom been off the stage, in New York, regional, and foreign productions. Among his plays are A Life in the Theatre (1977), The Woods (1977), The Water Engine (1977), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross (1983), Speed-the-Plow (1988), Oleanna (1992), The Cryptogram (1995), The Old Neighborhood (1997), Boston Marriage (1999), The Voysey Inheritance (2005) and Race (2009). Beginning in 1981, Mamet also started working in film. His screenplays include The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982), Wag the Dog (1997), and adaptations of many of his plays. He has also directed his own screenplays, including The Spanish Prisoner (1997), The Winslow Boy (1999), and State and Main (2000). He is the creator and producer of the television series The Unit, and has written numerous books, including fiction, non-fiction, and collections essays on a variety of topics. For more information on Mamet, visit these sites: http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/david_mamet_001.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mamet Adapted from an article in McCarter Theatre’s Glengarry Glen Ross Audience Resource Guide.
The Gift of Gab Language and the Theater of David Mamet By Charles McNulty There’s obviously no getting around the fact that David Mamet’s plays have a one-of-a-kind sound. Though each dramatic offering in the Chicago-born writer’s extraordinarily prolific career has the patent newness of a Miles Davis album, it’s virtually impossible not to recognize the composer behind the verbal music. From his early biting satires Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1973) and American Buffalo (1975) to the Pulitzer Prize-winning commercial ruthlessness of Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and the Tony-nominated investigation into early childhood memory of The Old Neighborhood (1997), no one has rendered more exactly–or pointedly–the percussive rhythms of American vernacular.
Selected Plays by David Mamet 1972
The Duck Variations
1974
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
1975
American Buffalo
1977
The Water Engine
1983
Glengarry Glen Ross
But this is only part of the genius of his signature style, which has 1988 Speed-the-Plow been influenced as much by Arthur Miller and Edward Albee as it has 1992 Oleanna by Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. As the scholar C.W.E. Bigsby observes, “few playwrights have paid more attention to language, to 2008 November the force of dramatic metaphor, to structure or to character as expression of psychological and social dislocation.” Nor has any 2009 Race contemporary American writer given birth to such a vivid array of natural born storytellers. Indeed, the characters of his plays can’t resist trying to persuade (i.e. manipulate) one another through carefully modulated narrative. How these gab-spinners love to gab, debate, gossip, toot their horn, wax philosophic or even poetic if the moment should require something special. Mamet is, hands-down, the reigning master of the spoken aria. To what end is this heightened dramatic technique employed? Here is where the critics are divided, some fastening on the grand satiric qualities, others mesmerized by the deadpan naturalism of it all. Mamet’s subject matter, of course, covers a wide swath of human terrain, though it’s the unflinching dramatizations of the way men behave with each other that have made his reputation. His is a theater of unusually high testosterone charge. But whether one experiences his brawling vision as a statement on the effects of dog-eat-dog American capitalism at the end of the twentieth century or merely as a microscopic study of the way we have come to relate to one another in our endless search for something more substantive than our increasingly debased language allows, Mamet has undeniably provided us with some of the most seismic stage moments of the last three decades. Charles McNulty is currently the Theater Critic at the Los Angeles Times. He is a former Literary Manager at McCarter Theatre. This article was first published in association with McCarter Theatre’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross.
Unfreezing the Play By Polly Carl Director of Artistic Development, Steppenwolf Theatre Company Theater is a series of ongoing interpretations. The playwright, director, dramaturg, designers, and actors come together in a collaborative process seeking a multitude of possibilities for the presentation of a play. At some point, in order to bring in the audience, the play freezes—the script is finalized, the set is built, the sound and lights are programmed, and the actors find their rhythm. But the possible meanings of the play go on in post-show discussions, drinks after the play, and late night pillow talk. My hope is to provide some heat to your conversations when you leave the theater—to thaw what we’ve temporarily frozen and invite you to collaborate in making meaning and theater with us. One of my secret shames is the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. I get obsessed not so much with the objects themselves but rather with the relationship between people and what they value. When my family and I watch the show we have a tradition of yelling “Sell it!” whenever someone brings in an object that ends up being worth much more than they or we expect. When Teach says, “If I kept the stuff that I threw out… I would be a wealthy man today,” I am reminded that American culture is predicated on the belief that as individuals we’re always on the verge of finding fortune. We might win the lottery. A priceless antique might be waiting for discovery amidst the cobwebs in our basements. My start-up company will take off. By living in the land of our opportunity, our lives will be fully actualized—any minute now. The driving engine of American Buffalo is the worth of a Buffalo head nickel. In For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, author Jean Baudrillard argues that in an art auction the relationship between the object purchased and the money exchanged for that object is skewed. The exchange supersedes the object’s use value. In fact, the object may have no use at all. Baudrillard says the moment of expenditure “presupposes something of a competition, a wager, an aristocratic measure of value…it is this, and not the satisfaction of needs that occasionally turns consumption into a passion, a fascinating game, something other than functional economic behavior.” Baudrillard makes a convincing case that the buyer at an auction establishes privilege, a kind of status—something beyond mere buying power. Although European aristocracy and Wall Street excess live in two very different historical contexts, I am fascinated by the idea of exchange as rooted in competition and passion. In American Buffalo, Don is obsessed with this nickel, with the possibility that he missed out on his opportunity for something more. Underlying the equally compelling themes of friendship and loyalty in the play, individual and communal worth is the play’s thematic soul. The play’s relevance to the contemporary crisis surrounding the question “what’s it worth?” can’t be overstated. Consider our national housing crisis. The value of homes had skyrocketed so high that buying a home two years ago wasn’t unlike going to auction given the stiff competition and the inflated purchase prices. Home ownership conferred a new kind of ubiquitous legitimacy. Now many of those new homeowners are stuck trying to sell for much less than they purchased having been tricked into believing that entering the privileged class could be a “steal” at zero percent down. At the end of American Buffalo, the plan for the heist falls to pieces, in part due to Bobby’s lie at the beginning of the play. In the play we never learn the actual value of the nickel. We know that a man paid ninety dollars for it and that Don is certain it’s worth several times that. But the actual value doesn’t matter. The nickel stands in for the value limit that Don, Teach and Bobby can confer upon themselves in a milieu where the white working-class man is threatened by the rise of white collar “aristocrat”—the man, who as Baudrillard says, (I’m suggesting now an equivalence
between “art lover” and “coin collector”) “does not create profit” through his purchase but “legitimacy.” We never learn the value of the coin, but for Don, Teach, and Bobby could it ever be worth more than what they can pay for it? Courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Currency of Culture: Understanding the Buffalo Nickel By Reginald L. Douglas The buffalo nickel, also called the Indian-head nickel and the bison nickel, was designed by James Earle Fraser in 1913. In designing the coin, Fraser said that he hoped “to produce a coin which was truly American, and that could not be confused with the currency of any other country.” To achieve this goal, Fraser chose two symbols of American history: the profile of a Native American on the head’s side of the nickel and the American buffalo on the tail’s side. Fraser’s work met with great criticism, as skeptics disapproved of the coin’s large imagery and the small print of its monetary worth. Still, the nickel was a success as a cultural trademark, a piece of American identity that could fit into one’s pocket. Between 1913 and 1938, when the coin stopped being minted and was replaced by the Jefferson nickel, over 1.2 billion buffalo nickels were made. By the 1960s, however, the buffalo nickel was virtually removed from circulation and had become a prized collector’s item. Like most coins, the collector’s value of each buffalo nickel varies depending on the die (the shaped steel used to impress the image of the coin on the blank metal), strike (the way the die hits the coin), mintage numbers, and date. While the characters in American Buffalo are oblivious to these important details of coin collecting, they are fully aware of the rare nickel’s perceived value and worth.
Winners and Losers By Joy Meads Literary Manager, Steppenwolf Theatre Company "It's kickass or kissass, Don, and I'd be lying if I told you any different." -Teach American Buffalo opens in a junk shop, the morning after a brutal poker game that lingers like a hangover through much of the play. Ostensibly a casual hand between buddies, the game was played for merciless stakes: Fletch took a small fortune from his friends, leaving Teach, the night's biggest loser, broke, humiliated, and desperate. This is a world that David Mamet knows well. Every week for years, he made his way to the back room of a Chicago junk shop to play a particularly ruthless standing game of poker. In games like these, Mamet learned to apply lessons from The Art of War to the poker table, to "treat our adversaries as if they were our employees, and to control and motivate them to do our bidding at all times." Following this cutthroat strategy taught Mamet another lesson as well: the intoxicating rush of confidence that comes with victory. "That's how I felt at that poker game. I had re-invented myself. Hell, I had invented myself... Who is that fellow in the dark glasses? Answer: none of your business: bet, check, or fold. It was blatant and it was damned enjoyable. Looking back, I see that I made the table respect me as I operated in a manner worthy of respect." Teach and Donnie approach the world like a poker game. They continually jockey for advantage and the play is full of bluffs attempted and called. For them, life is a zero-sum game: success is predicated on others' failure, so you'd better take or you're gonna get taken. David Mamet sees this "kickass or kissass" mindset as the dark corollary to the American Dream. In America, we believe that "instead of rising with the masses, one should rise from the masses. Your extremity is my opportunity. That's what forms the basis of our economic life, and this is what forms the rest of our lives. That American myth: the idea of something out of nothing. And this also affects the spirit of the individual. It's very divisive. One feels one can only succeed at the cost of someone else." Mamet has said that American Buffalo is "really a play about the need for tenderness." In Donnie's junk shop—and, Mamet would argue, in America itself—the costs of pursuing zero-sum tactics in a non-zero-sum world can be exorbitant. Courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre
Glossary – American Buffalo Pig Iron Pig iron is a brittle, high carbon content metal that is most often re-melted and used in the process of making steel. It derives its name from the traditional shape of its mold, which is a branch with ingots at right angles which resembles piglets suckling on a sow. BOB: Like when he jewed Ruthie out that pig iron.
a Boston [coffee] In Chicago, a coffee with cream and sugar is known as “Boston coffee.” DON (to Teach): Come on, he’s going anyway. (to BOB, handing him a bill) Get me a Boston, and go for the yogurt.
Locksmith According to urbandictionary.com, “locksmith” has been used to refer to someone who is known to cheat and/or rip people off. TEACH: She is not a good card player, Don. She is a mooch and she is a locksmith and she plays like a woman.
My Little Margie “My Little Margie” was a sitcom that was inspired by the success of “I Love Lucy” and alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952-1955. DON: Yeah. They used to joke about it on “My Little Margie.”
Skin-pop Skin-popping is when one injects a drug (most commonly heroin or cocaine) under the skin, as opposed to into a vein. This is most commonly done because either the veins are damaged (ie: by frequent drug use), the user wants a slower high (because the drug takes longer to be absorbed into the body), or the user has trouble finding a vein. TEACH: …We both know we’re talking about some job needs more than the kid’s gonna skin-pop go in there with a crowbar Compiled from urbandictionary.com and Wikipedia.com
Cast (in order of appearance)
Don.................................................................John Judd Bob.......................................................Patrick Andrews Teach.............................................................Tracy Letts
Setting The Scene: Don’s Resale Shop. A junkshop. The Time: One Friday in the mid 70s. Act I takes place in the morning. Act II starts around 11:00 that night. There will be one 15-minute intermission. Understudy Don...........................................Kurt Ehrmann Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless a specific announcement for the appearance is made at the time of the performance.
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. McCarter Theatre Center is a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group; the League of Resident Theatres; ArtPride New Jersey; and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. McCarter Theatre Center operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., and United Scenic Artists. Please turn off all electronic devices including beepers, cellular phones and watches for the duration of the performance. Please refrain from text messaging during the performance. The use of recording equipment or the taking of photographs during the performance is strictly prohibited. No food, drink or smoking is allowed in the theater at any time.
An Interview with Director Amy Morton Shortly after American Buffalo opened at Steppenwolf, Producing Associate Adam Immerwahr sat down with director Amy Morton to discuss the play, Mamet, and Chicago.
Adam Immerwahr: You’ve worked on several of David Mamet’s plays, including acting in The Cryptogram and directing Glengarry Glen Ross. What is it about Mamet’s work that attracts you? Amy Morton: I was sort of weaned on Mamet. When I started studying theater it was at a theater called St. Nicholas Theatre in Chicago, which is the theater that David Mamet, William H. Macy, Patricia Cox, and Peter Schneider started. So I grew up on his work. It was done so much in Chicago because he’s a Chicago playwright, so it’s just something I’ve always felt I’ve known in my bones.
So if Mamet’s a Chicago playwright and Steppenwolf is a Chicago company, in what ways does that geographic synergy effect the process or the work we see on the stage? I don’t mean to sound like a pompous ass, but nobody does Mamet like Chicagoans. He writes Chicagoans. He doesn’t write LA-ians, he doesn’t write New Yorkese. The dialogue is extremely Chicago. And actually none of those three actors grew up in Chicago, but they’ve been here so long that they completely get the slang, the rhythm. That makes a difference.
What is it about American Buffalo that speaks to you? Why now? I think this play has a very large message about America. These are men that talk about crime, but use the word “business” all the time. The word business is repeated over and over in the play, when they’re really talking about stealing. I think it’s not all that different from the conversations that go on in board rooms. So I think absolutely it has a place now. A lot of people had asked me: “Are you keeping it set in the 70’s?” I said, “Well yeah, because I think this is Mamet without cynicism.” I think the world at that time was a more innocent place, and that attracts me very much to the play. These men are completely inept fools, and they make up stories that they believe to be true. They’re willing to act on that fantasy with all their hearts. It’s a play about these guys trying to love. And I just love the play.
You’re one of those rare hybrid theater artists who is both a successful actor and an equally accomplished director. Do the two parts of your career inform each other? In a very large way. I think acting makes me a better director and vice-versa. It’s good crop-rotation. I understand that language and the process that an actor goes through, so I think that’s hopefully helpful to actors when I’m directing. And when I’m acting, I understand that the director’s thinking of more than just my part. I love acting in other people’s plays, because then I don’t have to direct it! Directing is really really hard. Acting is hard too, but in a very different way. So acting in other’s people’s plays, I find I only have one thing to think about. It’s almost like a busman’s holiday.
Set Designer’s Notebook Set Designer Kevin Amy Morton.
Depinet on the creation of the set for American Buffalo, directed by Amy and I began with the idea of a small basement junkshop. A basement served our purposes twofold: it seemed to appropriately illustrate the social position of these men–either perceived or actual—and it allowed us to add visual interest by suggesting the structure of the entire building. I began the process by trying to stay as gritty and real as I could and my earlier designs, like the one pictured, were appropriate in presenting a recognizable location. However, we felt the space needed to go beyond the walls and be a bit less prescribed. The set became a balancing act–not too big, not too small, not too clean, and not too dirty. I toured many resale shops throughout Chicago and found many that were trendy and clean and a few that were
Rough model, American Buffalo set. downright shady. The balance of this junkshop was precarious; it could not indicate any sort of trendy appeal, however, it needed to be an open working shop, ready for customers. I wanted the place to feel dark, forgotten, and dusty but not to the extent that this shop would be a necessarily dangerous place–I wanted it to feel more like a basement than a condemned building. The clumsy staircase entrance and the skeletal nature of the set contain these characters in the bowels of this building and the labyrinth of rooms and rows and rows of merchandise. The Final model, American Buffalo set. requirements of the play are minimal, and the shop itself begs to feel cramped and small. The stage, however, is deceivingly large and trying to fill a large space with small needs is challenging. The black portal that surrounds the set helps to focus and define the playing area and allows the space behind to fade into black. The set recedes in clarity and definition as it recedes in space creating a sense of uncertainty–did these men choose this way of life because of who they inherently are or have their lives degraded because of their surroundings?
Courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Costume Designer’s Notebook Costume Designer Nan Cibula-Jenkins on the creation of the costumes for American Buffalo, directed by Amy Morton. When the director, Amy Morton, and I first met to discuss the costumes for American Buffalo, we talked about keeping the play within the period that it was written (the late 1970s). Technology has changed our world so much with cell phones and computers that plays like American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross can’t realistically be updated to contemporary dress. This is not to say the plays don’t speak to their audiences today… they do! The themes are universal and powerful even if the costumes the actors are wearing represent the world twenty to thirty years ago. My next step was to research clothing that would be worn by Teach, Bobby and Donny. I looked at old catalogs and magazines as well as photographs from the era. And I visited vintage clothing shops, both in person and online. The images of a leather jacket and nylon shirt from vintage clothing websites were springboards for the costume of the character, Teach, played by Tracy Letts. With Amy’s approval of these images, I did a rough pencil sketch of Tracy in a similar jacket and shirt, along with bell bottom trousers of the period. I hoped that the rustcolored leather jacket and the “disco” style shirt of the late ’70s would convey to the audience that Teach considered himself “a player” in his world, but somehow his intended effect misses the mark. Courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre.
Costume sketch by Nan Cibula-Jenkins.
Core Curriculum Standards According to the NJ Department of Education, “experience with and knowledge of the arts is a vital part of a complete education.” Our production of American Buffalo and the activities outlined in this guide are designed to enrich your students’ education by addressing the following specific Core Curriculum Content Standards for Visual and Performing Arts:
1.1 1.2
The Creative Process: All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art.
History of the Arts and Culture: All students will understand the role, development, and influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures.
1.3
Performance: All students will synthesize those skills, media, methods, and technologies appropriate to creating,
1.4
Aesthetic Responses & Critique Methodologies: All students will demonstrate and apply an
performing, and/or presenting works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art.
understanding of arts philosophies, judgment, and analysis to works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art.
Viewing American Buffalo and then participating in the pre- and post-show discussions and activities suggested in this audience guide will also address the following Core Curriculum Content Standards in Language Arts Literacy:
Reading: All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to
3.1
3.2
become independent and fluent readers, and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.
Writing: All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
3.3
Speaking: All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for
3.4
Listening: All students will listen actively to information from a variety of sources in a variety of situations.
3.5
Viewing and Media Literacy: All students will access, view, evaluate, and respond to print, non-print, and
different audiences and purposes.
electronic texts and resources.
In addition, the production of American Buffalo as well as the audience guide activities will help to fulfill the following Social Studies Core Curriculum Standards:
U.S. History—America in the World: All students will acquire the knowledge and skills to think analytically
6.1
about how past and present interactions of people, cultures, and the environment shape the American heritage. Such knowledge and skills enable students to make informed decisions that reflect fundamental rights and core democratic values as productive citizens in local, national, and global communities.
Pre-Show Discussion Questions and Activities 1.
American Buffalo: Audience Guide Basics. Share the various articles, interviews, and
2.
information found in this Audience Resource Guide with your students—preferably by reading them aloud as a class or in small groups—to provide an historical and creative context for David Mamet’s play American Buffalo and this specific Steppenwolf Theatre Company/McCarter Theatre production. Exploring American Buffalo Before the Performance. David Mamet is renowned by international audiences, critics, and scholars for his gritty, bare-knuckled, and often irreverent American social commentaries and their raw, idiosyncratic, and electrifying language. American Buffalo is the play that brought Mamet from Chicago to Broadway and established his career as one of America’s most important and acclaimed contemporary dramatists.
The activities and questions for discussion immediately below are designed for teachers able to incorporate either the full or Act One reading of American Buffalo into their pre-performance curriculum. [Important note: David Mamet’s sparse, streetwise language contains an abundance of profanity. He writes how some people talk. These are words that most of your students have heard before, but they may not have heard them on a stage, spoken them themselves, or met with them in this abundance. This assignment may not be appropriate for all classes or every student. Prudence and preparation is advised.] A. B.
Have your students read the full text or Act One of American Buffalo (preferably aloud as a class). After the reading, ask your students to discuss the given circumstances of the play (i.e., the facts of the world of the play, including the specific conditions of place and time, the characters and their relationships to one another, all detectable information in their back-stories, and any details of what has happened before the action of the play has begun). Also, ask your students what each character’s action (what the character wants either consciously or subconsciously) and motivation (the reason why he wants what he wants) is. And finally, talk about the conflicts (those persons or things that stand in the way of the character getting what he wants) the characters face in pursuit of their actions. C. Then have students brainstorm a list of themes central to the play. [These might include: the pursuit and/or myth of the American Dream; “the American ethic of business;” the dog-eat-dog nature of American capitalism; honor, or a lack thereof, among thieves; the ties of friendship; the tension between loyalty, friendship, and business; the actual value of a thing versus its perceived value; the inflated valuation of some things juxtaposed with the overlooked significance of others; the dynamics of male communication and the performance of masculinity; the contradictions between a person’s words and his deeds, etc.] Ask your students to recall and make connections to other plays or works of literature they have read or studied with themes similar to those of American Buffalo. D. If students read only the first act of the play, ask them what they think will happen in the second act of American Buffalo 3.
Performing Mamet and Masculinity: American Buffalo Scene Study. To prepare their minds and ears to the pleasures and challenges of David Mamet’s particular coarse, masculine, and Chicagoan milieu, have your students study an excerpt from the first act of American Buffalo. We suggest the following “French scenes”/dramatic interactions from the first act of the play:
#1: Opening moment between Don and Bob (beginning at the top of the act, page 3, and ending with Don’s second “Well, we’ll see,” at the bottom of page 9.) #2: Interaction between Teach, Don, and Bob (beginning with Bob’s entrance and Teach’s line “”Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby,” towards the top of page 20, and ending with Teach’s “Yeah?” and Don’s “Yeah,” at the bottom of page 26.)
• •
• • • •
4.
First, if you haven’t already, share the articles and interviews included in this Audience Resource Guide with your students. Then, read the excerpted “scenes” together as a class for comprehension (reading in the round and alternating lines will give each student a chance to try out the speech and voices of different characters). Some words, phrases, or slang may need to be defined. Next, break your class up into scene-study duos or trios. Groups of two should work on scene #1 (Don and Bob) and groups of three on scene #2 (Teach, Don, and Bob). Scene-study groups should read their scene aloud once together before getting up to stage it, to get a sense of the characters and the scene overall. Student-actors should prepare/rehearse their scene for a script-in-hand performance for the class. Following scene performances, lead students in a discussion of their experience rehearsing and performing Questions might include: o What are the pleasures and challenges of performing a scene from David Mamet’s American Buffalo? o What insights, if any, regarding the play or the characters did you get from staging the play and playing the characters? o What about your character felt real to you in the acting of him? o Was there any moment that felt strange or awkward in bringing your character to life? o Given your interaction with these brief scenes, do you have any thoughts about what might happen in the scenes that follow?
In Context: American Buffalo, Playwright David Mamet, and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. To prepare your students for American Buffalo and to deepen their level of understanding of and appreciation for the play and its context, the dramatic artistry of David Mamet, and the special approach and gifts of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, have students research, either in groups or individually, the following topics:
o
o o o o
David Mamet General biography Mamet the playwright Mamet the screenwriter Mamet the director Production history of American Buffalo U.S. Buffalo nickel Trends in American society and cultural influences in the 1970’s Chicago
o
o Prehistory to “The Great Chicago Fire”
The Century of Progress Exposition Meat packing Crime and Chicago’s image Gambling Urban renewal Other plays by David Mamet Glengarry Glen Ross Speed-the-Plow Oleanna Ensemble members Amy Morton Tracy Letts
Have students teach one another about their individual or group topics via oral and illustrated (i.e., posters or PowerPoint) reports. Following the presentations ask your students to reflect upon their research process and discoveries. 5.
Mamet’s Language at Play on Film: Glengarry Glen Ross. Perhaps David Mamet’s most critically acclaimed and celebrated play, Glengarry Glen Ross, premiered in London at the National Theatre in September 1983, opened on Broadway in March of the following year, and went on to capture, for its author, most of the major playwriting awards: the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play (London), the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best American Play, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was also nominated for both a Drama Desk and Tony Award. The following was written about Glengarry Glen Ross after its Broadway opening by then lead drama critic for the New York Times, Frank Rich: …the strange—and wonderful—thing about the play…is Mr. Mamet's ability to turn almost every word inside out. The playwright makes all-American music—hot jazz and wounding blues—out of his salesmen's scatological native lingo. In the jagged riffs of coarse, monosyllabic words, we hear and feel both the exhilaration and sweaty desperation of the huckster's calling…Mr. Mamet's talent for burying layers of meaning into simple, precisely distilled, idiomatic language—a talent that can only be compared to Harold Pinter's—is not the sum of ''Glengarry Glen Ross.'' This may well be the most accomplished play its author has yet given us. As Mr. Mamet's command of dialogue has now reached its most dazzling pitch, so has his mastery of theatrical form. (26 March 1984) Discussions of Mamet’s language—how his characters talk, the words they choose, the slang that permeates and profanity which punctuates, the rhythmic and sometimes poetic feel, that heightened or intense quality that paradoxically makes the people who inhabit Mamet’s plays sound more real than real— often proceed and always succeed any performance of one of his plays. To prepare your students to hear and appreciate the nature of Mamet’s dialogue and his mastery of character voice and use of language, first have your students read Charles McNulty’s article “The Gift of Gab: Language of the Theatre of David Mamet,” found in this audience resource guide. Then show your students the film version of Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, New Line Cinema/Lions Gate Entertainment, screenplay by David Mamet; note the film is rated R for language.). Follow up their viewing with the following questions:
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What are your initial reactions to David Mamet’s characters and the way they speak? Do you agree with McNulty’s assertion that the play/film has a “one-of-a kind sound” when it comes to language and how the characters talk/communicate?
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What did you notice or hear in terms of the characters’ speech or language overall? Did you key into any musical or rhythmic quality as Rich did? Did any character’s voice or interactions between characters remind you of music? Did you notice differences in individual character voices? What do you think accounts for these differences? Whose voice stood out the most to you and why do you think? Did you notice “the gift of gab” in Mamet’s characters? Can you think of a specific moment when a character exhibited his ability as a “natural born storyteller?” Is there a moment of persuasion or manipulation that remains in your mind’s eye and ear? What about moments of debate, gossip, horn-tooting, or waxing philosophical or poetic? What about the use of profanity in Glengarry Glen Ross? Why do you think that Mamet uses so much vulgar language in the play/film? What kind of statement do you think he is making about the characters? Can the use of profanity be justified in an artwork? Is there a line that can be crossed at which profanity cannot be justified in an artwork.
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To what extent do you think people actually speak the way they speak in Glengarry Glen Ross? Did the dialogue strike you more as naturalistic (natural and real) or artificial (crafted and contrived)? Support your opinion with examples.
[All of these questions can be utilized for either a pre-performance discussion of American Buffalo for those teachers and students who read the play or study a scene from the play (see Question 1 above) or for a post-performance discussion of Mamet’s use of language.]
Post-Show Discussion Questions and Activities Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to have students evaluate their experience of the performance of American Buffalo, as well as to encourage their own imaginative and artistic projects through further exploration of the play in production. Consider also that some of the pre-show activities might enhance your students’ experience following the performance. 1.
American Buffalo: Performance Reflection and Discussion. Following their attendance at the performance of American Buffalo, ask your students to reflect on the questions below. You might choose to have them answer each individually or you may divide students into groups for round-table discussions. Have them consider each question, record their answers, and then share their responses with the rest of the class.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Play in Production A.
What was your overall reaction to American Buffalo? Did you find the production compelling? Stimulating? Intriguing? Challenging? Memorable? Confusing? Evocative? Unique? Delightful? Meaningful? Explain your reactions. B. Did experiencing the play heighten your awareness or understanding of the play’s themes? [e.g., the pursuit and/or myth of the American Dream; “the American ethic of business;” the dog-eat-dog nature of American capitalism; honor, or a lack thereof, among thieves; the ties of friendship; the tensions between loyalty, friendship, and business; the actual value of a thing versus its perceived value; the inflated valuation of some things juxtaposed with the overlooked significance of others; the dynamics of male communication and the performance of masculinity; the contradictions between a person’s words and his deeds] What themes were made even more apparent in production/performance? What themes are you the most interested in after seeing American Buffalo? Explain your responses. C. Do you think that the pace and tempo of the production were effective and appropriate? Explain your opinion. Questions to Ask Your Students About the Characters A.
Did you personally identify with any of the characters in American Buffalo? Who? Why? If no, why not? B. What character did you find most interesting or engaging? Why were you intrigued or attracted to this particular character? C. What qualities were revealed by the action and speech of the characters? Explain your ideas. D. Did either character develop or undergo a transformation during the course of the play? Who? How? Why? E. In what ways did the characters reveal the themes of the play? Explain your responses.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Style and Design of the Production A.
Was there a moment in American Buffalo that was so compelling or intriguing that it remains with you in your mind’s eye? Write a vivid description of that moment. As you write your description, pretend that you are writing about the moment for someone who was unable to experience the performance.
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Did the style and design elements of the production enhance the performance? Did anything specifically stand out to you? Explain your reactions. C. How did the production style and design reflect the themes of the play? D. What mood or atmosphere did the lighting design establish or achieve? Explain your experience. E. How did the music and sound design enhance your overall experience? F. Did the design of the costumes and/or makeup serve to illuminate the characters, themes, and style of the play? How? 2.
Additional Post-Show Questions and Discussion Points For American Buffalo.
American Buffalo in the 1970s…American Buffalo 2010 In a 1978 interview with Richard Gottlieb of the New York Times, David Mamet explained his dramatic premise when writing American Buffalo: “The play is about the American ethic of business,” he said. “About how we excuse all sorts of great and small betrayals and ethical compromises called business. I felt angry about business when I wrote the play."
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Consider your experience of the story of American Buffalo in light of Mamet’s authorial viewpoint. What “great and small betrayals” and “ethical compromises” occur between Teach, Don, and Bob? Where are the three ethically aligned? Where do their ethics differ? Who would you rather do “business” with, and why? What parallels can you draw between the machinations or scheming of three small-time petty criminals on the North Side of Chicago and “American business?” Do you think Mamet’s critique hits the mark? As you watched American Buffalo, did you see any other social/cultural parallels (e.g., in the news, from literature, movies, plays, etc.) or make any personal connections with the situation or story of the play?
Steppenwolf Theatre Artistic Director Martha Lavey reflected on the added meaning that American Buffalo might have for its 2010 audience: Today we find ourselves in an especially resonant cultural moment that can help us shed more light on Mamet’s American Buffalo. The financial crisis has thrown into high relief the question of values and value. We are collectively questioning what we have paid for the American obsession with wealth and we are witnessing the stratification of wealth—the winners and losers—when the game falls apart. American Buffalo has much to offer in the way of a cautionary tale…
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Does the Lavey quotation resonate with you? What parallels can you draw between the story of American Buffalo and the conflicts of its characters with our current financial crisis? Do you agree that Americans are obsessed with wealth? How does this manifest itself in our society? How might this manifest itself in your everyday life? What do you think “America” values as a society? What do you think it should value? Do you see American Buffalo as a “cautionary tale?” If so, what do you think it is cautioning against?
On the Language of Mamet/American Buffalo.
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What are your initial reactions to David Mamet’s characters in American Buffalo and the way they speak? Do you think that the play has a unique sound when it comes to language and how the characters talk/communicate? What did you notice or hear in terms of the characters’ speech or language overall? Did you notice differences in individual character voices? (A “character voice” relates to how a character speaks in terms of vocal traits, ticks, patterns, vocabulary, and accents—which say much about who a character is—and is an amalgamation of a character’s historical self, idiosyncratic quirks, and emotional state.) What do you think accounts for the differences in how Don, Bob, and Teach speak and what they say? Whose character voice stood out the most to you and why do you think? Did you notice “the gift of gab” in Mamet’s characters? Can you think of a specific moment when a character exhibited his ability as a “natural born storyteller?” Is there a moment of persuasion or manipulation that remains in your mind’s eye and ear? What about moments of debate, gossip, horn tooting, or waxing philosophical or poetic? What about the use of profanity in American Buffalo? Why do you think that Mamet uses so much vulgar language in the play? What kind of statement do you think he is making about the characters? Can the use of profanity be justified in an artwork? Is there a line that can be crossed at which profanity cannot be justified in an artwork? Did you think that Mamet ever crossed the line in American Buffalo? To what extent do you think that people actually speak the way they spoke in American Buffalo? Did the dialogue strike you more as naturalistic, natural and real or artificial, crafted, and contrived? Support your opinion with examples.
Transformation and American Buffalo
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At the end of American Buffalo, do you think that any of the characters have been changed or transformed by conflict they have gone through? Who has been changed? What was the character like at the play’s beginning and what is he like when the lights fade on the final moment? What from the action of the play accounts for his transformation? Do you think the relationship of the cohort has been altered? For the better? For the worse? Write a short scene that would serve as a sequel to American Buffalo. You get to decide when and where the scene takes place and which characters interact. Students can cast their classmates in roles for in-class readings.
American Buffalo: The Review. Have your students take on the role of theater critic by writing a review of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company/McCarter Theatre production of American Buffalo. A theater critic or reviewer is essentially a “professional audience member,” whose job is to provide reportage of a play’s production and performance through active and descriptive language for a target audience of readers (e.g., their peers, their community, or those interested in the arts). Critics/reviewers analyze the theatrical event to provide a clearer understanding of the artistic ambitions and intentions of a play and its production; reviewers often ask themselves, “What is the playwright and this production attempting to do?” Finally, the critic offers personal judgment as to whether the artistic intentions of a production were achieved, effective, and worthwhile. Things to consider before writing:
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Theater critics/reviewers should always back up their opinions with reasons, evidence, and details.
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The elements of production that can be discussed in a theatrical review are the play text or script (and its themes, plot, characters, etc.), scenic elements, costumes, lighting, sound, music, acting and direction (i.e., how all of these elements are put together). [See the Theater Reviewer’s Checklist.] Educators may want to provide their students with sample theater reviews from a variety of newspapers. Encourage your students to submit their reviews to the school newspaper for publication. Students may also post their reviews on McCarter’s web site by visiting McCarter Blog. Select “Citizen Responses” under “Categories” on the left side of the web page, and scroll down to the American Buffalo entry to post any reviews.
Blog All about it!: American Buffalo. McCarter is very interested in carrying on the conversation about American Buffalo with you and your students after you’ve left the theater. If you are interested in having them personally reflect upon their experience of the play in performance, but are not interested in the more formal assignment of review writing, have them instead post a post-show comment on the McCarter Theatre Blog. To access the blog, click on this link McCarter Blog , then select “Citizen Responses” under “Categories” on the left side of the web page, and scroll down to the American Buffalo entry to find a place to post an inquiry or comment. [For structured responses, consider the following prompt: What expectations did you bring with you to American Buffalo and were your expectations met, not met, or exceeded by the performance?] See you on the blog!
Additional Resources Baudrillard, Jean. For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. St Louis, MO: Telos Press, 1981. Carroll, Dennis. Modern Dramatists: David Mamet. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987. Cohen, Annette R. and Ray M. Druley. The Buffalo Nickel. Arlington, VA: Potomac Enterprises, 1979. Covington, Richard. “Interview with David Mamet.” Salon Magazine, 1997. Dean, Anne. David Mamet: Language as Dramatic Action. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990. Kane, Leslie, ed. David Mamet: A Casebook. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992. Leslie, Naton. That Might Be Useful: Exploring America’s Secondhand Culture. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2005. Mamet, David. Jafsie and John Henry: Essays. New York: The Free Press, 1999. Miller, John, ed. Chicago Stories: Tales of the City. Vancouver: Chronicle Books LLC, 1993. Roudané, Matthew C. “An Interview with David Mamet.” Studies in America Drama, 1945-Present 1 (1986): 73-31. 24 November 1999. Sauer, David K. and Janice A. Sauer. David Mamet: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
A McCarter Theatre production | Venue: Matthews Theatre AUDIENCE GUIDE STAFF: Editor for Literary Content: Adam Immerwahr | Editor for Education Content: Paula T. Alekson | WEB DESIGN: Dimple Parmar | Contributors: Polly Carl, Nan Cibula-Jenkins, Kevin Depinet, Reginald Douglas, Carrie Hughes, Adam Immerwahr, Charles McNulty, Joy Mead, and Alexandra Ripp.
