Hip Shot: "Lincoln and God"CHRIS SWANSON
 JUL 18, 2009 2 AM
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Lincoln and God Warehouse - Mainstage

Remaining Performance: Sunday, July 19th @ 9 pm

They say: Lincoln and God examines our sixteenth President's conflict with men and God through defeats, triumphs, and tragedies. Lincoln joins no church, but does he hear God in the dialogue and actions and words of friends, colleagues, and enemies?

Chris says: There's a popular story to the effect that shortly prior to his death, Thoreau was asked if he had made his peace with God.  He replied, "I didn't know we had quarreled."  This anecdote passed through my head as I was watching Lincoln and God, which might easily be renamed Lincoln Not Quarreling with God.

A pervasive assumption dating back to the Romantic era is that conflict is the essence of drama.  Hegel deserves much of the credit for this idea.  Unlike Aristotle, whose idea of an exemplary play was Oedipus (for argument's sake, a one-person play), Hegel fancied Antigone, a two-person play: a bitter argument between Creon and Antigone.  For good viewing, the current thinking goes, you need two poles, two non-cohering value systems.

Lincoln, this play leads me to think, was a calm and thoughtful soul who spent a fair portion of his time in conversation with Rev. Gurley of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.  Asstaged, they don't agree on all matters—the clergyman doesn't understand why the president does want Southerners to go to church but doesn't want Bibles to reach rebel soldiers—but there's not much disagreement here.  One man offers prayers; the other welcomes them.

The history of the Civil War erabeing so permeated with conflict, it's amazing to me that playwright Anthony E. Gallo would choose such static material.  He has used history as his framework, selecting and depicting episodes from the first inauguration to the assassination.  He has not, however, captured the drama of the age.

Though it's not billed as such, this is a staged reading under the thin guise of being a radio drama.  Come with simple expectations.

See it if: You can't get enough of Lincoln.

Skip it if: You like your fringe funky.

OTHER REVIEWS  .

Jim Link   Greenbelt News Review   June 9, 2011
            The bittersweet shock of recognition will greet Greenbelters lucky enough to see Vandergrift!  now at Greenbelt Arts Center.    The true story of a southwestern Pennsylvania steel mill town, fictionally enhanced by author Tony Gallo, takes us through 50 years of community turmoil and evolution.  From the 1890's through WWII the citizens of Vandergrift are racked by issues of union organization, race and immigration, environmental quality, architecture and aesthetics, in a planned community meant to be a workers paradise.  

          The prime mover of this utopian vision is the morally ambiguous millionaire industrialist George McMurtry, who funds his noble dream purely to maximize profits and to break the dreaded "socialist" labor unions.  The philistine McMurtry is convinced he can slap a patina of high culture and fragile civility onto Vandergrift by contracting Frederick Law Olmsted to design the town; the distinguished architect is little more than a hired gun to McMurtry.

          However, the fishbone in McMurtry's throat, his indefatigable antagonist is the fearless muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell,who has already spoken truth to power by exposing John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company's monopolistic criminality.  McMurtry's other nemesis is John Dunmore, the hard drinking union organizer who evolves into a respectable married man and effective city councilman.

           Big George actually grows fond of Tarbell's integrity and charm, even after she forces him to admit that Olmsted's faux-Greek municipal center is nothing but a "Scotch-Irish Acropolis."  He is particularly impressed with her answer when he asks why she keeps tilting at windmills:  "I once thought I could not reconstruct the world because I am a woman.  But then I realized I could reconstruct the wold because I am a woman."

     As the decades pass  by the audience is treated  to snippets of "Over  There" by Irving Berlin, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by                 and Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown."

          The cast, from Anthony Gallo's Seventh Street Playhouse in Washington, DC, is uniformly excellent, packed with troupers.  Jan Forbes (George McMurtry) has appeared onstage in over 100 productions since 1965.  Helenmary Ball (Ida Tarbell) ages beautifully right before our eyes.  And why not?  A talented actress, she is also the director and costume designer.

           Find out how this troubled town reacts to the Japanese economic resurgence and the use of outsourcing. Do yourself a favor and and see Vandergrift! on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, Sunday at 2 PM, on June10, 11, and 12.

 

MD Theatre Scene   ZSun-nee Matema - June 6, 2011

Vandergrift! at The Greenbelt Arts Center

Vandergrift!, now playing for three consecutive weekends at the Greenbelt Arts Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, tosses its hat into the ring of history and tells the story of the little town that proved it could survive through five decades of America’s highs and lows. The dream child of steel tycoon George McMurty, Vandergrift, we learn, is a planned community named after J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel company. The play is based on the inspired vision of George McMurty who designed Vandergrift, PA making it the first successfully planned industrial town sold to the workers as an incentive for their loyalty.

McMurty, born an orphan in Belfast, Northern Ireland, immigrated to America to find himself as well as his fortune. After joining the Union Calvary, he became a Major during the Civil War and eventually landed a job with the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company in Chicago.  His success there lead to his presidency with the Apollo Iron & Steel Company in PA.

As the play opens, McMurty shares his passion, self-serving though it may be, of designing a town that would be considered, “something better than the best!” Jan Forbes, who plays McMurty, brings a rugged but warm charm to his character.  I found his performance honest and his character accessible.

Tim Wolf as Frederic Law Olmstead, Jr., the talented architect, had an eye-catching swagger and ease. He gave Olmstead the right carriage for a man so famous for his designs of New York City’s Central Park and the grounds of the United States Capitol among other design achievements. As designer of the curved streets and parks of Vandergrift, Olmstead had constant reservations about the Municipal Center facing the company mill.  It seems it was as true then as it is now that government keeps an eye on business while business keeps an eye on those who govern.  Bruce Smith, who portrayed the President of the Steel Company, turned a blind eye to all but the profits of industry.

Ida Tarbell, the insightful, iconoclast played by director/actor Helenmary Ball, asserted herself as a journalist with an eye for cutting through the trickery of McMurty’s dream town. Ball gives Tarbell the strength of her convictions yet we are to learn by the end of the play that even Tarbell caves in to the overwhelming pressures of “belonging” to society’s inner circle. Having told the audience that she “gave up heaven in college,” we nonetheless see her in later years heavy with concern for her mortal soul and persuaded to give religion a second chance. Tarbell’s ability to label John D. Rockefeller as a “felon,” seems to have made only temporary traces of raised consciousness as evidenced by her later pride in working with President Wilson, a racist who fired African Americans from Federal government posts and segregated the US Navy.

Ball assumes the role of Tarbell with a graceful authority.  She often pounces on the hypocritical deeds of the “tyrants of steel” and often holds high the unwelcomed mirror reflecting the discrimination and fear of union control which is the secret behind the design of Vandergrift’s, “a worker’s paradise.”

Bruce Brennen, as the Scottish mill worker with union interests, gave a compelling performance throughout.  Sherman McDaniel brought laughter and realism to her role as the fortune teller. The saucy, barefooted prophet gave the audience a card reading peek at the soon to come turning point in Vandergrift’s history.

A.O. Gutierrez should be applauded for the creative design of the set, lighting and construction.  I thought it especially creative to have changing pieces of memorabilia placed against the black and white overlapping pages of newspaper stories. I enjoyed the street lamps – which when moved from scene to scene – set the mood amid lovely tree- lined streets, and later at a busy train station where highly anticipated guests were expected to arrive.

I also thought the music during the scene changes was particularly well chosen and helped the audience reminiscence the many decades celebrated throughout the play. Ball, who tripled as the Costume Designer, skillfully stayed true to the essence of each period.  I loved her dressing of the three steel executives who opened the show. Their uniformity of dress set the audience’s mind in the direction of “big business” being of one accord.  Only the brightly colored ties gave a hint of their personal tastes. The white lace dresses representing the early 1900′s were nothing short of beautiful, and perfectly expressed the genteel life experienced by the near-do-wells of Vandergrift.

Though the actors had more synergy during the second half of the play, I’m betting that their performances will grow stronger with each show.  Playwright, Anthony Gallo can be proud of his effort. I found it a nice touch that descendants of the main characters in the audience were introduced at show’s end. Tony shared with me that Zappan Wilder, nephew of Thornton Wilder, a friend of Olmstead, had expressed an interest in the play.

If you love the history of small towns in America, you’ll enjoy Vandergrift! From what I understand, Vandergrift, PA still stands 80-90% intact. I think I’ll visit it sometime this summer.

Vandergrift! is produced by the Seventh Street Playhouse, and plays through June 12 at The Greenbelt Arts Center; 123 Centerway, Greenbelt, MD.  For tickets call (202) 544-6973.  Running time is just over two hours with one intermission

Vandergrift! at The Greenbelt Arts Center

 

Prince Georges Gazette  Nathan Moravec  June 2 2011

Vandergrift!, now playing for three consecutive weekends at the Greenbelt Arts Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, tosses its hat into the ring of history and tells the story of the little town that proved it could survive through five decades of America’s highs and lows. The dream child of steel tycoon George McMurty, Vandergrift, we learn, is a planned community named after J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel company. The play is based on the inspired vision of George McMurty who designed Vandergrift, PA making it the first successfully planned industrial town sold to the workers as an incentive for their loyalty.

More than 240 miles separate the southwestern Pennsylvanian borough of Vandergrift and Prince George's County's own Greenbelt. The similarities, however, are somewhat closer than that.

Both planned communities, Greenbelt was a public cooperative project established in 1937 in response to the New Deal, while Vandergrift — developed just prior to the turn of the 20th century — was the brainchild of steel tycoon George McMurtry, who hoped to unite welfare capitalism and landscape architecture into a workingman's wonderland.

Both, too, were forged with the building blocks of idealism. But only one is the topic of a play opening on Friday. Ironically, Anthony Gallo's "Vandergrift!" is being staged at the Greenbelt Arts Center, a guest production courtesy of the playwright's Seventh Street Playhouse.

The Washington, D.C.-based Gallo's love letter to his hometown details McMurtry's endeavors for a public paradise and his subsequent commissioning of architectural mastermind Frederick Law Olmstead. But then muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell breezes into town and the woman who would one day topple Standard Oil CEO John D. Rockefeller arrives just in time to throw a wrench into McMurtry's best laid plans.

Actress Helenmary Ball directs the historic comedy, which draws parallels to the prominent themes of 1890 — immigration, environment and discrimination, among them — and the societal woes faced by today's denizens.

Ball, of Calvert County, says she has been working primarily in Baltimore, as a costumer and performer with a number of theater troupes. A frequent collaborator with Calvert's Twin Beach Players, she also has performed in independent horror flicks by the likes of the Baltimore-based Timewarp Films and Midnight Crew Productions. Her latest scare fest, "Witch's Brew," bubbles up later this year.

But first, her turn as Tarbell — Ball pulls double, if not triple duty, here — with frequent collaborator Gallo.

"I've been working with Tony for a while now," she says of the auteur, who, to date, has published and produced 11 original works, including "Margherita" and "Lincoln and God."

Gallo's Seventh Street Playhouse began as a small showcase ensemble, comprised of devoted theater professionals — and at least a few Ivy Leaguers, lawyers and attorneys, notes Ball — assembled specifically to bring the playwright's work to life via workshops throughout the tri-state area.

"Tony — this is his baby. He's a prolific writer, and he's given us a lot of opportunities. He's taken us to the Dramatists' Guild in New York, which is right next to Broadway. So you come out, and there you are. We get to say, ‘We made it on Broadway,'" she laughs.

Lately, she says, the Playhouse has started to branch out into full-fledged productions, like the upcoming "Vandergrift!"

Ball says it was the historic synergy between the source material and Greenbelt that attracted her to the project.

"Vandergrift was designed specifically for the people who worked in the steel mills," she says. "Greenbelt, also, was a designed town for the working class, so they could have a nice place to live. There are a lot of correlations. I thought that with the parallels, this would be interesting."

In addition to Ball, the cast features Playhouse regulars Jan Forbes as McMurtry and Tim Wolf as Olmstead Jr., as well as featured players Sherman McDaniel, Lenny Levy, Bruce Brennan, Bruce Smith, George Spencer and Matthew Christian Davis.

"I'm enjoying this particular group of people," says their director. "They're incredibly talented and have a lot to bring to the table."

Rehearsals, she says, began in earnest in April, and everyone has completely gelled.

"Sometimes with these shows, you get ego, but everyone here has been working together very well."

And just like McMurtry, Ball had concrete ideas in mind for the construction of her "Vandergrift!"

"I got my brother, who lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, to design the set," she says. "It had to be very minimal, because we only have so many days to set up. We can only access the theater space for tech week."

Such restricted access provided the production's biggest hurdle.

 Thursday, June 2, 2011,   Prince Georges Gazette  Nathan Moraved

Anthony Gallo's ‘Vandergrift!' pays homage to two planned communities

 More than 240 miles separate the southwestern Pennsylvanian borough of Vandergrift and Prince George's County's own Greenbelt. The similarities, however, are somewhat closer than that.

Both planned communities, Greenbelt was a public cooperative project established in 1937 in response to the New Deal, while Vandergrift — developed just prior to the turn of the 20th century — was the brainchild of steel tycoon George McMurtry, who hoped to unite welfare capitalism and landscape architecture into a workingman's wonderland.

Both, too, were forged with the building blocks of idealism. But only one is the topic of a play opening on Friday. Ironically, Anthony Gallo's "Vandergrift!" is being staged at the Greenbelt Arts Center, a guest production courtesy of the playwright's Seventh Street Playhouse.

The Washington, D.C.-based Gallo's love letter to his hometown details McMurtry's endeavors for a public paradise and his subsequent commissioning of architectural mastermind Frederick Law Olmstead. But then muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell breezes into town and the woman who would one day topple Standard Oil CEO John D. Rockefeller arrives just in time to throw a wrench into McMurtry's best laid plans.

Actress Helenmary Ball directs the historic comedy, which draws parallels to the prominent themes of 1890 — immigration, environment and discrimination, among them — and the societal woes faced by today's denizens.

Ball, of Calvert County, says she has been working primarily in Baltimore, as a costumer and performer with a number of theater troupes. A frequent collaborator with Calvert's Twin Beach Players, she also has performed in independent horror flicks by the likes of the Baltimore-based Timewarp Films and Midnight Crew Productions. Her latest scare fest, "Witch's Brew," bubbles up later this year.

But first, her turn as Tarbell — Ball pulls double, if not triple duty, here — with frequent collaborator Gallo.

"I've been working with Tony for a while now," she says of the auteur, who, to date, has published and produced 11 original works, including "Margherita" and "Lincoln and God."

Gallo's Seventh Street Playhouse began as a small showcase ensemble, comprised of devoted theater professionals — and at least a few Ivy Leaguers, lawyers and attorneys, notes Ball — assembled specifically to bring the playwright's work to life via workshops throughout the tri-state area.

"Tony — this is his baby. He's a prolific writer, and he's given us a lot of opportunities. He's taken us to the Dramatists' Guild in New York, which is right next to Broadway. So you come out, and there you are. We get to say, ‘We made it on Broadway,'" she laughs.

Lately, she says, the Playhouse has started to branch out into full-fledged productions, like the upcoming "Vandergrift!"

Ball says it was the historic synergy between the source material and Greenbelt that attracted her to the project.

"Vandergrift was designed specifically for the people who worked in the steel mills," she says. "Greenbelt, also, was a designed town for the working class, so they could have a nice place to live. There are a lot of correlations. I thought that with the parallels, this would be interesting."

In addition to Ball, the cast features Playhouse regulars Jan Forbes as McMurtry and Tim Wolf as Olmstead Jr., as well as featured players Sherman McDaniel, Lenny Levy, Bruce Brennan, Bruce Smith, George Spencer and Matthew Christian Davis.

"I'm enjoying this particular group of people," says their director. "They're incredibly talented and have a lot to bring to the table."

Rehearsals, she says, began in earnest in April, and everyone has completely gelled.

"Sometimes with these shows, you get ego, but everyone here has been working together very well."

And just like McMurtry, Ball had concrete ideas in mind for the construction of her "Vandergrift!"

"I got my brother, who lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, to design the set," she says. "It had to be very minimal, because we only have so many days to set up. We can only access the theater space for tech week."

Such restricted access provided the production's biggest hurdle.

"The biggest challenge has been rehearsing at Tony's home," Ball says. "It's a lovely townhouse, [but] we have to use our wonderful actors' imaginations. So, logistics, that's been a challenge. But the personalities have been a delight."

 
Prince Georges Sentinel
 Local playwright's historic comedy 'Vandergrift' opens Friday

Published on: Thursday, June 02, 2011  By Wanda Jackson

In the early 1890s, when steel tycoon George McMurtry hatched a plan to build a workingman’s paradise in a small Pennsylvania town, his actions did not always match his rhetoric. Workers were pushed to long hours and low wages. Groups were pitted against each other—men vs. women, older vs. younger, day shift vs. night shift, union supporters vs. compliant workers, immigrant vs. non-immigrant and middle class vs. low income.

Despite his money, power and influence, McMurtry’s plans did not always get rubber-stamped. And that is where differing points of view erupted in fireworks.

You can get a glimpse of this story — the who, what, when and where the conflict comes from — through a two-act historic comedy called “Vandergrift” that opens Friday, June 3, at the Greenbelt Arts Center, 123 Centerway.

Performances are at 8 p.m. on June 3-4 and June 10-11 and at 2:30 p.m. June 5 and June 12. For tickets, call 301-441-8770. For additional information, call 202-544-6973 or visit greenbeltartscenter.org.

For 90 minutes in the Greenbelt Arts Center’s intimate theater setting, you have complete access to back-room deals, racial and gender stereotypes, corporate strategy and political corruption. Some conversations will make you cry.  Some conversations will make you think. And others will make you laugh.

“Vandergrift” is written by Anthony Gallo, directed by Helenmary Ball and produced by The Seventh Street Playhouse, a Washington, D.C.-based small critically acclaimed nonprofit showcase ensemble repertoire theater company comprised of experienced actors, designers, directors, theatre technicians and musical directors. The play has been performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and the Dramatists Guild on Broadway in New York City.

Gallo’s “Vandergrift” mixes drama and history, but the predominant element is comedy in the way that the characters interact with each other and their witty dialogue.

Frederick Law Olmstead, the nation’s preeminent architect, is hired to design the town, which is named after his partner, Captain Jacob J. Vandergrift.

Ida Tarbell, a leading “muckraker” or modern day investigative journalist who exposes corruption, clashes with McMurtry for more than 50 years over his flawed idealism and her subconscious biases.

In real life, Tarbell is best known for her 1904 book, “The History of the Standard Oil Company,” which not only changed the history of journalism but also the fate of the empire of the country’s most powerful and best known CEO, J.D. Rockefeller. Tarbell exposed Rockefeller’s unethical tactics, sympathetically portraying the plight of Pennsylvania’s independent oil workers.

“There is conflict throughout the play,” Gallo said. “McMurtry and Tarbell, the nosy investigator. And then the differences between McMurtry and Frederic Law Olmstead, and of course John Dunmore, the union organizer.”

Gallo said “Vandergrift” addresses a variety of topics.

“It’s all about class distinction,” Gallo said. “The unions want pay equality. The new immigrants are treated badly and only there because the company needs workers. The town is totally segregated by income class. Oil is always an issue.”

But, there is one common thread in all of Gallo’s plays — religion, specifically the “Judeo-Christian ethic.”

“Most viewers are not aware that these plays have a religious basis,” he said. “Of course, I only have one axiom: There are a million roads to God and I hope I am on the right one.”

Gallo, a native of Pennsylvania, said the characters in “Vandergrift” are based on real people.

“They are the founders of the town. I had to change some of the names because of suggestions from some of their descendants who still live there,” he said.

Gallo, formerly an economist, is a playwright whose eleven copyrighted, published, workshopped and produced works include “Margherita,” “Eugenio,” “Better than the Best,” “Solomon,” “Vandergrift!,” “Lincoln and God,” “The Agony of David,” “Charleston Revisited,” “The Botticelli Cruise,” “Saul or Paul” and “Heathcliff.” His drama portfolio consists of more than 50 works.

He is collaborating with Helmut Licht on the opera “Lincoln and God,” and  shooting has begun on “Charleston Revisited,” a motion picture produced by the Eastern Market Studios. Veteran documentary cameraman Albert Leisegang, who has made 50 documentaries, is director of photography.

Gallo is artistic director of the Seventh Street Playhouse in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild in New York and the Playwrights Forum in Washington, D.C.

Helenmary Ball is the director of “Vandergrift”  and plays the role of Ida Tarbell. Ball is an accomplished actress and costumer for many theatres in Baltimore and Calvert County. She recently finished filming “Sealed Fates: A Trilogy of Claustrophobic Terror” with Timewarp Films and Midnight Crew’s “Witch’s Brew,” which will be released this summer.

The cast includes Jan Forbes, who plays George McMurtry, steel tycoon and director of Apollo Iron & Steel Company; Tim Wolf who plays landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Jr. — the son of the preeminent architect Frederick Olmstead; Sherman McDaniel who plays Allegheny college professor Frederica Olmstead; Lenny Levy who plays plant manager Archie Davis; Bruce Brennan who plays determined union organizer John Dunmore; Bruce Smith who plays president of U.S. Steel Elbert Gary; George Spencer who plays company lawyer James Whitworth; and, Pat Martin who plays a plant manager and Vandergrift’s political representative. Its crew includes: A. O. Gutierrex, set and lighting designer; Beatarix Whitehall, sound design; Rachel Dane, stage manager; Genna Davidson, props/light board operator; and Albert Liesegang, director of photography and an independent producer for film/TV productions.

When asked why it’s important for people to see “Vandergrift” Gallo said, “It’s a fun play about American Civilization, and our issues have not changed in 120 years. It’s about oil, unions, immigration, religious and gender discrimination and so on.”

 

 

 

From Rosalind Lacy

Vandergrift! By Anthony E. Gallo

In the way nine talented actors throw themselves into the passionat writing in Anthony E. Gallo’s Vandergrift!, this balanced slice of overlooked American history could be subtitled. The Muckraker and The Steel Tycoon. Roland Branford Gomez directs.

Willing to do anything to prevent his mill workers from unionizing, steel tycoon George McMurtry (Mark Lee Adams), envisions a possible dream for a utopian town. He hires the landscape architect for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Frederick Law Olmstead, subdivides farm land and builds Vandergrift, named for another steel pioneer, Capt. J.J. Vandergrift. The town becomes a unique model for its time. But even a planned community of affordable row houses, curving paved streets, a church, and municipal building near Pittsburgh, doesn’t stop the workers from organizing. Along comes idealist Ida Tarbell (Rachael Hubbard), a muckraking journalist, who wields a pen like a sword to do it. She gets results. This feminist reformer brings industrialists, like J.D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, to their knees, and awakens Elbert Gary, president of U.S. Steel in Indiana, to the idea of employee benefits. But the unions will ruin the steel mill business, McMurtry warns. Gallo writes terse dialogue that generates passion in tight scenes that build to a convincing climax in 90 minutes. Perhaps the most riveting scenes occur in the dialectic duels which show the mutual respect between Tarbell and McMurtry. As decades pass and Tarbell continues her crusades, McMurtry dies but his ghost whispers in her ear. Peaceful assembly for labor protest and profit making for incentive are American ideals, both argue. Once powerful mills decline and close, Vandergrift changes and exemplifies how America adapts.

_________________________________

Native Son Does Vandergrift Proud

Review by Carolyn Wells

 

 

     If you’re not given to traveling to U. S. cities to check out their history, offerings and atmosphere, one that might attract you is Vandergrift in southwestern Pennsylvania.

 

     That is, if you had the good fortune to attend the staged reading of Vandergrift, a play written by Anthony E. Gallo, directed by Roland Branford Gomez, and presented in the National Press building theatre on September 7, 2007 to a large, enthusiastic audience.

 

     Based on history, creatively interpreted by a talented hometown playwright, who has for some years resided in Washington, DC, Vandergrift is a lively, fast-moving account of the origin of the city as complement to a profitable steel mill operation. 

 

     George McMurtry, played by Mark Adams, is the prime mover in the story, but it is Ida Tarbell, portrayed by Margaret Bush, who provides sparkle and credible continuity over the 50-year period covered by the two-act play.  McMurtry,  conniving steel  magnate and city founder, engages in an amusing dialogue with the sharp journalist Tarbell when he’s not clashing with the determined union organizer John Dunmore, played by John Shackelford.

 

     Of especial interest is the way, without benefit of seeing any representation of the city beginning with its concept, construction and development over a 50-year period, the audience has a sense of even the intangibles of Vandergrift that so enchant the tough-minded Tarbell.

 

     Because of the dramatic change in Tarbell’s tart judgment of McMurtry over time to a gentle—almost worshipful—participant in his city and admiration for its citizenry, one must conclude that McMurtry was more successful than even he had anticipated despite his deviation from the city plan of  famous architect Frederic Law Olmstead, competently played by Albert Petrasek.  And notwithstanding the ultimate collapse of the steel industry with its profits, the raison d’etre for his city.  Although Tarbell had written a stinging expose of J. D. Rockefeller and her critical credentials were long well established, she had somehow softened her position with McMurtry and continued to be charmed with Vandergrift.  The change in no way diminished her character.

 

     Margaret Bush in the role of Tarbell sparkled throughout the play.  In the final scenes, the then-aged actress was reminiscent of Katharine Hepburn’s later film portrayals.  We are likely to hear more of this talented and charming actress.  In a brief conversation after the show, Ms. Bush told this reviewer of her intention to continue her career as a professional actor.

 

     As for Anthony Gallo [bio attached], the prolific body of his plays give promise of theatrical perpetuity.  He has a talent for finding the frequently subtly amusing notes in works of historical significance.  One leaves the theatre—in the case of this performance

                                                                                                                                     2

 

 

in the lovely National Press Club theatre—with new insights into sometimes obscure aspects of historical events with their humanizing foibles.  Tony Gallo convincingly recreates the whole range of human behavior, deeply drawing the audience into the episodes.

 

     Among the audience, several appreciative playwrights were present—including Emily Solomon and Rachael Bail, well-known in Metropolitan Washington.

 

     See Vandergrift if you have the opportunity!

 

 

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Streets.

 

Vandergrift!  has been chosen for publication by New Theatre Publications in Great Britain, which distributes original plays to 9000 theatres in the British Isles.  The acceptance was a surprise.  The play was chosen by the Board of Reviewers three days after submission, with a rating of 4.0 out of  4.0.  In contrast, Margherita, which is considered my best play, was accepted for publication but with a 2.8 rating, and a wait of nearly six months.

 

 Ian Hornby, the company’s executive director, said that NTP will market Vandergrift!  aggressively.  Hopefully, the play will be performed in Great Britain and Europe.  Vandergrift!  will be tentatively  staged in both Washington and New York City( as a Broadway Showcase)  in 2010 by the Capital Fringe, the Seventh Street Playhouse, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

 

Evaluation by New Theatre Publications  Review Board