the gift study guide

american premiere in the gil cates theater at the geffen playhouse

january 29 — march 10, 2013

special thanks to

Randall Arney, Joanna Murray-Smith, Maria Aitken, Amy Levinson, Brian Dunning, Connor White, Lynn Robb and Resa Nikol

study guide written and compiled by

Jennifer Zakkai

This publication is to be used for educational purposes only.

section 1About this production

Artistic director’s comment ��4plAy synopsis & setting �� 5Artistic biogrAphies �� 5

section 2themes & topics

chAnce encounters chAnging lives ��6choices & responsibilities �� 7experiencing Art �� 8 improvisAtion ��10

section 3personnel profile

An interview with connor white��11

section 4post-show discussion questions��12

section 5resources��15

the gift

table of contents

geffen playhouse study guide • the gift 3

Welcome to the American premiere of The Gift by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Maria Aitken� After their collaboration on last year’s world premiere in Melbourne, we are thrilled to reunite this internationally acclaimed duo and provide them the opportunity to continue to examine and refine their stellar work�

The Gift is an intelligent and provocative new work that poses challenging questions and highlights the hallmarks of Joanna’s style — her plays come alive with a sense of humor and take the audience on an unexpected journey� Her writing is rich with social satire and an edge that puts an audience off balance enough to see circumstances through an enlighteningly different prism�

I’m happy also to welcome the world-class director Maria Aitken to the Geffen� A preeminent actor and scholar of Noël Coward — in addition to other impressive credits — she is a force and perfectly paired with her Australian counterpart� Together they have assembled amazing designers who transport us to a tropical island, a Los Angeles home and into the ocean itself� In addition, Maria has helmed an ensemble of actors as fine as they come, and the result of all of these pieces coming together is something we hope you will enjoy�

artistic director’s commentrandall arney

section 1

About this production

geffen playhouse study guide • the gift4


SYNOPSISWhen two couples meet while vacationing, they instantly transition from strangers to the best of friends� Despite their differences — Ed and Sadie are middle-aged, rich and traditional, while Martin and Chloe are young artists glowing with their potential to change the world — they find themselves spending the rest of their week together� When a seemingly inconsequential event throws both their lives into a tailspin, the couples find themselves wrestling with a moral dilemma: while it’s human nature to want what you don’t have, is it unnatural to abandon something that you do have?

SETTINGThe play takes place in an expensive tropical resort and the home of Ed and Sadie�

About this production

play synopsis & setting

MARIA AITKEN (Director)Directing credits include: Betrayal (Huntington Theatre, Boston); Private Lives (Huntington Theatre, Boston); Man and Boy (Broadway); The Gift (Melbourne Theatre); Educating Rita (Huntington Theatre, Boston); As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre DC); Quartermaine’s Terms (Williamstown Festival); The 39 Steps (Broadway, Tony nomination Best Director, current Olivier Award-winning 5-year-old West End production)� Leading roles include: Blithe Spirit, Bedroom Farce (Royal National Theatre); Travesties, Waste (Olivier Award nomination Best Actress); Happiest Days of Your Life (Royal Shakespeare Company); Humble Boy, Sylvia; Other People’s Money; The Vortex; The Women; Sister Mary Ignatius; Design for Living; Private Lives (Olivier Award nomination Best Actress); A Little Night Music (all London’s West End) and a BAFTA nominated role in A Fish Called Wanda� In addition Maria teaches Master classes in High Comedy and in Noel Coward at Juilliard, Yale, NYU, Actors Center NYC, Academy for Classical Acting (DC) and the Royal National Theatre Studio (UK)�

JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH (Playwright)Joanna Murray-Smith has written 16 full-length plays which have been performed throughout the country and around the world, in many languages� They have all been commissioned and first produced in Melbourne, Australia� Her plays include Songs for Nobodies; Day One, A Hotel, Evening; Rockabye; Ninety; Bombshells; Rapture; Redemption; Love-Child and Atlanta, among others� Her play Honour had its first public reading in New York with Meryl Streep in 1996 and was subsequently produced on Broadway, on the West End and at the Royal National Theatre in London, for which Dame Eileen Atkins won an Olivier Award� Her play The Female of the Species, produced at the Geffen Playhouse in 2010 with Annette Bening, was produced on the West End, where it was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy� She adapted Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage for Sir Trevor Nunn and is about to premiere a new adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler� Joanna has also written three novels, all published by Penguin, and two operas and has written for television� In 2013, she will have two new plays premiering, Fury at the Sydney Theatre Company and True Minds at the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2008 U.S. Variety described Joanna as “Australia’s foremost female playwright�” Her plays have won many awards�

artistic biographies

section 2

themes & topics

A central theme in The Gift is how chance meetings can change lives� As one of the characters, Martin, says, “All of us are living a narrative in which a chance encounter or moment becomes the author of our future�”

In the play, two couples meet at a resort� Ed and Sadie are there to honor their twenty-five year marriage� While dining in the resort’s restaurant, they notice Martin and Chloe celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary and invite the young couple to join them for a drink� The couples bond as they discover shared interests and navigate their differences� A key event draws them even closer and leads to a completely unexpected next step in their lives�

discussion point

Think of a chance encounter that had a profound impact on your life� Whom did you meet, where were you, what happened, and how did the encounter change your life?

chance encounters changing lives


discussion point

Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith wonders: Should society excuse artists from moral judgment, because they provide something essential and wonderful to humanity in other ways?

Sometimes we make choices at a young age that seem right at the time, yet we regret them later in life� Do our past choices always define us? Can our actions in the present make up for past mistakes?

In The Gift, Martin’s commitment to his creativity as an artist is pitted against his responsibilities in life� When Ed strongly questions a choice Martin is about to make, Martin argues:

MARTIN

Ed, where would we be if artists stilled every unusual thought? What if every passion was quelled because it seemed... too badly behaved? What if artists said no to the part of themselves that singled them out? What would we have, Ed? We wouldn’t have The Marriage of Figaro or Anna Karenina. We wouldn’t have Van Gogh’s starry nights.

choices & responsibilities

themes & topics


As they first get to know each other, Ed, who has enjoyed great success in the woodworking machinery business, struggles to understand what Martin does for a living as a conceptual artist�

CONCEPTUAl ARTIn Conceptual art, the idea that a work conveys is considered more important than its visual appearance� Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), who questioned the conventional values of the art world in the early 1900s, is considered the father of the art form� Conceptual art became popular in the 1960s� Artists were interested in prompting people to think or make meaning from their art, rather than creating art objects for collecting� Over time, the term has come to include non-traditional genres such as performance art and video art�

Martin attempts to help Ed understand his profession by describing his latest artwork� When Ed asks what it means, Martin responds:

MARTIN

It means what you give it to mean, Ed. You give it its meaning. When you think about it, Ed, each of us bestows a kind of narrative on the world around us. Our presence alters it. It’s not the same before us as it is when we pass through. We shake up the air. It’s an improvisation.

eXperiencing art

sources tinyurl�com/ArtLex-Conceptual

tinyurl�com/Wikipedia-Conceptual

online For a vibrant example of Conceptual art, visittinyurl�com/MoMA-Kosuth

themes & topics


One year later the two couples meet again� Ed describes how exciting it’s been to experience Martin’s work and how much he now loves contemporary art� As Sadie reports:

SADIE

Now he wants an installation by Creed.

ED

He’s done a very interesting piece at the Lehmann Maupin: a door that opens and closes.

While discussing critical responses to Creed’s work, Ed says:

ED

It’s understandable that the question comes up: Is Creed just yanking our chain? But I think the studious exploitation of one’s own daily life is completely justifiable. Art is personal. It has to be. And it always has been. The celebration of your own nerve endings, your own history, your own anger, your own fear.

definitionInstallation – (n�) a work of art that usually consists of multiple components often in mixed media and that is exhibited in a usually large space in an arrangement specified by the artist�Merriam-Webster Dictionary

biographyMartin Creed (born 1968) is a British artist and musician� Creed is perhaps best known for his submission for the 2001 Turner Prize show at the Tate Gallery, Work No. 227, the lights going on and off, which won that year’s prize� The artwork presented was an empty room in which the lights periodically switched on and off (frequency, five seconds on/five seconds off)� As so often with the Turner Prize, this created a great deal of press attention, most of it questioning whether something as minimalist as this could be considered art at all� Wikipedia

discussion point

How has art affected your life? Describe what you experienced and the impact it had on the way you think and feel about yourself, others, or the world�

themes & topics


Improvisation is the act of making things up on the spot� In jazz, musicians create melodies over repeating chords and rhythms� In theater, actors collaborate to invent and perform stories�

IMPROvISATION IN JAzz In The Gift, new friends Ed and Martin connect through their love of jazz� Later, Martin gives Ed Kind of Blue, an album created by jazz legend Miles Davis (1926-1991)� Along with himself on trumpet, musicians on the recording included tenor saxophonist John Coltrane; alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley; pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummer Jimmy Cobb� Kind of Blue, created in 1959, is one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time� In 2009, the U�S� House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution to declare the album a national treasure� Its popularity is credited to its simplicity and use of a new kind of music improvisation�

IMPROvISATION IN THEATERIn improvisational theater, characters, dialogue, and the story are created in the moment, with minimal planning, as the performance unfolds� Improvisational theater encompasses a range of styles; some focus on developing comic sketches, while in others actors aim to create longer stories�

In addition to producing theater works, improvisation is sometimes used to develop characters and scripts in film and television, to train actors, and as a tool for communication and collaboration in education and business�

improvisation

sources tinyurl�com/NPR-MilesDavis

tinyurl�com/Wikipedia-MilesDavis

discussion point

Improvisation skills include being able to tap into your imagination and other resources, listening and being responsive to others, and being open to and discerning about possibilities — all of which can help us meet challenges�

How have you used improvisation skills when faced with an unexpected problem?

How might these skills help you succeed in work?

themes & topics


What is your official title at the Geffen Playhouse?I am a Resident Teaching Artist and Education Associate�

How would you describe what you do?My primary job is to administer the elementary school writing programs provided by Story Pirates� I also coordinate and teach student workshops in five elementary schools� I conduct workshops for several community organizations that are a part of Lights Up, the Geffen’s outreach program� Community groups discuss the plays they see at the Geffen or engage in theatrically based improvisation workshops� I also oversee the Theater for Families programs on Saturdays�

Where did you receive your training in Theatre Arts?I got my Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre at Northwestern University�

What do you find most fulfilling about working with students?I love inspiring kids to create and write stories� My goal is to instill a desire to write that goes beyond the classroom� Maybe they will be the playwrights of tomorrow!

How do you motivate students to write?Using comedy in the classroom can make kids want to learn anything� Part of my job is to find the funniest comedians in LA to teach Story Pirate writing programs� They model characters in the most hilarious ways possible, which helps our students understand the creative possibilities of writing� In our performances, they see their stories come alive, just like community members see plays come to life on the Geffen stage�

What do you appreciate about working with community groups?Facilitating conversations with diverse groups is fascinating� Each play provides new themes and topics to investigate,

and because everyone’s life experiences are so rich, I always discover more about the play than I could ever know on my own� I also engage various groups in improvisation and enjoy tailoring workshops to foster skills that organizations consider valuable for their constituents�

How would you describe the experience of improvisation?It is a sudden and genuine reaction to any set of given circumstances� Contrary to popular belief, being funny is not a necessary skill in improvisation� Being vulnerable is essential, and so is understanding that vulnerability is not weakness but is about being open� What is often funny in improv is a person’s authentic reaction to a particular circumstance�

How do you help adults work with improvisation?I create a safe space in which no one feels judged or like they are expected to be funny� Comedy is a happy accident in improvisation, but it is not the goal� I encourage participants to be themselves, react honestly, and do what they would ordinarily do� I tell them they don’t have to be a made-up character, just themselves in a made-up situation�

What are the benefits of engaging in improvisation?Improv emphasizes the importance of listening, which strengthens communication� It allows Individuals to find their own voice by guiding them to react authentically� Through improv, students and community members learn basic storytelling, which helps them create their own stories� If nothing else, an improv workshop offers relief from day-to-day concerns in joyful ways that energize and liberate us�

an interview with connor white

section 3

personnel profile


Depending on the time available and members’ interests, guide your group to respond to the questions suggested below� Encourage everyone to participate, while having respect for differing opinions� Individuals can share their thoughts with a partner or in a small group� Then, ask for a volunteer to share their group’s answers with the larger group�

• What was the most memorable moment in the play? Describe it in detail�

• What was the central event in the play? How did it make you feel about the characters? What did the event make you think about?

• How did Ed and Sadie and their marriage change as a result of their encounters with Martin and Chloe?

• What did you learn from experiencing the play?

• What did you appreciate about the performances?

• How did the sets, costumes, and lighting contribute to the mood of the play?

• What did you enjoy most and least about the play? Why?

section 4

post-show discussion questions


notes


vISIT contemporary art exhibitions at the• Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA) — www�lacma�org• Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) — www�moca�org• Bergamot Station Arts Center — www�bergamotstation�com• Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA) — www�smmoa�org

REAd AbOUT Conceptual art in California: tinyurl.com/BAM-CAConceptual offers an overview of a Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum�

tinyurl.com/SanDiego-CAConceptual links to a Los Angeles Times review of a recent exhibition that focused on Southern California’s roots in Conceptual art�

lEARN AbOUT jazz legend Miles Davis at tinyurl.com/PBS-MilesDavis�

WATCH ANd lISTEN TO Miles Davis at www.milesdavis.com/us/videos�

REAd AbOUT improvisational techniques in Improvisation for the Theater by Viola Spolin (Northwestern University Press, 1999)�

section 5

resources


THE GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PROGRAMS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF:

Ariel Investments

Brotman Foundation of California

Capital Group Companies Foundation

CBS Corporation

Celine Dion Foundation

City National Bank

Creative Artists Agency

Dan Hartman Arts & Music Foundation

Douglas Foundation

DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Studios

Dwight Stuart Youth Fund

Edgerton Foundation

Eisenberg-Keefer Foundation

Fox Entertainment Group

Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association

Guggenheim Partners

HBO Films

InterActive Corp (IAC)

JP Morgan Chase and Co�

Keyes Automotive Group

Lear Family Foundation

Leo S� Guthman Fund

Los Angeles City Department of Cultural Affairs

Los Angeles County Arts Commission

LucasFilm

Maurice Amado Foundation

News Corporation

Kenneth T� and Eileen L� Norris Foundation

Northern Trust

Occidental Petroleum

OneWest Bank

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Queen Nefertari Productions

Resnick Family Foundation

Ralph M� Parsons Foundation

Shay Family Foundation

Sidley Austin Foundation

Simms/Mann Family Foundation

Simon Strauss Foundation

Skirball Foundation

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Stone Family Foundation

The Walt Disney Company

Transamerica Foundation

UCLA Dream Fund

Union Bank Foundation

Universal Studios

US Bank

Vidal Sassoon Family Foundation

W Hotel — Westwood

Warner Bros� Entertainment

Wells Fargo Foundation

Westfield Group

William Morris Endeavor

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