. . . . . . .  About  . . . . . . 

   . . . .  Notes  . . . .  

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 the play

Director

About the Author
Caryl Churchill was born in London in 1938. Her father was a cartoonist who drew caricatures of famous people such as Mussolini and Goebbels. Churchill described the influence of his drawings on her as defining "an image with somebody saying something." Her mother was a model and minor film actress, so Churchill had an early introduction to the theatrical arts. From an early age, she put on pantomimes for her parents and wrote short stories. While studying at Oxford, Churchill continued acting and wrote her first three stage plays: Downstairs (1958), Having a Wonderful Time (1959), and Easy Death (1960). They received student productions. In 1961, a year after graduating, Churchill married barrister David Harter; together they raised three children. At the same time, Churchill established a career writing radio plays, eventually expanding to television writing. However, she was not satisfied with these media, saying, "As an actual medium, as a physical thing that happens, I don't find anything as exciting as acting on a stage." With Owners (1972), a satire on capitalism, Churchill became the Royal Court Theatre's first female resident dramatist. She also writes regularly for the Joint Stock company. Her commercial breakthrough came with Cloud Nine (1979), a sex-comedy exploring issues of imperialism; Tommy Tune directed a Broadway production that ran for two years. Fen (1983) examines issues of land ownership in a small farming community. Serious Money (1987) is an award-winning satirical view of the contemporary London Stock Exchange, written in rhyming verse. Mad Forest (1990) is a political vampire tale, created during a trip to Romania. The Skriker (1994) unfolds like a toxic fairytale. Thyestes (1994) is her translation of Seneca. Blue Heart (1997) is an evening of two wildly playful one-acts. ("The writing dazzles," said the New York Times.) Her latest play is Far Away (2000), a futurist parable; it has completed an acclaimed run in London and will open in New York in the coming months.

Director’s Note
The first time I held a kaleidoscope up to my eye, stared at the light, and turned it round and round, was probably in the spring. I remember the feel of a cool breeze and the sound of children's laughter, both of which became part of my experience of the kaleidoscope. That was years ago. Recently, following the advice of an artist friend, I was trying to find a metaphor for Top Girls. I needed to develop a language that the designers, actresses, and I could share while talking about and translating Caryl Churchill's brilliant, non-traditional script into live theatre. After several false attempts, I heard myself say, "You know, it's a kaleidoscope. Everything that is, is in the first act (outside of time), then it changes (into real time) but the same pieces are still there. Finally, the third act goes back in time (a year before the second act), but the images, and colors, and questions remain." Most plays exist in a linear world where time is understood as past and present, and even sometimes future. Top Girls is in a circular world, a kaleidoscope. 
So, kaleidoscope became our working image. As rehearsals progressed, we found it more and more useful. Churchill's characters, the pieces inside the tube, are a world of shards. All the top girls are interesting, successful, accomplished, but none is smooth; their edges are sharp. They have been shaped by their extraordinary experiences. The actors play multiple characters, but each actor's characters reflect the same qualities over and over again. The red piece or the blue piece inside the tube might fall into a different position with each turn of the kaleidoscope, but the material inside the tube remains essentially the same. 
In this script, even the tumble and collide of language on top of language is kaleidoscopic. It is the children's laughter (in this case, the women's conversation) distinctly indistinct, characters only partially listening to one another, characters needing to be heard more than to listen. Yet, Churchill has created a harmony of words which carry meaning beyond any individual word. Kaleidoscope has helped us to explore Top Girls, but it is only a symbol, not a definition. As to the meaning of the play itself, I will leave that to others to debate. The internet has dozens of articles about the meaning of Top Girls, none written by Caryl Churchill, most clutching Top Girls to their own sociological, political, or "ist" view of life. I think this play is very poetic, very musical and, as such, not necessarily meant to be dissected, but to be experienced, rather like that cool breeze that I still associate with my first encounter with a kaleidoscope.

Setting:   
Act I A restaurant
Act II, Scene I Top Girls employment agency, London, 1980, Friday 
Act II, Scene II Joyce's backyard in Suffolk, Saturday
Act II, Scene III Top Girls employment agency,  London, Monday
Act III Joyce's kitchen in Suffolk, a year before Act II 

Production Credits
Director, Carol Dapogny
Stage Manager, Sue Turner 
Assistant Stage Manager, Lori D'Asta 
Costume Designer, Linda Bremer
Costume Crew, Karen Babcock, Kim Hurley, Mary O'Dowd, Andrea Imes, Patricia Rafferty, Carolyn Redding, Jane Stacy, Dorothy Tressler, Marilyn Weiher 
Dramaturg, Andrea Imes
Lighting Designer, Joel Nikoleit
Makeup Designer, Mary Ellen Druyan
Makeup Crew, Linda Auer, Nancy Belda,
Janet Ryan Grasso, Terry Harrold, Pat Huth, Carmel Opre, Carol Suda 
Properties Designers, Carol Hudson, Kathleen Kusper 
Properties Crew, Mike DeKovic, Bill FitzGerald, Mary Maureen Gentile, Dennis Hudson, Ann Marie Hultgren, Mike Huth, Mike Janke, Deidre Kellens, Mary Van Nest, Elizabeth Roche, Julie Suarez
Set Designer, Art Kelly
Set Construction Chair, Art Kelly
Set Construction Crew, Tom Frohnapfel, Kirby Harris, Mike Huth, Fred Sauers 
Set Painting Chair, Jani Bodell
Set Painting Crew, Tricia Boren, George Dempsey, Laura Michicich, Karen Smith 
Sound Designer, Stephanie Rychlowski
Sound Crew, Benton Bullwinkel
Technical Director, Shelley Dotson
Production Box Office Chair, Mary Ellen Schutt
Production Box Office Crew, Peg Callaghan, Susan Cardamone, Ruth Cekal, Terry Kozlowski, Jill Neely, Lori B. Proksa, Joan Roeder, Patti Roeder
Production House Managers, Dave Bremer, Susan Cardamone, Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Jim Dutton, Karen Holbert, Roland Imes, Jon Mills, Don Strueber, Bill Wilson 
Production Lobby Photo Display, Marge Heffernan, Jane Stacy 
Production Posters, Kathleen Kusper
Production Program Chair, Tim Feeney
Production Program Design, John Vilhauer
Production Publicity Chair, Arlene Page
Marketing and Managing Director, Jeff Arena

About the Play 
In autumn of 1998, British playwrights, actors, directors, journalists, and other theatre professionals were asked to nominate the most significant twentieth-century, English-language plays. When their responses were tallied, Top Girls led for 1982.  Caryl Churchill began formulating ideas for Top Girls in 1977, though the play wasn't put to paper until 1980, and then revised until 1982. Top Girls takes the 1980s by the neck and gives it a good shake. Churchill has revealed that the play was developed as a response to the success of Margaret Thatcher--it suprised many that Britian's first female Prime Minister was significantly right-wing. Another inspiration was the playwright's visit with several American women; they reported on how women were faring in U.S. corporations at the time. Like the political situation it tries to depict, Top Girls is complicated and open-ended. "I quite deliberately left a hole in the play; if people can't see the values, I don't want to spell them out," says Churchill. Top Girls was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London on August 28, 1982. It made its New York debut exactly four months later at the Public Theatre. 
Top Girls is the first of Churchill's plays to be performed by the Theatre of Western Springs.

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