*new to our stage

Production Credits:
Production Credits
Director, Jack Phillips
Technical Director, Thad Hallstein
Stage Manager, Denny Wise
Assistant Stage Managers:
Darla Goudeau, Mari Lamp
Costume Designers:
Mary Ellen Druyan, Katie Pecis
Costume Crew:
Linda Auer, Lori D’Asta, Danna Durkin, Nell Fisher-Agnew, Jim Hannigan, Karla Hudson, Laura Leonardo Ownby, Stephanie Rachford Stomberg, Carol Suda
Dramaturg, Sarah Vanikiotis
Hospitality Chair, Carol Clarke
Hospitality Crew:
Dorothy Attermeyer, Rosemary Beale, Jan Benedict, Carole Borg, Phillip Conway, Rob Cramer, Mike DeKovic, Tom Frohnapfel, Karla Hudson, Ann Marie and Harry Hultgren, Andrea and Roland Imes, Donna Marie, Eleanor and Rich Kanak, Martha Kirchman, Bridgett Murray, Diane Oppenheim, Adam and Margo Rickert Bill and Pat Rotz, Margaret Schlegel, Virginia Welch
Lighting Designer, Linda Bugielski
Lighting Crew:
John Mueller, Paul Roach, Betsy Stiles,
Cathy Van Horne
Makeup Designers: Julie Knoch, Sue Valenta
Makeup Crew:
Eileen Crow, Charlie Eagen, Susan Mauer, Diane Oppenheim, Linda Roberts, Fred Sauers
Properties Designer, Tim Feeney
Properties Crew, Philip Conway, Bill FitzGerald, Jason McCargo, Mary Pavia, Kevin Slattery
Set Construction Chair, Harry Hultgren
Set Construction Crew:
Grace Abrahamson, Cindy Blaszak, Linda Bremer, Mike Huth, Pat Huth, Ann Marie Hultgren, Elyse Hultgren, Andrea Imes, Donna Marie Kanak, Art Kelly, Jon Mills, John Mueller, John Otto, Arlene Page, Amanda Ragan, Irv Sarussi
Set Designer, Art Kelly
Set Painting Chairs: Jim Kopp, Kelli Kopp
Set Painting Crew:
Carol Clarke, Rob Cramer, Larry Horn
Sound Designers:
Ed Barrow, Darla Goudeau, Peggy Solick
Sound Crew:
Terri Smartz, Betsy Stiles
Box Office Chair, Mary Ellen Schutt
Box Office Crew:
Cindy Blaszak, Linda Bremer, Lori B. Proksa, Patti Roeder, Donna Sauers
House Manager Chair, Bill Wilson
House Managers:
Linda Auer, Dave Bremer, Carol Clarke, Peggy Carlson, Penny Choice, Rob Cramer, Mike DeKovic, George Dempsey, Karla Hudson, Roland Imes, Mike Janke, Donna Marie Kanak,, Heinz Karplus, Diane Oppenheim, Arlene Page, Rick Pavia, Don Strueber
Promotional Graphics, Joe Petrolis
Group Sales Chairs:
Mary Ellen Schutt, Terri Smartz
Poster Distribution, Kathleen Kusper
Production Coordinator, Jon Mills
Program Advertising, Peggy Carlson
Program Production:
Ed Barrow, Marion Reis
Publicity Chair, Jeff Miklos
Actives Website, Judy DiVita

Higher resolution photos available through
Peter Bosy Photography

More photos on Page 2

Setting: Primarily a patient room in the University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Director’s Corner
By Jack Phillips

At first glance it seems author Margaret Edson is lashing out against researchers and the medical system. As we examine the play, we see that she is really talking about the need for compassion from everyone. We see the main character, Vivian Bearing, slowly realize that she wants from the hospital staff the kind of caring that she has been unable to give to her own students. Vivian has isolated herself in the world of academe. She is extremely bright and has challenged herself in a difficult discipline. As a teacher she has become famous for how hard her class is and how much her students have to work. She discovers in her illness that her intelligence doesn’t help. The play is the story of Vivian’s search for grace and courage. She needs to find the tools to help her through this unusual time. When that help comes, it comes from unexpected sources.

The play is presented from Vivian’s point of view. We see things as she remembers them. We often don’t follow standard medical protocol, but experience it as Vivian does. The story is told as she remembers parts of her past that she finds important now.

Dramaturg’s Diary
By Sarah Vanikiotis

Why is this play called Wit? What is the significance of this word, or this literary device? Margaret Edson chose the title carefully and some of the definitions of wit shed light on that choice.

The natural ability to perceive and understand; intelligence
Clearly, this is Vivian Bearing’s strength. Her power and how she defines herself rely greatly on her academic prowess and her position as an authority on the writings of John Donne.

Keenness and quickness of perception or discernment; ingenuity
During the play, Vivian often begins speaking while another character is speaking, especially when that character is explaining something that directly relates to her. Her mind races forward to make connections, to discern the meaning of what is being said, and what that meaning’s implications have. She jumps from one thought to another in a pace that may remind members of the audience of their more effective literary essays in college or high school. This is characteristic of her academia-focused life, which is defined by taking a piece of literature and dissecting it to find the most basic points, which then lead to extrapolations of what the author “really means.” It isn’t enough for Vivian to hear what is; she must also immediately discover what that reality, or “is,” really means for her.

The ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous or disparate things
As a professor, Vivian’s career and life’s work is the analysis of John Donne’s writings. She says, “Wit provides an invaluable exercise for sharpening the mental faculties, for stimulating the flash of comprehension that can only follow hours of exacting and seemingly pointless scrutiny…. Donne’s wit is a way to see how good you really are. After twenty years, I can say with confidence, no one is quite as good as I.” The thing that is surprising in this play, which at first glance is about cancer, pain, and inevitable death, is that there is humor. Vivian finds that her talent, wit, cannot save her from death. It is a realization that is difficult for her. The phrase “at wit’s end” means at a loss, at the limit of one’s mental faculties. In her last moments, she embraces that connection. And she embraces the truism shared by her mentor that sparked her entire career in the real-life circumstance she is in: that between life and death, there is only a pause. A comma. “And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.” Vivian realizes that in her dying, death itself is vanquished. And when death is vanquished, the only logical thing a person of great wit can conclude is that the opposites of death, life and love, persist beyond all comprehension, beyond all definitions, beyond wit.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to:
I would like to offer special thanks to Jim Hannigan. His advice and consultation about medical practices and protocol proved invaluable. We appreciate even more his understanding that this is a play and not a medical handbook. Any procedural mistakes are the author’s and ours, not Dr. Hannigan’s. I am also grateful that he is skilled enough as an actor to portray an oncologist who is not at all like him. –Jack Phillips, Director

The Fruit Store, Western Springs and Hinsdale, for providing apple cider at cost with free delivery.

Produced with special permission from Dramatists Play Service, Inc.