01 Mar Poor Relations – About the Playwright, Playwright’s Notes, Video
In case you don’t already know the playwright of our current production Poor Relations, meet Robert Flaherty Hart and read his insightful comments about the show.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Robert Flaherty Hart has acted professionally in All the Way, The Jefferson Bottles, Amadeus, Much Ado About Nothing, B-Side: Myself, and Art, and in 17 OCTA productions, including Gross Indecency, Assassins, All My Sons, Dinner with Friends, and Rumors. He’s appeared in the feature films Your Local News, Neapolitan, and The Man in the Trunk, and has directed for Arkansas Arts Academy (Oklahoma!, The Diary of Anne Frank) and Emporia State University Theatre Arts (The Dinner Party).
ABOUT THE PLAY:
“A poor relation”: Someone or something that is believed to be less important than another similar person or thing. – Cambridge Idioms Dictionary
“I’m one of those poor relations you’ve heard about.” – Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire
Somehow, in the midst of my rehearsing the role of Mitch in a production of the Tennessee Williams classic, dealing from afar with my mother’s ill health and impending death, and taking my first graduate school course in playwriting, the initial draft of Poor Relations was born. Is it autobiographical? No, in the sense that all of the events are purely fictional. I’m grateful to my playwriting mentor Robert Ford, who encouraged me to abandon “reality” as I knew it and let the story take me where it would. I thank director Mavourneen Dwyer and the four talented actors who brought the first production to life (and the four fine actors in the first staged reading before that) at the University of Arkansas – Uark Theatre. And I’m pleased to have this current production in the hands of my gifted friend Tina Anderman Morrison. There are reasons people are the way they are. And they all matter. That’s pretty much all I know. — RFH
Watch Bob, director Tina Morrison, and cast members of this current production discuss the show further in this video!
Poor Relations
Feb 17-Mar 5 | Fri/Sat 8 pm & Sun 2 pm
Talkbacks with Bob, hosted by local KC playwrights: Sun, Feb 19 (Michelle Tyrene Johnson); Fri, Feb 24 (Ron Simonian), and Sat, March 4 (Victor Wishna)
Tickets/Info: http://olathetheatre.org/the-season/poorrelations/
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