MERRIMACK REPERTORY THEATRE 2018–19 SEASON

BY Sean DanielsBASED ON THE BOOK BY Jack KerouacDIRECTED BY Sean Daniels and christopher oscar peña

MAR 20 – APR 14

THE WAR 7

THE DRAFT 8

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN NAME 9

LOWELL, MA 10

Federally insured by NCUA up to $250,000 | Shares and Deposits in excess of NCUA limits are fully insured by MSIC.

PLAYGUIDE SPONSORFederally insured by NCUA up to $250,000 | Shares and Deposits in excess of NCUA limits are fully insured by MSIC.

PLAYGUIDEPLAYGUIDE

EDUCATIONAL AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM SUPPORTERSAubert J. Fay Charitable Fund

Trustees of the Ayer HomeTed & Connie Lapre Fund

Lowell Polish Cultural CouncilLinda Trudel Endowment Fund

Nathaniel & Elizabeth P. Stevens Foundation

SEAN DANIELS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

BONNIE J. BUTKAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Lowell Cultural Council), a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.Merrimack Repertory Theatre operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and United Scenic Artists (USA) Local USA-829, IATSE.LORT

League of resident theatres

Additional supporters include two anonymous donors and those contributors who generously gave to our micro-donation campaign and those who raised their paddles during the Fund-A-Cause portion of our 39th Anniversary Gala.

The Cohort Club is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Actors and Production Stage Manager appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association^Member of the United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829

*Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

SEASON SPONSOR PLAYGUIDE SPONSORFederally insured by NCUA up to $250,000 | Shares and Deposits in excess of NCUA limits are fully insured by MSIC.

STUDENT MATINEE SPONSORPRODUCTION SPONSOR

PRESENTS

THE HAUNTED LIFE

DIRECTED BY

SEAN DANIELS and christopher oscar peña

MARCH 20 – APRIL 14, 2019

VICHET CHUM* JOEL COLODNER* TINA FABRIQUECAROLINE NEFF RAVIV ULLMAN

SCENIC DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER

JAMES J. FENTON* SARITA FELLOWS BRIAN J. LILIENTHAL*

40th Anniversary Community Voices Project recorded, edited, and mastered by David Remedios. The Haunted Life was developed with the support of PlayPenn, Paul Meshejian, Artistic Director,

UMass Lowell, and Playwrights Center at Emory University.

BY

SEAN DANIELS

SOUND DESIGNER DRAMATURG

DAVID REMEDIOS* MICHELE VOLANSKY

FEATURING

PRODUCER PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

PETER CREWE JAKOB W. PLUMMER

BASED ON THE BOOK BY

JACK KEROUAC

Produced in collaboration with Jim Sampas and The Estate of Jack Kerouac

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BONNIE J. BUTKAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Cast of

THE HAUNTED LIFE

VICHET CHUM (Garabed) MRT: KNYUM, Miss Bennet: Christ-mas at Pemberley. Vichet is a Cambo-dian-American actor, writer, director, theater maker, originally from Dallas, Texas, and now living in New York City. As an actor, he’s worked regionally at Trinity Repertory Company, Actors The-

atre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the Huntington Theatre Company, Everyman The-atre, New Harmony Theatre, and Weston Playhouse. In NYC, he’s worked at the Cherry Lane Theater, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row, Project Y Theatre, Woodshed Collective, Slant Theatre Project, and the Incuba-tor Arts Project. His plays have been workshopped at Step-penwolf Theatre Company, Second Generation Productions, Crowded Outlet, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater, Amios, Florida State University, and the New Harmony Project. He is the 2018 Princess Grace Awards recipient in Playwriting. His show KNYUM had its world pre-miere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in the 2017-2018 sea-son, and he’s thrilled to return to this beloved theater. He is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA). vichetchum.com

JOEL COLODNER (Joe Martin)

has appeared at MRT in Native Gar-dens, A Christmas Carol, It’s a Won-derful Life, Going to See the Kid, and Glengarry Glen Ross, in Rimers of El-dritch and That Hopey Changey Thing at Stoneham and as Solomon Galkin in Imagining Madoff, Freud in Freud’s

Last Session and Itzaq in Two Jews Walk into a War at the New Rep, the Stage Manager in the Huntington Theatre’s Our Town, Signor Naccarelli in Light in the Piazza at SpeakEasy Stage and as V. Ira Taub in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife at Lyric Stage. He played King Henry in Henry IV parts One and Two, the Cardinal in ,King of France in King John, Marcus in Titus Andronicus and Polixenes in Winter’s Tale for Actors’

Shakespeare Project. He played the role of Uncle Peck How I Learned to Drive off-Broadway, was Starbuck in The Rainmak-er for The Guthrie Theatre, Ritchie in Streamers, Mick in Co-medians and Horatio in Hamlet at the Arena Stage and Kon-stantin in The Seagull at Pittsburgh Public Theatre and was in the revival of Arthur Miller’s An American Clock at the Mark Taper Forum.

TINA FABRIQUE(Vivienne Martin) Tina is thrilled to be cast in this amazing project and to work with the brilliant Sean Daniels again. Ms. Fabri-que was most recently featured as soloist in Gospel at Colonus at the Dela-corte Theater in New York. Her oth-er theater credits include: Broadway/

Nat’l Tours/ New York: How To Succeed; Bring In Da Noise; Ragtime; Once On This Island; ELLA; Truly Blessed; Dessa Rose; The Wiz; Dolphins and Sharks; South Pacific with Rob-ert Goulet; 70 Girls 70; Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope; and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Ann-Margret. Re-gional Theater: Newsies; Informed Consent; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; The Comedy of Errors; The Glass Menagerie; The Old Settler; and Women of Brewster Place. Television/Film: “New Amsterdam;” “The Last OG;” “Power;” “Person of Interest;” “Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Intent;” “Reading Rainbow” (sings theme); Black Magic for White Boys; and Sole Variations.

CAROLINE NEFF

(Eleanor)Caroline is a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member, where she was last seen in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, You Got Older, Linda Vista, The Fundamentals, The Flick, Air-line Highway (including the Broadway production at Manhattan Theatre Club),

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The Way West, Three Sisters, Annie Bosh is Missing, and Where We’re Born. Select Chicago credits: Lettie (Victo-ry Gardens - Jeff Award, Best Actor), Uncle Vanya (Goodman Theatre); A Brief History of Helen of Troy (Jeff Award - Best Ac-tress), The Knowledge, Harper Regan, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Steep Theatre); The Downpour (Route 66 Theatre); Port (Griffin Theatre); 4000 Miles (Northlight Theatre); and Moon-shiner (Jackalope Theatre). Regional credits: Linda Vista (Mark Taper Forum) and Peerless (Yale Repertory Theatre). Television/Film: recurring role on the upcoming CBS show “Red Line,” as well as “Chicago PD.” She’s also been in “Chi-cago Fire,” Open Tables, and Older Children. She is also a proud company member of Steep Theatre and holds her BA from Columbia College Chicago.

RAVIV ULLMAN (Peter Martin) Raviv is honored to be making his Merrimack Repertory Theatre debut with this incredible team. NY Theater: Usu-al Girls (Roundabout), Sticks & Bones (New Group), Russian Transport (New Group), Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner (Atlantic Theater), Bad Guys

(Second Stage). Regional: Choice (Huntington Theater), Dead End (Ahmanson), Bad Jews (Geffen), Death Trap (Bucks Coun-ty Playhouse), A Rosen By Any Other Name (Connecticut Crit-ics Circle Nomination), as well as the Broadway national tour of The King And I. Television: “Broad City,” “Phil of The Future,” “House,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Strangers,” “Criminal Minds,” “Cold Case,” “Big Love.” Thanks to Sean and Chris for having me on this historic season at MRT, and to Jack Kerouac for his ever inspiring body of work.

2019-20

MRT thanks the Lowell Cultural Council, Greater Lowell Community Foundation, Ramsey McCluskey Family Foundation, and United Way of Merrimack Valley for their generous support of the Young Company summer training program. MRT’s Young Company is a professional theatre training program for high school students interested in all aspects of performing arts and new play development. Nationally recognized playwrights, actors, and directors will work closely with students to develop their own voice in their scripts and learn about performing improv, musical theatre, and modern approaches to acting and auditioning. For information, visit mrt.org/youngcompany.

RAMSEY MCCLUSKEY FAMILY FOUNDATION

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THE HAUNTED LIFE PLOT SYNOPSIS

“Peter Martin is an average American youth, in an average American town…” Thus begins Sean Daniels’s adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s semi-auto-biographical unfinished novel The Haunted Life. Before he became one of the Beat generations most famous writers, before On the Road, Ker-ouac was just a young man, from a small city on a river, experiencing all those things that young people experience: frustrations with their parents, exploring first loves, celebrating the freedoms that come from a life without responsibility with their friends. The one thing that makes this story – and Peter Martin – unique is that he is living, as is the United States, on the precipice of war. The Haunted Life tracks Peter Martin’s journey from Lowell, to his time in the Merchant Marines and in New York, and back to Lowell, where he ultimately decides to become the writer we all know today. . – Michele Volansky, Dramaturg

(l-r) Tina Fabrique, Vichet Chum, Raviv Ullman, Joel Colodner, Caroline Neff. Photo by Meghan Moore

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CHARACTERS

Bakkedahl - Merchant Marine Dick Sheffield - Another great friend of Peter’s

The characters created in this play are inspired by Jack Kerouac’s family and friends. Garabed is based on Sebastian Sampas, while Dick Sheffield is inspired by Billy Chandler. Together, these three sought to find out what the world beyond Lowell had to offer them.

Joe Martin is inspired by Kerouac’s father, Leo, who was, like Joe Martin, a French-Canadian immigrant. Leo was the son of potato farmers, born in Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec

Peter Martin-writer, college freshman

Joe Martin-Peter’s father, hardworking

Vivienne Martin-Peter’s mother, Joe’s wife

Garabed-Peter’s best friend, leader of

a poetry gang

Eleanor-Peter’s girlfriend, straight A student

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THE WARWorld War II was fought between the Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, China, along with others, including France, Poland, Greece, Yugo-slavia, Norway, Belgium) and the Axis Pow-ers (Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and Italy).

Historians cite residual effects of World War I, along with the rise of both Adolf Hitler (in Germany) and Benito Mussolini (in Italy), as the primary causes of the war. The years of combat are 1939-1945.

A total of 407,000 Americans were killed – and an additional 671,000 were wounded – as a result of World War II.

Globally, 40-60 million people were killed during the war, including six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

THE MERCHANT MARINES The Merchant Marine is the fleet of ships which carries imports and exports during peacetime and becomes a naval auxiliary during wartime to deliver troops and war materials.

The total number of Mariners killed during World War II is estimated at 9,467.

A total of 1,554 Merchant Marine ships were sunk or damaged during World War II.

Kerouac’s fellow Beat writers Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, and Bob Kaufman were all also Merchant Marines. On September 16, 1940, the United States instituted the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which required all men

Merchant Marines World War II. Photo by Smithsonianmag.com

between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft. This was the first peacetime draft in United States’ history. Those who were selected from the draft lottery were required to serve at least one year in the armed forces. Once the U.S. entered WWII, draft terms extended through the duration of the fighting. By the end of the war in 1945, 50 million men between 18 and 45 had registered for the draft and 10 million had been inducted in the military.

The term “the Greatest Generation” was coined by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in his 1998 book of the same name. It applies to those who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, or whose labor helped win it.

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“Even if you leave, you'll just have to register for the draft, and then god knows where you'll be sent.” –Bakkedahl

Under the current law in the United States, every male must register for the draft within 30 days of his 18th birthday. This does not mean they automatically join the army, but they are put into the Selective Service database. If the United States declares itself in a state of emergency or in the advent of ware, the data-base will notify those eligible to fight at war. If a per-son opts out of registering, they can face jail time, be given a fine, and would not receive financial student aid, among other penalties.

Even though Peter Martin’s family emigrated from Can-ada, if Peter didn’t register for the draft, he wouldn’t have the ability to obtain citizenship under today’s law. During WWII, the draft existed but in a different capaci-ty. The Selective Training and Service Act required every male between 21 and 36 to register for the draft. For the first time in the history of the United States, there was a peacetime draft. Draft numbers were drawn through a lottery system; the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson pulled names from a glass bowl and handed them to President Roosevelt. Those selected were required to serve a minimum of a year.

There were requirements of the men who were selected, such as being at least five feet tall, but not above six-and- a-half feet. They also needed half their teeth and to have never been convicted of a crime.

Roosevelt tried to keep a foreign policy of strict neutrality intact but failed to do so because many didn’t believe Great Britain could defeat Germany on its own. Most Americans still trusted in the idea of isolationism, which was the belief that they should avoid going to war unless attacked.

When it became a law that every male of a certain age had to register for the draft, approximately 20 million were eligible.

As time went on, the United States was no longer able to remain neutral, and the draft age expanded to ages 18 to 37. The Selective Training and Service Act had to let people of color participate in the draft. If anyone had a religious affiliation that prevented them from fighting, they were given an alternative. This alternative was a Civilian Public Service Camp that consisted of dangerous work with no compensation.

Millions of men were registered for the draft by the time the war had reached its end. The time required to serve went from a year to the entirety of the war, plus an additional six months. WWII changed how the United States viewed its military.

The Draft BY CASSIE ANNESI

Henry L. Stimson.

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The Average American Name BY CASSIE ANNESI

“Un-American invaders... That's what these people think of you and never forget it.” -Joe Martin

As time passes, we lose sight of where we came from because those who connected us are long gone. Every family has a story or name that is passed on through generations.

There are several reasons as to why someone’s name changes when immigrating to the United States of America. Those reasons include: a false name, a name they overheard, a step-parent’s name, a nickname, foreign customs, a maiden name, or their real name misspelled.

There are also cases in which a person wants to go back to their birth name as a way to honor their roots. People continue to change their names because they don’t want to face discrimination or racism. This changing of a name helped those of Jewish descent get a job that otherwise would not have happened at the time.

These changes were often blamed on the “Ellis Island experience” because clerks would write names down wrong. Sadly, a lot of this history is lost as time passes and stories are made up to help explain name changes.

Both Peter Martin and Jack Kerouac were of French-Ca-nadian descent and had French names; Pierre and Jean-Louis. Kerouac wanted to write the next great American novel and leave his mark on the world, just as Peter wished to do. It was later discovered that Kerouac had unpublished works written in French. This leads some to question whether or not he was ashamed of his heritage.

It is unclear where the name Kerouac came from except that it could be from his ancestors, who lived in Cornwall and were called Kernewek. Another idea is that when his ancestors fled from Cornwall to Lanmeur, they took the name of a town near Brittany called Kervoach. There are many stories told regarding the origin of Kerouac, but no one knows the full truth.

On the other hand, Peter’s family has an “American” sounding last name meaning the only thing they had to do was naturalize themselves. Naturalization is the act of becoming a citizen of a country where one is foreign.

Every person has their own story; the name associated with it adds history that deserves credit. A name serves as a symbol and provides an identity to those who feel lost. It is hard to say whether or not this is always necessary, but society makes many feel as though it is. This change requires time to think that many immigrants don't have. Changing a name can to akin to changing an identity.

An Immigrant Family on Ellis Island. Photo by history.com

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Lowell, MA, founded in 1836, is located on the Merrimack River. Its location made it a center for the textile industry, especially cotton, and, later, during World War II, parachutes. Because of its status and import during the Industrial Revolution, Lowell as a city was designated as a National Historic Park in 1978.

Lowell is a city of immigrants, with the first settlers arriving from Ireland in the 1840s as a result of the potato famine. Later waves included the Catholic Germans, French Canadians, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanians, Swedes, Greeks, and eastern European Jews. In 1900, 50% of the population was foreign born. Recent immigrants include Cambodians (in 2010, Lowell had had the highest proportion of residents of Cambodian origin of any place in the United States, at 12.5% of the population) and Africans, who came to the city from Liberia, Kenya, Ghana and Togo.

The Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell was a place where Kerouac escaped to when he skipped school to read.

The Sun is the newspaper of Lowell and is where Kerouac had his first paying writing job.

Along with Jack Kerouac, Lowell was the home of painter James McNeill Whistler and actor Bette Davis.

LOWELL, MA

The Lowell Sun. Photo by wikipedia.org

Downtown Lowell. Photo by masspainters.com

The Mills. Photo by atoutdoormedia.com

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GLOSSARY WORDS Pas ce soir s'il te plait!- Not tonight please!

Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?- What do we do?

Oh chérie. Ce n'est pas comme ça- Oh honey. It’s not like that.

J'aime une bonne journée sur la piste- I like a good day on the track.

J’aime tes yeux- I love your eyes.

Toujours Ta Mère- Always, your mother.

Je t'aime advantage- I love you more.

Fais attention, Pierre Martin. Vous pourriez oublier d'où vous venez.- Be careful, Peter Martin. You could forget where you come from.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Do you think Peter accurately represents the “average American?”

2. What about Peter is, at the title suggests, “haunted?”

3. What do you think kept Peter from writing?

4. How do you articulate the journey that Peter Martin is on?

5. How does Peter’s relationship with Joe, his father, inform his path?

6. Do you think Jack Kerouac’s past has an influence on his writing?

SUGGESTED READING • The Sea Is My Brother by Jack Kerouac

• On The Road by Jack Kerouac

• The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac

• The Haunted Life and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac, edited by Todd Tietchen

• Orpheus Emerged by Jack Kerouac and Robert Creeley

• And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

• God and the Indian by Drew Hayden Taylor

50 EAS T MERR IMACK S T | LOWELL , MA | 978 -654 -4678 | MR T.ORG

(l-r) Vichet Chum, Raviv Ullman. Photo by Meghan Moore

(l-r) Raviv Ullman, Caroline Neff. Photo by Meghan Moore

(l-r) Raviv Ullman, Tina Fabrique, Joel Colodner. Photo by Meghan Moore