A Tool for Teachers, Students, Performers, Designers &

Advocates of Live Theatre

Guide Compiled by Directed by

Christina Casella & Michele Brinkley, M.Ed Molly Cox

Field Guide

To the Educators, Students, Actors, Directors, Designers and any Art Advocate that may find themselves exploring this

Field Guide:

Welcome to The Playhouse San Antonio Ragtime Field Guide!

Here at The Playhouse San Antonio our mission is to produce high quality live theatre that inspires, educates, and

entertains audiences of all ages. Our passion is to connect our community to the world at large by telling stories that

reveal the truth of the human experience.

In the spirit of this mission, we offer our audiences the opportunity to continue their experience at the theatre by providing

events and interactive resources like this Field Guide. Its purpose can function in many ways—in the classroom, as a

series of activities, a resource to artists, and a behind the scenes glance into this amazing, venturesome production.

Our goal with this production is to educate and inform our audiences and to encourage a positive change relating to these

themes in both the San Antonio community and the surrounding areas, while still providing a level of entertainment and

expression through the art of live theatre.

We suggest exploring the guide both before and after attending The Playhouse production of Ragtime running Fridays

and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm from July 25, 2013 to August 18, 2013.

Our Education Night Sunday, July 28, 2013, includes a Post Show Discussion and Talk Back. We encourage those

attending to apply the knowledge and information gained from this Field Guide to stimulate and inspire the evening’s

discussion.

Additional credit to this guide is due to Ragtime director, Molly Cox. The historical background information was originally

compiled by Molly. Thank you for your dedication to educating both your cast and audience.

Thank you and Enjoy!

What is Ragtime? Backround Info Ragtime is a musical genre which enjoyed its peak between 1897 and

1918.

It is syncopated or “ragged” in rhythm and played mostly on the piano.

The name is thought to be a contraction of the term “ragged time,” which refers to

its rhythmically broken up melodies.

It began as dance music in the red-light districts of African American communities

in St. Louis and New Orleans.

ONE.

The Novel by E.L. Doctorow

by E.L. Doctorow The musical Ragtime was adapted from the acclaimed novel of the same

title by E.L. Doctorow.

Written in 1975, Doctorow illustrated the lives of

three completely different families in 1906.

Prior to the 1998 musical,

the novel was also adapted to film in 1981.

TWO.

Life in 1906 US President - Theodore Roosevelt

US Vice President - Charles W. Fairbanks

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted

into the Union yet.

The average life expectancy was 47 years old.

Only 14% of homes had a bathtub. Most women only

washed their hair once a month, using borax or

egg yolks for shampoo.

Only 8% of homes had a telephone.

More than 95% of all births took place at home.

2 out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write.

Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.

The average wage was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per month.

Accountant = $2,000

Dentist = $2,500

Veterinarian = $1,500

Mechanical Engineer = $5,000

tHREE.

Historical Figures in Ragtime

Photo by Dwayne Green

Harry Houdini played by rick sanchez Did you learn any magic tricks preparing for this character? If not, what research did you

do?

I did not learn any of the Houdini’s extravagant illusionist tricks because of the scale of our

production. We are using props to represent those illusions - straight jacket, chains, rope –

all symbolizing the idea of immigrants the making the great escape from their original

countries to America. However, I did learn the illusion of pulling a coin from someone’s ear.

What has been most exciting about playing a real person?

The most exciting part about playing a real person, especially for someone like Houdini is to

give the illusion of him and represent his story as much possible, but not necessarily be him,

because, it is an impossibility to ever BE him. But as much as possible I will do my best to

be a great illusion of him and what he stands for as a “fabulous immigrant”.

Emma goldman played by Rebecca Trinidad

Considering her strong beliefs is there anything about Emma that you can relate to?

One of the quotes that I identify with most is “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of

your revolution.” She believed that we are all entitled to live our lives on our own terms.

She was not willing to compromise her principles to fit in with the template of the times.

Her battles are the same battles that we are still fighting today. Her strength has inspired

me to get involved and make a difference.

Photo by Dwayne Green

Evelyn Nesbit played by sara brookes

How has it been playing a real person?

Interesting, you have to take the character and be honest

to the actual person, and you also have to make them

yours and unique.

How much research did you do for this role and what?

A lot of internet research and I have also read her

biography. It’s been a trip!

Photo by Dwayne Green

Book by Terrence McNally Music by Stephen Flaherty Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens Based on the novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

Called by Time Magazine "A triumph for the stage," and by the International Herald Tribune "the best musical in twenty years," this acclaimed musical won 1998 Tony Awards for Best Score, Book and Orchestrations, and won both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score.

RAGTIME is not only a powerful portrait of life in turn-of-the-century America, but a relevant tale for today. Written by the award-winning composer/lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens(ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, SEUSSICAL and LUCKY STIFF), noted playwright Terrence McNally, (KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, MASTER CLASS), and based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished novel, the musical intertwines the stories of three extraordinary families, as they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and what it means to live in America.

The Tony-winning score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty is just as diverse as the melting pot of America itself. It draws upon many musical styles from the ragtime rhythms of Harlem and Tin Pan Alley to the klezmer of the Lower East Side, from bold brass band marches to delicate waltzes, from up-tempo banjo tunes to period parlor songs and expansive anthems.

Featured are such show stopping songs as "Getting Ready Rag," "Your Daddy’s Son," "Wheels of a Dream," "Till We Reach That Day," "Back To Before," and "Make Them Hear You." This thrilling musical is sure to inspire actors and audiences alike!

four.

Ragtime The Musical

Synopsis Provided by MTI

five.

Empire theatre Ragtime experienced a unique situation from the very beginning. Unfortunately, our beloved Russell Hill

Rogers stage here at The Playhouse San Antonio experienced damage from a flood in May 2013. This

damage mainly effected our roof and made the space unsafe for the cast and crew to work and perform in.

Only a week and a half prior to opening, we picked up and moved the production to the beautiful, historic

Charline McCombs Empire Theatre.

Built in 1913 on the site of the former Rische’s Opera House (Turner Opera House) in downtown

San Antonio and designed by architects Mauran and Russell & Crow of St. Louis., theEmpire first

operated as a vaudeville house, then a silent and talking motion picture theatre.

After closing its doors in 1978, it was redeveloped as a part of the Majestic Theatre, funded by Las

Casas Foundation, a local non-profit organization. The venue was reopened in April 1998 as

Charline McCombs Empire Theatre.

Seats 856 in banquet, cabaret, and theatre styles!

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Home to a variety of performances including intimate music concerts, comedy attractions, and

children’s theatre. Private uses include banquets, seminars, product launches, and weddings.

Operated by ACE Theatrical Group as a self-sustaining performing arts facility.

The aluminum and gold leafing that give the theatre its luster were used in the early 1900's

because they were very inexpensive. Today 23 carat gold leafing is only available in Europe and

costs approximately $39 a roll.

Twenty-four different colors of paint, primarily autumn tones, are used throughout the theatre.

The copper eagle that originally graced the theatre entrance was found stored in a ladies restroom

when the restoration began. Layers of paint and years of dirt were removed and the eagle soars

again triumphantly over the theatre entry.

The 60 foot high, 4-story building has a plethora of reflective surfaces and remarkable acoustics. A

sophisticated sound and lighting system ensures quality live productions.

About The Empire

“The American Dream” Immigration in Ragtime

six.

In Ragtime, we are introduced to Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia. He and his young

daughter suffer hardships faced by many immigrants during this era in America. By the end

of the play, Tateh, a dynamic and complex character, surprises us…

Immigration and U.S. History

By Hasia Diner

Tens of millions of immigrants over four centuries have made the United States what it is today. They came

to make new lives and livelihoods in the New World; their hard work benefited themselves and their new

home country

Gradually over the course of the decades after the Civil War, as the sources of immigration shifted so too did

the technology of ocean travel. Whereas previous immigrants had made their way to the United States via

sail power, innovations in steam transportation made it possible for larger ships to bring larger loads of

immigrants to the United States. The immigrants of this era tended to come from southern and eastern

Europe, regions undergoing at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries the same economic

transitions that western and northern Europe had earlier experienced.

As among the immigrants of the earlier period, young people predominated among the newcomers. This

wave of migration, which constituted the third episode in the history of U.S. immigration, could better be

referred to as a flood of immigrants, as nearly 25 million Europeans made the voyage. Italians, Greeks,

Hungarians, Poles, and others speaking Slavic languages constituted the bulk of this migration. Included

among them were 2.5 to 3 million Jews.

Each group evinced a distinctive migration pattern in terms of the gender balance within the migratory pool,

the permanence of their migration, their literacy rates, the balance between adults and children, and the

like. But they shared one overarching characteristic: They flocked to urban destinations and made up the

bulk of the U.S. industrial labor pool, making possible the emergence of such industries as steel, coal,

automobile, textile, and garment production, and enabling the United States to leap into the front ranks of

the world’s economic giants.

Their urban destinations, their numbers, and perhaps a fairly basic human antipathy towards foreigners led

to the emergence of a second wave of organized xenophobia. By the 1890s, many Americans, particularly

from the ranks of the well-off, white, native-born, considered immigration to pose a serious danger to the

nation’s health and security. In 1893 a group of them formed the Immigration Restriction League, and it,

along with other similarly inclined organizations, began to press Congress for severe curtailment of foreign

immigration.

http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2008/February/20080307112004ebyessedo0.1716272.html

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

Seven.

Mending Wall

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

“The American Dream” Immigration in Ragtime

My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours." Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: "Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Robert Frost

Did Tateh break down walls in Ragtime? Was he successful? Is he a believable

character?

Discuss walls that have existed in the history of our world. What purpose did they or

could they serve?

What other kinds of “walls” exist? What “walls” exist in Ragtime?

“The Mending Wall” individual activity: After two (or more) readings of the poem,

complete the following:

Highlight or underline five words and/or phrases that you feel are most

connected to the immigrant experience in Ragtime.

Decide what you believe is the most important line. Highlight or underline.

“The Mending Wall” group activity: Share, discuss, and justify your words, phrases,

and lines with each other. Again, relate your choices to the immigrant experience and

as depicted in Ragtime.

Compare and contrast the challenges faced by immigrants during the turn of the 20th

century and immigrants of today.

Class, Gender, race in ragtime

eight.

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

DISCUSSSo why is it that class, race, and gender have been so closely aligned for so long?

In Ragtime, each character epitomizes the nature of the early 20th century human condition, yet

the essence of these characters lives on in our contemporary world. In both the stage production

and novel, we witness the villainy of Will Conklin, the brazen actions and voice of Emma Goldman,

the emotionally-charged moral and ethical decisions of Coalhouse Walker, the lives of the “model”

family of the times, Younger Brother’s quest for the satisfaction of his desires and the meaning of

life, and the world of the infamous entrepreneur J.P. Morgan.

Ponder the words of some of the powerful voices from the world of Ragtime and today… On social classes Then….

Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of

plutocracy. J.P. Morgan (1837-1913)

What do I care about the law? Ain’t I got the power? Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)

Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not

deserve to live. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

And more recent viewpoints…

For some of us it seems like yesterday when Ike was in the White House, the U.S. Senate censured Joe McCarthy, and

the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public school was unconstitutional. Malcom Forbes

(1919-1990)

On racial equality Voices portrayed in Ragtime and its era…

It occurred to Father one day that Coalhouse Walker Jr. didn't know he was a Negro. The more he thought about this the more true it seemed. Walker didn't act or talk like a colored man. He seemed to be able to transform the customary deferences practiced by his race so that they reflected to his own dignity rather than the recipient's. From Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (Chapter 21)

No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Voices inspiring us in later years…

• The plague of racism is insidious, entering our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter our bodies

to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams. Maya Angelou (1928-)

• There are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you

that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

On women Early 20

th century…

• The import is not the kind of work woman does, but rather the quality of the work she furnishes. She can give suffrage or the ballot no

new quality, nor can she receive anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, her freedom, her independence,

must come from and through herself. Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

• I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

Later in the 20th

century…

• Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself. • I have met brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to

make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words. Gloria Steinem (1934-)

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

Industrial revolution

nine.

Technological Advances and Industrialization Ragtime is set during the Progressive Era (1900–1917), a time marked by rapid technological developments and industrialization.

• 1900 - Charles Seeberger invents the modern escalator.

• 1900 - Electric cookers are developed.

• 1900 - Creed Telegraph System, a way to convert Morse Code to text, is invented by Canadian Frederick Creed.

• 1901 - The double edged safety razor is invented by King Camp Gillette.

• 1901 - The modern vacuum cleaner is invented by Hubert Booth.

• 1901 - First assembly line production is used by Ransome Eli Olds, the manufacturer of the Oldsmobile.

• 1901 - The first radio transmission is received by a radio and was transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi across the Atlantic

Ocean.

• 1902 - Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.

• 1902 - James Mackenzie invents the lie detector.

• 1902 - The Teddy Bear is invented.

• 1902 -Neon light is invented by George Claude.

• 1903 - Crayons are invented by Edward Binney and Harold Smith.

• 1903 - The Wright Brothers invent the first gas powered and manned airplane.

• 1903 - Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.

• 1903 - Cavities filled with porcelain,

• 1904 - Thomas Sullivan invents the tea bag.

• 1905 - 11 year old Frank Epperson invents the popsicle, originally called the Episicle.

• 1906 - Cornflakes are invented by William Kellogg;

• 1906 - Charles F. Kettering develops the electric cash register.

http://teresacoppens.hubpages.com/hub/Major-Inventions-Timeline-20th-and-21st-Centuries

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

DISCUSS

Use your smartphones to research other important and interesting inventions during this period of time.

Research other inventors.

In your opinion, which of these inventions included in the timeline is the most important? Why?

Discuss the technological innovations that were presented in Ragtime. Why do you think Doctorow chose to highlight

these?

Which technological advancement did Doctorow focus on in Ragtime? What other issues are brought into this?

Further Readings

Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. 2007 ed. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1975. Print.

Kalush, William, and Larry Sloman. The Secret Like of Houdini. New York: Atria Books, 2006. Print.

McCornick, Anita. The Industrial Revolution in American History. Library. Springfield: Enslow

Publishers, Inc., 1998. Print.

Morris, Christopher, ed. Conversations with E.L. Doctorow. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press,

1999.

Wawro, Thaddeus. Radicals & Visionaries: Entrepreneurs Who Revolutionized the 20th Century. First

Edition edition . Entrepreneur Press, 2000. Print.