Barbara Newton
Players' Ring President
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Theophilus North
Description
Theophilus North is a charmingly funny and sweetly sentimental play, based upon the final work of the three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning icon, Thornton Wilder. It is a play with an uplifting message to “embrace life and the people and places around us.” Theophilus’s journey helps us to understand the impact that we can have not only on our own destiny, but our potential for realizing that destiny. Set in the tiny resort town of Newport, RI, during the height of the Jazz Age in the summer of 1926,?Theophilus North?follows the exploits of a young Yale graduate as he searches for adventure and his place in the world. Theophilus decides to change his simple existence by quitting his prep school teaching position in New Jersey and drive as far as his old car will take him, leaving him stranded in Newport. Theophilus takes on multiple odd jobs from tennis instructor to French tutor and private reader in houses of the wealthy. He infiltrates himself into the lives (and troubles!) of Newport’s residents. The greatest adventure in store, however, is not at all what he had imagined: learning the meaningfulness of life. Theophilus North?is unmistakably a cousin of?Our Town... There are muscles rippling under the play's rose-scented skin. Charming... Captures Wilder's spirit of humor and tempered optimism... Ignites sparks of surprisingly deep emotion. Hope pulses so strongly through?Theophilus North... Burnett injects his script with cosmic scope... Imaginative, forceful theater... Charming and breathtaking all at once... In the spirit of Wilder and with a dramatic vigor all its own, the play turns large-hearted living into art. Rich in dry humor... Gently funny, spryly wise. Purely sparkles with intelligence, wit and humanity... This is a play both for the head and the heart. Beautiful and intelligent...Wilder would undoubtedly have fallen in love. Square Peg Productions is dedicated to the promotion of authentic theatrical experiences. “Square Peg” will strive to maintain a commitment to the advancement of lesser performed material or playwrights utilizing skilled directors, actors, and designers who share in this vision. Square Peg will engage its audiences in high quality experiences while devoting the promotion of these works in small, intimate venues in alignment with their philosophy.