The Shadow Box
By John Guare
March 4-6, 11-13 at 8pm, March 7 at 3pm
By Michael Cristofer
Directed by Darice Clewell
With Margaret Allman, Janet Berry, Cole Garcia, Dan Kavanaugh, Mary Koster, Eric Lund, Frank B. Moorman, Jim Reiter, Sue Struve

In this Pulitzer Prize winning play, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages on a hospital’s grounds.  The play dramatizes their anxieties and their coming to grips with the finality of their condition, a preordained future whose only imponderable is its exact length.  The three are attended and visited by family and friends.  “There are five stages that person will go through when he faces the fact of his own death; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  These stages will last for different periods of time, they will replace each other, or exist at times side by side…but the one thing that usually persists through all these stages is hope.”  

Director's Notes
In her seminal 1969 book On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five stages of dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In crafting this masterful play, Michael Christofer has imbued the characters with profound dignity and beauty as they pass through these stages while grappling with their own mortality . . . and with the confusion, uncertainty, and fright of their loved ones. Through these simple family dramas, filled with ordinary hurts and kindnesses, we see the magnificence of the human spirit and the capacity it has for sacrifice and love.   

shadow box (n.) a shallow enclosing case in which something is set for protection and display
shadow box (v.) to box with one’s own shadow -or- to evade or avoid direct or decisive action  

This is what playwright Michael Christofer gives us with The Shadow Box; he puts on display three separate families, housed in three separate cottages that are located on the grounds of a hospital. But he combines the three cottages, and the three stories, onto a single set. Like a shadow box display, each family has its own section . . . separated by walls, but united by their joint struggles. And as we peer into this physical representation of an old-fashioned shadow box, we watch three very different families shadow box with death.  

The Shadow Box was the winner of the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama, and the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Play. It is my privilege to direct dramatic literature of this quality. It is an equal privilege to direct a cast of this caliber. You will instantly see their talent. What will not be possible for you to see is their dedication . . . through impossible scheduling challenges, snow storms, canceled rehearsals, and, for one, the death of his father. I have been inspired by their commitment to telling this story. And their directing abilities are truly unparalleled! Thank you all, my dear friends.   

I would also like to acknowledge the contributions Caroline Hadley, Jacqueline Heimbuch, and Katherine Klemstine and offer thanks to the many fine workers of Hospice of the Chesapeake, who help make the passage a little easier for today’s families. 

REVIEWS
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