February 18, 19, 25, 26 - 8PM
20, 27 - 7PM
THE GOAT (OR WHO IS SYLVIA?)
by. Edward Albee
Middle-aged architect, Martin, his wife Stevie, and their son Billy's lives crumble when Martin falls in love with someone or something else. The play focuses on the limitations of an ostensibly liberal society.
By showing this family in crisis, Albee challenges audience members to question their own moral judgment of social taboos.
The play uses ames and grammatical arguments in the midst of catastrophe and existential disputes between the characters.
The name of the play refers to the song "Who Is Sylvia?" from Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Proteus sings this song, hoping to woo Silvia. It is also referred to in Finding the Sun (1982), an earlier work of Albee.
Andy Braden - (Martin Gray)
Andy is excited to return to the FTE stage after a busy few years in local Fredericksburg community theater, and then a big big break (for some reason!). Andy was last seen in FTE's Nevermore. Prior to that, audiences will remember him from Stagedoor Productions' Othello as Iago and with FTE as Don Pedro in Much Ado about Nothing. Among Andy's favorites role are Howie in Rabbit Hole, the titular role in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Tupolski in The Pillowman. He thanks his wife, Heather, and his children for their support and time to be able to perform.
Priya Paranthaman - she/her (Stevie Gray)
Priya is excited to be returning to the FTE stage after performing in Much Ado About Nothing and more recently Nevermore. She has been doing theatre in the Fredericksburg area for a little over 10 years with notable roles including Little Shop of Horrors, Ronette; Smokey Joe's Cafe, Brenda; Into the Woods; Stepmother, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Congregant (Riverside). She has also taught and directed at CYT - Fredericksburg. She attended East Tennessee State University where she studied vocal performance. Thank you all for supporting local theatre during these transitional times.
Sam Cook - (Billy Gray)
Sam Cook (Billy) is excited to be back on stage at FTE in this production of The Goat or Who is Sylvia, He was last seen on the FTE stage in Bubble Boy as Shawn. Sam is a local actor seen more recently on the main stage at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Meet Me in St Louis. Other credits: Riverside: La Cage Aux Folles (Cagelle Swing), Peter and the Wolf (Peter), The Reluctant Dragon (Boy). LOW Players: The Addams Family (Lucas Beineke). Huge thanks to Devon and FTE for this opportunity, also to this amazing cast for making the process of an emotionally taxing show a crazy fun time! Love always to my friends and family for the endless support! Follow his ongoing antics with this cast and more on Instagram @thesamcook_
Chris Stewart - he/him (Ross)
Performing credits: w/ Virginia Rep/Barksdale Theatre/Theatre IV - Cotton Patch Gospel, A Year With Frog and Toad (Toad), Lend Me a Tenor (Bellhop), The Producers (Leo u/s), The Lark (Charles), The Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow), Annie (Bert Healy). With Stage1 - Ragtime in Concert (Younger Brother), Summer of ’42 (RTCC Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical). For Riverside Center - Big River (Huck), Bye Bye Birdie (Albert), CATS (Mungojerrie), Camelot (Mordred). Directing credits: Steel Magnolias (CCT), Hello Dolly! (LOW Players), Agnes of God, The House of Yes, Equus, I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, The Pillowman (FTE), Godspell, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (FSA), The Secret Garden, Sleepy Hollow, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Riverside). Many thanks to Devon, Courtney, and Kylie for getting him back onstage. Chris is the current Artistic Director at FTE and in his spare time he likes to say "fuck" a lot.
THEGOATORWHOISSYLVIA | COMPANY
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CREATIVE TEAM
Director ...... Devon Clark
Assistant Director / Stage Manager ...... Courtney Fox
Assistant Stage Manager ...... Katie Moncure
Technical Director ......Sam Fulton
Set Design ...... Kylie Clark
Props ...... Kylie Clark
Pre-show Announcements ...... Stephanie Johnson
Special Thanks
Adventure Brewing Company
Riverside Center for the Arts
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Can I accept what I’ve always thought was unacceptable?
Is the person I am becoming a person that I cannot be?
Do I even know myself?
It’s a hard moment when the facts and events of our lives push us to consider those very impossible questions! For myself, I’ve experienced it twice in. My father was physically and emotionally abusive to my mother, my sisters, and me. So, as I grew into adulthood, I applied myself to the task of building people up rather than tearing them down. To encouraging and inspiring people. To being the loving husband and father that he was not. So, in May of 2013, when I had my first extended ‘Daddy watches the baby’ excursion just 2 weeks after my first was born, I had one of my two experiences.
You see, on this day, my daughter wanted her mommy. Not me. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is. And since mommy wouldn’t come back for an hour or two…well…things took a turn. As I continued to not produce (or be) mommy, my 2-week-old daughter got angrier and angrier at me. And with hours before mommy would return, she started to scream. An hour passed. The screaming increased. I started to get a little scared. Out of that fear, having tried all of the tricks I knew, I had a moment of absolute weakness. I screamed back. The emotional backlash from my psyche was immediate and intense.
How could you?!
You’re a monster!
And, worst of all…
This is probably how it started with dad!
I was terrified, ashamed, confused…and deeply, deeply conflicted. I had to wrestle with the possibility that, despite my best efforts, I was becoming the thing that I had committed to not become.
Despite what you might think, the show you are about to see, “The Goat”, is NOT about bestiality. What this show IS about is “accepting the unacceptable”. It’s about wrestling with demons WHILE you consider the possibility that you might actually become one. When we are knee-deep in the impossible—something that cannot be, but somehow is—can we even really know ourselves? Can we even find the words to express ourselves when the subject is impossible or unacceptable? What kind of hurt can we inflict on the people who trust us enough to follow us into that uncertain terrain? And can that trust be repaired when it’s lost? How do we react when we find that we love something that we know is bad for us? Lessens us? Can we continue to hold our heads high? Do we have the strength to deny ourselves? Or worse, to love something so much that we must destroy it?
I don’t know what your moment will be. If you have one, I feel pretty confident that it won’t involve a goat. It might be (or might have been) a moment of fear as a new parent. Whatever the case, should you find yourself asking these questions, I hope that “The Goat” might help you through that isolation, fear, and the self-doubt. It is not my intention that this show will give you the answers to those difficult questions. It is my intention that in asking them - in the shared experience of processing these questions through these impossible circumstances - that we all find we are more capable of loving and accepting ourselves. Just a little bit more…
- DEVON CLARK | 2022
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
EDWARD ALBEE (March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what Martin Esslin identified and named the Theater of the Absurd.[1] Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
His works are often considered frank examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and Jean Genet.
His middle period comprised plays that explored the psychology of maturing, marriage, and sexual relationships. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula Vogel, credit Albee's mix of theatricality and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent postwar American theatre in the early 1960s. Later in life, Albee continued to experiment in works such as The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002).
