Thelma is a widow from a loveless marriage whose epileptic daughter, Jessie, moves in after her husband divorces her and her delinquent son runs off. In the next hour and a half, the audience witnesses Jessie scrupulously plan for her suicide, while her mother tries in vain to stop her.
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Credits
Creative team
By
Marsha Norman
Marsha Norman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for 'Night Mother, which received its world premiere at the A.R.T. in 1982. Her play Traveller in the Dark also premiered at the A.R.T. in 1984. Ms. Norman won the 1992 Tony Award and Drama Desk awards for The Secret Garden; and the John Gassner Medallion, Newsday Oppenheimer award, and the American Theatre Critics Association Citation for Getting Out. Other plays include Third and Oak, The Laundromat, The Poolhall, The Holdup, Traveler in the Dark, Sarah and Abraham, Loving Daniel Boone, and Trudy Blue. Published work includes Four Plays and a novel, The Fortune Teller. Television and film credits include Face of a Stranger, starring Gena Rowlands and Tyne Daley. Grants and awards include National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; Ms. Norman also serves on the council of the Dramatists Guild. Ms. Norman was born in Louisville, Kentucky; received her B.A. from Agnes Scott College; and her M.A. from the University of Louisville. Since 1994 she has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School.
Directed by
Tom Moore
Set and costume design by
Heidi Landesman
Lighting design by
James F. Ingalls
Lighting design by
James F. Ingalls
Cardenio (Lighting Design). A.R.T.: Resident lighting designer, 1981–1984: Ghosts (directed by Robert Brustein), Orlando (directed by Peter Sellars), Marsha Norman's 'Night, Mother and Traveler in the Dark, Jules Fieffer's Grownups, Sganarelle (directed by Andrei Serban), the first Hasty Pudding season (True West and Robert Auletta's Rundown), Waiting for Godot (directed by Andrei Belgrader), The Boys from Syracuse, The Marriage of Figaro, The Seven Deadly Sins (all directed by Alvin Epstein). Recent seasons: A Midsummer Night's Dream (directed by Martha Clarke), The Children of Herakles (directed by Peter Sellars), The Seagull (directed by Ron Daniels), Once in a Lifetime (directed by Anne Bogart), Major Barbara, Larry Gelbart's Mastergate. Recent: New Works Festival (ten new pieces for San Francisco Ballet), Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cellphone (Steppenwolf Theatre Company/Chicago), King Arthur (directed and choreographed by Mark Morris at New York City Opera), Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater (directed by Peter Sellars at Finnish National Opera), Coppelia (Dutch National Ballet). He often collaborates with Melanie Rios and the Saint Joseph Ballet.
Cast
Thelma Cates
Anne Pitoniak
Thelma Cates
Anne Pitoniak
Jessie Cates
Kathy Bates
Jessie Cates