History of the Play:
A very concise summary from our director:
The source material is a turn of the century English translation of an old French farce about two neighbors who want their kids to fall in love, so they manufacture a feud, Romeo and Juliet style, because kids will always grab the forbidden fruit. The French play was called Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand and the English translation was titled The Fantasticks.
Originally, Schmidt and Jones decided to set their version in the American Southwest on two neighboring ranches, one Spanish, one Anglo, and started writing this huge melodramatic extravaganza with horses on stage and a chorus of cowboys, called Joy Comes to Dead Horse. It had a premiere at the University of New Mexico in 1956 but it was not a success. They continued to work on it until the whole thing "collapsed under its own weight", at which point they shelved it. In 1959 a friend called them and said he had a space open in summer stock and if they wanted to dust off their cowboy musical they could put it on there. Instead, they threw out everything except a couple of songs (Try to Remember was one of them) and started over, writing a simple play using theatrical devices and Shakespearean overtones with a connecting theme of a garden: vegetables and seasons.
A very concise summary from our director:
The source material is a turn of the century English translation of an old French farce about two neighbors who want their kids to fall in love, so they manufacture a feud, Romeo and Juliet style, because kids will always grab the forbidden fruit. The French play was called Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand and the English translation was titled The Fantasticks.
Originally, Schmidt and Jones decided to set their version in the American Southwest on two neighboring ranches, one Spanish, one Anglo, and started writing this huge melodramatic extravaganza with horses on stage and a chorus of cowboys, called Joy Comes to Dead Horse. It had a premiere at the University of New Mexico in 1956 but it was not a success. They continued to work on it until the whole thing "collapsed under its own weight", at which point they shelved it. In 1959 a friend called them and said he had a space open in summer stock and if they wanted to dust off their cowboy musical they could put it on there. Instead, they threw out everything except a couple of songs (Try to Remember was one of them) and started over, writing a simple play using theatrical devices and Shakespearean overtones with a connecting theme of a garden: vegetables and seasons.
That Controversial Song....
Historically, the word "rape" derives from the Latin rapere, meaning to snatch, grab, or carry off. Since the 14th century, it usually refers to take away by force and thus often referred to a theft or kidnapping. Famous examples in which the word had not quite received its contemporary connotation are in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, in which a lock of hair was taken, and, to a lesser extent, The Rape of the Sabine Women, in which scholars view it as more of a mass abduction as opposed to sexual assault.
Historically, the word "rape" derives from the Latin rapere, meaning to snatch, grab, or carry off. Since the 14th century, it usually refers to take away by force and thus often referred to a theft or kidnapping. Famous examples in which the word had not quite received its contemporary connotation are in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, in which a lock of hair was taken, and, to a lesser extent, The Rape of the Sabine Women, in which scholars view it as more of a mass abduction as opposed to sexual assault.