Cast (in order of appearance)

Hazel Conway Terri Baebler*
Carol Conway Sarah Vanikiotis*
Alan Conway Rob Cramer
Madge Conway Laura Leonardo-Ownby
Kay Conway Janel Palm
Mrs. Conway Linda Roberts
Joan Helford Karen Arnold
Gerald Thornton Dave Bremer
Ernest Beevers Jim Hanningan
Robin Conway Rob Snyder
* new to our stage  

Director’s Corner

By Jack Phillips

J.B. Priestley, the author of today’s play, was fascinated by time. In many of his plays he played with going back and forth in time. In some, he told a story backwards — from the end to the beginning. In Time and the Conways he lets his main character do something we all have wished we could do; he lets Kay see what will happen to her and to her family in twenty years. What will they be like? Can we see from how they are now what will happen to them in twenty years? The larger question for Kay, since she doesn’t like what she sees, is — must it happen? If we have a glimpse into the future, does that mean it can’t or won’t change? Can we do anything about it now to make things turn out differently?

The play is intriguing for actors, directors and designers because most of the characters not only age twenty years, as they might do in other plays, but then they go back to their earlier age. That’s a challenge for us all.

Dramaturg’s Diary

By Ed Barrow

Consider the concept of time. The past is nothing but memories (talk to M. Proust), but neuroscience now tells us that memories are only our personal reconstruction of events. Even the past beyond living memory is not a fixed set of events as revisionist historians have amply demonstrated. The future is nothing but potential, never realized until it is no longer the future. What remains with us is  the present, a fragile sliver of time so small it leaves us even as we sit and read a playbill.

Time in the theatre is more tractable, more malleable. Audiences understand the ploys of flashback and flashforward. Perhaps less with a play set in the same place but different times (Stoppard’s Arcadia), or a play set in the same time but different places (Ayckbourn’s House & Garden). Among other existential issues, these techniques of manipulating time allow us to grapple with questions of inevitability, even destiny.

A playwright might choose to tell the audience how his play will end well before the final curtain. Dramatic tension is created when the audience knows the leading man should not open a certain door and watches as he does so. This is what Priestly gives us in Time and the Conways.

Act I is set in 1919, in England, just as the First World War ends. Act II is set “in the future,” twenty years later in 1939. Act III returns to 1919, and now we, the audience, know more about the future of the characters than the characters, themselves, do. Or do we? Does Kay foresee an inescapable future, or just one of many possible futures? Priestley thought he knew the answer, but in Time and the Conways he leaves the question for us to decide.

Priestly accomplished a large volume of work in his lifetime. He was known primarily as a novelist and essayist in spite of writing more than thirty plays. As a playwright he belonged to the school of realism, although he frequently indulged in trick or surprise endings to his plays. He is perhaps best known in the theatre for this play and I Have Been Here Before, both of which played with the concept of time. The Theatre of Western Springs produced his  Dangerous Corner in 1969, a mystery and a cautionary tale about the damage caused by telling the unvarnished truth.

Priestly was very much the political liberal. While there was no such thing as “talk radio” in 1940, he created a radio show called Postscripts which aired right after the nine o’clock news. His commentary was so popular that by one estimate he pulled a 40% market share of adults. The Conservative Party complained about his left-wing views, especially in light of the war, and Priestly left the air after a scant five months.

Priestly continued to write politically liberal essays through much of the 1950’s. He assembled his autobiography in two volumes published in 1962 and 1977. Priestly died in 1984 at the age of ninety. Time was kind to him.

Acknowledgments:

Produced with special permission from Samuel French, Inc.

Special thanks to:
The Fruit Store, Western Springs and Hinsdale, for providing apple cider at cost with free delivery.
Starbucks, Western Springs, for providing decaf coffee for the second Thursday performance.

Production Credits:

Director, Jack Phillips

Technical Director, Thad Hallstein

Stage Manager, Ed Barrow

Assistant Stage Manager, Linda Bugielski

Costume Designer, Sue Kuehnhold

Costume Crew, Mary Dempsey, Karla Hudson, Jan Quinn

Dramaturg, Ed Barrow

Hospitality Chair, Carol Clarke

Hospitality Crew, Bob Baker, Rosemary Beale, Jan Benedict, Carole Borg, Ruth Cekal, Jack and Penny Choice, Tom Frohnapfel, Bonnie Hilton, Karen Holbert, Dennis Hudson, Mike and Pat Huth, Dick and Peggy Jacoby, Tom Kokontis, Cassandra Johnson Locke, Ixta Menchaca, Debby Mills, Diane Oppenheim, Arlene Page, Pat Rafferty, Joan Roeder, Pat Rotz, Donna Sauers, Margaret Schlegel, Jane Stacy, Liz Steele, Carol Suda, Merrilyn Tomchaney, Susan Waldschmidt, Gini Welch

Lighting Designer, Mary Ellen Schutt

Lighting Crew, Steven Besic, Keith Burzinski, Darla Goudeau, Chuck Lichtenauer, Paul Roach, Cathy Van Horne

Makeup Designers, Peggy Carlson, Christy Dahl

Makeup Crew, Cindy Blaszak, Mary Ellen Druyan, Nell Fisher-Agnew, Darla Goudeau, Susan Hannigan, Julie Knoch, Mary Smith, Sue Valenta

Properties Designers, Linda Bremer, Greg Maurer

Properties Crew, Linda Auer, Linda Cunningham, Adele Davis, Bill FitzGerald, Donna Sauers, Liz Steele, Wendy Summers, Dorothy Tressler

Rehearsal Stand-ins, Eileen Crow, Bonnie Hilton

Set Designer, Art Kelly

Set Construction Chairs, Harry Hultgren, Art Kelly

Set Construction Crew, Anne Cahill, Mark Favoino, Mark Hewitt, Mike Huth, Art Kelly, Jon Mills, John Otto, Paul Roach, Fred Sauers

Set Painting Chair, Rob Nardini

Set Painting Crew, Carol Clarke, Art Kelly , Cassandra Johnson Locke, Mary Pavia, Jennifer Schmidt, Cathy Van Horne, Stephanie Williams, Sue Wisthuff

Sound Designer, Jack Calvert

Sound Crew, Cassandra Johnson Locke, John Otto, Fred Sauers, Betsy Stiles, Denny Wise

Musical Accompaniment and Singing, Nick & Lori D’Asta

Dialect Coach, Susan Murray Miller

Box Office Chair, Lori Proksa

Box Office Crew, Carol Clarke, Patricia Huth, Kelli Kopp, Rick Pavia, Amanda Ragan, Patti Roeder, Mary Ellen Schutt, Carol Suda, Marilyn Wilson

House Manager Chair, Bill Wilson

House Managers, Susan Cardamone, Carol Clarke, George Dempsey, Tom Frohnapfel, Karen Holbert, Karla Hudson, Mike Janke, Donna Kanak, Mike Mallon, Kevin McGrath, Arlene Page, Jan Quinn, Bill Rotz, Catey Sullivan, Denny Wise, Sue Wisthuff

Front Row Center Flyer, Joe Petrolis

Group Sales Chair, Betsy Stiles

Poster Distribution, Kathleen Kusper

Production Coordinator, Jon Mills

Program Advertising, Peggy Carlson

Publicity Chair, Ann Marie Hultgren

Program Editors, Ed Barrow, Marion Reis

Program Production, Stephanie Williams

Actives Website, Judy DiVita

More Pictures on Page 2