Recent Season

Vitriol and Violets:  Tales From the Algonquin Round Table

An original play by Shelly Lipkin, Louanne Moldovan and Sherry Lamoreaux

Directed by Louanne Moldovan

Originally produced at the Russell Street Theatre

Co-produced by Cygnet Productions and Lakewood Theatre Company

~many thanks to Girlfriends for special support~

Synopsis

New York's liveliest literary scene in the Twenties was found at the Algonquin Round Table, a daily lunchtime-to evening assemblage of writers, critics and artists who were admired, feared, emulated—and widely quoted. Round Table writers became deservedly famous for their work in poetry, novels, the theatre, and movies…and infamous for their lifestyles.

Vitriol and Violets: Tales From the Algonquin Round Table brings to vivid life Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Alexander Woollcott, Harpo Marx, Harold Ross, Jane Grant, Tallulah Bankhead, Heywood Broun, Robert Sherwood and assorted lovers and friends, and surveys the arc of this dazzling, hard-drinking decade through the lens of their intersected lives.

Press Release

Portland, OR—October 22, 2004—Picture yourself in New York in 1920. The Great War is over, and people are hungry to live again—to laugh, dance, be gay. Nobody laughed more than the fascinating people who gathered daily at the Round Table at the Algonquin Hotel in New York’s theatre district. Writers Alexander Woollcott, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Robert Sherwood, Marc Connelly, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Heywood Broun, Franklin Pierce Adams, Harold Ross, Jane Grant, artist Neysa McMein and various friends, lovers and associates lunched daily and met again in the evenings for parties and poker for nearly ten years.

During the course of this “ten-year lunch,” many of the group gained fame and fortune as newspaper columnists, magazine writers and editors, book, theatre and movie reviewers, novelists, illustrators, playwrights and poets. The Table became famous, and its habitués’ bon mots were widely quoted. Harold Ross launched The New Yorker during this time, drawing on many of the talents at the Table.

Critics of the Table and its members’ output have charged that Round Tablers lived too hard and drank too much; they’ve also claimed that the group was long on attitude and short on intellectual depth. Perhaps there is a degree of truth to this, but taken as a whole the Algonquin Round Table was an extraordinary accumulation of talent and ambition which altered American culture forever, partly by redefining American humor, partly by devotion to high standards, and most importantly by the lasting, pervasive influence members had on the colloquial tongue, several art forms, and other artists.

Core Round Tablers racked up Pulitzers, invented new literary genres (most particularly movie reviewing), became stars in the early mediums of radio and moving pictures, and devised parlor games still played today.

Cygnet Productions and The Lakewood Theatre Company have teamed to co-produce Vitriol and Violets: Tales from the Algonquin Round Table. Vitriol and Violets premiered as a staged reading in 2002, to sold-out houses. The actors performed with scripts in hand, as the play was being rewritten and reshaped almost daily. This new production will be the first time Vitriol and Violets will be fully staged, as a play.

The play is a mosaic of scenes and dialogue showcasing the wit, drives and relationships of the fascinating people at the core of the Algonquin Round Table, while faithfully representing cultural aspects of the twenties. Vitriol and Violets, written by Oregon writers Shelly Lipkin, Louanne Moldovan and Sherry Lamoreaux, is a finalist for an Oregon Book Award, the Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama, given by Literary Arts.

Vitriol and Violets is directed by Louanne Moldovan. The cast includes Don Alder, Nancy Benner, Dave Bodin, Jane Ferguson, Shelly Lipkin, John Morrison, Vana O’Brien, Laura Faye Smith, Michael Teufel and Wendy Westerwelle.

For more information, press only contact:

• Sherry Lamoreaux, Cygnet Productions Media Relations: cell: (503) 704-9700; sherry.lamoreaux@comcast.net
• Andrew Edwards, Lakewood Theatre Company, (503) 635-3901; center.info@lakewood-center.org

PAST SHOWS IN 2004

Showed: June 11 - July 18, 2004
Read reviews from the archive.

2001-02 SEASON

Bloody Poetry, opening September 14, 2001. This literate, darkly funny Howard Brenton play begins in 1816 with the meeting of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelly and Lord Byron on a beach, and follows their friendship through ongoing literary and political debates, through scandalous sexual triangles, through marriages and children and through the difficulties of living the Romantic lifestyle in a disapproving society. Directed by Alana Byington, with Kate Donovan as Claire Clairmont, Thomas Nabhan as Lord Byron, Luisa Sermol as Mary Shelley, Rafael Untalan as Percy Bysshe Shelley, Deanna Wells as Harriet, and Joshua Westhaver as Dr. Polidori. To run five weeks, September 14 though October 13, 2001 at the Russell Street Theatre.

Women of Courage, one night only, November 14, 2001: As part of the VOICES Contemporary Lecture Series, Cygnet and People Who Dare will return Women of Courage to the stage, co-producing this 1999 sellosut hit. Portland author Katherine Martin adapted her book Women of Courage into theatre that meets reality, stirring the human spirit and compelling the soul with stories of living women. Each woman's story is read by an actor, with the subject herself making an appearance. Directed by Cygnet co-artistic director Louanne Moldovan; starring Kate Hawkes, Dawn Leonetti, Victoria Parker, Luisa Sermol, and Wendy Westerwelle. See entry under Words and Lectures (or whatever the section will be called) for complete VOICES Contemporary Lecture Series dates and speakers. One night only, Wednesday November 14, at the First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Portland, OR.

St. Nicholas, opening February 1, 2002: This one-man show earned Ted Roisum a Best Actor Drammy for its short run during the 1999-2000 season; Cygnet is taking the opportunity to restage this excellent piece, allowing it the greater exposure it richly deserves. Playwright Conor McPherson describes his drama (which is a monologue by a burned-out theatre critic) as ãfull of mischief·we (the audience) collude with the actor in a very direct way.ä The elegantly bare stage contains only a stool; Roisum's only prop is a pair of glasses. The play is contemporary with a wry, gothic twist, taking the traditional Irish story-telling yarn to the next level. To run four weeks, February 1 through February 23, at the Russell Street Theatre.

Eavesdropping at the Algonquin Round Table (working title), opening April 19, 2002: Cygnet Theatre is known nationally for adapting literature÷letters, poetry, short stories, et cetera÷to the stage. Company co-artistic directors Shelly Lipkin and Louanne Moldovan are creating an original piece of work, set at the famous Algonquin Hotel Round Table, based on actual text, research, and substantial ensemble process work (including improvisation and theatre exercises). Sources include quips and writings of famous and infamous habituŽs of the Round Table including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Harpo Marx, and others. The Round Table began as a one-time event, an afternoon roast of the New York Times drama critic Alexander Wollcott, and evolved into America's best-known, best-loved literary salon. It is particularly fitting that Cygnet÷which was conceived in 1992 as a literary salon, and continues in this tradition÷chose this work to develop. Directed by Louanne Moldovan; the cast will include Gregg Bielemeier, Grant Byington, Jane Ferguson, Shelly Lipkin, Vana O'Brien, Luisa Sermol, Ted Roisum and Wendy Westerwelle. To run six weeks, April 19 through May 25, 2002, at the Russell Street Theatre.