Mr. Burns and Other Plays

Anne Washburn

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781559364812
• eBook ISBN: 9781559367943
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"One of the most spectacularly original plays in recent memory."—Entertainment Weekly

"Fascinating and hilarious . . . With each of its three acts, Mr. Burns grows grander."—Village Voice

"When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? . . . Mr. Burns has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas . . . with depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination."—The New York Times

An ode to live theater and the resilience of The Simpsons, Anne Washburn's apocalyptic comedy Mr. Burns—"even better than its hype" (New York Post)—is an imaginative exploration of how the culture of one generation can evolve into the mythology of the next. Following an enthusiastic critical reception from New York critics for its world premiere, Mr. Burns will receive its London premiere in spring 2014. Also included in the collection are The Small, I Have Loved Strangers, and Orestes, all of which, together, develop a theme of destruction, from the personal to the city to civilization and, finally, to the destruction of form.

Anne Washburn's plays include The Internationalist, A Devil at Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, The Small, and a transadaptation of Euripides's Orestes. Her awards include a Guggenheim, NYFA Fellowship, Time Warner Fellowship, and a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist. She is a member of 13P, The Civilians, and is a New Georges affiliated artist.

MR. BURNS

A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY

Play and lyrics by Anne Washburn

Original score by Michael Friedman

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Mr. Burns was commissioned by The Civilians (Steve Cosson, Artistic Director) and developed in partnership with The Civilians, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons. It had its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Howard Shalwitz, Artistic Director; Jeffrey Herrmann, Managing Director) in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2012. It was directed by Steve Cosson. The set design was by Misha Kachman, the costume design was by Frank Labovitz, the lighting design was by Colin K. Bills, the original musical score was by Michael Friedman, the sound design was by Elisheba Ittoop, and the choreography was by Diane Coburn Bruning; the musical director was Jonathan Tuzman, the dramaturg was Miriam Weisfeld, and the stage manager was William E. Cruttenden III. The cast was:

MATT/HOMER	Steve Rosen
JENNY/LISA	Kimberly Gilbert
MARIA/ITCHY	Jenna Sokolowski
SAM/MR. BURNS	James Sugg
COLLEEN/MARGE	Amy McWilliams
GIBSON/HOMER	Chris Genebach
QUINCY/BART	Erika Rose

Mr. Burns had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director; Carol Fishman, General Manager) on September 15, 2013. It was directed by Steve Cosson. The set design was by Neil Patel, the costume design was by Emily Rebholz, the lighting design was by Justin Townsend, the original musical score was by Michael Friedman, the sound design was by Ken Travis, the choreography was by Sam Pinkleton, the mask and wig design were by Sam Hill, and the special effects design was by Jeremy Chernick; the musical director was Mike Brun and the production stage manager was Kyle Gates. The cast was:

MATT/SCRATCHY	Matthew Maher
JENNY/MARGE	Jennifer R. Morris
SAM/MR. BURNS	Sam Breslin Wright
COLLEEN/LISA	Colleen Werthmann
GIBSON/HOMER	Gibson Frazier
QUINCY/BART	Quincy Tyler Bernstine
SUSANNAH/ITCHY	Susannah Flood
EDNA KRABAPPEL	Nedra McClyde
MUSICIAN	Mike Brun

NOTES ON THE PLAY

In 2008 I was commissioned by The Civilians, an investigative theater group based in NYC, to work on an idea I’d been wondering about for years: What would happen to a pop culture narrative pushed past the fall of civilization?

For a week that summer, director Steve Cosson and I hunkered in a disused bank vault/free rehearsal space deep under Wall Street with Civilians’ actors Quincy Bernstine, Maria Dizzia, Gibson Frazier, Matt Maher, Jenny Morris, Sam Wright, and Colleen Werthmann.

We tasked them with remembering Simpsons’ episodes, and the dialogue around the remembering of the episode in The First Act (and the small section of the episode rehearsed in The Second Act) is largely verbatim from those sessions.

It should be noted that the characters in this play bear at best a passing, and in many cases none whatsoever, resemblance to the actors initially involved in the project.

—AW

CHARACTERS

In order of appearance:

MATT

JENNY

MARIA

SAM

COLLEEN

GIBSON

QUINCY

EDNA

NOTES ON TIME

This play is set in the very near future

then seven years after that

then seventy-five years after that

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• I Have Loved Strangers
• The Small
• Mr. Burns
• 10 Out of 12
• About the Author