Tales of the Lost Formicans and Other Plays

Constance Congdon

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781559360845
• eBook ISBN: 9781559368230
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

“One of the playwrights our country, and our language, has produced.” – Tony Kushner

“Quirky, disturbing, and inexplicably beautiful theatrical poetry.” – Cary M. Mazer, Philadelphia City Paper

“Congdon writes like a woman possessed.” – Nels Nelson, New York Daily News

An immensely inventive and challenging writer, Constance Congdon is one of America’s finest playwrights, endowed with great compassion, keen insight and an unfailing comic sensibility. Throughout the plays in her first collection, she demonstrates a range rare in writers in any age, from a somber meditation on life in the postnuclear age (No Mercy) to madcap social satire (Losing Father’s Body), from an epic historical exploration of love and sexual identity (Casanova) to her most popular play to date (Tales of the Lost Formicans), acclaimed by William A. Henry III of Time magazine as “A travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens from outer space… If not the best new play of recent years, surely the most imaginative.”

Constance Congdon’s plays have been produced throughout the United States and abroad. She has received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations, and is the winner of Oppenheimer/Newsday, W. Alton Jones and L/ Arnold Weissberger awards. Congdon, an alumna of New Dramatists, currently teaches playwriting at Amherst College.

CASANOVA

For John Seitz and Jeff Weiss

CASANOVA premiered at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp, Producer, May 28, 1991. The cast and creative contributors were as follows:

ACT ONE
ROUSSEAU’S GIRL	Erika Alexander
THERESE	Margaret Gibson
In Paris
SOPHIE	Kaiulani Lee
BOBO	Jeff Weiss
The Hague
GIRL SOPHIE	Liana Pai
GIACOMO CASANOVA	John Seitz
On the Road
UTA	Erika Alexander
Casanova’s Childhood (Venice)
GIRL THERESE	Martha Thompson
YOUNG CASANOVA	Ethan Hawke
THERESE’S MOTHER	Erika Alexander
GRANDMAMA	Marylouise Burke
PRIEST	Jack Stehlin
MAN AT FESTIVAL	Robert Stanton
ZANETTA, CASANOVA’S MOTHER	LaTanya Richardson
GRIMANI	James Noah
DEAD GAETANO	Robert Stanton
SORCERESS	Marylouise Burke
WOMAN WEARING HOOPS	Liana Pai

At the Seminary
PRIEST	Robert Stanton
LADY	LaTanya Richardson
OLD COUNT	Jack Stehlin
GIRL	Liana Pai
BELLINO	Martha Thompson
SALEMBINI	Jack Stehlin
MONSIGNOR	James Noah
Bobo’s Childhood (Paris)
BOY BOBO	Martha Thompson
COUNTESS	Marylouise Burke
FRENCH FOP	Jack Stehlin
Home from the Seminary
OLD SERVANT	James Noah
VENETIAN FOP	Robert Stanton
CATERINA	Liana Pai
At the Convent on Murano
LAURA	Marylouise Burke
IDIOT WOMAN	Martha Thompson
MARINA	LaTanya Richardson
At the Riddoto, Venice
BERNIS	Jack Stehlin
SBIRRI #1	Jack Stehlin
SBIRRI #2	Robert Stanton
MANUZZI	James Noah
WOMAN PASSING BY	Martha Thompson

ACT TWO
At Piombi Prison
JAILER	James Noah
INQUISITOR #1	LaTanya Richardson
INQUISITOR #2	Jack Stehlin
INQUISITOR #3	Robert Stanton
On the Way to Paris
TRAVELER #1	Jack Stehlin
TRAVELER #2	James Noah
In Paris
DANCING MASTER	Robert Stanton
LADIES AT DAMIENS’ EXECUTION	LaTanya Richardson,
	Martha Thompson
MARCOLINE	LaTanya Richardson
At Versailles
PARIS-DUVERNY	Robert Stanton
EMACIATED WOMAN	Martha Thompson
COURT LADY	Liana Pai
In the Ballet Box
LADY	Liana Pai
MAN	James Noah
MADAME D’URFE	Marylouise Burke
Charpillon’s Rooms
CHARPILLON’S MOTHER	Marylouise Burke
CHARPILLON	Erika Alexander

Mariucci’s Home
MARIUCCI	LaTanya Richardson
MARIUCCI’S HUSBAND	James Noah
GUILLELMINE	Martha Thompson
JACOMINE	Liana Pai
In the Opera Box
DA PONTE	James Noah
In Sophie & Bobo’s Rooms
ALAIN	Robert Stanton
JULIEN	James Noah
At the Ball
FOOTMAN	Robert Stanton
GUESTS	The Company
DIRECTOR	Michael Greif
SETS	John Arnone
COSTUMES	Gabriel Berry
LIGHTS	Frances Aronson
MUSIC AND SOUND	John Gromada
MUSICAL DIRECTION	Jill Jaffe
CHOREOGRAPHY	James Cunningham
DRAMATURG	M. Elizabeth Osborn

CASANOVA was a recipient of a grant award for New American Plays from the W. Alton Jones Foundation.

CHARACTERS

(Note: Postproduction rewrites resulted in a revised character list.)

ACT ONE

YOUNG WOMAN, age 15, Rousseau’s mistress

THERESE, a wraith

In Paris

SOPHIE, age 42, Casanova’s daughter

BOBO, age 60

On the Road

CASANOVA, age 70+

UTA, young and overweight

The Hague

YOUNG THERESE, age 16 to early twenties

GIRL SOPHIE, prepubescent

Casanova’s Childhood (Venice)

YOUNG CASANOVA, boy to young man

ZANETTA, mother of Casanova

GRANDMAMA, mother of Zanetta

SORCERESS

WOMAN W...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Tales of the Lost Formicans
• No Mercy
• Casanova
• Losing Father’s Body