Welcome to Ford’s Theatre!
Table of Contents
Our 2013-2014 season celebrates
the outsiders, the odd ones out, the people
The Laramie Project
who just don’t quite fit in. How do we
Tectonic Theater Project: Process and Construction......... 3
behave when we are outside looking in?
The Geography of Hate Crimes in Recent Memory............4
How do we react to the unfamiliar?
Laramie and the World: 10 Years Later............................. 5
We open the season with The
Laramie Project, presented as a part of The A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens,1812-1870.............................................. 6
Lincoln Legacy Project, an initiative that
A Civil War Christmas........................................................ 7
strives to create a dialogue around the
issues of equality and acceptance.
Violet
Members of New York City’s Tectonic
Violet and Adaptation......................................................... 8
Theater Project arrived in Laramie,
The U.S. Army’s History of Racial Integration.................... 9
Wyoming one month after the murder of
I Saw It on Television....................................................... 10
gay university student Matthew Shepard in
order to document the community’s reaction The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
A Brief History of the Spelling Bee in America................. 11
to the hate crime and the subsequent
Play Along with the Bee................................................... 12
media frenzy. This powerful play highlights
Past Winners of the Bee.................................................. 13
the experience of the outsider, both from
the perspective of the “Big City” actors in
Resource Guide............................................................... 14
Wyoming as well as Laramie’s response to
a young gay man and his two murderers,
none of whom could fit in.
Next comes our annual production of A Christmas Carol, based on the
beloved story by English writer Charles Dickens, about everyone’s favorite selfimposed outsider, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Violet, a distinctly American musical, follows the journey of a disfigured
young woman who takes a bus to Oklahoma in order to be healed by a
televangelist. On the bus, she meets two young soldiers, one black and one
white, who help her come to understand the true nature of beauty. Set in the
1960s, Violet explores themes of racism and segregation.
We finish the season with the joyful The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee, a musical about a small group of young spellers competing to get
to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Though considered
“nerds” at school, these students share an affinity for orthography that results in
friendship and a few misspellings.
Abraham Lincoln by Anthony
This Season Guide will prepare you for the shows, give you historical
Berger, 1864. Courtesy,
context and, we hope, entertain you.
Library of Congress
Thank You
American Airlines is the official airline of Ford’s Theatre.
Amtrak is the official rail sponsor of Ford’s Theatre.
Ford’s Theatre Stages built by The Home Depot.
Chevron, 2013-2014 Season Sponsor.
Ford’s Theatre Society thanks BP America for its lead sponsorship of our 2013-2014 education programs.
Ford’s Theatre is grateful for additional support from: Target, Northrup Grumman, Central Children’s Charities,
Share Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, DC Commission on the Arts and
Humanities, Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Kiplinger Foundation, Dimick Foundation,
the Hearst Foundation, Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation,
Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, and the Mars Foundation.
Guide created by Hannah Silberman, with additional articles by Nicole Bryner.