Written by Lucy Kirkwood
Directed by Mary Fawcett Watko
Produced by Kaelynn Bedsworth and Heather Quinn
Performance Dates:
January 10 - February 1, 2020
Run time: 95m
(no intermission)
Two retired nuclear scientists reside in an isolated cottage by the sea as the world around them crumbles. Together they are going to live forever on yogurt and yoga, until an old friend arrives with a frightening request. The Children raises profound questions about whether having children sharpens or diminishes one's sense of social responsibility. A Tony Award nominee for Best Play in 2018, this genuinely haunting play asks us: What do we owe ourselves, and what do we owe the younger generations?
To download the production postcard for The Children to share with your friends, visit the Downloads page of our website and look under the Production Postcard heading.
About the Playwright
Lucy Kirkwood is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor who was born in East London in 1984. Her first play, Grady Hot Potato, was produced in 2005, with Kirkwood in a starring role, and was selected for the National Student Drama Festival. The Children, her best-known play, was produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London and won the U.K. Writers’ Guild award for best new play before moving to Broadway, where it was one of five plays nominated for a 2018 Tony Award. She has written several other plays, including four produced in London’s West End theaters. She won the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Play for Chimerica, an examination of post-Tiananmen Square relations between China and the USA.
About the Director
Mary Fawcett Watko: “I have been working both as an actor and director for The Colonial Players since 1981 – WOW -- 38 years! Really!? Directing shows for Colonial Players over the years has been a great passion of mine. To name a few shows: Enchanted April, The Clearing, Angel Street, A Christmas Carol, Where Have All the Lightning Bugs Gone?. Directing for numerous other theaters includes Dial M for Murder, Blue Orange, Death and the Maiden, Sight Unseen. All very memorable. However, most memorable for me is not necessarily the shows I have directed or performed in as an actor, but the people I have been fortunate enough to meet and work alongside during the process of each production and who have become what I consider my “Players special friends,” people who do it “For the Love of It.” Herb Elkin is one of those special friends to whom I give many thanks for his assistance during the creative process of this show. The late Carol and Jack Youmans also were two of those special friends. Carol was my great mentor and gave me the courage to direct The Shadowlands for The Colonial Players back in 1994. It is with a sentimental heart that I dedicate this special show, The Children, to Carol and Jack. Welcome to this food-forthought play.”
Director's Notes
Many thanks go out to producers Heather and Kaelynn, to the designers and the whole production team, to every member of the staff for their dedication and time spent to bring this special show to our stage. To the actors who have worked tirelessly on their characters, I can’t thank you enough for being such a delight and joy! Thanks go to all for working together as a great team. Preparing The Children for our stage has been quite a journey. Playwright Lucy Kirkwood, I believe, wrote this play with one thing in mind – “Get the message out!” I have considered from day one that it is my responsibility, as the director, to try to do just that to the best of my ability. Knowing much about theater but absolutely nothing about the deep, looming subject matter of this play, I dug in with my research and, for additional help, used the trusty Google. It may not always be “spot on,” but Google is simply amazing! The Children is not a true story; however, I do believe a great deal of the play is based on information from the past and the present – and projections of the future, of which Lucy Kirkwood would like us all to be more aware. It is interesting that in August, during preparation for this show, an explosion on a Russian ship damaged a reactor and released radiation into the air, raising the same concerns depicted in The Children. Lucy Kirkwood believes it is our responsibility, to our current and future children, to bring these concerns to the forefront. It is my hope that this production will give you pause for thought and reason to ask this question: “What, if anything, can we possibly do to protect the children?
– MARY FAWCETT WATKO
The Cast
Greg Jones (Robin) - Greg was last seen at CP as Beethoven in 33 Variations. Other roles here include Lane in Ernest in Love and, jumping back a few decades, one of the cast in the 1978 production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well .... More recent Annapolis-area roles include Mr. Bumble in Oliver! (Annapolis Shakespeare Company), Monsignor O’Hara in Sister Act (Summer Garden Theatre), Mr. Lundie in Brigadoon (Compass Rose Theater), and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd (Opera AACC). DC-area roles include Thomas Andrews in Titanic (Theatre Lab) and M in Samuel Beckett’s Play (Arcturus Theater Company). Greg has lent his disembodied voice to “characters” such as the BBC commentator in In Praise of Love (Washington Stage Guild), a hit man in the public radio play titled Quorum: The Gambler’s Tale, and a bike messenger dispatcher in the sequel, The Messenger’s Tale (both for Jabberwocky Audio Theatre). Greg has also written several plays, including the period comedy Divinity Place and the Hollywood-based comedy-drama All Save One, which premiered at the Washington Stage Guild in 2018 and won the 2017 Julie Harris Playwriting Award. Future projects include a staged reading of his latest play, Dead Air, sponsored by the Baltimore chapter of the Dramatists Guild on April 22, and an appearance with the Annapolis Symphony May 1 and 2, where he will read letters from various immigrants as part of the Symphony’s performance of Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, in collaboration with the Annapolis Shakespeare Company. He is deeply grateful to the two Marys, Meg, and everyone at CP for their passion about this play. For Eric, always.
Mary MacLeod (Hazel) - Mary was last seen as the Host of the Garter in The Merry Wives of Windsor at The Colonial Players. Other favorite roles at CP include Eileen Osbourne in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Terry Glimmer in Side Man, Lady Boyle in Superior Donuts, Anna Cantor in The Babylon Line, Lettice Douffet in Lettice and Lovage, Nancy Shirley in Frozen, and Marjorie Taub in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife. She also loved performing as the aging British rocker in VVVC Production’s Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, and in Dignity Players’ productions of Doubt (Sister Aloysius) and The Diary of Anne Frank (Mrs. Van Daan). Mary has been nominated for two WATCH awards, one for best performance by an actress in a leading role in Frozen and another for a performance cameo in Superior Donuts. She sends a huge thank you to Mary Fawcett Watko for casting her and for giving her the opportunity to be onstage with Greg and Meg. As always, she thanks Alan and Carter for all their patience and support.
Meg Venton (Rose) - An almost-native Annapolitan (from age 10), Meg saw a thrilling production of Wait Until Dark at The Colonial Players in the 1970's and was hooked for life. (As she has not acted regularly for many years and needs to have some sort of bio, she is going to have to mine material from way back when...) She began acting at age 11: Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan at Children's Theatre of Annapolis. She appeared in about a dozen plays by the time she entered college, including Olive Lashbrooke in The Voice of the Turtle and Polly in The Gingerbread Lady, both at The Colonial Players; Bianca in Othello with the Naval Academy Masqueraders; and Sandra in A Thousand Clowns with the Severna Park Players. Once in college, Meg earned a BFA in theater with a concentration in performance from Adelphi University. Among the roles she played there were Meg in The Hostage; Ma Ubu in Ubu Roi; Angel in When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?; and Aline in The Master Builder. In the ensuing years, Meg’s theater activity took a back seat to motherhood, but over the years she was able to appear as the washerwoman in A Christmas Carol and Puss In Boots in Joe Thompson's Kids' Cabaret, both at CP, as well as to teach children's drama at Preschool for the Arts at St. Anne's. Most recently, Meg appeared as Cecelia in Shiloh Rules at CP. She would like to thank Mary Fawcett Watko for her kindness and tact, Greg and Mary M. for their inspiring work, CP for choosing this complex play that examines what one generation owes the next, and her son and daughter for their love and understanding.
The Production Staff
Kaelynn Bedsworth (Co-Producer) This is Kaelynn’s eleventh season with CP, and she has volunteered both on the stage and off in a variety of roles, from actress to go-button pusher to steampunk wig maker to Looney Tunes sound effect specialist to smushed banana cleaner. You may have seen her grace the stage in The Secret Garden, Annie, 1776, A Christmas Carol, Moonlight and Magnolias and more. Behind the scenes, she has produced, costume designed, sound designed, and scene painted for many shows over the last few years. Kaelynn currently serves as Treasurer on CP's Board of Directors. Kaelynn sends love to her husband, Wes, who shares this crazy theater world with her on a daily basis.
Wes Bedsworth (Sound Designer) Wes has been volunteering at The Players since early 2007 when he was a sound technician for Moon Over Buffalo. Since then, he's gone on to sound design many other shows, lighting design one, program lights for a bunch, create a ridiculous Arduino-controlled illuminated grand piano for another, and provide technical consultation on more shows than he can count. Wes currently serves as the Technical Director on the Production Team, making sure that all of our lighting and sound equipment is seen and heard when it's supposed to be, and not seen nor heard when it's not supposed to be. Sometimes the equipment doesn't always behave, so he and the dedicated Technical Consultant Team stand at the ready to smack it around, when necessary. He is also honored to continue to serve as Operations Director on the Board, where his responsibilities vary from plumber to electrician to network administrator to HVAC technician to locksmith to general handyman, depending on what day it is and what broke this time. (Sometimes things break faster than they can be fixed!) By day, Wes supports the US Navy working for Cardinal Engineering, a generous annual supporter of CP. Wes sends his love to his supportive wife, Kaelynn, who (foolishly!) shares this hobby with him on a daily basis, and to his parents and sister Susan.
Herb Elkin (Assistant Director/Stage Manager) Herb has been a CP member and active volunteer for over 20 years. After performing onstage in several CP and other area productions, he found his true calling working behind the scenes. As CP's immediate past Vice-President and Treasurer, Herb continues to serve on several committees, but most enjoys stage managing. Recent credits include Towards Zero (2019), Quartet (2018), 33 Variations (2017), Good People (2016), Side Man (2015), Rocket Man (2014), Coyote on a Fence (2014), Trying (2013), and Going to St. Ives (2012), which received a regional WATCH award as Outstanding Play. He thanks CP's many volunteers and supporters who make everything possible, worthwhile... and enjoyable!
Laurie Nolan (Set Designer) Laurie has been involved with sets at Colonial Players for a LONG time. This seaside cottage has been a pleasure because it’s fun to work alongside such talented people who are so willing to collaborate. Thanks to Connie, whose prop-hunting skills and dedication spilled over into furniture and more---the best scout ever! Recent sets that Laurie has worked on include: The Secret Garden, Casa Valentina, and helper to designer Heather Quinn on Silent Sky. She particularly enjoys creating conceptual environments where imagination runs unhinged from “reality.” This is theater, right? When not working on sets here, she’s saving stuff and making stuff..
