PLAY GUIDE

BOOK & MUSIC by Joe Kinosian BOOK & LYRICS by Kellen BlairDIRECTED by Scott Schwartz

About ATC 1

Introduction to the Play 2

Meet the Characters 2

Meet the Creators 3

From Page to Stage: Murder for Two 4

Some Inspirations 5

Behind the Scenes 6

References and Glossary 10

Discussion Questions and Activities 12

APS

Arizona Commission on the Arts

Bank of America Foundation

Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona

City Of Glendale

Community Foundation for Southern Arizona

Cox Charities

Downtown Tucson Partnership

Enterprise Holdings Foundation

Ford Motor Company Fund

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation

JPMorgan Chase

John and Helen Murphy Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture

PICOR Charitable Foundation

Rosemont Copper

Stonewall Foundation

Target

The Boeing Company

The Donald Pitt Family Foundation

The Johnson Family Foundation, Inc

The Lovell Foundation

The Marshall Foundation

The Maurice and Meta Gross Foundation

The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation

The Stocker Foundation

The William L and Ruth T Pendleton Memorial Fund

Tucson Medical Center

Tucson Pima Arts Council

Wells Fargo

Murder for Two Play Guide written and compiled by Katherine Monberg, ATC Literary Associate, with assistance from April Jackson, Education Manager; Bryanna Patrick and Luke Young, Education Associates

SUPPORT FOR ATC’S EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY:

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ABOUT ATC

Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company This means all of our artists, administrators and production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profit

Each season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see on stage In addition, ATC currently employs about 100 staff members in our production shops and administrative offices in Tucson and Phoenix during our season Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers, stage directors, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box office agents, stage crew – the list is endless – representing an amazing range of talents and skills

We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the theatre in financial and legal matters, advise in marketing and fundraising, and help represent the theatre in our community

Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousand of those people support us with charitable contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state governments also support our work financially

All of this is in support of our vision and mission:

OUR VISION IS TO TOUCH LIVES THROUGH THE POWER OF THEATRE.

Our mission is to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence and that resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation In order to fulfill our mission, the theatre produces a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to the broadest spectrum of citizens

The Temple of Music and Art, the home of ATC shows in downtown Tucson The Herberger Theater Center, ATC’s performance venue in downtown Phoenix

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY

Murder for Two Book & Music by Joe Kinosian Book & Lyrics by Kellen Blair Directed by Scott Schwartz

ARIZONA PREMIERE

“Awe-inspiring! An incredible feat of athletic theatricality to behold performed by two insanely talented quadruple threats!” – TheatreMania

The perfect blend of music, mayhem and murder! In this hilarious 90-minute tour-de-force, two performers play all the roles – not to mention the piano – in a witty and winking homage to old-fashioned murder mysteries Murder for Two begins its national tour at ATC after a triumphant off-Broadway run You won’t want to miss this killer musical comedy!

Ian Lowe and Joe Kinosian in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Murder for Two. Photo by Joan Marcus

Actor Ian Lowe, who plays Officer Marcus Moscowicz in ATC’s production of Murder for Two.

Actor (and creator) Joe Kinosian, who plays The Suspects in ATC’s production of Murder for Two.

MEET THE CHARACTERS

Marcus Moscowicz: An ambitious young police officer

The Chief: Marcus’s grizzled boss

Vanessa: Marcus’s former partner

Dahlia Whitney: The murder victim’s loopy widow

Murray & Barb Flandon: The Whitneys’ bickering neighbors

Steph Whitney: An overeager graduate student, the Whitney’s niece

Barrette Lewis: A self-incriminating prima ballerina

Dr. Griff: A friendly local psychiatrist

Timmy, Yonkers & Skid: Members of an antiquated boys’ choir

Henry Vivaldi: A proud local firefighter

Officer Lou: Marcus’s backup

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MEET THE CREATORS

Joe Kinosian (Book & Music) is the co-recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award recognizing Murder for Two as Best New Musical following its record-breaking run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Mr Kinosian was also nominated for Best Actor as The Suspects Murder for Two had its off-Broadway premiere at Second Stage Uptown, going on to a year-long run at New World Stages Mr Kinosian’s work with Kellen Blair has been showcased at The Kennedy Center, The York Theater, and on Broadway at the Theatre World Awards Mr Kinosian received the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award and the Harrington Award from the BMI Workshop He also appeared in Dirty Blonde with Emily Skinner (Hangar Theater) and the NYC premiere of Dear Edwina off-Broadway www kinosianandblair com

Kellen Blair (Book & Lyrics) is the Drama Desk nominated co-creator of Murder for Two (off-Broadway: Second Stage Theatre and New World Stages; world premiere: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) Mr Blair and co-writer Joe Kinosian are the recipients of the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical Work in Chicago (2011) and the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award (2013) Their work has been showcased on Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, and at theaters across the country Mr Blair is excited to be developing a new musical farce with Mr Kinosian titled The More Things Change; he’s also working with Broadway composer Larry Grossman on a new show called Scrooge in Love. Updates, videos, song demos, and sheet music can be found at www kinosianandblair com

Scott Schwartz (Director) returns to ATC where he directed Backwards in High Heels. Mr Schwartz directed Murder for Two in its run at New World Stages and Second Stage Uptown On Broadway, he directed Golda’s Balcony and Jane Eyre (co-directed with John Caird) His off-Broadway work includes Bat Boy: The Musical (Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical; Drama Desk Award nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical); tick, tick…BOOM! (Outer Critics Circle, Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical); Rooms: A Rock Romance; The Foreigner starring Matthew Broderick (Roundabout Theatre Company); Kafka’s The Castle (Outer Critics Circle nomination, Outstanding Director of a Play); and No Way to Treat a Lady. He also directed Golda’s Balcony on tour, in London, in Los Angeles (Wadsworth Theatre) and in San Francisco (American Conservatory Theater) Mr Schwartz directed the world premiere of Séance on a Wet Afternoon at Opera Santa Barbara and at New York City Opera Other recent credits include the world premiere of Secondhand Lions (5th Avenue Theatre); the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s What We’re Up Against (Alley Theatre); Arsenic and Old Lace starring Tovah Feldshuh and Betty Buckley (Dallas Theater Center); Othello and Much Ado about Nothing (Alley Theatre); A Room with a View (Old Globe); and a re-envisioning of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Paper Mill Playhouse, Theatre Under The Stars, Theatre on the Square and North Shore Music Theatre; 2008 IRNE Award, Outstanding Director of a Musical) Mr Schwartz is the Artistic Director of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an Associate Artist at the Alley Theatre, and a graduate of Harvard University

Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian, creators of Murder for Two.

Scott Schwartz, director of Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Murder for Two.

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FROM PAGE TO STAGE: MURDER FOR TWO

Murder for Two, the hit new musical comedy whodunit by composer Joe Kinosian and lyricist Kellen Blair, delighted audiences last season with a sold-out, much-extended off-Broadway run at New York’s McGinn/Cazale Theater and New World Stages, bringing to light one of the most exciting musical theatre teams to arrive on the American theatre scene in recent years

Their story to the stage began long before their still-growing list of accolades had begun, when Kinosian and Blair were randomly paired up to write a “Charm Song” for It’s a Wonderful Life at the 2008 BMI Musical Theatre Workshop “It’s like speed dating for musical theater writers,” says Blair in an interview with The Playbill Collector, reflecting on the less-than-perfect first song that the duo penned together

“We met, enjoyed writing together and both learned quickly how it is when you find a good collaborator ” The two hit it off, each finding in the other a similar sense of humor and a deep appreciation of old-school films and vintage sketch comedy: “It just seemed like a perfect match from the beginning ”

Kinosian and Blair set out to craft a script in 2009 – “something fast, funny, and producible” – that appealed to their mutual sense of self-expression (TheBroadwayBlog.com). They overlaid their respective lists of talents, inspirations and favorite styles and began to lay the groundwork that would build into the “jolt of caffeinated creativity” that is Murder for Two (NY1). “We’re big fans of Agatha Christie books,” explained Joe Kinosian to Show Business magazine, “but we also love farce and slapstick, particularly the work of the Marx Brothers Murder for Two was our attempt at combining two of our loves: what if the Marx Brothers performed an Agatha Christie story?”

Further inspired by the exciting ways in which the Marx Brothers used music, the work of Frank Loesser (“who wrote musical comedy pretty much the best”) and the makes-his-own-rules-because-he-can antics of Homer Simpson, the two took their collection of winning elements and turned to the structure of the murder mystery to give a straightforward framework that would drive the story forward “People like exploring the darker sides of life in a safe way…there’s some-thing fun and irreverent and even cathartic” about exploring a dark subject, like murder, through the lens of musical comedy When asked about the writing process: “What comes first is the idea We talk and talk and talk about what a song needs to communicate, what purpose it serves, what it should feel like ” From there, the team turns to the music, working back and forth between music and lyrics until each song is born

Another motivation behind Murder for Two was the desire to create a thrilling theatrical experience amidst the financial challenges faced by arts organizations nation-wide as the early years of the 21st century progressed “When we started working on the show, we were watching big theaters replace shows in their season with small, intimate plays and musi-cals ” In this new theatrical economy, the two-man piano-playing actor-singer musical comedy was not only uniquely producible, but called upon the skills, talents, and traditions of the craft in a true “tribute to theatricality ” Blair explains, “So often you see shows and think: ‘That would make a great movie’ or ‘I liked the book better’ or whatever Murder for Two pretty much has to be a work of theater, and that’s one of the things I love most about it ”

Kinosian and Blair’s laugh-out-loud vaudevillian script and songs combine with the classic feel of a murder mystery to culminate in a riotous event of musical delight, crime-solving, and a contemporary homage to vintage comedy, all gently infused with cheeky references to the murder mysteries that have come before “We lovingly refer to our writing aesthetic as the 1940s with cell phones,” says Kinosian

The dynamic writing duo is already hard at work on their next collaboration: The More Things Change, a backstage comedy about musicals and their practitioners “Our characters have grown over time and now it’s hard to identify where they started ” Kinosian and Blair speak of their characters with the same sentiment that critics and audiences speak of them: “But we sure like where they’re going ”

Ian Lowe and Joe Kinosian in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Murder for Two. Photo by Joan Marcus

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SOME INSPIRATIONS

Ideas are the currency of great artists, whether they be writers, musicians, performers, or – as in the case of Blair and Kinosian – an amalgamation of many mediums Layered over and beneath the story of Murder for Two is an appreciative homage to the many creative influences that helped craft the show and its creators on their own artistic journeys

VINTAGE SKETCH COMEDY

“Kellen and I both have vintage comedy in our veins…I don’t think the idea was to make Murder for Two feel like vintage sketch comedy, I think we were helpless to make it feel like anything else!” - Joe Kinosian, from an interview in Show Business.

The vaudevillian variety show is a long-standing tradition of American theatrical performance, first emerging in the mid-19th century as a fun, fast-paced smorgasbord of skills and talents, featuring numerous “acts” that showcased musicians, come-dians, and other entertainers Vaudeville and its direct descendent, the television variety show, were the launching pad for popular sketch comedy, and sparked the careers of some of the biggest comedians in the history of American entertainment including such icons as the Marx Brothers, Sid Caesar, and Carol Burnett

THE MARX BROTHERS

The co-creators of Murder for Two identify the Marx Brothers as major influ-ences on their creative aesthetic Chico, Harpo, and Groucho Marx (and occasionally their two younger brothers, Zeppo and Gummo) formed the Marx Brothers, an American family comedy act who performed widely during the first half of the twentieth century The Marx Brothers got their start as a musical act on the vaudeville stage, the nephews of Al Shean of the famous vaudeville duo, Gallagher and Shean They slowly began to transition to comedy and finally to comedy with music, and by the 1920s they were one of the most popular acts in America, known for their satires of high society and their free-form improvisational comedy As motion pictures began to develop “talkies,” the Marx Brothers signed with Paramount Pictures, and five of their thirteen feature films have been nominated by the American Film Institute as among the top 100 comedy films of all time

AGATHA CHRISTIE

“We’re big fans of Agatha Christie books…Murder for Two was our attempt at combining two of our loves: what if the Marx Brothers performed an Agatha Christie story?” – Joe Kinosian, from an interview with Show Business.

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright, best known for her 66 detective novels that have come to be recognized as pinnacles of the mystery genre for her masterful use of suspense, plotting and character-ization Often referred to as the “Queen of Crime,” her writing is still considered by many to be the premier example of “whodunit” crime fiction

TRADITIONAL MUSICAL COMEDY

Huge fans of old-school musicals, Kinosian and Blair specifically name Frank Loesser (“who wrote musical comedy pretty much the best”) as an inspiration behind their contemporary creativity Frank Loesser was an icon created in Tin Pan Alley, the collection of songwriters and music publishers in New York City who largely controlled popular music in the late 19th and early

The Marx Brothers: Groucho, Harpo and Chico, in a still frame from the film A Night in Casablanca (1946)

Agatha Christie, the “Queen of Crime ”

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20th centuries He is best known for writing the music and lyrics – and winning Tony Awards – for Broadway’s Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, for which he also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1962 He is credited as the lyricist of more than 700 songs, many of which became standards of American music, and leading to five Academy Award nominations for Best Song; he won once for “Baby, It’s Cold Outside ”

HOMER SIMPSON

“[He] taught us that certain characters are allowed to follow their own set of totally absurd rules,” says Joe Kinosian of Homer Simpson, the fictional patriarch of Matt Groening’s animated television series The Simpsons. Homer’s comic core is described by director David Silverman as being “creatively brilliant in his stupidity,” his personality outlined by characteristic vacillations between idiocy, laziness and explosive anger Homer defies logic but still somehow makes sense, introducing a compelling absurdity that has endeared him to viewers and writers since The Simpsons premiered in 1989 Homer is generally considered to be one of the greatest cartoon characters of all time, leading The Simpsons (currently in its 26th season) to become the longest-running American sitcom, American animated program, and American scripted primetime television series in history

BEHIND THE SCENES

ON THE PHONE WITH JOE KINOSIAN

By Francis Lewis

Actor/singer/writer/composer/pianist: Joe Kinosian is a man of many parts And in Murder for Two, the hit off-Broadway musical comedy whodunit he co-authored with Kellen Blair and in which he now appears, he takes on many, many more, playing every suspect in the murder investigation He’s the victim’s widow and mistress, a shrink, a feisty older couple, a 9-year-old boy Audience heads may be spinning with each lightning-fast, uproarious change in persona, but, offstage, in conversation, Kinosian is anything but the wacky schizophrenia he portrays so well Calm, cool, thoughtful and quick to laugh, he is sanity itself Just don’t let your cell phone go off when he’s onstage

Everyone has a hot button, and that’s his

FL: You wrote the music and co-authored the book, but you’re also in the show Is there a temptation during a performance to rewrite your own script or a piece of music? Embellish a bit? Improvise on the spot?

JK: [laugh] Well, not to be too much of a killjoy, there isn’t a lot of actual improv in the show There’s definitely some leeway though I mean it’s different from other plays, I guess, in that if someone’s phone goes off in the audience, you can directly turn to them and start screaming at them You can’t do that in The Coast of Utopia. Yeah, I mean, I don’t plan on changing the script much It’s littler things, like yelling at the audience when a phone goes off There’s some free rein to make up lines depending on the kind of audience you have that night There’s also some freedom with the blocking, like when the fireman shows up at the 11th hour and is a crazy unexpected addition to the cast I would think any actor stepping into the roles of the suspects would definitely be remiss if he slipped up on the opportunity to really make them his own

Homer Simpson

Ian Lowe and Joe Kinosian in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Murder for Two. Photo by Joan Marcus

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FL: But, as an author, does it drive you crazy if you attend a performance and an actor doesn’t do or say exactly what you’ve put down on the page?

JK: You really caught me with that one [laugh] Yes and no Let’s just say this: There are definitely actors out there who are so smart and imaginative that they will come up with something better than what I have In that regard, it’s always collaboration But I guess the short answer to your question is yes [laugh]

FL: So, what does Joe, the actor, think of Joe, the playwright?

JK: Well, Joe, the actor, thinks that Joe, the playwright, wrote very well for his strengths As a writer, it’s impossible not to think like an actor You’re always thinking how an actor will interpret your stuff The lines have to be written how a person or character would say them, and they have to be what he or she would say in a given situation In that regard, Joe, the actor, would say that Joe, the playwright, really gets actor Joe’s sense of humor and gets his penchant for non sequiturs and for surrealist slapstick comedy That’s a good question, and I think I could probably come up with a better response, if I had a little more time

FL: When you and Kellen Blair [book writer and lyricist] got together to write Murder for Two, were you in the same room at the same time or did you each go your separate ways?

JK: I think the best stuff came when we were together I remember a large section, the feisty old couple, Murray and Barb Kellen and I were at the Hungarian Pastry Shop by Columbia [University] We were at a table in the back I forget who was who, but we both just assumed a role and wrote the lines as they came And they’ve changed very little since that first time That was a time when it was beneficial to be together and be the writer assuming the actor’s hat, trying out what would be fun, what would make sense or not make sense in a good way There was definitely a lot of that kind of collaboration When we started writing the song “Protocol Says,” which was the first song we wrote, we were at my piano, and we had a fun time wondering what kind of music a really logical person, but a really logical person who also loves show tunes, would sound like That he would sound like a computer This guy receives information and then outputs information, but doesn’t interpret too much along the way Kellen was there nudging me and like, “a little bit like this, a bit more like a typewriter ” The book was very collaborative We handed it back and forth, and back and forth We’d rewrite drafts and send them back and forth It’s now at the point where we don’t know who wrote which lines because we both had a hand in all of them Music and lyrics are fairly separate, I have to say Together, we discuss and discuss and discuss the idea of what the song is going to accomplish, what it is going to feel like, what information needs to be conveyed through it But then I’ll definitely step aside, do my music and come up with a draft We’ll go over it, change what needs to be changed, pick up a note or add one I’ll say that line isn’t as funny as it might be, and we’ll adjust accordingly Then we’ll have a reading, and no one will laugh, and we’ll write a new song [laugh]

FL: You obviously have a great partnership going What makes it work so well?

JK: There’s no way to talk about it that doesn’t make it sound like a marriage [laugh] I mean, anything I’m going to say is going to sound like a cliché definition of what makes a successful marriage You have to compromise [laugh] You have to support your partner, and you have to respect your partner Where writing is concerned, specifically, you have to do what’s best for the play and not push your own agenda That comes up all the time It’s like, “Am I forcing the fight here because I want to win the fight or is it really the best idea for the play?” I think we’ve gotten better and better about doing that We’ve definitely been tested by things and definitely have had challenges I think all of that truly has reaffirmed how much we enjoy working together and love each other’s work We get each other’s sense of humor We know what we’re trying to do It’s fun to be the two people in the room, who really understand each other

FL: Once the curtain is up, you – Joe, the actor – are on for 90 minutes straight Has anything wacky or amusing happened in performance?

JK: I have a good one for you This was in San Francisco We were doing our final performance in San Francisco, Halloween 2010, and a woman answers her phone She’s sitting way in the back of the theater, and it’s a big theater, like a 400-seat theater She comes way to the front of the stage, where there’s an exit and where, I guess, she got better reception Downstage right of where Marcus [the policeman investigating the murder] is just collapsed because he’s admitted he’s not actually a detective It’s one of the few moments of silence in the play, and she’s down there, hanging out by the exit door, talking and talking She was one of the donors to the theater, so I guess she thought she owned the place We [actors] couldn’t go on [with

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the show] because it was too distracting So, I hopped down from the stage [in character] as the widow Dahlia and grabbed the phone out of her hand and said, “She’s going to have to call you back There’s been a horrible murder,” and showed the woman on her way Afterward, I found her in the lobby We had it out a little bit and discussed proper theater protocol I hope she learned her lesson I’d just like to say to all the other [Editor’s note: name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent] out there, “Don’t you dare answer your phone [when I’m onstage] ”

FL: Protocol says

JK: This woman had quite a chip on her shoulder That whole cell phone thing in the show came from real life I don’t know whether it was me the actor or me the writer or both of us, but I just hate when people even pull out their phones to check the time during the show It’s not just bad for the actor; it’s bad for other audience members

FL: You’ve talked about Murray, Barb and Dahlia Do you have a favorite character in the play, one that is especially close to your heart?

JK: When I did the show for seven months in Chicago, it was constantly changing I’m sure it will happen here [New York] You start to favor a certain character and want them to win, particularly on a given night But Dahlia, I think, has and always will be closest to my id In tone, you’d have to compare her to a Homer Simpson, the person who says what they feel and doesn’t think too hard about the repercussions I love that I love everything about the way she interacts, the way she’s trying so hard to get jokes to land but no one in the room is having it I just love that

FL: If you had to choose between writing, composing and acting, which would it be?

JK: All of them How about props? I’ve always wanted to do props

FL: Your next career move?

JK: Exactly I love a good prop design And I particularly like our prop designer because she had no real opportunity to do anything super creative until the suitcase full of body parts, and then she really went to town on that I was very inspired by her work

FL: She does a mean boa, too

JK: Is that props? Or costumes? If I had a master’s in props, I would know the difference

Reprinted from IN New York. 31 January 2014. < http://www.innewyork.com/blog/the-editor-is-in/theater/the-phone-joe-kinosian>

BEOWULF BORITT: MURDER FOR TWO

By Ellen Lampert-Greaux

Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt has designed a rather camp mystery, Murder for Two, featuring two actors and a piano With a touch of Agatha Christie, this modest who-done-it is now in its second iteration Live Design chats with the designer about the show [that played] at New World Stages in New York City:

How did you design the set to allow for so much physical activity on stage, those two actors are everywhere!

The stage space is actually quite small We had a lot of discussion about how large a piano to use, and ultimately used the smallest baby grand we could find With a two-person play you don’t want too much space or the actors begin to feel dwarfed, the stage unpopulated And obviously with too small a space the action feels cramped I think we found a good proportion with the false proscenium to frame a human being well, in a sense the scale of the portal helps create the frenetic atmosphere of the story As the actors run around within it

What is your basic scenic concept for the show?

Because the conceit of the play is that one actor is the detective, and the other actor is all the suspects in the murder mystery; the story is automatically very theatrical, and really can’t have a realistic set Similarly, it’s not a high-concept metaphor that calls for an artsy abstraction After a lot of discussion, director Scott Schwartz and I decided we ought to do a sort of bare

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stage show, but a bare stage that evokes the quality of a murder mystery So the proscenium and its surround are all dark wood paneling like an old gentleman’s club, and we swathed the whole theatre auditorium in deep red velour to give it a warm (and bloody?) feel We also have a few details that reference famous mystery stories A set of backstage shelves on the back wall has all the murder weapons from Clue on it (it’s a detail people seem to love, I often get comments about it) More subtly, we have travel stickers on the trunks around the stage that reference famous mysteries

Who was the lighting designer and how did you collaborate?

Jason Lyons lit the show We have worked together for many years on many different shows and I’m tempted to say we hardly have to talk we’re so in sync We did spend a fair amount of time on the technical details however The shadow light to make the house shadow is actually oddly difficult The relationship of the light to the junk pile to the back wall is pretty crucial, and it has to get set by an actor during the show, so it’s tricky If the relationship is off, the shadow is too fuzzy and the effect doesn’t work We also had a series of light bulbs on the set that need to feel like they are getting shot out, and we did a bit of R&D on the best low-budget way to make that work In the end those lamps have a small strobe hidden behind them and that flash (along with Jill Duboff’s shattered glass sounds) helps sell the idea that they’re breaking

Excerpt reprinted from Live Design Online 5 January 2014. < http://livedesignonline.com/theatre/beowulf-boritt-murder-two>

A HUMBLE APOLOGY TO ACTORS FROM THE CREATORS OF MURDER FOR TWO

By Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair

First of all, knowing this will be read by actors, we wanted to start off by saying sorry Not because you’re an actor – we think that part is great! We wanted to apologize for writing a show with 14 characters played by only two performers By our count, that means 12 of you don’t have a job right now because of us And it gets worse! Let’s say we start playing regionally: times that 12 by X number of regional productions and pretty soon we’ll have hundreds of unemployed actors on our consciences Again, we’re very, very sorry But before you consider murdering us at a surprise birthday party – on a related note, go see our show Murder For Two, currently running at New World Stages – try to see things from our perspective Try to understand where we were exactly five years ago

Joe was young, confused, and too tall for his own good He crashed a grip truck while working as a production assistant on a low-budget film starring TV’s own Columbo, Peter Falk He thought to himself, “What do I do now? How can I put my piano playing to good use? And why is Peter Falk yelling at me?”

Kellen was young, starry-eyed, and red-headed It was the dead of winter, and he was passing out flyers in Times Square, doing his best to ignore the numbness in his fingers and toes He wondered, “Where do I go from here? How do I put my red hair to good use? And why is Peter Falk also yelling at me?” (Insert traditional “I want” song here, with backup vocals by the cast of Columbo.)

Luckily in our search for a way to break into a seemingly closed-off business, we found each other at the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, which is basically speed-dating for musical theater composers and lyricists We teamed up and decided to write the next great American musical, complete with a cast of thousands and a 700-piece orchestra And then we noticed something; the economy sucked and theaters were scaling back their seasons by replacing flashy musicals with four-person plays Producers had always been cheap, but now they were being really cheap And we suddenly realized our first show as two nobody-writers was never going to be a huge, expensive, Broadway spectacle So we gave ourselves a challenge How much could we do with absolutely nothing? A few months later that “absolutely nothing” became a staged reading of a silly, intimate musical called Murder for Two (Well, actually it was called Marcus Stevens IS Detective Marcus IN Detective Marcus Investigates, but that’s beside the point )

So you see, in creating a two-person show, we weren’t selfishly trying to deprive you of a job, but we were selfishly trying to get ourselves a job We looked around and did our best to take advantage of the world’s crappy situation And sometimes that’s the best way to get your metaphorical foot in that allegorical door Honestly ask yourself what the world is missing, and do your best to fill that gap (That sounds dirty, but it’s not ) It’s good advice And it’s true whether you’re a writer or an actor

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or probably just about anything else Like it or not, we seem to be entering an era where being a triple threat isn’t always enough Sometimes it helps to be a quadruple or even a quintuple threat Learn an instrument Practice ventriloquism If you can find a way to drag around your own lighting rig while playing a harmonium, John Doyle will cast you in literally everything!

But back to apologizing We know it’s unfair, but hopefully we can redeem ourselves in your eyes Remember, we said our first show would never be a huge, expensive, Broadway spectacle But things are different now Our first show is behind us Murder for Two opened at Second Stage Uptown last summer and is now running at New World Stages, something for which we’re immensely grateful Suddenly we’re getting asked to do awesome things like write essays for Backstage! And while our next show might not include a cast of thousands, we’re pushing for a solid twelve If our cast sizes continue to grow at this rate, our fifth show will employ 2,592 of you! And that’s great, because Murder for Two has taught us something else Our shows are only as good as the awesome folks actually saying the words out loud – often with, like, emotions and stuff So in addition to saying sorry, we’d like to say thank you Thanks for being a part of this crazy, crazy business It’s the stupidest decision you ever made, but we really appreciate it!

Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian received Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical for Murder for Two, following its record-breaking run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Murder For Two played Off-Broadway at Second Stage Uptown and is currently running at New World Stages. Blair and Kinosian were named the 2013 winners of the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart award, and their work has been showcased at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, the Kennedy Center, and cabaret spaces across the city. Visit their website for more info: www.kinosianandblair.com

Reprinted from Backstage 21 November 2013. < http://www.backstage.com/advice-for-actors/first-person/humble-apology-actors-creators-murder-two/>

REFERENCES AND GLOSSARY

Aloof: Cool and distant; not friendly or forthcoming

Au contraire: French phrase meaning “to the contrary ”

Bereft: Deprived of or lacking something

Blithe: Happy or joyous; showing a casual and cheerful indifference, often implying a callous or improper manner

Bombastic: Pompous; overblown; seemingly important but with little actual meaning

Boys in blue: Colloquial reference to police officers

Charleston: A lively dance from the 1920s that involves turning the knees inward and kicking out the lower legs

Criminology: The scientific study of crime and criminals

C-section: Also known as a Cesarean delivery, a surgical procedure used to deliver a baby through an incision in the mother’s abdomen and a second incision in the mother’s uterus

Depraving: The process of making someone immoral or wicked

Deranged: Insane

Devise: To plan or invent by careful thought

Doctor-patient confidentiality: A legal concept that protects communications between a patient and their doctor from being used against the patient in court; part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions

Exposé: The act or instance of bringing a scandal, crime, etc to public notice; can also refer to the article, book or statement that discloses such information

Freudian: Relating to or being in accordance with the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud

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Fuzz: Slang reference to police officers

Hepatitis: A medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ

Hoagie: A North American term for a submarine sandwich, made of a long roll typically filled with meat, cheese and vegetables

Ikea: A multinational group of companies that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances and home accessories

Indiscretion: Behavior or speech that displays a lack of good judgment

Intervene: To interrupt or come between so as to prevent or alter a result or course of events

J’accuse: French phrase literally meaning “I accuse,” made famous in a public letter by Emile Zola in 1898 attacking the irregularities of the Dreyfus trial

Jive: A lively style of dance performed to swing music or rock and roll, especially popular in the 1940s and 1950s; can also be used as a slang reference to a personal preference or style

Jordan: An Arab kingdom in Western Asia on the East Bank of the Jordan River, officially designated the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Leotard: A close-fitting one-piece garment made of a stretchy fabric that covers a person’s body from the shoulders to the top of the thighs, often worn by dancers

Limelight: Reference to the spotlight or the center of attention, derived from old-fashioned theatrical lighting techniques that produced white light by heating a cylinder of lime

Louse: A small, wingless parasite that lives on the skin of mammals and birds; can also refer to a contemptible or unpleasant person

Mamma Mia: A 1970s jukebox musical written by Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of the band ABBA

Maycomb: Reference to Maycomb, Alabama, the fictional setting of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Motive: A reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious

New England: The region in the northeast corner of the United States consisting of the six stages of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut

Où est la gare: French phrase meaning, “Where is the station?”

Patriarch: The male head of a family or tribe

Peddling: Trying to sell something, especially small goods, by travelling from house to house or place to place

Perfect pitch: A rare auditory phenomenon characterized by the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone; also referred to as absolute pitch

Pertinent: Relevant or applicable to a particular matter

Preposterous: Contrary to reason or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous

Prima ballerina: The principle female dancer in a ballet company

Pristine: Clean and fresh as if new; spotless

Protocol: The official procedure or system of rules governing a particular situation

A hoagie, also known as a submarine sandwich

Map depicting the location of Jordan, in the Middle East

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Radley place: Reference to the resident haunted house of Maycomb County in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Reprise: A repeated passage in a piece of music or performance

Ronde de jambe: A ballet term referencing a circular movement of the leg

Skosh: A small amount; a little

Ten Little Indians: An Agatha Christie murder mystery novel, widely considered to be her masterpiece, perhaps better known under the official title, And Then There Were None, as approved by the Christie estate

Thesis: A long essay or dissertation involving personal research, written by a candidate for a college degree

Weight Watchers: An international company, based in the U S , which offers various products and services to assist in weight loss and maintenance

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1 In Murder for Two there are just two actors playing a variety of roles How did they make one character different from

another? What does an actor have to do to prepare to play so many different characters?

2 How did the set, props and costumes support two actors playing all the different roles? Did it help you visualize the character changes? What are some other choices the designers could have made?

3 Would this play have been as successful with different actors for each character? Why or why not?

4 There are many suspects in Murder for Two Who did you think “did it”? What clues led you to think that? What clues made you suspicious of other characters?

5 Do most murder mysteries follow a standard formula when it comes to plot? Do you think this show followed that formula? Why or why not?

6 The writers Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian have listed, among others, Agatha Christie novels and the Marx Brothers’ comedy style as inspirations behind Murder for Two How do these seemingly disparate influences come together in this show? Do you think the combination was successful? What other stylistic or creative influences did you notice?

7 What purpose does it serve to tell stories in new ways, through new genres or media? Why do writers or artists revisit “old” stories or frameworks when creating new works? How does this serve an audience?

8 Why would a show like this one be more “producible” than a large-scale musical like Les Miserables or Wicked ? Which is more appealing to a producer? Which is more appealing to you as an audience member?

ACTIVITIES1 Murder Mystery. Have your class create the ultimate “whodunit” murder mystery with a cast of characters who all have

motives and opportunity Decide the stetting, the plot, the victim, the detective, those involved, the motive, the villain, the secrets and clues Turn it into a game or a performance and invite another class in, show them the clues and scenes, and see if they can guess who really committed the crime

The Radley place, as depicted in the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

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2 Learn to write lyrics for a musical. Break the class into several groups Use a popular song and have each group write brand new lyrics to it but keeping the melody Each group should be given a different subject or theme for their new lyrics (love song, musical comedy, national anthem, etc) Share with the class and see how different each version of the song is Does changing the lyrics change the mood or the tone of the song, even though the notes are the same? Can you turn a popular song into a class theme song you can sing as a group?

3 60-Second Stories. Ask your class to brainstorm a list of famous or well-known stories They can be from any genre or medium (fairy tales or fables, Shakespeare’s plays, popular novels, classic movies, etc ) as long as the stories are familiar to the majority of your group Split the class into smaller groups and assign each one a story from your brain-stormed list, with the task of retelling the story in 60 seconds, including as much detail from the original story as possible You can add further requirements for the retellings if you’d like to increase the challenge: use only one prop, only three lines of dialogue, no dialogue, etc Once all groups have performed their 60 second stories for each other, ask them to do it again in just 30 seconds – then ten or five Discuss the different tricks or devices we use to quickly and clearly relate stories, and how the stories changed in tone when shortened so drastically