| by Margaret Lewis |
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Development and Production Status * Dialogue Sample * Specifications * Synopsis * Development and Production History * Review * Short Bio * Special Audience Appeal * E-mail Specs
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| Development and Production Status |
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| One Production Only |
| Dialogue Sample |
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(Karl pulls a out a few canvasses and they study the paintings)
PETER
This was my mother’s favorite. (short pause) The Sophias are the best of your early work.
KARL
I think so, too.
PETER
Some of the other work is so cerebral, but these… This one is so full of…
KARL
Grace. Ja. That’s Sophia. She was….
PETER
I know. I know how hard you tried to bring her over.
KARL
Sophia was the only woman I ever loved.
PETER
I’m sure Clementine and Nancy would be thrilled to hear that.
KARL
Bah. They should know. They should know they could never compete with Sophia.
PETER
Yeah. It’s always hard to compete with the dead, isn’t it?
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| Specifications |
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1 white man 50+, 2 white men 20-30, 1 white man mid-30s, 1 white woman mid-30s, 2 white men 30-50.
German dialects
Unit set, multiple locations
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| Synopsis |
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Fellow Travellers deals with personal betrayal in a time of political upheaval. The play moves back and forth between two time periods, 1930s Germany and 1970s California. As the Weimar Republic collapses and the National Socialists seize power, two artists and close friends struggle with politics, censorship and personal ambition. One is labeled a degenerate while the other climbs to success. The survivor emigrates to California, becoming a world-renown artist. Forty years later, a surprise visitor forces him to face the choices he has made and the toll they have taken.
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| Development and Production History |
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Fellow Travellers was developed through the Down Stage Left program at Stage Left Theatre. It received its world premiere at Stage Left Theatre (Chicago) in Winter 2006. It received a workshop production in LeapFest, Spring 2005.
Outstanding Playwright, Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, 2005.
Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best New Work, 2006.
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| Review |
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Critics Choice
“Fellow Travellers is that rare evening of theater that transports its audience through deft storytelling and sharp characterization… Its two hours zip by; the people on stage become real human beings you care about…But what makes Fellow Travelers work is the humanity that playwright Lewis injects into her characters… these are simply people whom you care about, replete with universal strengths and weaknesses… each scene builds on the last and all are executed with the kind of artful precision that keeps everything fluid. The play’s ending, and the moral ambiguities it’s certain to leave you with, is one reason you will be thinking about Fellow Travellers long after you’ve left the theater.”
Rick Reed, Windy City Times
“Margaret Lewis possesses both a worldly intelligence and a gift for creating memorable, multidimensional characters….These qualities… are on display once again… "Fellow Travellers" moves back and forth between Germany in the 1930s (when the artistic flowering of the Weimar era was giving way to the Nazi regime) and the ascendant art world of Los Angeles in the 1970s. It shrewdly examines the notion of what is fashionable and/or politically acceptable in art, musing on the whole notion of political correctness on each end of the spectrum. It also delves into the murky and complicated business of how people reshape themselves in order to accommodate the times, and the price paid by those who steadfastly hold on to their principles. … it is keenly observant of human behavior -- especially our propensity for being blind to what we do not wish to see. And it considers the role that time, place and temperament play in individual fate… The ensuing crucial plot twists should not be divulged here, but suffice it to say that by the end, nobody is quite who they appear to be, unless you look closely. And not even artists want to deal with that much truth.”
-Hedy Weiss, The Sun-Times
Don’t Miss
“Margaret Lewis’s world-premiere play, about two artists whose fortunes takes opposite trajectories with the rise of the Nazis, is deceptive in all the right ways…As the pieces of the puzzle come together, Fellow Travellers becomes a contemplation of morality and of the compromises and lies we’re willing to accept in the pursuit of happiness…Max is such a finely amoral antihero that you can’t decide when, if ever, his redemption comes…Lewis has crafted a play that sets up shop in our conscience, with plans to stay.”
-Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago
Critics Choice
“Margaret Lewis offers no easy solutions to the thorny ethical dilemmas in her new script about two German art students in the 1930s struggling with Nazi censorship and persecution…rich and satisfying…a compelling human drama with political scope…emotionally complex and morally confounding.
Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader (featured in front section)
Best of 2006
“Fellow Travellers—not just another holocaust drama, but an intimate tale of an expatriate artist living with the shameful secret of his survival.”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times
“Fellow Travellers fluidly juggled two eras and two emotionally involving stories…a rich canvas solidified by a strong premise, well-developed characters, and beautiful dialogue.”
Russell Florence, Dayton City Paper
“The prize-winning play, Fellow Travelers by Margaret Lewis, crystallized the meaning of great theater for the Sunday morning audience. The action of the play dealt with the rise of Nazism and the ensuing persecution of Jews and artists. In stunning interposed scenes of 1970 California and 1930s Berlin, the plot unfolded with skillful language…left the audience breathless as the shocking tragedy unfolded.”
Burt Saidel, Oakwood Register
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| Short Bio |
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Margaret Lewis’s play Creole, which was a finalist for the 2006 O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, will premiere Fall 2007 at Chicago’s InFusion Theatre. Fellow Travellers premiered at Stage Left Theatre in 2006, winning a Joseph Jefferson award for Best New Work. It also won the Dayton Playhouse’s 2004 FutureFest competition, where it received the highest adjudication score in the competition’s history, and was a finalist in the Playwrights First Competition. Stage Left Theatre’s critically acclaimed Chicago production of Lewis’s play Burying the Bones (Spring 2004) received a Joseph Jefferson nomination for Best New Work. Her play Perfect World was produced in December at Chicago’s Infamous Commonwealth Theatre. Lewis’s first play, Charms for Protection, won the 1998 Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, and her second play, Float, opened the 2000 season at Melbourne’s renown New Theatre. Hunger Moon was performed as part of Cherry Lane Theatre’s Alternative 2000 Series in New York.
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| Special Audience Appeal |
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