17th Annual
William Inge Theatre Festival
a

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim's contributions to the American musical theatre are legendary.  The recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985, Sondheim has been dazzling audiences ever since he wrote the lyrics for West Side Story at the age of 25. 
     He wrote the music and lyrics for Passion which received Tony Awards for both Best Musical and Best Score of a Musical for 1994.  He also wrote the music and lyrics for: Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeny Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971, revised in London, 1987), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and A Funny Thing Happen on the Way to the Forum(1962), as well as the lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz?(1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), and Putting It Together (1992) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist.  For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981), and songs for Dick Tracy (Academy Award 1990).  He also wrote songs for the television production Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and provided incidental music of the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961) and Twigs (1971).  He won Tony Awards for Best Score for a Musical for Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, and Company.  All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George; the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.  Mr. Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City.  He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, after which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt.  He is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 until 1981, and in 1983 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  In 1990 he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University and in 1993 was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.  On Friday, April 17 Sondheim participated in the discussion "A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim" at 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. in the Inge Theatre and the panel discussion "Musical Theatre: 1998" at 11:00a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre. Mr. Sondheim was presented with the William Inge Theatre Festival's "Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre" award at the "Tribute to Stephen Sondheim" on Saturday 18 at 8:00 p.m. at the Independence Memorial Hall.

Schedule of Events

The Seventeenth Annual
William Inge Theatre Festival and Conference
Schedule of Events
April 15, 16, 17, & 18, 1998

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15

7:30 P.M.--BUS STOP by William Inge. Performed by the University of Kansas Theatre Department. Adults $8.00 Students $5.00 (ICC students free). All seats reserved. William Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building.

THURSDAY, APRIL 16

8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.--REGISTRATION in the Margaret Goheen Foyer of the William Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building. FILM FESTIVAL featured "Penn Avenue to Broadway" (documentary on Inge) and other Inge films: Splendor in the Grass, Picnic, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Come Back, Little Sheba. Fine Arts Room114, Fine Arts Building. FREE

8:00 A.M. - 9:00 P.M.--THE WILLIAM INGE COLLECTION opened to visitors. College Library, Academic Building.

12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.--Tour of "WILLIAM INGE’S INDEPENDENCE." Sign up was at the Registration desk in the Margaret Goheen Foyer, Fine Arts Building. Fee: $2

1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.--"DIRECTING BUS STOP."  Director Jack Wright and the cast of the University of Kansas production of Bus Stop participated in a panel discussion. Lecture Hall, Academic Building.

2:45 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.--"SCHOLAR'S CONFERENCE: SESSION I." Scholarly papers on Inge and/or Sondheim. Conference Director: Dr. Jackson Bryer, The University of Maryland. Lecture Hall, Academic Building.

4:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.--Tour of "WILLIAM INGE’S INDEPENDENCE." Sign up was at the Registration desk in the Margaret Goheen Foyer, Fine Arts Building. Fee: $2

7:30 P.M.--BUS STOP by William Inge. Performed by the University of Kansas Theatre Department. Adults $8.00/Students $5.00 (ICC students free). All seats reserved. William Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building.

9:30 P.M.--"MOONGLOW AT THE HOTEL BOOTH." After-theatre party at the historic Hotel Booth, 8th & Main, Independence, with the jazz band, Plush. TICKETS: $12.00 (Includes light hors d'oeuvres and wine)

FRIDAY, APRIL 17

8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.--REGISTRATION in the Margaret Goheen Foyer of the William Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building. THE WILLIAM INGE COLLECTION opened to visitors. College Library, Academic Building. FILM FESTIVAL continued in FA114, Fine Arts Building. (Check schedule at Registration Desk) FREE

8:00 A.M. - 9:15 A.M.--Workshops: AUDITIONING FOR MUSICAL THEATRE with Luke Yankee (Music Hall, Fine Arts Building), and THE WRITING PROCESS with playwright Jason Milligan (Lecture Hall, Academic Building).

9:30 A.M. - 10:45 A.M.--"A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN SONDHEIM." Mr. Sondheim discussed the theatre and responded to questions. Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building.

11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.--"MUSICAL THEATRE: 1998." A panel discussion with playwrights and special guests. Inge Theatre, Fine Arts Building.

12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.--"A MOVEABLE FEAST" LUNCH. A keepsake lunchbag with contents that could be eaten at numerous locations. Margaret Goheen Foyer, Fine Arts Building. Fee: $7.50

1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.--"ROBERT ANDERSON-A CLOSER LOOK." A look at playwright Robert Anderson's plays and career, his collection at Harvard University, and a video retrospective. Cessna Learning Center classroom, ICC campus.

2:45 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.--"DIRECTING ON BROADWAY WITH SCOTT ELLIS." Cessna Learning Center classroom.

2:45 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.--"SCHOLAR’S CONFERENCE: SESSION II." Conference Director: Dr. Jackson Bryer, The University of Maryland. Lecture Hall, Academic Building.

3:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.--Tour of "WILLIAM INGE’S INDEPENDENCE." Sign up was at the Registration desk in the Margaret Goheen Foyer, Fine Arts Building. Fee: $2

7:00 P.M.--"A GALA DINNER Party at the Independence Country Club." The awarding of the 1997 Margo Jones Award and Medal. All seats reserved. $50.00 (RESERVE EARLY-LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE)

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.--REGISTRATION at the Independence Museum, 8th & Myrtle, Independence.

10:00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.--THE WILLIAM INGE COLLECTION opened to visitors. College Library, Academic Building, ICC campus. FILM FESTIVAL continues in the College Library, Academic Building.

8:30 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.--"THE ART OF THE VOICE-OVER." Janet Waldo Lee, well-known as the voice of "Judy Jetson" discussed the background and techniques associated with character voice-overs. Independence Museum, 8th & Myrtle.

10:00 A.M. - 11:45 A.M.--"NEW VOICES IN AMERICAN THEATRE:1998." Scenes from playwright David Ives' new plays with discussion afterwards. Directed by 1993 "New Voices" playwright Jason Milligan. Independence Museum, 8th & Myrtle.

11:45 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.--"PICNIC LUNCHEON" at Riverside Park, 4-H Building. Fee: $7.50

1:30 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.--"MEMORIES OF WILLIAM INGE'S BOYHOOD HOME."  Inge family members gathered in the house Bill Inge grew up in which is now owned by the William Inge Theatre Festival Foundation. Inge Home, 514 N. 4th St., Independence.

2:45 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.--"GETTING MEDIA COVERAGE FOR YOUR ARTS EVENT." A panel discussion with representatives from various media. Independence Museum, 8th & Myrtle.

3:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.--TOUR OF "WILLIAM INGE’S INDEPENDENCE." Sign up at the Registration desk at the Museum. Fee: $2

8:00 P.M.--"TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN SONDHEIM." Presentation of "THE DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT IN THE AMERICAN THEATRE AWARD." William Inge Theatre. All seats reserved. $15.00 (ICC STUDENTS $5.00)

Festival Participants

1998 Special Guests and Festival Participants

Robert Anderson's (Inge Award Recipient in 1985) plays have been produced professionally and in community and college theatres all over the world.  His most famous plays include Tea and Sympathy (1953), Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959), You Know I Can't Hear You When The Water's Running (1967), I Never Sang For My Father (1968), and Solitaire/Double Solitaire (1971).   Anderson has also written extensively for motion pictures, radio, and television.   His film credits included Tea and Sympathy, (1956) Until They Sail, (1957), The Nun's Story, (1959), The Sand Pebbles, (1966), and I Never Sang For My Father, (1970), (nominated for the Academy Award and winner of the Screenwriter's Guild Award).  In 1980 Anderson was nominated for the Writer's Guild Award for his television drama, The Patricia Neal Story, and was elected to The Theatre Hall of Fame.  The Kissing Was Always The Best is one of his more recent plays and I Never Sang For My Father enjoyed a successful revival in 1987 and 1988.  In 1991, two of Anderson's works were shown on television, The Last Act Is A Solo, which won an Ace Award, and Absolute Strangers.  Anderson previously served as President of the Dramatists Guild and is now on the Dramatists Guild Council. Also a novelist, Anderson was Vice-President of the Authors League of America and is the author of two novels: After and Getting Up and Going Home.   He participated in the panel discussion "Musical Theatre: 1998" on Friday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.  He also participated in the panel discussion "Robert Anderson-A Closer Look" on Friday, April 17 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Inge Theatre where he was awarded Harvard University's "David Garrick Award." 

Wayne Bryan began his career as both actor and director with San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in the revival of Good News! Richard Rodgers personally selected him for the Broadway revue of Rodgers and Hart. Other New York appearances include Tintypes, We Write the Songs, Lyrics and Lyricists, and the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Currently in his 11^th year as Producing Director for Music Theatre of Wichita, he has appeared locally in The Will Rogers Follies, Me and My Girl, 1776, Where’s Charley?, The Music Man, and Into the Woods. Wayne recently co-stared with Megan Drew in the new musical version of Paper Moon for Stage One productions.

Scott Ellis is the director of the Broadway hit revival of 1776, currently playing at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City.  He was nominated for the 1997 Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Tony awards for the Kander and Ebb musical Steel Pier.   He directed the Broadway revival of William Inge's Picnic, starring Polly Holliday and Ashley Judd, in 1994 at the Roundabout Theatre.  Other Broadway credits include She Loves Me which earned him a Tony nomination for Best Director, A Month In the Country with Helen Mirren, and the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company.  He received Drama Desk Awards for Best Director for two productions: And The World Goes 'Round: Songs of Kander and Ebb, and the New York City Opera's A Little Night Music. He made his off-Broadway directing debut with Kander and Ebb's Flora, The Red Menace.  He directed and co-conceived "Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall" for PBS Great Performances.  He is a graduate of the Goodman Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.  He participated in the panel discussion "Musical Theatre: 1998" on Friday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.  He also conducted "Directing on Broadway with Scott Ellis" on Friday, April 17 at 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

Governor Bill Graves is the 43rd Governor of Kansas.  A native of Salina, he grew up in the family business, Graves Truck Line.  He earned a degree in Business Administration from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina and attended graduate school at the University of Kansas.  Prior to his election as Governor, he served two terms as Kansas Secretary of State.  He serves as chairman of the Midwest Governors' Conference and serves on the Economic Development and Commerce Committee and the Education Goals Panel of the National Governors' Association.  The Governor and his wife, Linda Richey Graves, are the proud parents of 2 1/2 year old daughter, Katie. Governor Graves and Mrs. Graves were special guests at the Gala Dinner on Friday, April 17.

The Inge Family: The William Inge Theatre Festival welcomed the Inge Family back to the Festival this year.  They took part in the Saturday afternoon panel "Memories of William Inge's Boyhood Home," at the home located at 514 N. 4th street in Independence. Niece Jo Ann Kirchmaier, of Perrysburg, Ohio, chaired this panel and was joined by her brother, Jim Mahan of Simsbury, Connecticut. Jo Ann and Jim's mother, Lucy, was William Inge's older sister.

David Ives, chosen as the Inge Festival's "New Voice in American Theatre for 1998," was born in Chicago and educated at Northwestern University and Yale School of Drama.  He is a former Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in playwriting and is probably best known for his evening of one-act comedies called All in the Timing, which ran for over 600 performances off-Broadway.  The show won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award and was included in "The Best Plays of 1993-94."  In the 1995-96 season, All in the Timing was the most performed play in the country after Shakespeare. Mere Mortals is another collection of Ives' one-acts and recently ended another long run off-Broadway.  Three of his short comedies have been included in the "Best Short Plays of the Year" volume.  Among his full-length plays are Ancient History, Don Juan in Chicago, The Red Address, and the libretto to an opera of The Secret Garden.  He has adapted four classic American musicals for the celebrated Encores series and in 1996 wrote Ira Gershwin's 100th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall.  He has taught at New York University and Columbia University, and for three years was an editor at Foreign Affairs Magazine.  He participated in the "New Voices in American Theatre: 1998" on Saturday, April 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. at the Independence Museum where two of his plays were read: Degas-C'est Moi and Time Flies

Janet Waldo Lee is best known for her voice portrayal of the flighty, futuristic teenager Judy Jetson on the popular television cartoon The Jetsons.  She also voiced the perpetually imperiled Penelope Pittstop, and the 80-year-old motorbike freak Granny Sweet on the same show.   She was the voice of the slinky, svelte Morticia and the cackling Granny on the cartoon version of the The Addams Family, starred as the lead in Josie and the Pussycats and worked in The Flintstones as Fred's battle-ax mother-in-law. Feature animation credits include: The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, Rockin' with Judy Jetson, Once Upon a Forest, Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, The Trouble with Miss Switch, Heidi, and The Flintstone Feature.  She is an expert at looping, and has duplicated the voices of many film personalities for Universal Studios.  She began her career in radio, where she won stardom as the irrepressible and never-without-a-sponsor teenager, Corliss Archer, and as the teenager Emmy Lou on the radio and television series The Ozzie and Harriet Show.  She is currently a member of California Artists Radio Theatre (CART), where she performed in The Lost Letters of General Robert E. Lee, the last work of her late husband, Robert E. Lee, who also coauthored many Broadway hits with Jerome Lawrence and was the 1988 recipient of the Inge Award, see updated bio in (TEXT LINK) 1988 - Robert E. Lee.  She conducted "The Art of the Voice-Over" on Saturday, April 18 at 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. at the Independence Museum.

David E. LeVine is a theatrical lawyer, consultant and lecturer.  He is Chairman of the Margo Jones Award Committee, and trustee of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.  He was Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild, Inc., from 1966 to 1992.  He was a founding member of the Broadway Alliance Committee and a member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee.  He is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University Law School and is counsel to the law firm of DaSilva and DaSilva in New York City.  He was the moderator for the panel discussion "Robert Anderson-A Closer Look" on Friday, April 17 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

Jason Milligan's plays have been produced throughout the United States and Canada, and twenty of them are now published by Samuel French Inc., including ...And the Rain Came to Mayfield, The Prettiest Girl in Lafayette County and Walking on the Moon.  He has also written five collections of original audition monologues for Samuel French, including Next!, His & Hers, and Going Solo.  Most recently, his drama Navy Wife received a World premiere at the Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, BC and his play Men in Suits was presented at the historic Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut, starring Charles Durning, Dan Lauria and James Handy.  Scenes from his play Men in Suits were presented in 1993 at the William Inge Festival when Milligan was the first playwright chosen for the Festival's "New Voices in the American Theatre."  He currently works as a writer of live entertainment for the Walt Disney Company.  He conducted the workshop "The Writing Process" with his wife Stephanie on Friday, April 17 at 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. in the Lecture Hall of the Academic Building.  He directed the discussion "New Voices in American Theatre: 1998" on Saturday, April 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. at the Independence Museum.

Stephanie Milligan has worked extensively as an actress, although her most recent "role" is mother to Madeline, now age one.  She has worked in New York and Los Angeles, and in various theatres around the country.  Favorite roles include Pat in the world premiere of Lanford Wilson's The Bottle Harp, and Annie in Horton Foote's Spring Dance. Stefanie trained at Actors Theatre of Louisville and with Kathryn Gately and Loyd Williamson at the Gately-Poole Studios in New York.  She conducted the workshop "The Writing Process" with her husband Jason on Friday, April 17 at 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. in the Lecture Hall of the Academic Building.

James Naughton most recently starred in the Broadway hit Chicago, where he won a 1997 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as media-savvy lawyer Billy Flynn.  In 1990, he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of the film-noir detective in City of Angels.  He also directed Johnny on a Spot at Williamstown Theater Festival in 1997 and Filumena for the Blue Light Theater Company last fall.  A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, Naughton made his New York debut as Edmund in Arvin Brown's production of Long Day's Journey Into Night and received the Theatre World, New York Drama Critics and Vernon Rice Awards for his performance.  Additional Broadway credits include Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, I Love My Wife and Whose Life is it Anyway? with appearances off-Broadway in E.L. Doctorow's Drinks Before Dinner and Losing Time.  Naughton's film credits include The Good Mother opposite Diane Keaton, The Glass Menagerie with Joanne Woodward, The Paper Chase, Cat's Eye, A Stranger is Watching and Second Wind.  His movies of the week for TV include Travelin' Man, Necessity, Sins of Innocence, Last of the Great Survivors, The Bunker, and Look Homeward Angel. More recently, he starred in The Birds II for Showtime and the return of Cagney & Lacy.  He has also starred in several network television series, including Who's the Boss?, Making the Grade, Planet of the Apes, Faraday and Co., Brooklyn Bridge and the Cosby Mysteries.  Naughton will also debut a musical act, "James Naughton Live," for three weeks in June of 1998 at the Manhattan Theater Club.  He hosted the "Tribute to Stephen Sondheim" on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 p.m.at the Independence Memorial Hall.

Bernadette Peters recently made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall in an exclusive benefit concert and released her best-selling live recording of that concert entitled Sondheim, Etc: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall.  Peters began her performing career at the age of 3 1/2 with appearances on Juvenile Jury and the classic TV game show Name That Tune.  She made her theatrical debut in This is Goggle. Still in her teens, she appeared in The Most Happy Fella and The Penny Friend, and in the national touring company of Gypsy.  She made her Broadway debut in 1967 in Johnny No-Trump, and in 1968 starred with Joel Grey in the musical George M!, earning a Theatre World Award.  The same year she received a Drama Desk Award for her performance in the musical Dames at Sea.  She received Tony Award nominations for On the Town, Mack and Mabel, Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George, and Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl. She was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of the Witch in Sondheim's Into the Woods and won the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Drama League Award for her critically-acclaimed performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Song and Dance.  Film credits include: Pennies from Heaven, for which she received a Golden Globe Award; The Longest Yard, Silent Movie, The Jerk, Annie, and Pink Cadillac.  Television credits range from The Kennedy Center Honors to an Emmy-nominated performance on The Muppet Show. She appeared in Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall and in Terrence McNally's The Last Mile, both for PBS.  She is also the voice of Rita the Cat in the popular animated program Animaniacs and has starred in several TV-movies, among them Hallmark's What the Deaf Man Heard. Peters has recorded three solo albums, including Bernadette Peters, Now Playing and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight.  She performed at the "Tribute to Stephen Sondheim" on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 p.m. at Independence Memorial Hall.

Robert Trussell has been the Kansas City Star's theater critic since 1989.  Trussell is a native of Texas and a second-generation journalist.  He studied drama at the University of Texas and for twenty years has been a reporter and critic at the Star, covering at various times police news, politics, jazz, pop music, movies, theater and the history of Kansas City's jazz era.  In 1997 he won an award for enterprise reporting covering African Americans and other people of color from the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists.  He participated in the panel discussion "Getting Media Coverage for Your Arts Event" on Saturday, April 18 at 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Independence Museum.

Ralph Voss, a professor of English at the University of Alabama, is the author of the William Inge biography, A Life of William Inge: The Strains of Triumph. A native of Lyons, Kansas, Voss holds B.A and M.A. degrees from Ft. Hays State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published biographical and critical articles about Inge and his works in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, The Dictionary of American Biography, Kansas Quarterly and The Library Chronicle. He also teaches and publishes in the field of rhetoric and composition. He participated in the panel discussion "Robert Anderson-A Closer Look" on Friday, April 17 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

Steve Walker, who has written about theater, film and art for over 15 years, is the arts reporter for KCUR-FM, Kansas City's National Public Radio affiliate.  His work has appeared in Theater Week magazine, The Advocate, The Kansas City Star, Kansas City Magazine, and Missouri Magazine.  He was the drama critic for The New Times, a Kansas City weekly, for seven years and was Kansas City editor for The News-Telegraph, a regional publication based in St. Louis.   He participated in the panel discussion "Getting Media Coverage for Your Arts Event" on Saturday, April 18 at 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Independence Museum.

Fredric Wilson is the Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection, which is the oldest theatre collection in the United States and one of the oldest and largest in the world.  He began at Harvard University in 1996, following 15 years as Curator of the Gilbert and Sullivan Collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. Wilson is a musicologist and for many years was a conductor and music editor, having published more than 50 musical editions and arrangements.  He is a specialist in the choral music of the Renaissance, in the music and theater of the Victorian period, and in English and American opera and musical theater.  In 1996, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in the history of Victorian theatrical publishing.  He has served as consultant to a number of professional opera companies, including the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in London, the Kentucky Opera in Louisville, and the Performing Arts Center in Purchase, New York.   He has written and lectured widely, and has organized more than a dozen exhibitions and several conferences on music, theater, and opera, at the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Lousiville, and at Harvard University.  He is also a computer specialist and author of "DataKit" text utility programs, which are widely used in academic circles.  He participated in the panel discussion "Robert Anderson-A Closer Look" on Friday, April 17 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

Mike Wood, Executive Director of Media Resources at Wichita State University, has an MFA from the University of Southern California in Cinema Production, and has served as producer of the tribute to the playwright for the Inge Festival eleven times.  In 1987 he received the Outstanding Alumnus Award at Independence Community College.  He is the writer and producer of "William Inge: Penn Avenue to Broadway," a documentary on Inge's life, and is a recipient of the Margaret Goheen Award.  He presented a video retrospective at the discussion "Robert Anderson-A Closer Look" on Friday, April 17 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Inge Theatre and produced the "Tribute to Stephen Sondheim" on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 p.m. at Independence Memorial Hall.

Jack Wright is a professor of theatre and film at the University of Kansas and director of the production of Bus Stop.  He received his undergraduate degree in theatre from Otterbein College in Ohio and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from K.U.  He has been invited to become a Fellow of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1998.  Jack is a former national chair of the American College Theatre Festival and in 1983 his production of Buried Child was selected for the national ACTF at the Kennedy Center.  In 1987 he received the John F. Kennedy Center Medallion of Excellence for his work with ACTF.  Wright, who has directed over 80 productions, has been a teacher and director at KU since 1976 and productions include Grease, Sweeney Todd, 1776, You Can't Take it With You with guest artist Pat Hingle, and All In The Timing, to name a few.   He also acts and directs for professional theatre, television and film and has been responsible for local casting on several films shot in the area including Hallmark Hall of Fame's Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark, both with Glenn Close.  Since 1981, he has appeared as William Allen White in a one-man show called The Sage of Emporia.  He participated with the cast of the University of Kansas production Bus Stop in the panel discussion "Directing Bus Stop" on Thursday, April 16 at 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

Luke Yankee is a teacher and director and has served as Artistic Director at the Struthers Library Theatre in Pennsylvania and at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera in California, one of the biggest musical theatres in the United States.  He has directed regional theatres throughout the country including a production of Driving Miss Daisy in Florida and in Columbus, Ohio which starred his mother, Eileen Heckart. Mr. Yankee has been an assistant director for six Broadway shows including Grind and The Circle.  He has been on the faculty at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and Pasadena, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, Columbia College in Hollywood, and at Northwestern University.  He recently formed his own production company in Los Angeles and has two film projects in development.  He conducted the workshop "Auditioning for Musical Theatre" on Friday, April 17 at 8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. in the Music Hall of the Fine Arts Building.  He also participated in the panel discussion "Musical Theatre: 1998" on Friday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

 Margo Jones Award

George C. White
recipient of the 1997 Margo Jones Award
presented at the Independence Country Club 
on Friday, April 17

George C. White is the Founder and President of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Located on a 90-acre estate overlooking Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut, the Center was founded in 1964 to foster the growth of theater in America through the development of new writing and training of theater people.  The Center hosts The National Playwrights Conference, The National Critics Institute, The National Music Theater Conference, Monte Cristo Cottage, The National Puppetry Conference, and the Cabaret Symposium.  Mr. White received a B.A. from Yale University and a M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.  He began his career in theater at the age of 19 managing the International Ballet Festival in Nervi, Italy.  From 1978 to 1992, he co chaired the Theater Management Program at the Yale School of Drama.  He is founding chairman of the Sundance Institute and a board member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Arts and Business Council, New Dramatists, and the International Theater Institute.  He has served as a commissioner for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts for 14 years.  He received a presidential appointment as a member of the National Council on the Arts and currently is also a member of the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards Nominating Committee.   Mr. White has directed numerous off-Broadway, regional, and international theater productions.  He participated in the panel discussion "Musical Theatre: 1998" on Friday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in the Inge Theatre.

Conference Scholars

1998 Conference Scholars 

Conference Director:
     Jackson R. Bryer, Ph.D is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1981, he served as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities for the William Inge Archives at Independence Community College. He is the editor of The Theatre We Worked For: The Letters of Eugene O'Neill To Kenneth MacGowan (1982) and many other publications. In 1988 he published "An Interview with Robert Anderson" in Studies In American Drama and most recently edited The Playwright's Art: Conversations With Contemporary American Dramatists, published by Rutgers University Press, and New Essays On F. Scott Fitzgerald's Neglected Stories.

Scholars:
     John Bell, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA presented "Stasis, Compromise and Happily Ever After: A Comparison of Sondheim's Company and Inge's Picnic."
     Craig Clinton, Reed College in Portland, Oregon presented "Politics and Difference in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy."
     Richard A. Davison, University of Delaware, Newark, DE presented "What is Dated and What is Not: Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs in 1957/58 and Today."
     David Finkle, a freelance journalist, who specializes in writing about the arts presented "The Illumination at 'the Top of the Stairs'." He also participated in the panel discussion "Getting Media Coverage for Your Arts Event" on Saturday, April 18 at 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Independence Museum.
     Mark K. Fulk, John Brown University, Siloam Springs, AR presented the work "Who Killed the Baker's Wife? Sondheim and Adultery."
     Matt Hampel, a senior at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS presented "Sondheim's Carnival: Language, Identity, and Anyone Can Whistle."
     Susan Halloran, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK presented "Self and Other: Community and Identity in Inge's Picnic and Sondheim's Into the Woods."
     Michael M. O'Hara, Ball State University, Muncie, IN presented "Out of the Bus and Into the Woods: Connections Between Inge and Sondheim."
     Beth C. Rips, a PhD student in English at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE presented "Deanie Loomis: Inge's Jazz Age Ophelia."
     Alisa C. Roost, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School and University Center of City University of New York, New York City, NY presented "Stephen Sondheim and The Beauty Myth."
     Jim Stacy, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Natchitoches, LA presented "Sondheim and the Matter of Perspective(s)."
     Brian Warren, South Texas Community College, McAllen, Texas presented "Marriage: Paradise or Perdition? Matrimony in the Art of William Inge and Stephen Sondheim."