Edward Hopper, "Jo Sketching at Good Harbor Beach," 1924, watercolor, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
"Remembering Good Harbor Beach"
|
Edward Hopper House, in collaboration with Phoenix Festival and the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. is pleased to present a staged reading of Debra Wiess' one-act play about husband and wife Edward and Jo Hopper: "Remembering Good Harbor Beach."
September 30, 2023, 2:00pm in the Garden at Edward Hopper House, followed by a talkback. Garden seating (chairs provided) opens at 1:30pm. Tickets available Online and at the Door: $20 Museum Members; $30 Public "Good Harbor Ticket" holders receive FREE admission ($10 value) to the Musuem that day, before or after the show. |
|
|
With Jessica Crandall as Jo and Jonathan Tindle as Edward
This new one-act play, by Debra Wiess and performed as a stage reading by Jonathan Tindle & Jessica Crandall, builds on historical sources to present an imaginative account of the budding creative and romantic union between Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison. Directed by Kevin Confoy, the play is set on two Massachusetts capes - Cape Ann and Cape Cod - and takes you from this first summer in 1923 in Gloucester to sixteen years later at the Hoppers' summer home in Truro, as it delves into their complicated marriage. Summer 1923 would be a pivotal one for Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison. That was when they would start to court in Gloucester where they came to paint on their own. Here, Jo urged Ed to work in watercolor, a medium she enjoyed, to capture the distinctive light. She soon arranged for his work to be exhibited with hers at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This group show would launch Hopper’s career and set him on a path to become the iconic 20th century American realist painter we know today. The play also recognizes that Jo was an artist in her own right before meeting Hopper, with her work hanging next to that of Picasso, Modigliani and others. A Staged Reading of this 30-minute one-act play has been presented at arts and cultural venues throughout the northeast this year, the 100th anniversary of the summer that marked the start of the 45 year relationship of the two artists. This staged reading of the 30-minute one-act play will be followed by a talk back on the subject with the playwright, actors and Kathleen Bennewitz, executive director of the Edward Hopper House Museum, who will also speak about how some of Hoppers’ early artwork and memorabilia and Josephine Nivison Hopper’s watercolors came to become a part of the museum collection. |
Debra Wiess
|
DEBRA WIESS is a former marketing professional who became a full-time writer when she moved to Boston in 2000 with husband Jim. A lover of art and culture and a bibliophile, she has written a wide variety of plays, screenplays and poetry in English and French and directed and produced other projects and events. The published author has presented her work throughout the US and overseas and in 2010 was a guest artist at the Kennedy Center Playwrights’ Intensive in Washington, DC.
|
Jessica Crandall
|
JESSICA CRANDALL (Josephine Nivison Hopper) is proud to be a Resident Artist of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. In the 2022 Phoenix Festival she played Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest and the Fortune Teller in The Skin of Our Teeth, and she sang a series of concerts with composer Ellen Mandel as part of The Harmfulness of Tobacco. In 2021, Jessica starred in Phoenix’s production of The Domino Heart. Most recently, she played Alma in the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke for VOICE Theatre and starred in the new play The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince at Theater for the New City. Critic Joel Benjamin called her performance “luminous.” Her favorite roles include Rose of Sharon in The Grapes of Wrath at Trinity Rep; Antigone in Burial at Thebes at La MaMa; and Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Warehouse Theatre in SC, where she was a company member for two years. She was nominated for an Innovative Theatre Award (Outstanding Featured Actress) for playing Cassandra in Agamemnon at La MaMa, and has an MFA in acting from Brown/Trinity Rep. Her CD, I So Liked Spring: Jessica Crandall Sings Music by Ellen Mandel, can be found on Amazon, Spotify and YouTube.
|
Jonathan Tindle
|
JONATHAN TINDLE (Edward Hopper) previously appeared with Phoenix Theatre Ensemble in: Wolfpit and Maud -The Madness (NYIT award nominee). Other NYC credits include: Reverse Transcription, Via Dolorosa, Scenes From an Execution, Pentecost (PTP at Atlantic Stage 2), The Bacchae 2.1 (Flea); Roger & Tom (HERE); Not all Korean Girls Can Fly (EST); Welcome to Our City (Mint).Regional theatre credits include: Some Brighter Distance (world premiere, City Theatre, Pittsburgh); The Swan (Helen Hayes award nominee, Round House Theatre); Three Sisters, Bed Among The Lentils (Helen Hayes nominee, Studio Theatre); The Pavilion (Merrimack Rep). He has appeared in FILM: Delenda (Best Supporting Actor, Chelsea Film Festival), Full-Moon Fables (SAG Peer award), Dovid Meyer, The Hunley, The Day Lincoln Was Sho; in TV: “The Blacklist,” “Happy!,” “The Tick,” “Dietland,” “Person of Interest,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Law & Order,” and “All My Children.”
|
Kevin Confoy
|
KEVIN CONFOY (Resident Director) is a Resident Director at Phoenix Theatre Ensemble: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Creditors, Dogg's Hamlet, The Painting, and many readings and workshops. He has produced new plays by Joyce Carol Oates, David Mamet, Edward Allan Baker, Marsha Norman, John Patrick Shanley, Oyamo, Quincy Confoy (Win For Life, Winner Young Playwrights Festival), among many others. Awards include: OBIE Award, (Producer, EST Marathon of One-Act Plays); Drama Desk Nomination (Outstanding Revival, Acting Company). Grants: Arthur P. Sloan Foundation, Eileen Schloss Fund for New Play Development, FLIK Fund for New Play Production. Confoy is a professor of theater at Sarah Lawrence College.
|
