On Sunday, September 24, at 2:00 pm, Don McLean, of Guilford, will speak about his mother, Jean Stewart McLean, and will preview the first-ever performances of her short plays, which will be produced by Guilford Center Stage at Broad Brook Grange in October.
The talk, sponsored by Guilford Free Library, will take place at the Guilford Center Meeting House next door to the Library.
The production’s director, William Stearns, and several of the actors, will join in the discussion. This presentation will serve as an in-depth preview for play-goers. The actors and director will comment on their experience giving the premieres of these works.
Don will talk about his mother’s upbringing and writing, and will particularly focus on her work for the stage, which consists of these four one-act plays. He will cite connections between the content of the plays and the author’s own early life.
The production is titled To Their Appointed End. The four short plays were written about 70 years ago, but have never before been performed. The production — featuring 17 community actors — commemorates the centenary of the playwright, who was born in Rahway, New Jersey in 1917. The family lived in the rectory of the Episcopal church where her father was the minister, thus she grew up in a setting which particularly informs two of these plays.
In 2013, Don McLean published Sparks, a book collection of her writings: poetry, short stories, and plays, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the author’s death in 1963. Guilford Free Library has a copy of this book available for circulation.
The plays are: The Vine, To Their Appointed End , Where the Saints Have Trod, and Happy Hollidays.
The Vine is a drama about a young man who has a deep-seated dependence on a large vine growing outside his family home.
Two of the plays are based on the author’s upbringing in a church family. In To Their Appointed End, an aged minister faces the possibility he will have to retire. In a sort of sequel, the comedy, Where the Saints Have Trod finds a young minister challenged by his new congregation’s fond memories of his much-beloved predecessor.
The finale, Happy Hollidays, is a fast-paced comedy about the Hollidays, a theatrical couple who host a radio show from their city apartment. To their listeners, they are a happy couple. We get to watch what happens when they go off the air.
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