In the last several decades, Neil Simon’s plays have become the mainstay of a great many community and small professional theatres. His early plays were noted for his one-liners and his remarkable ability to tell a story through jokes. His later plays started dealing with much more serious topics. He never lost his sense of humor or his ability to look at even serious subjects and find the value of laughter.
Many of Mr. Simon’s characters can see the predicament in which they find themselves in a long view and know that they will get through this somehow. The characters that do not share his vision always have very good reasons not to understand.
It is his constant use of humor that has always interested me in Neil Simon’s plays. The use of humor heightens the impact of the drama for me. The challenge, for the actors and the director, is to be honest to the characters. We don’t want to make jokes just for the sake of making them, and we have to be true to the emotional state in which the characters find themselves. At the same time, there are techniques for delivering a good joke that are different from the acting techniques demanded of good drama. It is that balance that we work for tonight.

Dramaturg’s Diary
By Cassandra Johnson Locke

Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Goodbye Girl, The Sunshine Boys — Neil Simon’s plays and movies have kept many millions of people laughing for decades. Today he is recognized not only as the most successful American playwright of all time, but also as one of the greatest.
Marvin Neil Simon was born in New York City on July 4, 1927. His parents Irving Simon, a garment salesman, and Mamie Simon, lived first in the Bronx and then in Manhattan. Simon’s early years were unhappy ones. He had to live though the traumatic experience of seeing his father walk out on the rest of the family not just once, but several times. These crises undoubtedly nurtured Simon’s strong belief, exhibited in many of his plays, of the importance of marriage and the family unit.
During the hardest of times when Simon’s father was not in the picture, the family took in lodgers to survive economically. As a distraction from his pain, Simon went to the movies. He enjoyed the films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. Simon was often being dragged out of the theatre for “laughing too loud.”
As a student at DeWitt Clinton High School, Simon enjoyed the humor written by Mark Twain, Robert Benchley and George S. Kaufman. Though considered an average student, Simon graduated at age sixteen and went to work in the garment district. While in the Army Air Force Reserve Training Program, Simon became an engineering student at New York University. He never received his degree. After serving briefly at Lowry Field in Colorado, Simon was discharged in 1946.
Simon and his older brother Danny began working together as comedy writers for Goodman Ace, a CBS producer and writer, and Simon never looked back. Success followed and the team wrote for Jerry Lester and Jackie Gleason among others. While Danny went on to pursue his dreams of directing, Neil became part of the writing team for “Your Show of Shows” and later won and Emmy in 1957 for his work on “The Sid Caesar Show” and “Sargeant Bilko” in 1959.
Since 1960, a New York season without a Neil Simon play has been a rare one. His first play was Come Blow Your Horn, followed by the musical Little Me. During the 1966-67 season, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Sweet Charity and The Star-Spangled Girl were all running simultaneously. In the 1970-71 season, Broadway theatergoers had their choice of Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and Promises, Promises. Next came The Gingerbread Lady, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys, The Good Doctor, God’s Favorite, California Suite, Chapter Two, They’re Playing our Song, I Ought to Be in Pictures, Fools, a revival of Little Me, the female version of The Odd Couple, the trilogy comprised of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues (which one the Tony Award for Best Play), Broadway Bound, and Rumors.
Neil Simon, first published Lost in Yonkers in the United States in 1991.
The play, like many of Simon’s plays, draws on his experiences growing up in New York City, although many critics think it is not as autobiographical as his other plays. Lost in Yonkers was a critical and popular success and led to a film adaptation in 1993. Although many of Simon’s plays had won major dramatic awards before this, Lost in Yonkers was the first Simon play to win the Pulitzer Prize. Many critics consider the play to be Simon’s best work and the pinnacle of his career.
The play was very timely. Although it is set during World War II—a setting that plays an important part in the narrative — Simon published the play as America was entering the Gulf War in the Middle East. This helped to highlight the play’s main themes — survival and the importance of one’s family. Although the play is technically labeled a comedy, it is in fact a hybrid. Critics note both the deep levels of pain that Simon explores in his characters and the humorous dialogue from certain characters, which ultimately helps the play to strike a balance between tragedy and comedy.
Critics note that in Lost in Yonkers Neil Simon has found himself; that he has combined “Simon the Funny” and “Simon the Serious” into “Simon the Pure”. In this twenty-seventh play of Simon’s, laughter and tears come together into a new kind of emotional truth and new kind of silent laughter that implodes into the heart.

Production Credits

Director............................................ Jack Phillips
Technical Director.......................... Thad Hallstein
Stage Manager.................................. Denny Wise
Assistant Stage Manager.......... Stephanie Williams
Costume Designer........................ Debbie Phillips
Costume Crew:
Jane Bodell, Mary Dempsey, Stacie Mazzula, Julie Mueller, Janette Quinn, Liz Steele
Dramaturg...................... Cassandra Johnson Locke
Hospitality Chair................................ Carol Clarke
Hospitality Crew:
Stephnie Abramowitz, Dorothy Attermeyer, Jan Benedict , Cindy Blazak, Carole Borg, Jeannie Burch, Bill Fanning, Terry Fanning, Bonnie Hilton, Karen Holbert, Carol Hudson, Dennis Hudson, Mike Huth, Donna Kanak, Eleanor Kanak, Rich Kanak, Bruce Larson, Lynn Larson, Cassandra Johnson Locke, Bill Love, Joyce Love, Debby Mills, Arlene Page, Mary Pavia, Katie Pecis, Pat Rafferty, Irv Sarussi, Paulette Sarussi, Donna Sauers, Jane Stacy, Liz Steele, Denise Stout, Catey Sullivan, Charron Traut, Dick Traut, Gregg Valek, Sue Valenta, David Valenta, Susan Waldschmidt
Lighting Designer...................... Benton Bullwinkel
Lighting Crew:
Dorothy Attermeyer, Tom Frohnapfel, Noel Smith, Betsy Stiles
Makeup Co- Designers:
Darla Goudeau, Peggy Solick
Makeup Crew:
Linda Auer, Peggy Carlson, Stacie Heintze
Properties Designers:
Ann Marie Hultgren, Kathy Kusper
Properties Crew:
Ed Belda, Nancy Belda, Brian Centers, James Hannigan, Bonnie Hilton, Dennis Hudson, Harry Hultgren, Pat Huth, Mike Janke, Carmel Opre
Set Dressing.................................. Mary O’Dowd Set Construction Chair............... Peter Sonnenberg
Set Construction Crew:
Kara Anthoney, Anne Cahill, Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Robert Erck, Thad Hallstein, Mark Hewitt, Mike Huth, Pat Huth, John Otto, Rich Ptacek. Paul Roach, Bill Rotz
Set Designer......................................... Mike Huth
Set Painting Chair............................. Rob Nardini
Set Painting Crew:
Linda Auer, John Allen, Kara Anthoney, Karen Arnold, Carol Clarke, Peggy Carlson, Tom Frohnapfel, Thad Hallstein, Cassandra Johnson Locke, Jan Mahlstedt, John Mueller, Katie Pecis, Donna Sauers
Sound Designer................................ Martha Niles
Sound Crew:
Bill Hammack, Betsy Stiles
Box Office Chair........................ Mary Ellen Schutt
Box Office Crew:
Susan Cardamone, Terry Fanning, Kelli Kubicki, Rick Pavia, Lori B. Proksa, Marilyn Wilson
House Manager Chair........................... Bill Wilson
House Managers:
Dave Bremer, Rob Cramer, Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Mike De Kovic, Tom Frohnapfel, Karen Holbert, Harry Hultgren, Roland Imes, George Petros
Front Row Center Flyer........................ Joe Petrolis
Group Sales Chair................................ Betsy Stiles
Poster Distribution........................ Kathleen Kusper
Production Coordinator............................ Jon Mills
Program Advertising......................... Peggy Carlson
Publicity Chair..................................... Terri Baebler
Program Editors...............Marion J. Reis, Ed Barrow
Program Production.................... Stephanie Williams
Website................................................ Judy DiVita

Acknowledgments

Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Special thanks to:

The Fruit Store, Western Springs and Hinsdale, for providing apple cider at cost with free delivery.

Starbucks, Western Springs, for providing decaf coffee for the second Thursday performance.

Patrick King for the loan of an antique prop.

Mark Cunningham and Sue Kuehnhold for the donation of props

Danny Fogarty from CTWS for standing in for both Ben Mueller and David Bodell. during some rehearsals.

More Photos on Page 2

Higher resolution photos available
through Peter Bosy Photography