ANNOUNCING OUR NEXT TWO PRODUCTIONS! Two Plays! Two Theaters! Two Casts! One Lobby! Chains
by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jenn Thompson
Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street) in Theater Four
Tickets on sale now! May 14 through July 4 Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sat 7:30PM Sat & Sun 2:00PM Wed 2:00PM: 5/27, 6/10, 6/24, 7/1 No Eve perf: 5/27, 6/12, 6/24
ENRICHMint Event May 17th after the matinee featuring Mint’s Resident Dramaturge
Dr. Maya Cantu
Partnership
by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jackson Grace Gay
Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street) in Theater Five
Tickets on sale now! June 4 through July 25 Tue, Wed, Thu 7:00PM Fri & Sat 8:00PM Sat & Sun 2:30PM Wed 2:30PM: 6/17, 6/24 , 7/1, 7/15, 7/22 No Eve perf: 6/17, 6/24, 6/30, 7/15
Call the FPC Hotline at: 212-315-0231
In the summer of 2020, Mint will continue our deep-dive into the work of Elizabeth Baker. We’ll be taking over both theaters downstairs at Theatre Row to offer you an unprecedented opportunity to see two great plays by Elizabeth Baker, once hailed as a “New Playwright of Unmistakable Dramatic Genius.” Under the overall heading of “Meet Miss Baker”, Mint will present Baker’s dramatic debut, Chains, and her touching comedic triumph, Partnership in overlapping productions, performed in adjacent theaters at Theatre Row.
CHAINS by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jenn Thompson May 14 - July 4 in Theater Four Chains tells the story of working class people in London’s suburbs, looking at what life has to offer and yearning for more. Charley lives with his wife in a cramped house with a boarder. He takes the train daily to a London office while dreaming of something more exciting than a promotion to head clerk (“A sort of policeman over the other chaps.”) His sister-in-law, Maggie, is so eager to escape the drudgery of shop work that she decides to marry a nice man she barely likes. When Charley’s lodger suddenly decides to “hook it” and board a ship for Australia, it sends a tremor through the family and threatens to break the links that bind Maggie and Charley to their current lives.
PARTNERSHIP by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jackson Grace Gay June 5 - July 25 in Theater Five Partnership tells the story of Kate Rolling, an independent professional woman happily running a successful business with no interest in marriage. That is, until she receives an offer from her chief competitor proposing a merger... and matrimony. Like Chains, Partnership is a story of yearning for more. But Kate Rolling and her business associates are eager to work more, to earn more, to own more. They want to conquer the world, not to see it. They are not romantics seeking adventure, they are capitalists seeking expansion. Partnership offers a refreshing take on the importance of work-life balance.
FPC Membership Pricing CHAINS FPC Tickets to CHAINS are now on Sale! May 14 – May 31 - $38.50 June 3 – June 21 - $44.00 June 22 – July 4 - $52.00
Elizabeth Baker was literally an overnight success in 1909 when her first play, Chains, had a one-performance try-out at the Royal Court in London. She went from “obscure stenographer making five dollars a week” to “one of the most widely discussed playwrights in London.” The Times and The Globe both called Chains “remarkable.” Soon after, Baker’s drama was running in repertory with the plays of Galsworthy, Barrie, Granville Barker and Shaw. The New Age called Chains “the most brilliant and the deepest problem play by a modern British writer since Major Barbara.”
PARTNERSHIP FPC Tickets to PARTNERSHIP are now on Sale! June 4 – June 21 - $38.50 June 23 – July 12 - $44.00 July 14 – July 25 - $52.00
Partnership was praised by critics when it premiered in 1917 for it’s realistic portrayal of the working woman. “One of the very few intelligent and, therefore, really interesting plays of the moment is Partnership at the Court, by Miss Elizabeth Baker, author of the memorable Chains. It is the eternal battle of the spirit over the material: of the triumph of love in a successful modiste over lucre in the shape of her business partner, a love with a lawyer soul, as someone has said. It grips you precisely because it is not a fairy tale.” -The Stage
SPECIAL TWO-SHOW DEAL Book now and save with the FPC TWO SHOW PACKAGE! Pay only $38.50 per ticket for each play, no matter what dates you choose. FPC TWO SHOW PACKAGE can be booked for ANY pair of performances. Must book seats for both shows at purchase.
Call 212-315-0231 to buy your tickets today!
Introducing:
Mint’s Revival Reading Series The Pulitzer Prize Winning Play Inspired by the Mystery and Passion of Emily Dickinson
Call the FPC Hotline at 212-315-0231 to reserve your seats!
by Susan Glaspell
directed by Britt K. Berke FREE for members of the First Priority Club
Monday April 13th at 7:00pm Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd St.
In 1999 the Mint produced the first ever New York revival of Susan Glaspell’s 1931 Pulitzer Prize winning drama Alison’s House. (The artwork above is from our original flyer. Maybe a few of you recognize it?) The play is a fiction based on fact, speculation, rumor, and gossip; inspired by the mysterious story of one of America’s greatest poets, Emily Dickinson. Very little is known or understood about the forces that both inspired and made a recluse of “The Belle of Amherst”. Even less is known about the extraordinarily powerful and unconsumated feelings that she may have had for one of a handful of possible lovers. Ms. Dickinson is now revered as a powerful artist whose poetry is charged with a distinct, inscrutabe passion, but fewer than a dozen of the poems she authored were published in her lifetime. In fact, it was only after her death that her prodigious output of more than 1700 poems became available to the public. Some of the most personal and revealing of her poems and letters were kept private for more than 40 years after Emily’s death. They came to light in 1929 in a volume edited by Dickinson’s niece entitled Further Poems: Withheld by the Poet’s Sister, as well as the publication of two biographies in 1930; The Life and Mind of Emily Dickinson by Genevieve Taggard and Emily Dickinson: The Human Background of her Poetry by Josephine Pollitt. These texts served as both inspiration and source material for Glaspell while authoring Alison’s House. Set on the last day of the 19th century, Alison’s House takes audiences on a fictional journey inside the home of a beloved poet as her family wrestles with complex questions about personal privacy for public people when they discover a cache of profoundly personal, and compromising, poems and letters. Susan Glaspell is often called “The mother of American Drama” for her role in founding the Provincetown Players during the early 20th century. Her renown as a theatre maker remains unparalled - shockingly however, she was deemed the “rankest outsider” ever to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 - her victory eliciting public fury.The backlash against Alison’s House was so severe, it discouraged any New York revival until the Mint’s acclaimed production 70 years later.
Dear friends,
I look forward to seeing you soon! All the best,
First Priority Club Hotline 212-315-0231
Jonathan
PARTNERSHIP
by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jackson Grace Gay
Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street)
Tickets on sale now! CHAINS May 14th through July 4th PARTNERSHIP June 5th - July 25th
Call the FPC Hotline at: 212-315-0231
412 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036
“Meet Miss Baker” began a year ago with our production of The Price of Thomas Scott Baker’s fascinating and frustrating portrayal of a man struggling with his conscience. Baker’s comedy aroused mixed feelings in our audience, which is exactly what our author seemed to want. It continues this spring with two great plays that you are sure to enjoy.
CHAINS
by Elizabeth Baker directed by Jenn Thompson
www.minttheater.org 212.315.0231
I won’t have to take the stairs to get from one show to another for “Meet Miss Baker”. Chains and Partnership will share one lobby at Theatre Row on 42nd St. See them in any order that is most convenient for you, it makes no difference at all. I hope you’ll want to see them both, and we’re offering a special price as an incentive to do so. We’re also creating an option for ordering your tickets online for a limited period of time; we are sending an email with details and a private link for FPC Members. If you don’t have that, let us know and we’ll resend it to you.
ANNOUNCING!
Happy Spring!
This is not not rotating repertory (like in 2004 with “Milne at the Mint”, featuring one cast in two plays by A. A. Milne.) No, the seeds for this ambitious project were planted in 2003, when The Daughter-in-Law by D.H. Lawrence played in one theater in the office building on 43rd St and Far and Wide by Arthur Schnitzler was playing two floors below, in another theater. Curtain times were staggered and I would run up or down the stairs from one space to the other, welcoming patrons. That may have been when some of you found the Mint for the first time.
FIRST PRIORITY CLUB NEWS
from your friends at Mint Theater
“Meet Miss Baker” is Mint’s most ambitious undertaking in more than fifteen years. Two plays, Two directors, Twenty-Two actors in Two theaters--at the same time!