REUNION is told through the eyes of those who took up the Union cause – an intersection of theatre and history, weaving together songs from the period, visual images and dialogue adapted directly from eyewitness accounts.

All songs date from the Civil War or before, and the dialogue is drawn from or inspired by accounts from scores of participants like Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Frederick Douglass, John Hay, Harriet Tubman, George McClellan, many Union soldiers, and, of course, Abraham Lincoln. Occasionally there are references to “magic lantern” projections of specific photographs – technology that was available and in use at the time the play is set.The projection cues in the stage directions should be viewed as a guide, and images of those projections are provided in the back of the script. But there a production could include more or fewer or different projections as circumstances allow.

The show is a Victorian entertainment, presented by the fictional company of the actor-manager Harry Hawk. Hawk was a real actor of the period, and was indeed standing alone on stage performing for President Lincoln at the moment he was assassinated. However, Hawk’s production and the other members of his “company” are invented. He embodies the virtues and excesses of rip-roaring, Eliza-crossing-the-ice 19th-Century stagecraft, and he’s tried to pack it all into this show: music hall, Victorian sentiment, minstrel show, florid tragedy and patriotic pageant.

Casting Breakdown: 6-Actor Cast

MR. HARRY HAWK – Middle-aged, company leading man and manager. Baritone. Plays Union general George McClellan, John Wilkes Booth, a music hall comedian and several smaller roles. Hawk is a resourceful survivor who has talked his way out of more than a few tight places, not the least of which was the interrogation he endured in the Old Capitol Prison the night Lincoln was assassinated. With the vanity of the Victorian actor-manager, he has reserved the most flamboyant role for himself, even though a good many years past his prime. But where others might notice an expanding paunch or a receding hairline, when Hawk looks in the mirror a virile young hero still stares back at him.

MR. AUGUSTIN LOVECRAFT – Late 20s-early 30s. The company’s light comedian. High baritone. Plays Lincoln’s secretary, an Irish tenor, and several smaller roles. Lovecraft is the most sophisticated member of the company and isn’t shy about showing it. As a rising young actor, Lovecraft embraces a more modern, subtler style than the declamatory Harry Hawk. The natural rivalry between them should occasionally spill over to their interactions with each other during the play, allowing each to enjoy it that much more when his character scores a point at the other’s expense.

MR. HANNIBAL DRUMWRIGHT – Middle-aged, African-American. Company stage manager. Bass-baritone. Plays a fugitive slave turned freedman and several smaller roles. Hannibal and Hawk have travelled together for a quarter of a century and have become so interdependent onstage and off that it’s hard to imagine one without the other. As Hawk’s stage manager, Hannibal keeps things running and there is no onstage emergency he has not had to find a way out of.

MRS. CASSIE DRUMWRIGHT – Middle-aged, African-American. Company wardrobe mistress. Mezzo. Plays a slave turned Underground Railroad guide, an elegant Washington freedwoman and several smaller roles. Married to Hannibal, Cassie is part of Hawk’s company not out of a love of theatre, but because she chooses to go where Hannibal goes. Observant, practical and unsentimental, she takes life as she finds it and has little interest in the self-absorption of actors or the dramatics of their interpersonal relationships. Both she and Hannibal have been pressed into service onstage as the company’s failing economic fortunes have made it necessary.

MISS CORDELIA HOPEWELL – 20s. Company ingenue. Soprano. Plays a romantic small-town girl, a New England abolitionist turned volunteer nurse, a music hall performer, and several smaller roles. Cordelia is a creature of the theatre and wrings every available ounce of romance out of it. And though it secretly pleases her to be thought of as the jewel of Hawk’s company, she is sweet-natured enough not to use that status any more than absolutely necessary.

MR. TOM TRUDGETT – Late teens or 20s. Company juvenile. Tenor. Plays a young millworker who volunteers for the Union army, a music hall performer and several smaller roles. Not an actor by training or design, his appealing looks, sincerity, willingness to work and good nature, coupled with a search for adventure, have landed him in the midst of Hawk’s company. He is generally in awe of his fellow actors, particularly Cordelia, and there are moments when he simply cannot believe his good fortune.

All of the actors also play various parts as the need arises.

 

Casting Breakdown: Expanded Cast

REUNION was written to be performed by 6 actor/singers but can be expanded to virtually any size. It has been staged very effectively with 28 performers and there is no reason it could not accommodate as many as a group has available. This version has been specifically created for amateur and educational theatres, in order to create opportunities for more actors and to simplify casting.

There are two options for expanding the cast:

Assign the major acting roles to the 6 principals as in 6-actor breakdown and assign a group of performers (minimum 1 woman and 2 men) as Ensemble for supporting roles and as a self-contained group of music hall performers for the songs Darling Nelly Gray, Abraham’s Daughter, Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade, Der Deitcher’s Dog, and Grafted into the Army. (This will also help to distribute rehearsal time, as one group can rehearse musical numbers while the other rehearses scene work.)

OR

Reassign all roles using the Expanded Cast breakdown below.

Expanded Cast Breakdown

The roles have been redistributed in this version to create opportunities for more performers. There are 12 principal roles (7m, 5f) and an ensemble of any size. If desired, 6 of the principals (see below) can be cast from the ensemble.

HARRY HAWK – Mature, baritone actor-manager. The company actor-manager plays himself, a flamboyant tragedian, and Union General George McClellan.

HANNIBAL DRUMWRIGHT – Mature, low baritone, African-American. The company stage manager plays himself, and a fugitive slave turned freedman in the North who volunteers as a Union soldier.

CASSIE DRUMWRIGHT – Mature, mezzo, African-American. The company wardrobe mistress plays herself, Underground Railroad Guide.

THE SECRETARY – Youthful, high baritone, sophisticated company comedian. Plays Lincoln’s Secretary.

THE NURSE – Youthful, soprano, company leading lady/ingenue. Plays an abolitionist who volunteers as a Union nurse.

THE SOLDIER – Youthful, tenor, the company juvenile, the boy next door. Plays a young Northern millhand who volunteers as a Union soldier.

The following 6 roles can be cast from the ensemble if needed:

THE DRESSMAKER – Mature, mezzo, African-American.

THE HOMETOWN GIRL – Youthful, soprano, patriotic small-town girl.

MUSIC HALL PERFORMERS – 3M, 1F, appear as minstrel trio, dancers, Irish tenor, comedians.

ENSEMBLE ROLES (all doubled):

New Yorker 1 New Yorker 2 New Yorker 3 New Yorker 4 Secessionist Maid Female Northern Spy Newsboy Telegraph Clerk Guard Temperance Lady Saloonkeeper Union Picket General Pope Recruit 1 Recruit 2 Recruit 3 Southern Officer

Rioter Union Soldier 1 Union Soldier 2 Union Soldier 3 John Wilkes Booth Mrs. Muzzy Laura Keene Washingtonians Theatregoers New Yorkers Farewell Committee Music Hall Girls McClellan Admirers Society Ladies Do-Gooders Union Supporters Union Recruits Union Soldiers Mourners

REUNION is orchestrated for 6 pieces:

• Keyboard/synthesizer
• Violin
• Guitar/banjo
• Trumpet
• Acoustic bass
• Percussion

In addition, a piano/vocal book and conductor score is available.

Set & Lighting

The show is written for a unit set. Ideally, there is an act curtain. A well-worn placard in front of the curtain reads: “TO-NIGHT!!! SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT! MR. HARRY HAWK’S COMPANY! ONLY LOCAL APPEARANCE!”

A unit set with a second level upstage would be useful. Behind that, a generic wall or exterior flats with enough open space for “magic lantern” projections to be displayed – the larger the better. On stage right, stock interior flats – the kind Victorian theatres kept on hand for touring companies – set with a practical door and practical window, the window at second-story level if possible. On stage left, stock exterior flats or ground row with an entrance opposite the door stage right. This will be draped with plain canvas midway through Act 1 to suggest a commander’s field tent in the Civil War. Upstage near the “tent” is some sort of contraption used by Hannibal to reveal a large portrait of whichever Union general happens to be in command. It can be as elaborate as a crank-and-rope mechanical or as simple as a couple of nails to hold placards hung in place. But Victorians loved stage machinery, so the more inventive the better. Seats and levels materialize from theatrical trunks, wardrobe hampers and whatever else is readily at hand. There are a few simple chairs available on the set or in the wings for placement by the actors when needed. This labor, like the other stagecraft chores, more often than not falls to Hannibal, Cassie and Trudgett. Victorian theatre trappings are encouraged: footlights, thunder sheets, wind machines, moving ground row panoramas – all things that Hawk’s vagabonds might find on hand when they arrived at a typical 19th Century theatre.

Lighting is especially important and the more acting areas available to isolate scenes, the better. While many scenes are played realistically, others are meant to be theatrically presentational, including all of the “music hall” numbers and production numbers like “We’ll Fight for Uncle Abe,” which should be treated like a minstrel show cakewalk. Footlights are a great addition for the more theatrical scenes.

Projections

Some kind of projection system is needed for displaying the “magic lantern” projections that accompany songs and scenes and are key to placing the events in historical context. The projections allow the show to work for an audience with little or no existing knowledge of the Civil War.

The projections ("magic lantern slides") referred to in the script are available for licensing on CD-ROM and are ready for direct projection from a computerized digital projector or for production as conventional 35-mm slides.

Costumes

Each actor has a basic costume suggestive of his place in the company hierarchy. Individual costume pieces are added and subtracted – the changes are usually part of the action, which is pretty much nonstop.