Jules Feiffer
American cartoonist and writer Jules Feiffer became famous for his “Feiffer,” a satirical cartoon strip notable for its emphasis on very literate captions. He was born January 26, 1929 in New York City. In his work was accepted by The Village Voice where it was an immediate success and was syndicated, beginning in 1959. His first collection of cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick (1958), was followed by Passionella, and Other Stories (1959). Later cartoon collections include Marriage Is an Invasion of Privacy (1984); and Feiffer's Children (1986). The play Feiffer’s People was written in 1969 and Hold Me! was written in 1977.
Director’s Note
As I have done when finding the play for Freshman Project in the past, I thought back to my own high school experience. My first director, when I was a high school freshman, combined the plays Feiffer’s People and Hold Me! by picking and choosing the best scenes from each. I decided to emulate this process with one key difference, I wanted the input from the actors. These plays were written in New York City in the 60’s and 70’s and it shows. The political commentary, the societal views on gender, and the harsh outlook on life made for a much darker show than my naïve, 15 year old mind remembered. There were many scenes we tried and cut after the first few sentences were out of an actor’s mouth. But, there were also scenes that I wanted to drop, because of the tone or message, that the students were passionate about doing. Scenes that portrayed women or men in a less than favorable light. I tried to cut the scenes but my actors pointed out to me that even though the scenes might have been written nearly 50 years ago, the message still rang true. We also felt this way about the political/militant scenes. When the plays were written, the United States was worried about different countries, but the tone of the average person being fed up with “hostilities overseas” is one that is familiar today to both students and adults.
Note on Characters
During this production many students are playing characters written for a different gender. When it seemed appropriate we changed the pronouns, but for the most part we left the script as is. This is because these actors are playing characters, and anyone can play a character. Also, the relationships portrayed are less about “a man and a woman” or “a woman and a woman” or “a husband and his mother”, but the relationship between two two people. And finally, it is nearly impossible to find plays of quality with all, or nearly all, female casts.
