1. Neil Simon A Presentation by Hannah McKinney June 1, 2012 THEAT 319 Dr. Tyler Smith

2. Brief Biography  Marvin Neil Simon  July 4, 1927 – present  New York City (The Bronx)  Playwright, screenwriter, author  Height of Career: 1960s  Owner of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre (1968-1982)  Simon Theatre

3. Historical Contexts  Class  Middle class prospering  Gender  The nuclear family  Specific domestic roles  External image  “The American Dream”

4. Writing Career  Began writing with brother, Danny Simon, for TV  Pulitzer Prize (Lost in Yonkers); Tony Awards (20 nominations, 3 wins)  Often Compared to: Aristophanes; Moliere; Anton Chekov; Tennessee Williams (elements of)  Writing Influences: Terrence McNally; August Wilson; Anton Chekov; Tennessee Williams

5. Simon’s Works  "I don't write social and political plays, because I've always thought the family was the microcosm of what goes on in the world. I write about the small wars that eventually become the big wars." – Neil Simon, The Paris Review 1992

6. Shared Traits and Characteristics  Highly comical  Observational  Melancholy climate  Singular episodic plot lines  Themes: respect for the family; conventional moral behavior (characters are fallible); aware-ness of human limitation  All auto-biographical in some way  Heavily revised

7. Simon’s Playwriting Beliefs  His plays are stories with “comedic moments”; they are not comedies  “By the time you know the conflicts, the play is already written.” - Neil Simon, The Paris Review 1992.  All answers lie in the foundation of the play (first 15 to 20 minutes)  Revise, revise, REVISE!

8. Agenda  "We're not indecent, we're not unloving, we're human. That's what we are, human.” - Last of the Red Hot Lovers  To write about the human condition and what challenges it  Neil Simon: “up close the American Dream is vulgarity”  Personal: Simon enjoys observing and the writing process  To make people laugh  To entertain

9. Comedy: Comic Structures “I find that what is most poignant is often most funny” – Neil Simon  Dialogue  “Recogonizability”  Situational comedy  Friction between opposites / Dilemma  Fingerprint: moment near the end of the play when a character “will often explode in a comic summation of events”; “a cascade of irritations”

10. Comedy (Cont.)  "Life is a comedy to a man who thinks, a tragedy to a man who feels. … To Neil Simon, who thinks and feels, the comic form provides a means to present serious subjects so that audiences may laugh to avoid weeping.” – Daniel Walden (Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Pennsylvania State University) from “Neil Simon: Toward Act III?”

11. Characters  Middle class, everyman of the 20 th century characters  Typically Jewish  Self-doubting, self-hating, and “awkward alienated stance”  Simon’s Dominant Character: “the trapped bourgeois soul who finds that almost everything he yearns for is worthless”  Narrators incorporated in later plays (Brighton Beach Memoirs; Bioloxi Blues; Broadway Bound)  Eugene Jerome

12. Specific Plays to Note: Traditional Simon Comedies Lost in YonkersThe Odd Couple

13. Lost in Yonkers  First on Broadway in 1991  Filmed in 1993  Two boys are sent to Yonkers, New York in 1942 to live with their grandmother and Bella, their childish aunt.

14. The Odd Couple  First Produced on Broadway in 1965  Revivals: 1985; 2005  Filmed in 1968 (multiple sequels produced)  TV Show from 1970 - 1975  Two divorced men (Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison) share an apartment but have completely different lifestyles.

15. An example! OSCAR: I'll tell you exactly what it is. It’s the cooking, cleaning and crying. It's the talking in your sleep, it's the moose calls that open your ears at two o'clock in the morning. I can't take it anymore, Felix. I'm crackin’ up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you're not here, the things I know you're gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. I told you a hundred times, I can't stand little notes on my pillow. "We're all out of Corn Flakes. F.U." It took me three hours to figure out that F.U. was Felix Ungar. It's not your fault, Felix. It's a rotten combination. FELIX: I get the picture. OSCAR: That's just the frame. The picture I haven't even painted yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXZzaAX8EQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXZzaAX8EQ (starting at 2:28)

16. Specific Plays to Note: Nontraditional Subject Matter The Gingerbread Lady  First on Broadway in 1970  Film version (Only When I Laugh) in 1981  Recovering alcoholic and former cabaret singer Evy Meara returns home from rehab only to face the problems of her friends and family.  Dark drama; tragic ending

17. Simon’s Works Today  Broad appeal and interest  Productions of work have been consistent since 1970s  Recent Broadway revivals have struggled  Period pieces  Change in audience expectations of humor

18. Historical Significance  Variety of work  Span of work and involvement with other prominent actors, writers, and professionals  Pioneered and established new forms of comedy, especially for the stage  Established post-war American comedy  All post-war American playwrights can be linked to Simon  Wrote and produced broadly likeable and commercially successful plays that realistically reflected and observed everyday life