THE INVITATION:

The for/word company is an affiliation of artists from Columbus, Lexington, and Philadelphia. Our work has been staged to acclaim in Lexington, Seattle, and Chicago, and now we’ve been invited to premiere two of our original plays, North and Little Book, Off-Broadway at the prestigious 59E59 Theaters for a month-long run in October 2012.  With your help, we can do it.

WHAT IT TAKES:

Being invited to perform Off-Broadway is sort of like being invited to attend Harvard--in the sense that it’s an honor, but one that comes with a high price tag. In our case, it will take close to $30,000 to get both of the shows up and running in New York for a month.  It’s an obstacle that theatre companies with major producers can easily overcome.  For us, it will take the help of people just like you. 

Please consider pledging to our campaign to help make this possible.  Pledging through Kickstarter means that no money changes hands unless we reach our total pledge goal of $8,000 by our deadline.

WHAT WE DO:

The for/word company creates new work in new ways.  Our source material is the historical record: Jen Schlueter, our joint artistic director, culls through letters, poems, essays, books and articles by and about the real people who inhabit our plays. These texts become raw material and are rebuilt into stories that tell more than just facts. In the rehearsal room, Jen, Christina Ritter (joint artistic director), Christopher Roche (artistic associate), and our other wonderful actors (such as Kal Poole and Patti Heying) work together to bring the words to active, physical life in vibrant environments crafted by Brad Steinmetz (resident designer). We don't create documentary theatre or biographical drama: we try to make history and literature live and breathe in the present moment.

THE PLAYS:

NORTH

North tells the story of a charged meeting between writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife to aviator Charles, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the man whom she felt best understood her work.

Their brief meeting is the beginning point in a spiral of events and memories that ultimately make North the story of one woman’s struggle to orient herself, to reconcile motherhood with work and love with duty, and to articulate the responsibility of the artist to a world sunk in war.

LITTLE BOOK

In the late 1930s, E.B. White is doing everything but finishing the first draft of Stuart Little. His wife, Katharine, is trying to adjust to life in the backwoods of Maine, far from her high powered job as the first female editor at the New Yorker. And Anne Carroll Moore, from behind the walls of her children’s library empire at the New York Public Library, is not at all sure she approves of what’s going on outside.

Little Book is a comedy about the written word. That is: it’s about procrastination, disappointment, hypochondria, unrequited love, and blind hope. It’s about why the semicolon is way sexier than the dash. And why children’s literature matters.

CRITICAL PRAISE:

• “…this isn’t a bio-drama, rather a series of imaginary moments that provide texture and depth to the well-known facts about the Lindberghs…. Yet what makes this show so compelling are the small telling moments… wistful, poetic, and wise.”  The Chicago Tribune
• "The for/word company…has produced a rather deceptive diminutive gem with Little Book…. Through it all, Ritter and Roche’s rich, detailed and grounded performances provide the momentum that the quiet little play requires as it builds to a truly unexpected denouement…. It is an intelligent script that continues to yield rewards long after it ends.”  The Seattlest
• “… delicate, poetic, and smart, with a vein of grit.”  Elinor Fuchs-Yale School of Drama
• “This is a lovely piece, and I am so grateful to you for using my mother’s own words, so personal and so beautiful, rather than trying to create words for her or about her, as so many people try to do…. Thank you!”  Reeve Lindbergh, Daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh

REWARDS FOR YOU:

Take a look at the rewards we’re offering on the right.  They include autographed copies of the scripts, tickets to the show in New York, a backer’s party, and other goodies.

AND THANKS:

Thank you for your support and we hope to see you in New York!

(Thanks also to Igloo Letterpress for printing all of our rewards.  And thanks to Dan O'Brien whose song The Moon and Darkness you can hear on our video.)