Recipient of a Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Grant

And

Endorsed by the Massachusetts Lincoln Bicentennial Commission

 

‘The Rivalry’ dramatizes the famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858.  ‘The Rivalry’ is an important history play, a humanities project in itself. Norman Corwin is one of the most important radio writer-director of factual programs and documentaries about the people and politics of America. It was to him that FDR turned a few days after Pearl Harbor to create the radio shows and films to support the war effort like The Bill of Rights. His On a Note of Triumph was chosen to play on VE (Victory in Europe) Day.  Corwin was commissioned on the 100^th Anniversary of The Lincoln and Douglas Debates to write ‘The Rivalry’.

          

Many issues, concepts, themes, and questions present themselves in the ‘The Rivalry.’ For example:

 The importance and techniques of Electioneering. Politics. The more things change the more they stay the same. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The Rights of Man. The Rightness or wrongness of Slavery. Love of all the people versus love of self and ones own class, color, or creed. It is about the human qualities of the two male and the one female leading character in the play.

 

This play is a perfect combination of a wonderful work of dramatic art and an unforgettable history lesson that echoes from Abraham Lincoln to today.

 

This project seeks to address the questions arising from the performance of the play, the comments of the panels, and the questions of the audience.   Another example is questions writer, Allen Guelzo, posed, ‘What is Democracy’s purpose?’  Is it to satisfy the desires of the majority?   Or is it to achieve a just and moral public order?   They were the real questions in 1858 that led to the Civil War. They remain questions for Americans today!’

 

The themes or roots that feed and shape of ‘The Rivalry’ are the Debates. ‘The Debates that shaped America’- Author, Alan Guelzo calls them in his recent book titled LINCOLN and DOUGLAS.  Perhaps your  mind will be changed sitting in a dark theatre, part of an audience that give themselves up to the play, believing we are actually listening to Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, his wife Adele on the debate platforms in 1858. Hearing the voices, cheers, boos of the thousands of voters at each debate, and the patriotic and partisan music of the bands supporting their candidate for a Senate seat in Illinois.  We do know the questions coming out of the mouths of a live Lincoln, Douglas and his wife will be the ones that will stay with us and that will influence us most.  We have no doubt that some of the audiences, as they watch the play, will be seeing Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama in Adele Douglas, Stephen Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln.

 

The deciding factor in our choice of ‘The Rivalry’ for a fall production 2008 is a sense of déjà vu.

Though the action of the play and the debates took place 150 years ago in a race for State Senator of Illinois, and the three leading characters are Lincoln, Douglas and his wife Adele, in a strange way, 150 years later, those debates seem like re-runs of the Primary Debates of 2008 with the three finalists Hillary, Obama and Mc Cain in the run for the next President of the United States of America.  What would Abraham Lincoln have felt about the possibility of a winner being a black man a century and a half after his debates with Douglas on the ‘rights of all men’?  It could be a provoking question for today!  

 

A Massachusetts Commission to celebrate Lincoln’s 200^th Birthday has already been commissioned by Governor Patrick for 2009.  In the coming weeks and months we will be working to extend our performances and ‘talk-backs’ to other Massachusetts underserved towns and their high schools, colleges and universities. 

 

There are two organizations partnered in The Rivalry Project, The Vincent Dowling Theatre Company in collaboration with The Academy at Charlemont. The Academy at Charlemont is a small independent school of 110 students, 60% of whom are receiving financial aid.  The Academy has always strived to combine a high level of classical education with a strong sense of community responsibility and involvement.  The formalization of the partnership continues as an informal relationship that has existed for over 5 years.  Not only does this play echo themes so important in understanding our nation’s history, it also raises questions of social responsibility and political activity so relevant to the present day.