The Country Club (play)
Encyclopedia
The Country Club was originally an Off-Broadway
stage play written by Douglas Carter Beane
.
The story is set in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
, in the womblike cub room of the club of the title, as the comedy
follows a year in the lives of six insular friends (and one outsider) through a series of holiday-themed parties where drinks are bolted and truths are spewed.
The plot finds Soos, a young, witty and charmingly neurotic, who retreats from a failed marriage to her upper-class hometown. The type of WASP domain with the houses "that made Martha Stewart
forget she was Polish", she says. As party after party unfolds, the getaway weekend gives way to a year, and ultimately the rest of her life.
Brittle conversation is bandied about, and Soos is reunited with her onetime boyfriend, the ever charming Zip. She also returns to her circles of old friends: the highly strung party planner Froggy and her starchy husband Bri; the wry and sarcastic Pooker; and the alcoholic good ol' boy Hutch. But cracks soon begin to show in the veneer. Zip falls in and out of an easy relationship with Soos, as he starts an affair with Chloe, a working-class Roman Catholic girl from Philadelphia who is engaged to Hutch.
Lives are casually destroyed, lives go on and through it all, tragedies are discussed without being mentioned. As Pooker observes between cocktail sips, "We all have our little stories and nobody brings them up. That's what's known as community spirit."
|-
|Douglas Carter Beane
|| writer
|-
|Christopher Ashley
|| director
|-
|James M. Youmans || sets
|-
|Frances Aronson || lighting
|-
|Laura Grace Brown || sound
|-
|Jonathan Bixby
|| costumes *
|-
|Gregory Gale
|| costumes *
|-
|Cynthia Nixon
|| Soos
|-
|Amy Hohn || Pooker
|-
|Amy Sedaris
|| Froggy *
|-
|Peter Benson
|| Bri
|-
|Tom Everett Scott
|| Zip
|-
|Frederick Weller || Hutch
|-
|Callie Thorne
|| Chloe
|}
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
stage play written by Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York...
.
The story is set in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
Wyomissing is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, established on July 2, 1906. The population was 8,587 at the 2000 census, but after the January, 2002 merger with neighboring Wyomissing Hills, the combined 2000 Census estimate was 11,155 making it the most populous borough in...
, in the womblike cub room of the club of the title, as the comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
follows a year in the lives of six insular friends (and one outsider) through a series of holiday-themed parties where drinks are bolted and truths are spewed.
The plot finds Soos, a young, witty and charmingly neurotic, who retreats from a failed marriage to her upper-class hometown. The type of WASP domain with the houses "that made Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
forget she was Polish", she says. As party after party unfolds, the getaway weekend gives way to a year, and ultimately the rest of her life.
Brittle conversation is bandied about, and Soos is reunited with her onetime boyfriend, the ever charming Zip. She also returns to her circles of old friends: the highly strung party planner Froggy and her starchy husband Bri; the wry and sarcastic Pooker; and the alcoholic good ol' boy Hutch. But cracks soon begin to show in the veneer. Zip falls in and out of an easy relationship with Soos, as he starts an affair with Chloe, a working-class Roman Catholic girl from Philadelphia who is engaged to Hutch.
Lives are casually destroyed, lives go on and through it all, tragedies are discussed without being mentioned. As Pooker observes between cocktail sips, "We all have our little stories and nobody brings them up. That's what's known as community spirit."
Crew
{| class="wikitable"|-
|Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York...
|| writer
|-
|Christopher Ashley
Christopher Ashley
Christopher Ashley is a stage director. Since 2007, he has been the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse.In 1997, he completed The Drama League program for directors....
|| director
|-
|James M. Youmans || sets
|-
|Frances Aronson || lighting
|-
|Laura Grace Brown || sound
|-
|Jonathan Bixby
Jonathan Bixby (costume designer)
Jonathan Charles Bixby was a costume designer and a founding member of Drama Dept., a New York-based theater company.-Background:...
|| costumes *
|-
|Gregory Gale
Gregory Gale
-Career:Gale is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and is well known for his character-driven designs. In 2008, Gale was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play for his work on Cyrano de Bergerac...
|| costumes *
Cast
{| class="wikitable"|-
|Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
|| Soos
|-
|Amy Hohn || Pooker
|-
|Amy Sedaris
Amy Sedaris
Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, author, and comedian. She is known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris...
|| Froggy *
|-
|Peter Benson
Peter Benson
Peter Benson may refer to:*Peter Benson , British novelist*Peter Benson , British actor known for his role in the TV series Heartbeat*Peter Benson , Canadian actor...
|| Bri
|-
|Tom Everett Scott
Tom Everett Scott
Thomas "Tom" Everett Scott is an American film, theatre and television actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film That Thing You Do! .-Career:...
|| Zip
|-
|Frederick Weller || Hutch
|-
|Callie Thorne
Callie Thorne
Calliope "Callie" Thorne is an American actress known for her current role as Dr. Dani Santino on the USA Network series Necessary Roughness...
|| Chloe
|}
Perform
- Presented in 1999 by the Drama Dept. at the Greenwich House TheaterSoho Repertory TheatreThe Soho Repertory Theatre, also known as Soho Rep, is an Off-Broadway theater company with a 73-seat located at 46 Walker Street in the TriBeCa district of Manhattan, New York City...
, 27 Barrow Street, Greenwich VillageGreenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
.