The Gift of the Magi (2011 Season2010 Season)

Cast

PLAYWRIGHT / DIRECTOR’S NOTES

What an incredible gift to be able to revisit a new work, after its premiere, and have the opportunity to go back in and refine story, lyrics and music, and design. We learned an enormous amount last year, that which can only be learned in the public eye. The audience is the last, and most important, element added to any performance piece. There is no play, no musical, no music, no stories, no art, without you, the listener, the observer, the participant. So, we thank you for your participation.

I met with many people after the first production: management, producers, designers, all of the actors, and theater patrons, to hear their input, suggestions, and criticisms. Josh and I then met and began re-thinking certain elements: maintaining what we knew worked, compressing some areas, expanding other moments in greater detail. We then workshopped all of the new elements with the actors and musicians for two weeks, and during that time collaborated with them, rethinking again, reworking dialogue and lyrics and music. Josh and I then went away to compile all of this in yet another draft, and then we continued to refine and adjust throughout the rehearsal period. In the end, we wound up adding seven new songs, a few new scenes, edited out some moments and compressed others, and revisited all of our design elements. The first time anyone will hear these new songs, this music, these words, will be tonight with you.

We hope that you’ll enjoy our new efforts.

Happy Holidays.

Jim DeVita

“The Gift of the Magi encapsulates what the world in all its stored-up wisdom knows to be indispensable in ordinary family life, that unselfish love is the only thing that has the power to transform. The Gift of the Magi is not a sentimental message but rather a universal truth, one which Jim and Della rediscover in the course of their story: that their most precious possessions arenot something they will ever own, but each other.”

-Rena Korb

Composer's Notes

I sometimes tell people I have been moving to New York gradually over a seven-year period. It is a difficult place to exist, especially for a small-town Midwestern guy like me. I have come to realize that New York is also an especially wonderful place to be. Doubly wonderful (and most important) is the fact that my wife Amy has shown me much in the way of how to truly survive and thrive in a place where anything is possible. She has done so with a show of love, patience and sacrifice, and I have no words to describe to you the depth of my love and gratitude in return - or if that is even enough to repay her actions. So, when I think of this story and this show, I think of my wife, of how lucky I am and how much I love her.

The Gift of the Magi, represents equally the most “conventional” and “unconventional” show I have ever worked on. In terms of its structure, it now has 23 very clearly defined “numbers” or “songs” rather than a set of musicalized sequences or scenes that populate Adding Machine, A Minister’s Wife or Whida Peru. Yet the seemingly stringent production limitation of using only viola and cello in the orchestra has yielded for me unexpected “out-of- the-box” musical and structural solutions. Every minute detail in every aspect of playing and singing became important. Stylistic contrast from song to song, from moment to moment became important. Thinking about musicians and actors balancing in the space became important. From this thought process, results arise in a variety of material and an intimacy in presentation that make this piece very special and unusual.

I could never have written this music without the cumulative experience of nine seasons of work at APT, nor could I have even envisioned writing this music without the magnificent and kind collaboration of the talented Jim DeVita. I am grateful to Brian Mani, Tracy Arnold, Marcus Truschinski — and especially to the patient and detailed work of our music director and violist Nick Ehlinger and our cellists Eric Miller and Angela McJunkin for making this happen on stage with such grace. I am also indebted to our designers, crew and staff for all their solutions in support of this play. My deepest thanks goes to you—our ever-faithful APT audience, for supporting this brave new endeavor in addition to our season proper.

Enjoy - have the happiest of holidays.

Josh Schmidt