The Cast
Todd . . . . . Stephen
Shaughnessy
Emma . . . . . Sarah Heier
Tommy . . . . . Tyler Poole
Grace . . . . . Marianne Kearns
Arthur . . . . . Tom Kennedy
Setting: The living room of the Duncan family of Main Line, Philadelphia,
PA
Time: 1993
Production Staff
Director. . . . . Penny Weiner
Set Design . . . . . Lynn Wilson
Costume Design . . . . . Sharon Sullivan
Lighting Design. . . . . .Jason Bivens
Sound Design . . .
. . Mary Shirazi
Technical Director . . . . . Tony Naylor
Stage Manager . . . . . Thomas Toledo
Shop Supervisor . . . . . Lynn Wilson
Shop Crew . . . . . Jennifer Kabler, Mary Shirazi
Production Crew . . . . . Jennifer Kabler, Daric Schroder
Pterodactyls Art . . . . .Barbara Waterman-Peters
Publicity . . . . . Paul Prece
Box Office/House. . . . .Paul Prece
Special thanks to Robert Baker for his sound advice, John Martinez, Kerry Lannan, George Renault, Cara Christianson and Ronnie.
The world Nicky Silver writes is one which grows colder by the moment. The dark dark comedy that emerges in this "family" interaction is dire and absurd. Personal concern extends nowhere. Survival is at issue yet blindness prevents any kind of vision of the future. Existence is a farce which this family continues to play. The have lost touch as they spiral toward extinction. These pterodactyls have become earthbound. —Paul Prece
About the Playwright
Nicky
Silver is a Philadelphia native who seemed to write in relative obscurity
until rave reviews in 1993 and 1994 propelled him into the spotlight.
"I always knew I wanted to be in theater but, until I was 20, I didn't
know it would be as a playwright....I knew I wasn't marketable as an
actor," he recalls, "so, I thought, the only person with a product to
sell is a playwright."
An early admissions
student at New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, Silver began
submitting his plays to off-off-Broadway theaters upon graduation at age
20. Although his plays were produced there was little recognition of his
work until David Richards of The New York Times took in a production of
Pterodactyls and was taken with its power. "Maybe it's time to start taking
one playwright, Nicky Silver, seriously," Richards' review suggested.
"I
don't like most plays," Silver admits. "A lot of plays are boring. I don't
have a long attention span." But attention to some writers—such
as John Guare and Christopher Durang—both of whom he admires—is
evident as influences.
Pterodactyls was first produced by the Vineyard
Theatre in New York in the fall of '93 (Drama Desk nomination Best Play, Oppenheimer
Prize, Best First Play) and has been produced in Boston, Los Angeles and Denver.
United with the Vineyard again in '95 his Raised in Captivity sold
out for its extended run the day after the Times review. The
Food Chain, Silver's first open-ended
Off-Broadway run in New York opened in August, 1995. Prior works include Fat
Men in Skirts, first produced by Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C. and
nominated for 3 Helen Hayes Awards. It has since been produced in St. Louis,
Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York and Copenhagen. Free
Will and Wanton Lust (5 Helen Hayes nominations, winner Best New Play),
originated at Woolly Mammoth and has had productions in San Francisco and Austin,
Texas.