Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England by Madeleine George

Characters:

Deen Wreen	née Cindy: F, late 40s, currently dating Andromeda, invites Greer to live with her and Andromeda because of Greer’s cancer, Dean of the University
Greer	Nee Gail Garfine F, late 40s, has cancer, lived with Dean for 15 years- met her 20 years ago, professor of Philosophy. Dean was a past lover for 15 years but broke of because of “major sexuality compatibility”
Andromeda	née Andrea: F, 23, teaches yoga, favorite TV show is Friends, antro(pology?) major, loves human beings, calls Dean “Bear”
The Caretaker	M, 60-70s, greek chorus-like, really the curator of the museum
Early Man 1	M or F, early 20s, talking about university settings/problems/debt etc., dating early Man 2, outspoken
Early Man 2	F or M, early 20s, talking about university settings/problems/debt etc., dating early Man 1, reserved

Time:	Present
Setting:	College town. New England
Mode:	Comedy
Form:	Modernism
Themes: University, scholarly, sexuality, homosexuality, relationship, fundraising, saving the museum, cancer, intellectuality,

Plot:

The University is closing the Pratt museum on campus. This causes the students to protest because it is the only museum with seven mammoths. Deen invites Greer to live with her and Andromeda because of Greer’s cancer. Andromeda walks in on Wreen and Greer and questions the state of her relationship with Wreen. Later, Wreen walks in on Andromeda asleep with Greer and questions her relationship with Andromeda. Deen decides that the University will donate the mammoths to various places around town. Andromeda disagrees. All three of them have a séance in the museum.

Quotations: Adam Phillips, Monogamy “Suspicion is a philosophy of hope.  It makes us believe there is something to know and something worth knowing.  It makes us believe there is something rather than nothing.  In this sense, sexual jealousy is a form of optimism, if only for philosophers.” (written at the beginning of the play) Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar” “Give me insight into today, and you may have the antique and future worlds.”  (written at the beginning of the play) Andromeda “Endings are really important to me, they’re like a hundred percent as spiritually significant to me as beginnings.” Caretaker “Must we try to solve financial problems by creating new social ones?”

Notes:

Starts off with a tableau of the Early Mans then switches back and forth between present day and Neanderthal.

No movement during the Neanderthal tableaus. Juxtaposition of gender gap in romance/love and language and things that are important- 20s- heterosexual and new at love, very vulgar and vocal, argue about QVC and credit cards, 40s- homosexual and old at love, intellectuals argue about saving the art museum

In the Greer/ Wreen relationship, the comparison of importance between saving the museum and having cancer. In the Greer/Andromeda relationship, the comparison of sickliness with cancer and sickliness in a relationship

Pratt museum an institutional symbol, home to 7 different species of the woolly mammoth the location of romantic antics and intellectuals, o    Andromeda: “one of the most private places to go on campus”, “totally the most magical” o    Greer: “important research institution”, “sacred temple” o    Dean Wreen: “The Pratt Museum is not in fact important”, “it’s not important archaeologically, it’s not important geologically, it’s not important to the history of the College, it’s not even a tiny bit important.”

Playwright:

Born: Died: Year Written: 2010

Bio: Madeleine George is a playwright, fiction writer, and teacher. Her plays have been produced or developed by Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, About Face Theatre, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights' Center/Guthrie Theater, and Playwrights Horizons, among other places. She collaborated with LightBox on the multimedia play MILK-N-HONEY, about democracy and appetite in America, which ran at 3LD in New York. Support includes a MacDowell Fellowship, the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, a Manhattan Theatre Club Playwriting Fellowship, and the Jane Chambers Award. Madeleine is a 2009-2010 Lark Playwrights’ Workshop Fellow and an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and she is a founding member of the OBIE-Award-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.). For many years Madeleine taught writing at New York University. She has also taught writing, in various forms, at Bard College, Barnard College, SUNY Purchase, the University of Rochester, a half-dozen New York City public schools, and a variety of correctional and alternative-to-incarceration facilities, including Queensboro Correctional Facility, the Office of the Brooklyn DA, the Women's Prison Association, and Island Academy on Riker's Island. She is currently site director of a college program at a prison for women in Manhattan. Madeleine grew up in Western Massachusetts and now lives in New York City. http://www.madeleinegeorge.com/about.html Other Work: Precious Little The Zero Hour The Most Massive Woman Wins