Everybody knows what war destroys.
But who asks what war creates?
That's the question in

A SON AT THE FRONT

by Allen J. Frantzen
a new play with music by John Frantzen
based on Edith Wharton's novel
about World War I

New: The Tulsa World has done a story on the play
and its Oklahoma background (Sunday, July 12, 2009).

Site map:

YouTube clips (7 minutes)
Pictures from the dress rehearsal & performances
Cast
Synopsis of the play
Program for performances
Project history
Allen Frantzen
Email afrantz@luc.edu

Some responses

Here some of the emails that came in after the show. You'll enjoy them! I warn you that the last one is very strong. I think we reached these people!

1. Keith (Mon., June 22; attended Sunday)
Before any more time slips away, I wanted to write you and tell you how much I enjoyed the performance of your A Son at the Front. I have read some Edith Wharton, and with much pleasure, but must confess I was unaware of A Son at the Front. What you�ve done with that work, and especially what you have added to it, was very impressive and, above all, very moving. I hear you were nervous before the performances, and that is certainly understandable, but let me assure you that the Sunday matinee performance I attended played out seamlessly from this spectator�s point of view. The staging, the acting, the surprising music: all this was beautifully done. The text in particular struck me as beautifully written, presenting the arguments for and against war articulately and fitting the son�s reasons for going to war very convincingly into that framework. The gay theme added considerable texture to the play, and in my opinion without jarring. As for the music�-well, congratulations to your nephew for the marvelous complement to your writing! Having the prelude and postlude sung was a wonderful bit of inspiration, and then having incidental music throughout the rest of the play seemed to tie everything together very handsomely indeed. You both need to be complimented on this fine collaboration!

2. Kenny (Mon, Jun 8, 2009) attended Sunday
Just wanted to say that I very much enjoyed the performance yesterday. The script had changed significantly since I last knew it, but you said that you were working hard on revisions, so I expected that. Your work paid off, though, I think, in big ways. Everything that happens addresses the central question: what does war create? In reading/hearing earlier drafts, it was clear that this question was a main theme, but at that point the play seemed to focus mostly on what war created for Will. There were, as I remember, several things about family and community, but those things didn't have the depth they do now. In the new version, it seems you've introduced a followup question, so that it's not only "what does war create," but also "and for whom?" You unfold the answer to the second question in the last third, or half, of the play, and it's all very sophisticated.
I especially liked how the photos of other soldiers are brought back out on stage, near the end. I'm not sure that this was the intention--I suspect that it was--but doing so underscores how the collateral effect of Will's participation in the war--that is, what it does for Will, Billy, his parents, his community--should be imagined as typical for every soldier, making Will an everyman, and his drama one that should be viewed as happening on a national scale. Again, I thought the show was excellent. I hope you were pleased with it.

3. Judy (Monday, 6/8: phone message) attended Sunday
I called to say I thought the play was absolutely fantastic, very thought-provoking and beautifully presented. Thank you!

4. Curt (Saturday, 6/6) attended Friday
We all enjoyed your play last night. The music, the accompanist, and Travis Palmer were terrific. Nich Radcliff also memorable. You must be proud of this premiere.
It seems quite a coincidence that I have seen A Son at the Front in the same season as Britten's Owen Wingrave (at the Chicago Opera Theater). The opera is rather a complement to your play, with Owen being a pacifist who rejects his military family's view of his traditional destiny, disappointing almost all of them.

5. Alan & Lisa (Sunday, 6/7) attended Saturday
Many congratulations on a job well done! We talked about the play all the way home and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly doing it. . . . So many of the touches were so effective--the photos and the opening and closing songs. The actors did you credit and I was especially impressed with the young man who played Billy. He was able to deliver a lot of nuance in his performance and he made his character a truly three-dimensional one. He communicated so much sadness, compassion and love.
We would have loved to have had a Q&A! If we could have asked you just one question we would have asked you to talk about what effect you thought moving the story to Oklahoma had on your ability to develop all of the dimensions of tension that sound like existed in Wharton's novel from your description of it in the program. What did you think you gained by setting it in a purely American geography, and what, if anything, did you think you lost? Even more, we now want to read the book!

6. Joyce (Monday, 6/8) attended Sunday
Bravo! You produced (in both senses) a terrific show. The director�s staging expanded the meaning of the text, and the actors were able to convey individualized and typical personalities. The final aria was intense and moving. It was thrilling to be in the audience.

7. Janice (Tuesday, 6/9) attended Sunday
I loved the play--beginning with the triple-framing of the stage space and the presentation of the old photographs to that rich, multi-voiced expression in the final bedside scene. It was great. Everything worked together wonderfully: your text, the piano and voice composition, and the casting, too, seemed right. Not to mention a good audience. I was happy to be there, and also to have seen an earlier version so as to be able to appreciate the development.

8. Paula (Tuesday, 6/9) attended Friday

To Allen and each person involved in A Son at the Front:
How profound your performance... interrupted by the clapping at the end. You took me to a soul-saddened, searching space ... one that honors, weeps, wonders... challenges ... I did not want to leave that place of deep silence... The clapping startled me... but I joined, to tell you how amazing each of you was. I'm sorry I didn't stand ... I was still in a "jolted state"... but if ever I would give a standing ovation, it would be for you. I would, however, have stood in silence ... the clearest way to convey how moving your performance was.
What a weaving of the complexities of the human heart - within each character and then within the characters as they interacted! You surprised me in the way you developed the characters of Pat McGrath and Alfred Hill, but there were strands that made their shifted positions grow (authentically) from their realities. Strange... all of the characters have been a part of my consciousness, taking turns at "stage center" throughout my life... ever evolving.... Family and friends can also "fill in", sitting in the chairs, each facing her/his own direction....
How apt your play in today's milieu ... you must find a way to reach a larger audience... it was so well done. Masterful! I left as hurriedly as I did because I was deeply moved - I needed the silence to weep the sadness of centuries. Your memorial "...to those who fought in the war and to those who mourned them" honors all - more poignantly than any work written to this point. You hold paradox ... and let it be. Whatever one's thoughts at this moment in time, s/he will find them voiced in one of your characters. More, audiences will find the evolution of their thoughts regarding war perhaps in the hearts of several characters...
How grateful I am for this experience tonight. A thousand thank yous for the gift you and your cast have given.

Characters in order of vocal appearance

Willis McGrath (Will), The Son at the Front. College student -- Travis Palmer
Pat McGrath, father of A Son at the Front, now divorced -- Nich Radcliffe
Ruth, Pat's housekeeper -- Claudia Vasilovick
Billy Delaware, Will's boyfriend, working-class, skilled mechanic -- Jose Nateras
Mattie Hyatte Hill, divorced mother of A Son at the Front -- Susan Griffith
Alfred Hill, husband of Mattie, step-father of A Son at the Front -- Dan Taube
Emma Lawson, Will's girlfriend -- Megan Brown
Sally, wotking woman from Bartlesville -- Laura Rauh
Butch Smith, a bond salesman -- Thomas C. Lucas
Mlle. Catherine Ferré LeFevre, a French aristocrat & singer visiting Bartlesville -- Jessica Thigpen

Stage director -- Matthew Ozawa
Music director -- Marta Johnson
Set designer -- Roger Wykes
Costume designer -- Vivian Pavlos
Lighting designer -- Devin Carroll
Assistant director -- Gary Alexander
Stage manager -- Dana Stremming
Producer -- Allen J. Frantzen
Assistant to Allen Frantzen -- Michael Mason

Synopsis

Prologue: Somewhere on the Western Front
ACT 1: Christmas Eve, 1916, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
ACT 2: Spring 1917, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
ACT 3: Autumn 1917, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Epilogue: Summer 1917, Somewhere on the Western Front

A SON AT THE FRONT concerns an idealistic college student from Oklahoma who volunteers as an ambulance driver in World War I. The drama explores the effect of his decision on those who love him. Will leaves for France in December 1916, before the U.S. enters the War. He is a magnet for the ambitions and aspirations of his family and friends, including his girlfriend and his secret boyfriend. The Son emerges as a composite of ideas expressed in his letters; of details, facts, and rumors about him reported by one person to another; and of fleeting impressions he leaves behind.

The title and some plot elements were suggested by Edith Wharton's A Son at the Front (1923), but this is an American story set in Oklahoma, not Wharton's Paris. When the Great War began, in August, 1914, organizations in the U. S. began offering relief of all kinds. But neither public opinion nor President Wilson favored a declaration of war. The sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915 and further loss of American lives in similar attacks roused sentiment against the Germans, and the disclosure of an attempted alliance between Germany and Mexico in January 1917 forced more Americans to realize that the war did, after all, directly involve their interests. One of Wilson's most famous speeches before the war was made in Omaha in October, 1916 (moved here to St. Louis, same date), and is instrumental in motivating Will, The Son at the Front, to leave for France. Although he was re-elected on a platform of peace in 1916, Wilson called for a declaration of war in April 1917. A massive mobilization began at once (seen here in Act 2).

Oklahoma had an unusual political profile at this time, having only recently become a state in 1907. The new state had a high percentage of poor tenant farmers who were even poorer than the Delaware and Osage natives whose land they worked. The hero grew up on such a farm; Billy Elkhair, the hero's best friend, is a Delaware (Lenahpe; "Elkhair" is a Lanahpe name; the tribe's headquarters is located at Bartlesville). The state was also bursting with newly discovered oil. The resulting disparities in wealth made the state an exceptionally rich organizing ground for various socialist groups, including the International Workers of the World. Odd though the conjunction might seem today, it is a well-documented and distinctive aspect of Oklahoma political history that the socialists supported and were supported by evangelical Christians.

Oklahoma people, events, and activities form part of the background to the drama. In addition, certain details of the hero's life and his family history have been drawn from the papers of the Elmer Patrick McClarney family, some of whom lived in Vinita, Oklahoma, until the mid-1990s (two of Elmer's sons fought in the War; one of them, also Elmer, is the elegant fellow on our poster). Certain details of the family history that seem typical of sharecroppers' lives at the time have been folded into the plot, but to be sure nothing in the libretto claims to represent the McClarneys' views as their papers preserve them. In the libretto "McClarney" has become "McGrath" (which means "son of grace").
--Allen J. Frantzen

Project History

A Son at the Front has been in development since 2006. If you are interested in readings held in 2006 and 2007, click here for details.

John Frantzen, the composer, lives in Los Angeles.He writes music for film, television, and the concert hall. With works for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, theater, and a wide variety of chamber groups his distinctive style has earned high praise from musicians and audiences throughout the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

Allen Frantzen, the author of the play, teaches at Loyola University Chicago and specializes in medieval studies and the cultural history of World War I, the subjects of his book, Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War (University of Chicago Press, 2004).

Edith Wharton's A Son at the Front is one of her great novels, although it was not one of her commercial successes. Written in 1918, the book was not published until 1923 because the market for war fiction declined rapidly after World War I ended. It remains a powerful and moving novel. This link goes to the home page of the Wharton Society, a great source for information about her and her work.

Pictures from the dress rehearsal & performances. All photographs by Mari Provincher unless otherwise noted.

Pat (Nich Radcliffe)

Emma (Megan Brown) and Mattie (Susan Griffith)

Mattie and Pat

Emma and Mattie

Billy (Jose Nateras) and Will (Travis Palmer) (photo by Allen Frantzen)

Billy and Will (photo by Allen Frantzen)

Mattie & Billy (photo by Allen Frantzen)

Will

Here are some pictures that might be useful in getting the flavor of life at the Front and in Oklahoma c. 1900-1920.

Program

Program from the performances (downloads an 8-page pdf)

Tickets on sale starting Tuesday, May 5, 10 a.m., at TicketMaster. Tickets will be available at the door before each performance. (Note: the Athenaeum box office does not sell tickets over the telephone.) $20.

Map of Athenaeum Theatre neighborhood

Two maps of the theater area are below. As you will expect, street parking can be difficult to find. But it is rarely impossible. There is a small parking lot behind the theater (entrance off of Southport). Be wary of parking in the church parking lot next to the theater. The ticket machine there does not give change, and if you do not have a ticket displayed your car will be towed. The recovery fee is very steep.

updated 7/12/09