Student Matinee Series Learning Guide - The Kansas City Repertory ...

Written by Matthew Lopez
Directed by Eric Rosen
March 16-April 8, 2012
Student Matinee Series
Learning Guide
March – April, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THE PLAY
2 A Letter from the Artistic Director
4 The Characters & Setting
5 From the Playwright: The Origins of the Play
7 Words from the Playwright
Historical & Cultural Context
8 Jews and the Civil War
11 Black Judaism Has Roots in Kansas
14 A Timeline of Events: The Civil War
17 Jewish Exodus and Seder
18 How to Observe a Seder
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
21 The Director
22 Costume Design
24 Scenic Design
26 An Interview with the Cast
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS
35 Glossary of Important Terms
44 Tools for Teaching: Post-Show Lesson Plans
51 Resources
52 State & National Standards
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
55 Tips for Your Visit
59 Education & Outreach Programs
61 Education Partner: UMKC
62 2011-2012 Student Matinee Series
63 Our Sponsors
The Whipping Man
1

ABOUT THE PLAY: A LETTER FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
The Whipping Man
I remember very well the night, four years ago next month that I drove into Kansas City. It was spring time and a
storm unlike any I had ever seen toppled trees and spawned tornadoes in nearby towns. I slept on the floor of my
new and empty house, awake all night watching the trees lurch wildly.
It was a storm very much like the storm that settled on Richmond, Virginia the night before Lincoln was
assassinated. The Whipping Man begins that very night, as a wounded soldier finds his way home to discover it in
ruins – not by the storm but by retreating soldiers who burned Richmond in the days leading up to the surrender
by General Lee at Appomattox.
Those twelve days – from the destruction of Richmond on April 2 to the end of the Civil War and the
assassination of the sixteenth President overlapped, quite fittingly, with the 8 days of Passover, the Jewish
celebration of the deliverance from Egypt. This historical discovery led Matthew Lopez, one of our most
promising young writers, to create a story in which the convulsions of a nation in the climax of a storm of history
are reflected in the lives of three men caught in a now ruined mansion on the fateful nights of April 13, 14, and
15, 1865. Caleb DeLeon, the only son of a successful and very religious Jewish family, has found his way home,
gravely wounded. Simon, a former slave of the DeLeon family, has been left to guard what remains of the house
while the rest of the family fled. John, another former slave sees Caleb arrive, and finds a safe house to wait out
the various storms. That all three men are practicing Jews – an historical anomaly – gives The Whipping Man its
context to raise profound questions about what it means to be free, what it means to be a Jew, and what it means
to be an American in the aftermath of our bloodiest war.
2

Before the Civil War, there were 150,000 Jews in America; by 1920 there were more than 2 million immigrants
who fled their native Europe to find safe harbor in this country (my grandparents and great grandparents among
them.) The Jewish family depicted in this play was representative of small but flourishing communities that
settled in the United States in the early 19 th century, and Richmond and other major Southern cities had a number
of prominent Jewish families in their ranks. One in five Southern Jewish families owned slaves, though more
typically a small number to support an urban household rather than the hundreds or thousands owned by
plantation owners. In fact, as a character in The Whipping Man points out, the slaves of the DeLeon household
had never seen a plantation and lived lives in close quarters with their masters.
For the fictional DeLeon family, those close quarters led the family to impart their Jewish religion to Simon, John,
and Simon’s wife and daughter. That the slaves clung to their Jewishness with fervor makes sense, as so much of
Jewish religion focuses on the narrative of the freeing of the Israelite slaves in Egypt by Moses. Our play begins
just days after Simon and John have been freed because of the end of the war. In the storm of history in which
they are caught, these two former slaves and their former owner come to terms with the new reality of what the
terrible legacy of slavery has cost each of them, and what it means to be delivered from bondage to freedom – the
most profound explication of the annual ritual of the Passover Seder and its instruction that we must each believe
that we personally were freed in the Exodus from Egypt.
Directing this play is a real source of joy for me, and working with these three astonishingly great actors has been
especially meaningful. I hope you enjoy Lopez’s play and these performances, and I hope the play’s larger
questions inform your celebrations of the rituals of spring, both ancient and new.
My very best,
Eric Rosen
Artistic Director
3

THE CHARACTERS & SETTING
CHARACTERS
SIMON -- 50s, former slave in the DeLeon home
CALEB -- 20s, only child of the DeLeon family
JOHN -- 20s, former slave in the DeLeon home
SETTING
The Whipping Man
The ruins of a once grand home in Richmond, Virginia. April, 1865 following the fall of Richmond.
SCENE BREAKDOWN
Act 1
Scene 1: Late night, April 13, 1865
Scene 2: Morning, April 14, 1865
Scene 3: Evening, April 14, 1865
Act 2
Scene 1: A letter home
Scene 2: Evening, April 15, 1865
4

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT: THE ORIGINS OF THE PLAY
The Whipping Man
My challenge, of course, was how to depict a slave who knows the ceremony well enough to perform it.
Or that it even exists. Who would this person be? In attempting to find the answer to that question, I
discovered two books that were invaluable to my research: Bertram W. Korn’s American Jewry and the
Civil War and Robert N. Rosen’s The Jewish Confederates.
In researching the end of the war and the very
eventful month of April 1865, I came across a
reference to the fact that Passover began that year on
April 10, the day immediately following Lee‘s
surrender at Appomattox. This meant that as Jews
across the nation were celebrating this sacred ritual
commemorating their ancestors ‘freedom’ from
bondage in Egypt, a new kind of exodus was
occurring all around them. The parallels were
irresistible.
The Whipping Man began in my mind with the image
of an old man performing a Seder. Recently freed
from a lifetime of slavery, he speaks the words of the
Haggadah with a newfound understanding of their
meaning. The words are hopeful, a promise of justice
to come. Something ancient and distant suddenly
becomes immediate. The past and the present
intermingle as he becomes a part of a history that
began thousands of years before his birth and that
arrives finally at the moment he takes his first
psychological and emotional step towards
emancipation. The promised justice has finally
arrived.
5

The idea of Jewish slave owning had never occurred to me. It seemed completely out of step with
Jewish history. How could a people whose identity was forged in part by their experience as slaves own
slaves themselves? How could a family sit every year at their Seder, speaking the words of the
Hagaddah and look at the faces of the slaves serving their meal and not make the connection between
what they were saying and what they were practicing?
From this sprang the DeLeon household of Richmond, Virginia. Upstanding, decent and deeply
religious, the DeLeons treat their slaves with dignity and respect. They, like many Richmonders, do not
consider themselves typical slave owners. They don‘t own a great plantation. They don‘t own hundreds
of slaves. What few they do own, they don‘t even consider to be slaves. They are servants, treated no
differently than the servants in the homes up north. They even allow and encourage their slaves to adopt
Judaism, just as so many Christian slave owners allowed and encouraged their slaves to adopt
Christianity.
The result, I hope, is an inexorable link between the African- American and Jewish imperatives of
reminding successive generations about their people‘s past. There has always been a conversation
between Black and Jewish histories in the United States. It is a conversation based, I believe, on a
similar history. In The Whipping Man, that similar history becomes a shared one.
– Matthew Lopez, playwright
MATTHEW LOPEZ (Playwright) Matthew Lopez’s play, The Whipping Man, premiered Off-Broadway in 2011 at
Manhattan Theatre Club in a production directed by Doug Hughes and starring Andre Braugher. For this production,
Matthew was awarded the John Gassner Playwriting Award from the Outer Critics Circle. Prior to New York, the play was
presented at Luna Stage, Penumbra Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company and the Old Globe in San Diego, where he
is currently Artist-in-Residence. It has become one of the more regularly produced new American plays, with productions
scheduled at over a dozen theatres across the country this year. His play Somewhere received its world premiere production
last autumn at the Old Globe, directed by Giovanna Sardelli and will be presented at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA next
year with Ms. Sardelli directing again. Other plays include Reverberation, Zoey’s Perfect Wedding and The Legend of
Georgia McBride. His short play The Sentinels was included in Headlong Theatre Company’s Decade project, a collection of
plays about 9/11, which ran in London in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of the attacks. In addition to his residency at
the Globe, he is commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company, is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and is a
recent member of the Ars Nova Play Group.
Information courtesy of The Old Globe Education Department.
6

MORE WORDS FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
The Whipping Man
History is an unending sequence of great and calamitous events. To paraphrase Alan Bennett for a
family audience: history is simply one thing after another.
But that is the history of kings, nations and armies and it ignores completely the people who are caught
up in its unyielding progression. To look at it from a different perspective, history is the story of life
interrupted, suspended momentarily, and then put back differently. History is the constant reshuffling of
the deck of cards that is the human experience. What fascinate me are the moments that history skips
over: when calamity subsides and life is free to return to normal.
Of course, after such events, normal is rarely the state to which life returns. The deck is never shuffled
the same way twice. A new normal takes the place of the old. How, for example, do you pass through
the gates of a newly liberated Auschwitz and begin to live again? How, when the machetes are finally
put away, does a Rwandan return to her quotidian routines? And how, after centuries of bondage, do
slaves become free people? What is that first morning like? How long does it take to register the
immensity of that change? What, simply, do you do? For American slaves, in particular, there was no
normal to return to. Their deck wasn‘t reshuffled. It was replaced entirely. Those are the questions that
prompted me to write The Whipping Man.
The Whipping Man could never tell that story in its entirety. No one piece of fiction ever could. My hope
is that this play tells the story of the first tentative steps of the long, painful, hopeful journey that began
in April 1865 and continues today.
And so, in one southern home in April 1865, two slaves and their former master, all self-identifying
Jews, celebrate the observance of Pesach together. As they do, they each come to realize the immensity
of the moment they find themselves in and of the tremendous scars, both real and psychological, they
bear from their encounter with slavery. It is the story about when history ends and life begins again,
much like the springtime in which the story is set.
Information courtesy of The Old Globe Education Department.
– Matthew Lopez, playwright
7

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: JEWS AND THE CIVIL WAR
The Whipping Man
The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez is set during the alignment of three dates of historical and religious
significance that occurred within three days in April 1865, at the end of the American Civil War: the surrender at
Appomattox by Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
(which occurred on Good Friday) and the celebration of the Jewish Passover.
In the decades between 1800 and 1860, arguments intensified between Northern and Southern states over slavery,
political power, social structure, economy and states’ rights. Anti-slavery Northern and Midwestern states gained
more and more political power as their populations increased, while pro-slavery Southern states lost influence
because their population grew less rapidly. The election of Abraham Lincoln as President in November 1860 was
a turning point. Lincoln vowed to keep the country united and believed the new western territories should be free
from slavery, a position the South did not support. Eleven Southern slave states (South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina) seceded from
the United States, formed the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis as its first
President. The other 25 states supported the Union.
The Confederates’ April 12, 1861 attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina dramatically announced the beginning
of the Civil War. Many believed the conflict wouldn't last more than a few months at the most, but each side
underestimated the other. Armies were raised and soldiers from varied walks of life and ethnicity, from the North
and South, fought to maintain their ideals and way of life.
The Civil War was the first extensive participation of Jews in the American military. Out of around 150,000 Jews
in the United States at the beginning of the war, approximately 3,000 fought for the Confederacy and 7,000 fought
for the Union side.
Leading up to and throughout the war, Jews held positions of power in military, government and business on both
sides. A few noteworthy examples include:
Frederick Salomon, a Union Army general who began the war as a captain in the 5 th Missouri Infantry in
1861. By 1862, he had earned the rank of brigadier general. According to Jewish historian Herb Geduld,
Jewish officers distinguished themselves by attaining rank through battlefield bravery, rather than through
political influence, which was the custom.
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Judah Phillip Benjamin, referred to as the “brains of the Confederacy,” was the first Jewish appointee to
a cabinet position and was considered to be the most prominent Jewish citizen in the country. President
Davis selected Benjamin for his Attorney General on February 25, 1861; in March 1862, he was
appointed Secretary of State for the Confederacy.
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember was the first woman to hold a matron’s position at Richmond’s Chimborazo
Hospital, the largest military hospital in the world in the 1860s. Between 1862 and 1865, more than
15,000 patients came under her direct care. Her memoirs, A Southern Woman’s Story: Life in
Confederate Richmond, published in 1879, remain one of the best sources for understanding the
experiences and ideas of Southern Jewish women before and during the Civil War.
Moses Ezekiel was the first Jewish candidate at Virginia Military Institute (VMI). He suspended his
studies at the outbreak of the war to fight against Union forces. Later, back at VMI, Robert E. Lee
recognized the young soldier's outstanding artistic talent. Ezekiel went on to study art in Europe,
becoming one of the 19 th century’s greatest sculptors.
Joseph Seligman was a prominent U.S. banker and businessman responsible for providing valuable
financial aid for the North.
Philip Speyer and Co. negotiated credit for America during the war and participated in the development
of American railroads.
Battlefield bravery and political leadership could not diminish growing tensions over ethnicity and immigration,
or the economic competition between Jews and non-Jews. The result was an outbreak of anti-Semitism with
Americans from the North and South denouncing Jews as disloyal war profiteers, and accusing them of driving
Christians out of business and of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Union General Ulysses S. Grant was influenced by these sentiments and, on December 17, 1862, issued one of the
most flagrant anti-Jewish decrees in American history. His General Order No. 11 expelled all Jews from areas
under his control in western Tennessee. The order was quickly rescinded by President Lincoln, but not until it had
been enforced in a number of towns.
Grant later issued another order "that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the road southward" and his aide,
Colonel John V. DuBois, followed, ordering "all cotton speculators, Jews, and all vagabonds with no honest
means of support" to leave the district. While Grant issued anti-Jewish orders, Confederate General Robert E. Lee
allowed Jewish soldiers under his command to observe all holy days.
After four long and bloody years and approximately 1,030,000 casualties (including 620,000 soldier deaths), the
Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at
9

Appomattox Court House. More than 10,000 people of Jewish faith had fought for the Confederacy, and about
8,400 for the Union, with Jews fighting on both sides in numbers greater than their percentage in the general
population. Six Jews are recognized by the Jewish War Veterans of America as earning the Congressional Medal
of Honor during the war.
Abraham Myers (1833-1889), a Jewish military officer and graduate of West Point wrote, "We were not fighting
for the perpetuation of slavery, but for the principle of States Rights and Free Trade, and in defense of our homes
which were being ruthlessly invaded."
Written by Laura Muir
Director of Communications, Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Works consulted
Robert N. Rosen. The Jewish Confederates, University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
Sarna, Jonathan D. and Mendelsohn, Adam, ed. Jews and the Civil War, A Reader, New York University Press, 2010.
And the following online sources:
PBS.org
Brody, Seymour, “The Civil War: Creates Jewish Soldiers and Heroes.” Florida Atlantic University Libraries, fau.edu/library/brody27.htm
thejewishchronicle.net
americancivilwar.com
10

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: BLACK JUDAISM HAS ROOTS IN KANSAS
The Whipping Man
Perhaps you read that First Lady Michelle Obama’s first cousin is Rabbi Capers Funnye of Chicago’s
Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. Or maybe you heard Joshua Nelson, “the
prince of kosher gospel music,” belt out “Adon Olam” at one of the Jewish Arts Festivals here.
But did you know that “Black Judaism,” as it’s come to be known, has its roots right here in Kansas over
a century ago? Or that it influenced such later religious developments as Rastafarianism and even the
Nation of Islam?
It’s true, according to numerous sources.
They point to the arrival of former slave and railroad cook William Saunders Crowdy in Lawrence,
Kan., in 1896 and his establishment there of the Church of God and Saints of Christ as perhaps the
watershed event in the movement that identifies African-Americans with the biblical Hebrews.
Within a couple of years, Crowdy had established satellite tabernacles all across Kansas, from Atchison
to Topeka to Winfield. The COGASOC eventually withered away here, but it still exists. It has its
headquarters in Virginia and is headed by one of Crowdy’s descendants.
Saints of Christ?
Today, tens of thousands of people consider themselves Black Jews, even if the mainstream Jewish
community doesn’t completely accept them. At this point, the contentious issues are more theological
than racial, and Rabbi Funnye has made it his business to bridge those gaps, according to an article in
the July-August edition of Moment magazine titled “Post-Racial Rabbis.”
Writer Jeremy Gillick says that Funnye is succeeding, to the extent that he has “been almost universally
accepted as a rabbi by liberal Jewish movements, as well as by many more traditional groups.”
That’s apparently so in large part because the segment of Black Judaism to which Rabbi Funnye adheres
has moved much closer to mainstream Judaism than others, including the COGASOC
It’s doubtful that the rabbis of his day would have recognized William Crowdy as a peer, much less the
prophet that COGASOC considers him today. There is that “Christ” business, although the COGASOC
Web site has an explanation for that in its FAQ section:
“We interpret this name to mean that we are a religious organization which is directed by God, ‘Church
of God,’ and we are followers of the anointed of God, ‘Saints of Christ.’ Our congregation should not be
mistaken for Messianic Jews or Jews for Jesus, because we do not believe that Jesus is our Lord and
Savior. … We believe in the religion of Jesus and not the religion about Jesus.”
Nonetheless, it continues, “We believe that Jesus was a prophet, and we accept all biblical prophets of
God who taught the laws of God.”
It is this sort of duality that led writers including James E. Landing in “Black Judaism,” (Carolina
11

Academic Press, 2002) and Yvonne Chireau in “Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters
with Judaism,” (Oxford University Press, 2000) to call COGASOC an admixture of Jewish and
Christian theological concepts.
Still, congregants at Temple Beth El, the COGASAC headquarters in Belleville, Va., will celebrate Rosh
Hashanah tonight, just as at every other synagogue and temple in the world. In fact, they observe most
of the major holidays with the exception of Chanukah. The Festival of Lights, of course, is post-biblical,
and COGSAC consider themselves biblical Jews.
And that gets to the heart of the split between the Black Jewish community and the normative one:
Black Jews have their own interpretations of the Bible, and don’t necessarily follow the rabbinic
tradition.
Crowdy in Kansas
And while in the 19th century many black Christians found the biblical Israelites an inspiring allegory
for their own enslavement, it was Crowdy who first popularized the literal identification of black
Americans with Israelites, or Jews.
Born a slave in 1847 in Maryland, Crowdy served in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the
war, he moved to Guthrie, Okla., and later to Kansas City, Mo., where he established a family and
worked on the Santa Fe Railroad as a cook.
According to a history of COGASOC written by his daughter, it was William Crowdy’s powerful
singing voice that first attracted people to him. He was said to have arrived in Lawrence in 1896 and
begun to sing and preach on the street. That led to a public meeting at the Douglas County Courthouse,
attended by both whites and blacks, and to the incorporation of the COGASOC.
According to records reproduced by former University of Kansas student Elly Wynia in her book, “The
Church of God and Saints of Christ: The Rise of Black Jews.” (Routledge, 1994) COGASOC’s “First
General Annual Assembly Meeting” occurred in Lawrence on Oct. 10, 1899
During Crowdy’s time in Lawrence, COGASOC records showed a “tabernacle” at 1239 New Jersey St.,
where a private home stands today. Henry Street, the location of the other Lawrence tabernacle, no
longer exists today. Likewise, the address given for the Topeka tabernacle, 910 S.E. 12th St., is today
merely the side yard of a rundown house in a historically black neighborhood.
If William Crowdy, the father of “Black Judaism,” is still regarded a prophet in some circles, he’s
almost unknown in his old Kansas stomping grounds.
What are Black Jews?
Yvonne Chireau writes in “Black Zion” that “One of the first communities to which the designation
‘black Jews’ was applied was the Church of God and Saints of Christ (also known as the Temple Beth-el
congregations), established in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1896 by William Saunders Crowdy. Crowdy, a
former Baptist preacher, called his congregations ‘tabernacles’ and embedded select Jewish beliefs and
practices within a format that was similar to that of a Christian church. The group’s appropriation of
Judaism constituted what for some writers have characterized as a Hebraic-Christian or Judeo-Christian
formation, in which aspects of Old Testament tradition were integrated with Christian elements…. The
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Church of God adopted Jewish customs that may have been based on a literal interpretation of Old
Testament rites.
“The Church of God, for instance, maintained the office of the rabbinate, celebrated Passover, and
observed a Saturday Sabbath while incorporating new Testament principles, emphasizing the works of
Jesus Christ and his teachings, and practicing such rituals as Baptism. This pattern of selecting
components of Judaism and preserving theological and doctrinal perspectives from Christianity was
typical of a number of groups in the early establishment of black Jewish communities in the United
States.”
by Rick Hellman
Date published: September 18, 2009
Publication: The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Link: http://www.kcjc.com/200909188749/news/black-judaism-has-roots-in-kansas.html
13

A TIMELINE OF EVENTS: THE CIVIL WAR
1861
January
The South secedes from the Union.
March
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated.
April
The attack on Fort Sumter marks the start
of the Civil War.
July
The first Battle of Bull Run.
1862
January
The Whipping Man
President Lincoln declares war on the
Confederacy.
May
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson defeats
Union forces at Shenandoah.
September
Confederacy yields to Union forces at
Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war.
Left: Confederate flag flying over Fort Sumter. Image is a detail from a stereoscopic photograph taken by Alma A.
Pelot on the morning of April 15, 1861. Right: Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson (1824 – 1863).
14

A TIMELINE OF EVENTS: THE CIVIL WAR
1863
January
The Emancipation Proclamation declares all
slaves free in the eyes of the federal
government.
July
The Battle of Gettysburg is fought.
November
On November 19, President Lincoln delivers
what is now known as “The Gettysburg
Address” at the dedication of the Soldiers’
National Cemetery in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
1864
April - June
The Siege on Petersburg.
(It is in this battle that The
Whipping Man’s Caleb gets
injured).
August
Union General Sherman takes
control of Atlanta.
November
Lincoln is re-elected.
The Whipping Man
Left: Photograph of a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation. Date: 1864.
Engraving by W. Roberts. Below: The “Dictator” siege mortar at Petersburg in 1864.
From The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes: Volume Three, The
Decisive Battles. The Review of Reviews Co., New York. 1911, p. 186.
15

A TIMELINE OF EVENTS: THE CIVIL WAR
1865
April 2-3
Richmond, Virginia is evacuated by
Confederates who set fire to their own bridges,
armory and supply warehouses. Union troops
enter Richmond and raise the Stars and Stripes.
April 4
President Lincoln visits Richmond, including the
Confederate White House, battle sites and
prison.
April 10
General Robert E. Lee surrenders his
Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S.
Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, and the Civil
War officially ends. It is the first evening of
Passover.
April 14
President Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes
Booth at 10:13 p.m. while at Ford’s Theatre.
This date was the evening of the fifth day of
Passover in 1865. This was also the date
Christians observed Good Friday.
April 15
Lincoln dies at 7:30 a.m. This day had already
been scheduled as a national day of prayer
for those of Jewish faith. Many Jews arrived
at synagogues that morning to learn of the
President’s death.
April 16
Easter Sunday.
The Whipping Man
Damage to Richmond, Virginia from the American Civil War. Albumen print.
April 1865. Source: Library of Congress Photo: Andrew J. Russell
Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., site of the assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Photo: Mathew Brady.
Below: President Lincoln’s funeral car, which carried his body from
Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. Photo: National Park Service.
16

CULTURAL CONTEXT: JEWISH EXODUS AND SEDER
President Barack Obama and his family hosted a Passover Seder at the White House in March 2010.
The Whipping Man
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It
is held on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, which corresponds to late March
or April in the Gregorian calendar. The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple
generations of a family, involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery
in ancient Egypt. This story is in the Book of Exodus (Shemot) in the Hebrew Bible. The Seder itself is
based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "And you
shall tell it to your son on that day, saying, 'Because of this God did for us when He took me out of
Egypt.'" (Exodus 13:8) Traditionally, families and friends gather in the evening to read the text of the
Haggadah, which contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals,
commentaries from the Talmud, and special Passover songs. Seder customs include drinking four cups
of wine, eating matzo and partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate. The Seder is
performed in much the same way by Jews all over the world.
Information courtesy of The Old Globe Education Department.
17

CULTURAL CONTEXT: HOW TO OBSERVE A SEDER
The Whipping Man
The Passover Seder Plate (ke'ara) is a special plate containing six symbolic foods used during the
Passover Seder. Each of the six items arranged on the plate have special significance to the retelling of
the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The seventh symbolic item used during the meal—a stack of three
matzohs—is placed on its own plate on the Seder table.
The six items on the Seder Plate are:
Maror and Chazeret: Two types of bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness and harshness of the slavery
which the Jews endured in Ancient Egypt. For maror, many people use freshly grated horseradish or
whole horseradish root. Chazeret is typically romaine lettuce, whose roots are bitter-tasting. Either the
horseradish or romaine lettuce may be eaten in fulfillment of the mitzvah of eating bitter herbs during
the Seder.
Charoset: A sweet, brown, pebbly paste of fruits and nuts, representing the mortar used by the Jewish
slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt.
Karpas: A vegetable other than bitter herbs, usually parsley but sometimes something such as celery or
cooked potato, which is dipped into salt water (Ashkenazi custom), vinegar (Sephardi custom), or
charoset (older custom, still common amongst Yemenite Jews) at the beginning of the Seder.
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Zeroa: A roasted lamb bone, symbolizing the korban Pesach (Pesach sacrifice), which was a lamb
offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.
Beitzah: A roasted egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the
Temple in Jerusalem and was then eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.
Steps to Observing a Seder:
Step 1: Light the festival candles, either at the start of the Seder or earlier, just before sunset (either is
correct). Recite two blessings over the candles as you light them.
Step 2: Bless the wine that all will drink during the Seder, and then pour a cup for each guest and one for
the prophet Elijah. After everyone has drunk the first cup, pour the second. (Each participant drinks four
cups of wine at specified points in the service; Elijah's cup remains untouched throughout the Seder.)
Step 3: Wash your hands, with no blessing, in preparation for eating the Karpas, which is a vegetable -
usually parsley - dipped in salt water. The green vegetable symbolizes rebirth of spring; the salt water
represents the tears shed by Jews in slavery.
Step 4: Break the middle one of the three matzohs on the table. Return half to the pile. The other half
becomes the afikomen, the part hidden away for children to find later and consume at the end of dinner.
The afikomen can also be ransomed back to the adults by the children for a prize.
Step 5: Tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt and the first Pesach (Passover). Begin by having the
youngest child (or youngest adult if there are no children present) ask the traditional Four Questions. At
the end of the story ("Maggid" in Hebrew) recite a blessing over the second cup of wine and drink it.
Step 6: Wash your hands, saying a blessing, in preparation for eating the matzoh. Then recite two
blessings over the matzoh: one, the ha-motzi, is a generic blessing for grain products used as a meal; the
other is a blessing specific to matzoh. Eat a bit of matzoh after saying the blessings.
19

Step 7: Recite a blessing over the maror, a bitter vegetable (usually raw horseradish) that symbolizes the
bitterness of slavery. Dip the maror into charoset and eat it. Then make and eat a sandwich of another
piece of maror and charoset between small pieces of matzoh.
Step 8: Eat a festive meal. Anything goes here - except, of course, chametz, the leavened foods
forbidden during Passover. At the end, reward the children who find the afikomen and then eat the
afikomen.
Step 9: Pour the third cup of wine, recite birkat ha-mazon (grace after meals), then bless and drink the
wine. Pour a fourth cup of wine for everyone. Then have someone (a child if possible) open the door for
the prophet Elijah, who is supposed to arrive on Pesach to herald the Messiah.
Step 10: Recite a series of psalms and a blessing over the last cup of wine and drink it.
Step 11: Close with a statement that the Seder has been completed and a wish to celebrate next year's
Pesach in Jerusalem (i.e., that the Messiah will come within the coming year).
Information courtesy of The Old Globe Education Department. Research and activity designs by Teaching Artist, Radhika
Rao and Education Intern, Maddie Shea Baldwin.
20

THE DIRECTOR
The Whipping Man
ERIC ROSEN (Director) is a nationally recognized playwright, director and producer and the fourth artistic
director in the 47-year history of Kansas City Repertory Theatre. He is also co-founder and former artistic director
of Chicago’s acclaimed About Face Theatre, where he developed nearly 30 world premieres in his thirteen
seasons there. Rep credits include direction of Metamorphoses (also Australia and regional tour) and The Trip
to Bountiful prior to his appointment, and direction of Clay (prior to N.Y. premiere at Lincoln Center
Theater/LCT3, winner of Chicago’s Jefferson Award and nominee for the Drama Desk Award in N.Y.);
Winesburg, Ohio (for which he also wrote book and lyrics, winner of the Jeff Award for Best New Work and
Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award for Best Musical); the world premiere of A Christmas Story, The Musical!
(transfer to 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle); the world premiere of Venice, a new musical he co-wrote with Matt Sax
(co-production with CTG in Los Angeles, Fall of 2010; currently in development for a N.Y. premiere in 2012,
named Best Musical of the Year in TIME magazine) and the acclaimed hits Cabaret and August: Osage County.
He recently directed The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Other plays include
Dream Boy (Jeff Award for best direction and production, produced nationally) and Wedding Play (Jeff
nomination for best new work, produced at Steppenwolf), Dancer from the Dance, Whitman and Undone (About
Face).
Other directing credits include the world premieres of M. Proust by Mary Zimmerman (Jeff nomination for best
new play) and Theater District (Jeff Award for best new play), and the Chicago premiere of Take Me Out, all in
About Face/Steppenwolf co-productions. Regional credits include work at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles;
Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago;
the Prince Music Theater; Hartford Stage; Cincinnati Playhouse; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; 7 Stages in
Atlanta; and workshops at the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, the O’Neill, and Sundance Theatre Lab.
Rosen produced the pre-N.Y. premiere of Doug Wright’s play I Am My Own Wife, winner of the Tony Award for
best play and the Pulitzer Prize; Eleven Rooms of Proust created by Mary Zimmerman; and was dramaturg
for Frank Galati and Stephen Flaherty’s Loving Repeating at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Moisés
Kaufman's One Arm at Steppenwolf Theatre and Kaufman’s Tony nominated 33 Variations at Sundance Theatre
Lab.
Rosen earned his Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University, and held a National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA)/Theatre Communication Group (TCG) Career Development Fellowship for Directors. He has
twice served as a theatre panelist for the NEA and has participated in the TCG/Pew Charitable Trusts’ National
Theatre Artists Residency Program. Rosen has taught at Northwestern University, University of Chicago,
Brooklyn College and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, his alma mater.
21

DESIGN ELEMENTS: COSTUME DESIGN
The Whipping Man
Alison Heryer is making her Rep debut as costume designer for The Whipping Man. Alison, who holds a MFA
from the University of Texas at Austin, is on the faculty at Kansas City Art Institute. Alison took a moment out of
the rehearsal process to talk to us about her design.
Can you tell us a little bit about the design process for this production?
For this show, I began by doing lots of research on the Civil War, specifically the
events in the final weeks of the war in Richmond, Virginia. Most of my initial
research was not focused as much on the clothing, but understanding the historical
and social context surrounding the characters.
What were some of your inspirations?
The costumes were largely inspired by photographic portraits from the
period. Photography was becoming more accessible in the mid-nineteenth century
and the Civil War was one of the first wars to be photographed. From a costuming
standpoint this is exciting because it is the first time we have images of real people
in clothing rather than relying on fashion plates or illustrations, so a designer not
only has an idea of what people were wearing but how they were wearing
it. Matthew Brady and George S. Cook were photographers whose work is
referenced.
Are there any particular challenges you faced when designing this production?
The most challenging thing for me in this production was researching the gangrene
bullet wound. You have to sift through some pretty disturbing images to ensure
accuracy.
What have you learned from working on this production?
The first time I read this play, I was not very familiar with history and symbolism
behind the Passover seder. The layering of the Exodus narrative with the
culmination of the war now is my favorite part of this story.
Left: Alison Heryer’s costume design sketch and fabric samples for the character of Simon
DeLeon.
22

From left: Alison Heryer’s costume sketches for Caleb, John and Simon.
Questions for Discussion
What expectations did you have for the costumes before seeing the production? Did they look like what
you expected? Why or why not?
What do you think were the strengths of the design? What would you have done differently?
Upon seeing the costumes, what kinds of feelings did they evoke? Did those feelings support the world
of the play and its events? Why or why not?
ALISON HERYER (Costume Design) KC Rep: debut. New York: The Bluest Eye (New Victory). Regional: The Fall to
Earth, A Lesson Before Dying, Orange Flower Water, Things Being What They Are, and World Set Free (Steppenwolf
Theatre); RENT and Doubt (ZACH Theatre); Six Characters in Search of an Author (The Hypocrites); Twilight Orchard and
Seagull (Redmoon Theater); Sueno, Woyzeck, The House of Bernarda Alba, and The Lady From the Sea (Greasy Joan); Red
Scare (Second City); The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Trojan Women, The Idiot, Summer People, and 410 [Gone]
(University of Texas at Austin). TV & Film: Dance with the One and Fatakra. Exhibition: Calorie Count (Paragraph
Gallery); Triiibe: In Search of Eden (808 Gallery, Boston); Santiago Forero: The Olympic Games (Austin Museum of
Modern Art); 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Design and Space. Awards: Austin Critics Table Award for Costume Design;
Michael Philippi Emerging Designer Award. Upcoming: The Picnic Project, an interactive installation coming July 2012 to
the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Education: MFA, University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Heryer is faculty in Fiber at Kansas
City Art Institute. To view more of her work, please visit www.alisonheryerdesign.com.
23

DESIGN ELEMENTS: SCENIC DESIGN
Set model courtesy of Jack Magaw.
The Whipping Man
The scenic designer is responsible for collaborating with the director and other members of the design
team to create an environment for the production. Scenic designers create models of the scenery (like the
one above and those on the following page), renderings, paint elevations and scale construction
drawings as part of their communication with the Rep’s production staff.
The Whipping Man is set in the DeLeon home in Richmond, Virginia over a period of three days at the
end of the Civil War. Once a grand town home, the house is now in ruins, almost fully destroyed by fire
and the conflict of war. Set designer Jack Magaw created a set with the appearance of destruction to
convey the world of Union-occupied Richmond in April of 1865. Note the projections that are used in
the model on the following page to indicate the world outside the home.
Questions for Discussion
What expectations did you have for the scenic design before seeing the production? Did the set look like
what you expected? Why or why not?
What do you think were the strengths of the design? What would you have done differently?
Upon seeing the set, what kinds of feelings did it evoke? Did those feelings support the world of the play
and its events? Why or why not?
24

Set models courtesy of Jack Magaw.
JACK MAGAW (Scenic Design) previously designed Cabaret, A Flea In Her Ear and Winesburg, Ohio at Kansas City
Repertory Theatre. Other Chicago and regional theatre credits include I Just Stopped By To See The Man (Alliance Theatre),
the world premiere of Disgraced (American Theater Company), Circle Mirror Transformation (Repertory Theatre of St.
Louis), Gee’s Bend (Cincinnati Playhouse), Samuel J & K (Steppenwolf Theatre Co.), Sizwe Banzi is Dead and Home (Court
Theatre), Black Pearl Sings and Eclipsed (Northlight Theatre), A Few Good (Peninsula Players Theatre), In the Next Room
(Victory Gardens Theater), She Loves Me and The Caretaker (WritersTheatre) and Radio Golf (Pittsburgh Public Theater).
He received Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Picnic and Bus Stop (Writers’ Theatre), Fences (Court Theatre) and
Seven Guitars (Congo Square Theatre). Upcoming projects include Superior Donuts (Geva Theatre) and Jitney (Court
Theatre). Jack lives in Evanston with director Kimberly Senior and teaches design at both DePaul and Northwestern
universities. Visit www.jackmagaw.com.to see more of his work.
25

THE CAST
The Whipping Man
The Rep’s production of The Whipping Man features Josh Breckenridge as John, Michael Genet as
Simon and Kyle Hatley as Caleb. Each actor took a moment during the rehearsal period to speak with us
about what it’s like to be a part of this powerful production.
Can you talk a bit about your role as John and what it is like to perform such a role night after night?
I truly believe that, often, roles somehow seek out and find the actors. I, at least, have found that to be true with
the role of John. I feel so blessed to be able to jump into his skin every night because I can sympathize and relate
to a lot about him that is under the surface. Of course, I have absolutely no comprehension of what it was like to
be a slave, commit the acts he commits, or even to live in 1865 America, but there are a lot of parallels between
the two of us that I think are necessary for any actor to bring truth to a performance.
John is a very complicated individual but at the same time he’s not. He is the prime example of African-
Americans living in that time, especially at the end of the Civil War. Broken, bitter, joyous and embodying a
feeling of pure and unstoppable entitlement. Although I find the journey of this character exciting and engaging,
doing it eight times a week is quite exhausting. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the nature of this piece and by
each of the character’s stories, but I find it most helpful to avoid this by leaving the story and John at the theatre,
making sure Josh is the one going back home at night. The compilation of rage, vulnerability, betrayal and the
constant, overall need for survival, makes this show quite an emotional event! I'm just glad Eric [Rosen, the
director] chose the option of adding an intermission.
What have you learned from The Whipping Man?
JOSH BRECKENRIDGE
“As actors we are human beings
reminding other human beings what
it's like to be human.”
I've learned a lot about myself in the preparation of this character, such as hidden fears and sensorial conditions
that affect me in a way I never knew. I've also learned how important specificity and clarity are with a story like
this. There are a lot of twists and turns and developments in the plot that are not necessarily easy for the audience
to pick up. It's been an interesting process in adjusting to the director’s notes we would receive on storytelling in
general. We forget, sometimes, as actors, that, although it is part of our job to put up that fourth wall and forget
26

about the audience, it is also our job to do our best in painting a clear picture for our viewers. Sometimes this
means over emphasizing words or moments to the point where we, as actors, may feel it's over the top, but for the
audience it's just what they might need to connect the dots.
What would you like young people to take away from this production?
I think, if anything, I would want people, young and older, to just walk away from our piece with the need to start
a conversation. That's what we are doing with pieces like this - starting a dialogue. If a young person can walk
away thinking, "Wow...this is what I want to do...act!" or "I never knew this part of history told from this angle
before," that would be fantastic. But just to know that someone can leave this piece being affected, in whatever
way, and moved enough to get to talking about it with someone - maybe even finding parallels in their own lives
and our present society - that would be enough to know I've done my job.
Could you share some advice for young people hoping to go into theatre as a career?
My only advice is: make sure you love it. It's such a rewarding and fantastic profession. But it can also be a
challenging one. If your heart is in it (if you've been bitten by the bug), then it makes all the training, auditioning
and work involved in becoming an actor worth it! It's a wonderful thing that we get to do and I feel so blessed and
honored to be finding success in it. As actors we are human beings reminding other human beings what it's like to
be human. When you get to do deep, truthful, moving theater like The Whipping Man, there's no better feeling
than living on that stage, moment by moment, telling that story and taking the journey.
JOSH BRECKENRIDGE (John) KC Rep: debut. Broadway: The Scottsboro Boys (Lyceum Theatre); The Ritz (Studio 54).
Off-Broadway: The Scottsboro Boys (Vineyard Theatre); Saved! (Playwrights Horizons). Readings/Workshops: Thunder and
Lightning (Stageplays Theatre Company); Langston in Harlem (Kent Gash, director); Rocket Boys (Universal Pictures); Trip:
A Musical Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons). Regional: Tales of the City (A.C.T. San Francisco, O’Neill Theatre Center);
Scottsboro Boys (Guthrie Theater); Hairspray (Marriot Lincolnshire Theatre); Smokey Joe’s Café (Cape Playhouse); High
School Musical 2 and Dreamgirls (North Carolina Theatre); Memphis (La Jolla Playhouse, 5 th Avenue Theatre); The Civil
War (Majestic Theatre); Storyville (Galveston Island Musicals); The Pirates of Penzance and My One and Only (Moonlight
Amphitheatre); TV & Film: “Take Me to the River”, “Smart Alecs” (Pilot); Finding Me: Truth and Invisible Man.
Training: University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music.
27

THE CAST
MICHAEL GENET
"Hard work always beats talent, when
talent doesn't work hard."
The Whipping Man
Can you talk a bit about your role as Simon and what it is like to perform such a role night after night?
To be quite honest with you, and I don't think I've ever said this to anyone before (in fact, I doubt I've ever
admitted this to myself about any "role" before, either) but playing Simon every night; stepping into his skin, his
soul, his truth and taking the painful steps that I know will encompass the full arc of his journey, scares me to
death! There's a responsibility that comes with playing Simon that is so heavy on so many levels.
The responsibility as an "actor" to shine a light on his personal truth, the truth that most, if not all of our African-
American ancestors from that time were faced with. That life was hard! Harder than anything most of us in
America today can even remotely comprehend. We live in a world of modern technology - Twitter and Facebook,
smart phones and 500-channel TVs. We're free to come and go as we please, free to "see and love" whomever we
please regardless of the color of their skin or the name of the God they may or may not serve.
Simon, up until just days or moments before our play opens, was a slave. He had no rights at all. He's a black
man in the South, owned by a family of Jews. That's not a picture you see every day. Not even in history
books. I grew up in the Methodist church and went to Catholic school. So to portray a man of Simon's stature
and hold the responsibility of being truthful to the pain and degradation he suffered as a slave, while also
accurately painting a true representation of his Jewish heritage, is, to say the least, for me a daunting
task. Because the greatest sin any actor who plays this role can make is to not "bring it" every night to a level that
makes people think. Makes people feel the pain of this man's soul, but also uplifts them with the joy of his inner
spirit and remarkable strength that sees him through his daily struggles. And then, of course, (and without giving
away the crucial reveal at the end) Simon "goes off" in this play. The playwright, Matthew Lopez has written an
excruciating explosion of pain, fear and rage into Simon. And to have to find my way there every night and be
truthful to that pain and feel it deeply, while at the same time making it new and fresh for the audience each and
every night… well, that's sheer terror for me. But that's what acting is. Facing the truth, no matter how terrifying
it may be. The scariest things we face in our lives are not the bogeymen hiding beneath our beds, or the monster
we see up on a screen, or the stranger walking in the shadows. The scariest thing we face in our life is the truth
of who we are as a people. Sadly, throughout history that hasn't always been a pretty sight. But as an actor you
can't be pretty all the time. And you can't run from the truth. You have to commit to it. However ugly or painful
28

it may be, you have to be willing to face it and to go there eight shows a week. There's a heavy cost to doing
that. A physical, emotional and spiritual cost. But anyone who steps into the role of Simon will have to "bring it"
each and every night. Because if he doesn't he won't make it past the first scene. If an actor doesn't come correct,
this play will swallow him whole and the audience will turn their backs in shame. I know I would.
What have you learned from The Whipping Man?
Okay, I'm not going to give you the standard "what have I learned" answer here. The many socio-political lessons
to be gleaned from this play kinda speak for themselves. We're all created equal. Don't oppress thy brother. War
is bad and man is a cruel animal etc., etc. But beyond all that... Kansas City's a jazz town. It's so appropriate that
we should be doing this play here. Because what I've learned from working on The Whipping Man is that you
have to be a jazz musician to do this play. In fact, you have to be a GREAT jazz musician to do this
play! Anything less and you'll fail miserably. The levels of humanity run so deep in The Whipping Man, and the
questions of morality, spirituality, right and wrong, race, religion, war and peace are so deftly framed within its
pages, that you have to be ready to make some music to be able to bring all that together. But you can't just
"play" the notes that are written on the page. Jazz musicians don't do that. Jazz men (and women) are always
searching. They're trying to find new rhythms and deeper meanings to each musical phrase. They wanna know
how to take this tune and make it newer tomorrow than it was the night before. And that's what I'm trying to do
as Simon in The Whipping Man. I'm searching for a deeper meaning to each line, and trying to find a way to say
it anew every night, while at the same time staying true to the framework of the play itself. The Whipping Man
forces you to search inside yourself. It's inescapable. Because there truly is a treasure buried deep within the soul
of this play. And the only way to reach it, find it and ultimately hold onto it is to search deep inside yourself; to
be willing to play some jazz each night so that you can find a richer meaning to the story and give the audience a
more profound, and yes, to a great extent, more painful connection to the journey that's unfolding before
them. That might seem like a lot to go through just to do a simple play. But honestly, any actor who isn't willing
to go on that search each night in The Whipping Man probably shouldn't be in this play to begin with.
What would you like young people to take away from this production?
Know our history. OUR history. White, black, red, yellow, brown or pink polka dot. It's our history and it's
worth knowing. It's sweeping and nuanced. It's filled with lots of tears and lots of pain. But also filled with joy
and triumph. I'd like for everyone, young people especially, to realize that the one who talks loudest or wears the
prettiest clothes or even has the most power, isn't always (if ever), when the moment of crisis comes, the strongest
or the most brave. I'd like for them to realize that we're all a by-product of the bravery and sacrifices of our
ancestors. They were by far a stronger people than we. They had to be. But we can honor their legacies by
knowing the paths they forged that allowed us all to walk through. Hard times happen. They've happened before
and they will again. The Whipping Man tells of the spirit of man, to be able to rise above the struggles and sit
down together at a table and celebrate the life that we've been given. I'd like young people to be able to see past
the scars that we will all suffer at some point in our lives, and keep their eyes on the prize; whatever that prize
may be for them personally. If Simon, a former slave who couldn't read or write, who probably had never been
ten miles away from his Master's front door ever in his life, if he could summon the courage to go off into the
dark of night in search of his dream (to find his wife and child) without a cent in his pocket at a time when
animals in the barnyard were held in higher regard than a person of color… if he can walk out the door and go
29

after his dream, than so can they. So can we all. In our play, Simon wasn't the man of so-called "talent." John
was. But Simon was the man who knew the value of "hard work." I'd like for all the young people who see this
show to realize that "Hard work always beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard."
Could you share some advice for young people hoping to go into theatre as a career?
I'm not one to play around with this question. Ever. So I'm not gonna give you the smiley face, politically correct
answer you probably usually hear from other people in this industry. Truth? SHOW BUSINESS IS THE
HARDEST CAREER CHOICE ANYONE COULD EVER MAKE! You won't like reading this, but I would
never tell anyone to go into this business. My daughter's doing her acting thing now, and, honestly, I wish she'd
gone another route. And she's talented!! It's just that it's sooo hard! And so many times your talent and your skill
set has absolutely nothing to do with whether you get a job or not. So if you really want to be a part of this
industry, I suggest you ask yourself two questions:
1) Do you want to be a star?
Or, 2) Do you want to be an actor/director/writer?
If you want to be a star, then there's certain things you can do to try and make that happen. Dye your hair a bright
weird color, record an auto-tuned CD and upload it on YouTube, or go the Kim Kardashian/Paris Hilton route and
become famous for being famous. You may become a star, but you'll probably be out of this business in 15
minutes.
On the other hand, if you want to be an actor, a director, or a writer, you have to do the work! Period! Do the
work. There are no short cuts in life. And show business is no exception. Study. Do the work. Hone your
craft. Learn all you can about the area of the industry you want to be a part of. Become a student of the industry
as a whole, because you may want to venture into another area of the game after a time. Those who are versatile
greatly increase their chances of having long careers. But the best advice I can give anyone wanting to get into
show business is take time to find out what the rules are – and then break them! You have to break the rules if
you want to get ahead. Just be careful to do so with respect. Remember, this industry is set up to tell all who try
to come through the door one thing: "NO!" If you want a career in theater, film, TV or the literary world, you
have to make it impossible for them to tell you "No." That's not an easy task. Sadly, the industry has changed so
much since I started out. You used to be able to call up an agent and get them to agree to see you about possibly
representing you. But now you almost have to have an Academy Award nomination by your name in order for an
agent to agree to see you. Everywhere you look, the signs read: DON'T PHONE, DON'T VISIT. But if you don't
do any of those things how do you get a shot?
AGAIN I SAY, BREAK THE RULES!
Make them tell you "no" to your face. That's what I always do and what I always believe. Because if you send in
your picture and resumé and they just stack them in a corner with the other 2,000 pictures and resumés they
received that week, they've just told you "no." Only you weren't there to hear it. So break the rules. Walk into
their office and try to get someone to see you, to take a meeting with you. If they tell you “no” then, they will at
30

least have "seen" you for who you are. And believe me, you may just get them to pull your photo out of that pile
and hold it for another day.
Arguably the greatest American playwright we've ever produced, the late, great August Wilson, was a mentor of
mine. And he once told me, "Michael, someone is always watching." It's one of the most profound things I've
ever heard, because it's true. Someone IS always watching. So if you want to be in show business, remember that
fact. Do the work. Learn all you can. And put on your rhino skin! Basically this industry is a giant card
game. You're just trying to keep a place at the table until you have a good enough hand to play! That means
you're gonna have to learn how to bluff a lot. But if you can do that, eventually you'll be dealt a great hand of
cards. And when that happens… it's magic time! And for anyone who's thinking of being a writer: WRITE! Tell
your stories. The world will always listen to great storytellers. Words have power. Words can heal a soul or
cause a war. The one who tells the stories, and tells them well, has true power in this world. Why? Because
words last! And unlike acting, or directing, if you're a writer, you control whether you work today or
not! Because no one can tell you, "No, you can't write today." If you want to write, you can write whenever or
wherever you like. My advice to anyone thinking of becoming a writer would be this: whatever you start…
finish! Writing is hard! Sooo hard. It will humble you without a doubt. And believe me, not everyone can do
it. But if you're brave enough to put your words and feelings on the page, finish what you start. Don't worry
about whether it's good or bad or whatever. Just finish it. You can correct the problem spots later. But, if you
finish it, you'll find that you'll be able to finish anything else you start for the rest of your life! If, however, you
should walk away from it, you'll leave the door open to your walking away from anything else the rest of your life
as well.
MICHAEL GENET (Simon) KC Rep: debut. Broadway: Lestat (Palace Theatre); A Few Good Men (Music Box Theatre);
Hamlet (Roundabout Theatre); Northeast Local (Lincoln Center). Off-Broadway: Rosa Parks (Queens Theatre in the Park); A
Soldiers Play and Earth and Sky (Second Stage); The Colored Museum (The Public Theatre); Inked Baby (Playwrights
Horizons). Regional: Honk! A Musical Tale of the Ugly Duckling (Two River Theatre Company); Resurrection (Arena Stage,
Hartford Stage); The Oedipus Plays and Timon of Athens (Shakespeare Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Old Globe
Theatre); Bailey’s Cafe (Hartford Stage); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Ford’s Theatre); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Trinity Repertory
Theatre); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Alliance Theatre); Seven Guitars (Philadelphia Theater Company); Much Ado About
Nothing (Long Wharf Theatre); Death of a Salesman (Solvang); Roads of the Mountain Top (Crossroads Theatre); Happy
End (Arena Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Philadelphia Drama Guild); Twice Removed (Sharon Stage). TV & Film: “SVU”,
“Ugly Betty”, “One Life to Live”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne”, “Journey’s
End’, “Law & Order”, “Deadline”, “Another World”, “All My Children”, “As the World Turns”, “Guiding Light”, “N.Y.
Undercover”, “Janick”, and “Hallelujah” (Writer, American Playhouse); Wall Street 2, She Hate Me (Writer), 25th Hour,
Booty Call, Let It Be Me, Stranger Among Us, Presumed Innocent, Simple Justice and One Fine Day. As a writer: Pork Pie
(Sundance Screenwriter Selective, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Award, winner of the Kennedy Center Award for New
American Plays); Talk to Me (Focus Features, winner NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture).
Training: The Julliard School, Carnegie Mellon University, California Institute of the Arts.
31

THE CAST
The Whipping Man
Can you talk a bit about your role as Caleb and what it is like to perform such a role night after night?
Caleb is complicated, as are the other two characters, but not so complicated that he’s a mystery, which makes the
attempt of interpreting him both fascinating and terrifying. What’s most difficult is his emotional narrative: the
story that is going on within him. There’s the pain of his leg, there’s the fear of not being a complete human being
any more, there’s the fear of being found out (that he’s a deserter), there’s the fear of losing Sarah and
withholding precious information from Simon. There’s all this and there’s the friction in the relationships with his
former slaves in the wake of their emancipation. It’s easy to immediately recognize the ugliness of slavery today,
but to play a man who lived within an economic system based on slavery and not shed too much light on a
modern sympathy – that’s difficult. As a human being in 2012, I don’t enjoy saying some of the ignorant things
Caleb says – because I know better - but Caleb didn’t. He should’ve. But he didn’t. It’s stories like this that
transform people’s perspectives.
Do you ever get overwhelmed with the role?
Yes. It takes a lot out of each of us to fully realize the emotional level with which these three men are living. It’s
like the end of the world. There are no phones, no computers, no fast publications to alert the masses with global
or national news. When the Civil War ended, in some cases, people went months before they heard it was over.
So these men are living in extremis. That is to say, they are in hell. They are living in what literally looks and
feels like the end of the world. Remember, there were no cars either. So transportation was also slow, VERY
slow. Escape wasn’t really an intelligent option. Trying to keep all these details inside while playing secrets and
lies and severe leg trauma can run its course on your body, heart, soul and voice. We scream a lot. So we have to
take care of our voices as best we can.
KYLE HATLEY
“Be ready to RISK. Then be ready to FAIL.
Then, and this is the most important part,
be ready to RISK AGAIN.”
I get overcome with this role in several places. But my job isn’t to allow me, the actor, to show myself, my job is
to honestly tell Caleb’s story without getting in the way of the other two stories on stage. There are some
moments that hit a little close to home. I look at Michael Genet (Simon) in some scenes, who is kind of a father
figure to John and Caleb, and I swear to God he looks just like my own father, who I lost last year. It’s amazing
32

what a simple glance can do. It’s amazing how keyed into each other we are from the first line of the play to the
final moments. I get overwhelmed when I see my other cast members find something new, discover something
new, learn something that they hadn’t considered … that informs and inspires me. If ever I’m lost, all I need to do
is find their eyes and I’m right back in it.
What have you learned from The Whipping Man?
I’ve learned quite a bit about Jewish theology, history and practice. I was raised Catholic and was never very
familiar with other religious practices, but this play has been very informative and inspirational and very moving
to understand, realize and portray the thoughts and practices of another perspective. Likewise, this is not a typical
slave play. It offers an entirely different perspective, while realizing the horribleness we’ve read about and seen in
pictures or movies or other plays. This play has made me stop, look at the historical timeline of the emancipation
of the slaves and understand in a very detailed way, how they came to be free – not just in the literal term, but also
in terms of their psychology, in terms of their very real, heartbreaking sacrifices. That when you turn the page
on horribleness, the slate is never just simply wiped clean … there is still much to solve, save and sacrifice. What
happened to these men, women and children was and is unforgivable. And what it means to be free is so much
more complicated than signing a document. It takes a social understanding, a collective way of thinking and living
and knowing what is right and what is wrong, rather than slipping into ignorance.
What would you like young people to take away from this production?
That different perspectives make for a richer community, rather than a complicated one. That neither race, nor
religion sets up barriers, but rather, celebrates the diversity of humanity. We have nothing to lose from
understanding different perspectives, but we have everything to gain. The line that I hope people always
remember is Simon’s line in Act 2: “You don’t GET to be free. You WORK to be free!”
You are also the Rep’s Associate Artistic Director. How does being a director inform your process as an
actor?
I am, first and foremost, a director. I came into the theatre as an actor, and it was my first theatrical love, but my
passion and excitement did not stop there. I became fascinated with design and direction and, ultimately, I wanted
to be the one who managed how people experience the story. So over time, I transitioned into directing. However,
this show has reminded me of several things. One, performing in it reminds me of why I fell madly in love with
this art form, thus vigorously reigniting that love. Two, I’ve learned it is good for me to return to acting on a
relatively frequent basis in order to remember how to communicate with my actors as a director. It also helps me
understand how everything in our company works from the perspective of an actor. And let me tell you how
fortunate actors are at KC Rep. We take damn good care of them.
Could you share some advice for young people hoping to go into theatre as a career?
If you want it, and I mean really want it, do it. But keep your eyes and ears open. Theatre is an imperfect art form,
and we, as theatre artists, chase perfection through realization knowing it will never happen. Why? Because
human beings are fallible. We’re not capable of continuous, ongoing perfection. It is the attempt that is rewarding
and exciting for both the artist and the audience. It reminds me of how we congregate around music concerts or
sporting events; we show up to watch the attempt. I say all of this because this field is not for the weak of heart. If
33

it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. So if you embark on a career in the arts, be ready to RISK. Then be ready
to FAIL. Then, and this is the most important part, be ready to RISK AGAIN. We learn from our mistakes and we
grow. This art form is literally a never-ending siege of trial and error, rigorous investigation and being thoughtful
100% of the time. We cannot assume. We cannot impose. We can ONLY interpret.
KYLE HATLEY (Caleb) KC Rep: The Glass Menagerie. KC Rep Directing: The Borderland, Broke-ology,
Circle Mirror Transformation, A Christmas Carol (2010 & 2011); August: Osage County(Associate Director). Local
Directing: Carousel (The Living Room); Ben Franklin’s Apprentice (Coterie Theatre); Hamlet (Two Thirds). Local Writing
and Directing: Head, The Death of Cupid, Six, and Watering The Grave (Kansas City Fringe Festival). Regional: Take Me
Out (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Last Supper (World Premiere, InFusion Theatre Company); Picasso At The Lapin Agile,
Twelfth Night (Noble Fool Theatre); Picasso At The Lapin Agile, Romeo and Juliet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Gross
Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Hamlet (title role), The Woman In Black (Playhouse on the Square). TV & Film:
“Prison Break”, “As the World Turns”. Awards: Best Director (2009, The Pitch); a 2011 Charlotte Street Foundation
Generative Artist Fellow. Training: Rhodes College. Mr. Hatley is the Associate Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory
Theatre. He is also the Artistic Director and a co-founder of Chatterbox Audio Theater, a non-profit, web-based theatre that
produces fully soundscaped audio plays for free streaming or download at www.chatterboxtheater.org.
34

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS: GLOSSARY OF IMPORTANT TERMS
The Whipping Man
Abolitionists Supporters of the project to end racial slavery and liberate black Americans.
The movement gained momentum after the British Parliament outlawed the
African slave trade in 1807 and incorporated people from various ethnicities
and cultural backgrounds including but not limited to free blacks and liberal
whites such as the Quakers. In 1863 slavery was outlawed in the United
States with the formal declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation.
American
Confederacy
Also known as the Confederate States of America was the government
formed by eleven southern states of the United States of America between
1861 and 1865 in response to the push for abolition of slavery within the
Union. They elected their own president, Jefferson Davis, and even printed
their own currency—both treasonous crimes according to the Union. The
capital of the CSA was Richmond, VA where today monuments still stand to
honor its legacy. The Confederacy fell after the surrender of Robert E. Lee to
Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Sumter in the spring of 1865.
Antebellum The period of time before or existing before the American Civil War during
which slavery, the slave trade and the sale and purchase of slaves was legal
and protected by local and federal governments.
Appomattox The site of the final engagement of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 signaling the end of the American
Civil War.
Battle of Fort Sumter
Booth, John Wilkes
Brown, William
Wells
(April 12, 1861 – April 13, 1861). The Battle of Fort Sumter was the
bombardment of Fort Sumter by the Confederate Army near Charleston,
South Carolina. The battle started the American Civil War.
(May 10, 1838– April 26, 1865) An American stage actor who assassinated
President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April
14, 1865
(November 6, 1814 – November 6, 1884) William Wells Brown was a
prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into
slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North, where he
worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. Brown was a pioneer
in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and
drama, and wrote what is considered to be the first novel by an African-
American.
Cash Crops Crops grown for money versus the sustenance of those farming them.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
35

Chattel Slavery The type of slavery that dominated the American slave system. Chattel slaves
existed as living commodities and were considered their masters’ property.
On the market, chattel slaves were exchanged for goods or money. In addition
to their labor, masters had control over slaves’ bodies and their children.
Chattel slavery is most often based on race.
Cotton Gin The abbreviated name for the cotton engine, a machine that quickly and easily
separates the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds,
a process previously achieved through slave labor. With the invention of the
cotton engine, expectations for production skyrocketed, making work even
more demanding for laborers.
Davis, Jefferson
Deserter
Douglas, Frederick
Egypt & Pharaohs:
Emancipation
Proclamation
Epistemological
(June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889). Jefferson Davis was a slaveholding
politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for
its entire history from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. His
insistence on independence, even in the face of crushing defeat, prolonged the
difficult war. Davis was captured in 1865 and charged (though never
convicted) with treason against the United States of America.
In the context of the Civil War, a deserter was a person who abandoned the
war effort, either from the Union or the Confederate side. Many blame the
deserters for the Confederacy defeat in the Civil War. Reasons for desertion
included poor living conditions for soldiers, insufficient food and clothing,
poor pay, homesickness, depression.
(1818 – February 20, 1895). One of the most prominent figures in African-
American and United States history. He was a historian, abolitionist, women's
suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman, minister and reformer. Escaping
from slavery, he made strong contributions to the abolitionist movement, and
achieved a prominent public career.
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian
rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who
was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, a country
located in North East Africa.
The document, issued on September 22, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln
that declared all slaves held in captivity in the Confederate States of America
were free.
The philosophical investigation of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of
human knowledge.
36

Exiles of Zion
Exodus
Fourteenth
Amendment
French Revolution
Gangrene
In addition to its literal geographical meaning (Jerusalem), the term Zion has
often been used as a metaphor for the Biblical land of Israel, any other
Promised Land, or any other distant but much wanted goal. The Jewish
longing for Zion, starting with the deportation and enslavement of Jews
during the Babylonian captivity, was adopted as a metaphor by Christian
Black slaves in the United States, and after the Civil War by blacks who were
still oppressed. Thus, Zion symbolizes a longing by wandering peoples for a
safe homeland.
The exiting from Egypt is the story of the departure of the Israelites from
ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible. Exodus 12:37 refers to 600,000
adult Israelite men leaving Egypt with Moses, plus an unspecified but
apparently large "mixed multitude" of non-Israelites. If taken literally the total
number involved, the 600,000 "fighting men" plus wives, children, and the
elderly.
One of the post-Civil War amendments (also known as the Reconstruction
Amendments), first intended to secure rights for former slaves. It includes the
Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, among others. The amendment
provides a broad definition of United States citizenship, superseding the U.S.
Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford that had excluded slaves
imported from Africa and their descendants. The amendment requires states
to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within their
jurisdictions and was used in the mid-20th century to dismantle racial
segregation in the United States.
(1789–1799. The French Revolution was a pivotal period in the history of
French, European and Western civilization. During this time, republicanism
replaced the monarchy in France and the Roman Catholic Church underwent
a radical restructuring. While France would oscillate among republic, empire
and monarchy, for 75 years after the First Republic fell to a coup d’état, the
Revolution is widely seen as a major turning point in the history of Western
democracy--from the age of absolutism and aristocracy, to the age of the
citizenry as the dominant political force. The slogan of the French Revolution
was “liberté, egalité, fraternité, ou la mort!" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity, or
death!"). This slogan outlived the revolution, later becoming the rallying cry
of activists, both militant and non-violent, who promote democracy or
overthrow oppressive governments.
A complication of necrosis (i.e., cell death) characterized by the decay of
body tissues, which become black (and/or green) and malodorous. It is caused
by infection or ischemia, such as by the bacteria or by thrombosis (blocked
blood vessel). It is usually the result of critically insufficient blood supply
(e.g., peripheral vascular disease) and is often associated with diabetes and
long-term smoking. The best treatment for gangrene is revascularization (i.e.,
restoration of blood flow) of the affected organ, which can reverse some of
the effects of necrosis and allow healing. Other treatments include removal of
infected tissue and surgical amputation.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
37

Good Shabbos
Grant, General
Ulysses S.
Haggadah
Hardtack
Haitian Revolution
Haroseth
Hebrew
Traditional Shabbat (Sabbath) salutation, said upon meeting or departing. It
can be said as early as Thursday, meaning ―Hope you have a Good Shabbos!
It is also expressed as Shabbat Shalom, meaning a Peaceful Sabbath. (See
Shabbat below.)
(April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885). General Ulysses S. Grant was an American
general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869–1877). He
was the first president to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson forty
years before. He led Radical Reconstruction and built a powerful patronagebased
Republican party in the South, with the adroit use of the army. He took
a hard line that reduced violence by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. On April
9, 1865, he accepted the surrender of his Confederate opponent Robert E. Lee
at Appomattox Court House. He is credited as the leading Union general in
the American Civil War.
A Jewish religious text that sets out the order of the Passover Seder. Reading
the Haggadah is a fulfillment of the scriptural commandment to each Jew to
"tell your son" about the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt as described
in the Book of Exodus in the Torah.
A simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and sometimes
salt. Inexpensive and long-lasting, it was and is used for sustenance in the
absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military
campaigns.
(1791-1804). The Haitian Revolution was the most successful of the many
African slave rebellions in the Western Hemisphere and established Haiti as a
free, black republic, the first of its kind. Africans and people of African
ancestry freed themselves from slavery and colonization by taking advantage
of the conflict among whites over how to implement the reforms of the
French Revolution in this slave society.
Charoset, haroseth, or charoses is a sweet, dark-colored, chunky paste made
of fruits and nuts served primarily during the Passover Seder. Its color and
texture are meant to recall the mortar with which the Israelites bonded bricks
when they were enslaved in Ancient Egypt.
A Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is
considered the Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by
most of the seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been
used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over two
thousand years.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
38

Kahal Kadosh Beth
Shalom
Lee, General Robert
E.
Leviticus
The first Jewish congregation in Richmond, Virginia. Kahal Kadosh Beth
Shalom was the sixth congregation in the United States and was the
westernmost in the United States at the time of its foundation. By 1822, Kahal
Kadosh Beth Shalom members worshipped in the first synagogue building in
Virginia. This congregation eventually merged with Beth Ahabah, an offshoot
of Beth Shalom.
(January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870. General Robert E. Lee was a career
United States Army officer who defected to join the secessionist Confederate
States of America. A slaveholder himself, Lee was the pride of the
Confederate Army and is still hailed in parts of the South as a gallant soldier.
His army was defeated at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865 by
Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who reclaimed control of Fort Sumter for
the US and ended the American Civil War.
The third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the
Torah/Pentateuch. Leviticus contains laws and priestly rituals, but in a wider
sense is about the working out of God's covenant with Israel set out in
Genesis and Exodus—what is seen in the Torah as the consequences of
entering into a special relationship with God. These consequences are set out
in terms of community relationships and behavior.
Lincoln, Abraham (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865). Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth
President of the United States, Before his election, he was a lawyer and
member of the United States House of Representatives. As an outspoken
opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the
Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that
year. During his term, he helped preserve the United States by leading the
defeat of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He
introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. His assassination, only a week
after the end of the Civil War in 1865, was the first presidential assassination
in U.S. history and made him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
39

Manifest Destiny A phrase that expressed that the belief that the Unites States had a mission to
expand, spreading its form of democracy and freedom. Advocates of Manifest
Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious
(“manifest”) and certain (“destiny”). Originally a political catch phrase of the
19 th Century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical
term, often used as a synonym for the territorial expansion of the United
States across North America towards the Pacific Ocean and an ideological
excuse or pardon for the slaughter or forced relocation of vast numbers of
indigenous peoples. The term fell out of usage by U.S. policy makers early in
the 20 th Century, but some commentators believe that aspects of Manifest
Destiny, particularly the belief in an American "mission" to promote and
defend democracy throughout the world, continued to have an influence on
American political ideology.
Manumission
Matzoh
Mercantile
Capitalism
Miscegenation
Mitzvah
The formal emancipation from slavery.
A cracker-like unleavened bread made of white plain flour and water. The
dough is pricked in several places and not allowed to rise before or during
baking, thereby producing a hard, flat bread.
An economic system of the major trading nations (largely European) during
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries based on the premise that their national
wealth and power were best served by increasing exports from their colonies
to sell at market in exchange for precious metals such as gold and silver.
The mixing of different ethnicities or races, especially in marriage,
cohabitation, or sexual relations. Interracial marriage or interracial dating may
be more common in contemporary usage. While the English word has a
history of ethnocentrism and racial superiority, the Spanish, Portuguese and
French words, mestizaje, miscigenação and métissage, connote a positive
ethno-cultural melting pot. It was outlawed in the United States until the
landmark civil rights decision was enacted in 1967 by the US Supreme Court
and declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "The Racial Integrity
Act of 1954", unconstitutional, thereby ending all race-based legal restriction
on marriage in the United States.
The term mitzvah has also come to express an act of human kindness.
According to the teachings of Judaism, all moral laws are, or are derived
from, divine commandments.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
40

Passover
Pardon
Paternalism
Pesach
Post-bellum
Rebs
Reconstruction
Richmond, Virginia
An important Jewish holiday commemorating The Exodus from Egypt. On
the night before leaving Egypt, the final plague inflicted by God on the
Egyptians was the killing of the first-born. However, to save the Israelites,
they were instructed to mark their doors with blood, so that the avenging
angel would see it and know to "pass over" that house. On that night, the
Israelites were instructed only to eat unleavened bread as they would be
leaving in haste.
A piece of paper or letter approving a soldier‘s leave from the army.
A system under which an authority presence decides to supply needs or
regulate conduct of those under its control as individuals as well as in their
relations to the authority and to each other. A paternalistic society is
organized much in the way of a patriarchal family structure wherein the
leaders are not only responsible but additionally control and mediate any
interaction between other members of society.
Another word for Passover.
The period of time after or existing after the American Civil War during
which slavery, the slave trade and the sale and purchase of slaves was illegal.
Local and federal governments struggled to enforce the new laws and many
white Americans were opposed to the ruling. During this period, nostalgia for
the old slave regime became prevalent.
Johnny Reb or Johnny Rebel was the slang term for any Confederate soldier,
or the Confederate Army as a whole, during the American Civil War. His
counterpart in the Union was Billy Yank.
The period between 1863 or 1865 and 1877 when the federal government
focused on resolving the consequences and aftermath of the American Civil
War (1861–1865). It is also the common name for the general history of the
post-Civil War era in the former Confederacy between 1865 and 1877. The
start of the period is often dated to the capitulation of the Confederacy in
1865, shortly after which the practice of slavery was brought to an end after
the Emancipation Proclamation.
Currently the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the
Confederate States of America, and many important American Civil War
landmarks remain in the city today, including the Virginia State Capitol and
the White House of the Confederacy, among others.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
41

Saint Domingue
Colony
Seasoning
Shabbat
Sharecropping
Siege of Petersburg
A French colony from 1659 to 1804, when it became the independent nation
of Haiti. This island of the Greater Antilles was “discovered” by Christopher
Columbus in the winter of 1492. He named it Hispaniola. The people of
culture Arawak, the Caribbean and Tainos occupied the island before the
arrival of the Spaniards. In 1767, it exported 72 million pounds of raw sugar
and 51 million pounds of refined sugar, one million pounds of indigo, and
two million pounds of cotton. Saint-Domingue became known as the "Pearl of
the West Indies" — one of the richest colonies in the 18th century French
empire. By the 1780s, Saint-Domingue produced about 40 percent of all the
sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee consumed in Europe. This single
colony, roughly the size of the state of Maryland, produced more sugar and
coffee than all of Britain's West Indian colonies combined. In 1804, Saint
Domingue became the independent nation of Haiti.
The forced acclimation of newly arrived slaves. The goals of seasoning were
twofold: the first was to acclimate new slaves to their surroundings including
basic language acquisition, lay of the land and laws to abide; the second goal
was to break any rebellious spirit that would encourage newcomers to incite
trouble amongst the senior populations. Seasoning was a brutal, confusing
and critical feature of the slave system.
The seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is
observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky
on Saturday night. The exact time, therefore, differs from week to week and
from place to place, depending on the time of sunset at each location. Shabbat
recalls the Biblical Creation account in the Genesis, describing God creating
the Heavens and the Earth in six days, and resting on and sanctifying the
seventh (Genesis 1:1-2:3).
A leasing system in which laborers could use a portion of the land owned by
another to farm for a living in return for a share of the crop produced.
The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around
Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the
American Civil War. After nearly ten months of siege, the loss at Fort
Stedman was a devastating blow for Lee‘s army, setting up the Confederate
defeat at Five Forks on April 1, the Union breakthrough at Petersburg on
April 2, the surrender of the City of Petersburg, at dawn on April 3, and
Richmond that same evening.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
42

Subsistence Self-sufficient farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed the
family and to pay taxes or feudal dues. The typical subsistence farm has a
range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat during the year.
Planting decisions are made with an eye toward what the family will need
during the coming year, rather than market prices.
Trail of Tears
Turner, Nat
Underground
Railroad
Union States
The forced relocation of Native Americans from their homelands to Indian
Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the Western United States. The phrase
originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in
1831.The removals were motivated by U.S. desire for expansion, the desire to
"save" Native Americans from extinction, and to profit from the acquisition
of their assets and resources. Many Native Americans suffered from
exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their destinations.
Nathaniel "Nat" Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an
American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that
resulted in 56 deaths including the largest number of white fatalities to occur
in one uprising in the antebellum southern United States. He gathered
supporters in Southampton County, Virginia. For his actions, Turner, as well
as 56 blacks accused of being part of the rebellion, were convicted, sentenced
to death, and executed.
A network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19 th Century
United States attempted to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada,
with the aid of abolitionists. Other routes led to Mexico or overseas. It's
estimated that at its height between 1810 and 1850, between 30,000 and
100,000 people escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad, though
U.S. Census figures only account for 6,000. The Underground Railroad has
captured public imagination as a symbol of freedom, and figures prominently
in African-American history.
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the
federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty
free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by eleven Southern
slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the
Confederacy. Although the Union states included the Western states of
California, Oregon, and (after 1864) Nevada, as well as states generally
considered to be part of the Midwest, the Union has been also often loosely
referred to as "the North," both then and now.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Terms compiled by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM. Additional information courtesy of The Old
Globe Education Department.
43

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS: TOOLS FOR TEACHING
LESSON PLAN: A LIFESKILLS PERSPECTIVE
Improvisation Lesson Plan: Freedom
The Whipping Man
“Though the sacrifice be great and the hardships many, we shall not rest until the chains that enslave
all men be broken.”
Simon in The Whipping Man
The Whipping Man deals with the topic of slavery and freedom. To explore this, the class may play an
improv game to relate this abstract idea to their own lives.
The group sits in a circle. The word “Freedom” is the subject of discussion and the leader asks the group
to reflect for a few minutes on what freedom means to them.
A word bubble is created where different definitions or connections to “Freedom” are made (e.g.,
liberty, choice, independence, trust).
Then, on a post-it or piece of paper, each person writes one ”freedom” they have that is extremely
important to them (e.g., freedom to speak, freedom to walk, freedom to choose my friends, freedom to
come home when I want to, freedom to drive, etc.).
Next, the post-its/pieces of paper are put into a basket/container and one person comes and picks up one
‘freedom' from the basket and reads it. Based on what they read, they take on a role, and point to
someone in the circle and say, “I am ________ and I am taking away your freedom to _____!” For
instance, if the person picks up a post-it that says, “Freedom to Drive,” they could pretend to be a police
officer that has suspended the person‘s license or a parent that has taken away the keys to their car. If a
person gets “Freedom to Walk.” they could be a person that crashed his car into you and left you
paralyzed, or they could be a criminal court judge who has placed the other person in solitary
confinement for a year. The person whose freedom was taken away then has to respond to the person
who took their freedom away by saying something that would help them get their freedom back.
44

The leader then opens questions to the group: How would you feel if that freedom were taken away?
How would you respond to the person who took your freedom away? Why? Is there anything else you
would do to get that freedom back? Why are some freedoms taken away? Participants should be
encouraged to speak from experience and share clear points of view.
The process could be repeated multiple times to explore different scenarios and circumstances under
which different kinds of freedoms might be taken away. Remember to consider the concept that some
freedoms are taken away for just cause while others are taken away unfairly.
Information courtesy of The Old Globe Education Department. Research and activity designs by Teaching Artist, Radhika
Rao and Education Intern, Maddie Shea Baldwin.
45

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS: TOOLS FOR TEACHING
LESSON PLAN: SLAVERY AND EXODUS
Sample Lesson: Research Lesson (3-5 days)
The Whipping Man
This lesson is designed as a foundation for study or attendance of the play to deepen student
understanding of the play’s plot and themes. It may be followed by a seminar discussion or other
forms of analysis after attending the play to draw comparisons between the De Leon’s ancestors’
experiences and that of Simon and John.
Guiding Questions:
1. What were the circumstances surrounding the enslavement of Jews in Ancient Egypt?
2. How were they set free?
3. What is Passover and its significance to the Jewish people?
4. What are the lessons of the stories of Exodus and Passover?
5. How do they relate to Simon and John?
Materials:
Markers
Poster paper
Preparatory Set:
“And Moses said unto the people. Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt,
out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this
place:” (Exodus, 13).
Write quote on the board and ask students:
• What do they know of the story of Moses and the Israelites?
• Does the story of the exodus of the Israelites have parallels to other historical events they can
think of?
• What do the Israelites have in common with others who have fled persecution?
or oppression?
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Lesson plan developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants
Kimberly Colbert and Kaye Peters. Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM.
46

You can suggest possibilities for them to consider: the Puritans, the American Revolution, American
slaves, the Mariel boat people from Cuba. Brainstorm and write ideas on the board.
Lesson Plan:
1. Divide students into five groups or more, as class size demands.
2. Assign each group a topic to research. Be sure that one group researches the Exodus including the
celebration of Passover. Others may come from the brainstorming or teacher selection.
3. Students will research the topic individually at home and return to class the next day with notes about
the topic assigned.
4. Each group will meet for 15-20 minutes and collect their research, establishing subtopics: What
happened, who was affected, who was the oppressor and oppressed, for example. Students will write
subtopics and details from their topic on a piece of poster paper and put on wall when finished.
5. Class will then get up and look over each posted paper for connections between the
experiences. (May add comments to the papers.)
6. Class will take seats. Discuss what the similarities and differences are. Revisit guiding questions.
7. Have students journal on the connections between the various experiences and what Exodus, as an
allegory, might tell us about oppression and liberation. Why might African Americans, for example,
relate to the Israelites?
8. Final reflection: After seeing or studying the play, ask students to analyze the
parallels of the Exodus story to Simon’s departure at the end of the play.
Work Cited:
Walzer, Michael. Exodus and Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Lesson plan developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants
Kimberly Colbert and Kaye Peters. Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM.
47

TOOLS FOR TEACHING
LESSON PLAN: THE TIES THAT BIND-LOVE IN THE WHIPPING MAN
Sample Lesson in 3 days
The Whipping Man
Humans have wrestled with defining love ever since time began. The ancient Greeks classified four
types of love (phileo, eros, storge and agape), and these definitions remain as guides in psychology and
humanities study today. In The Whipping Man, Lopez provokes his audience to define love.
In addition to love, other possible themes for exploration in The Whipping Man are:
• Oppression: The effect of slavery on the oppressed as well as the oppressor.
• Betrayal: De Leon selling Simon’s family, and John and Caleb keeping it a secret.
This lesson is designed to follow viewing or study of the play. Through studying the various
literary elements of character, setting and plot, students will interpret what the play teaches
them about human’s capacity for love.
Guiding questions:
1. How can someone who owns another individual love them as a family member or partner?
2. How could someone who is owned by another individual love the person who owns them?
3. Can people “own” their families in a literal or figurative sense?
4. What is the effect of power on love?
5. What provokes Caleb to tell Simon the truth about his family and why is his confession significant to
the play?
6. What kind of love can transcend ownership, if any?
Preparatory Set:
1. Students will do a quick journal from memory of their interpretation of each of the main characters,
one at a time: Simon, Caleb, John. Teacher may provide guiding questions on the board such as:
a. What motivates the character?
b. Who is the character’s family?
c. Does this character have power? How?
d. Who does the character love?
Suggestion: Give students five minutes for each character and then announce to begin on next
character so that each is given equal attention.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Lesson plan developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants
Kimberly Colbert and Kaye Peters. Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM.
48

2. Place students into discussion groups of 4 and have them share their interpretations.
3. Provide each group with a large piece of paper and have them map the character’s relationships,
adding in Caleb’s father and Simon’s family. Draw lines between characters and note the type of
relationship. Here, different color markers could differentiate types of relationships or just a written
summary of the relationship could be written along the lines. (If using markers or colored pencils, have
students create a key for the meaning of each color in a corner of the map.) For example: love,
ownership, family. Students may draw as many lines between any two characters as they think relevant.
4. Discuss the map in groups and each group will choose a presenter to share with class.
5. Share.
Lesson Plan: Padeia Seminar
1. Ask students:
a. What kinds of relationships bind these characters?
b. Is love possible between the three characters in the play? Why? How?
2. Ask student to define love.
3. Share the following definitions of love from the Greeks:
Eros Love - It meant physical passion; its gratification and fulfillment.
Storge Love - Storge is the natural bond between mother and infant, father, children, and kin.
Phileo Love - Phileo love is a love of the affections. It is delighting to be in the presence of
another, a warm feeling that comes and goes with intensity.
Agape Love - Agape love is God's kind of love. It is seeking the welfare and betterment of
another regardless of how we feel. Agape does not have the primary meaning of feelings or
affection. (“Paxvobisca”)
4. Ask students to label on their charts from preparatory activity which kind of love, if any, exists
between each of the characters.
5. In the previously formed groups, have students work together to answer the lesson’s guiding
questions. Each student should take notes to be able to participate in seminar.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Lesson plan developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants
Kimberly Colbert and Kaye Peters. Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM.
49

6. Establish rules of Padeia Seminar:
a. Each student must have written responses to guiding questions.
b. Students will respect each other’s opinions.
c. Sitting in a circle, if possible, students will self-facilitate, with the current speaker calling on
the next.
d. Responses must remain connected to the guiding questions or in response to a point made by
another student.
Teachers may require participation or offer points for participation.
7. At conclusion of the seminar, allow 10 minutes for students to write a reflection
that summarizes their interpretation of what the play tells them about love.
Work Cited:
“Four Loves.” 29 August 2008. http://paxvobisca.tripod.com/literature/fourLoves.html.
Information courtesy of Penumbra Theatre Company. © 2008. Lesson plan developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants
Kimberly Colbert and Kaye Peters. Please see the full guide located here: http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM.
50

RESOURCES
The Whipping Man
BOOKS:
Korn, Bertram. American Jewry and the Civil War, The Jewish Publication Society, 2009.
Pember, Phoebe Y.L. A Southern Woman's Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, McCowat-Mercer Press, 1959.
Rosen, Robert. The Jewish Confederates. University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
Sarna, Jonathan D. When General Grant Expelled the Jews. Schocken, 2012.
Sarna, Jonathan D. and Mendelsohn, Adam, ed. Jews and the Civil War, A Reader, New York University Press, 2010.
Ward, Geoffrey. The Civil War: An Illustrated History, Knopf, 1992.
WEBSITES:
http://theoldglobe.org/_pdf/studyguides/WhippingManStudyGuide_May2010.pdf - The Old Globe study guide for The
Whipping Man. Includes history and context essays, critical reflection activities and a glossary of terms.
http://penumbratheatre.org/content/view/366/8/#WM - Penumbra Theatre’s study guide for The Whipping Man, written by
Sarah Bellamy. This detailed guide contains an exploratory essay on how art gets made and circulated in culture, an
overview of the African-American contribution to American theatre, descriptions of the characters, setting and scenes in the
play, a contextual essay analyzing themes and ideas in The Whipping Man, an intimate interview with playwright Matthew
Lopez, and standardized curricula for teaching the play, including innovative lesson plans and important vocabulary terms.
www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/spotlight.html - A website on the slave experience.
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/slavery/index.html - Discovery Education’s guide to understanding
slavery. Includes teacher tips and resources.
http://www.history.com/interactives/civil-war-150 - Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.
Includes detailed information about soldiers on both sides, battles, weapons and significant places and events.
http://civilwar150.kansascity.com/ - Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War & the Missouri-Kansas border
region's unique place in the bloody four-year conflict. Includes letters from soldiers, a timeline and a glossary.
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1735/jewish/The-Haggadah.htm - The complete Haggadah in
Hebrew and English (printable). Includes instructional guides and Haggadah insights.
http://bechollashon.org/database/index.php?/article/3403 - Article by Rick Hellman about the roots of “Black Judiasm,.”
Originally published in The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index.html - The Jewish Virtual Library is the most comprehensive online Jewish
encyclopedia in the world.
MEDIA:
Voices from the Days of Slavery. Library of Congress American Memory Project (includes audio recordings as well as
transcripts). http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/
PBS special: Africans in America. America’s journey through slavery is presented in four parts. For each era, there is a
historical narrative, a resource bank of images, documents, stories, biographies, commentaries, and a teacher’s guide for
using the content of the web site and television series in U.S. history courses.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Grey. Dir. Jonathan Gruber, 2011. This documentary reveals an unknown chapter in American
history when allegiances during the War Between the States deeply split the Jewish community Available for order:
http://www.jewishsoldiersinblueandgray.com/
51

STATE AND NATIONAL STANDARDS
The Whipping Man meets the following state and national standards:
KANSAS
Civics/Government
5 The student understands various systems of governments and how nations and international
organizations interact.
The Whipping Man
Geography
4 The student understands how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape
patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation, and conflict.
Economics
2 The student understands how limited resources require choices.
Reading
1 The student reads and comprehends text across the curriculum.
3 The student expands vocabulary.
4 The student comprehends a variety of texts (narrative, expository, technical, and persuasive).
Literature
1 The student uses literary concepts to interpret and respond to text.
2 The student understands the significance of literature and its contributions to various cultures.
Theatre
1 The student knows the basic elements of a story.
5 The student evaluates and reflects on the characteristics and merits of dramatic content and theatrical
forms in their work and that of others.
6 The student integrates theatre with other arts, disciplines, and the community.
Listening, Viewing Speaking
1 Learners will participate effectively as listeners in formal and informal groups.
2 Learners will demonstrate skills in viewing for a variety of purposes.
3 Learners speak effectively for a variety of audiences, purposes, occasions, and contexts.
4 The communicator will retrieve information from a variety of appropriate sources.
United State History
5 The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events,
eras and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the world, utilizing essential
analytical and research skills.
World History
6 The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of individuals, groups, ideas, developments,
and turning points of the Age of Revolutions (1650-1920).
52

STATE AND NATIONAL STANDARDS
The Whipping Man meets the following state and national standards:
The Whipping Man
MISSOURI
GOAL 1: Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply
information and ideas.
5 comprehend and evaluate written, visual and oral presentations and works.
9 identify, analyze and compare the institutions, traditions and art forms of past and present societies.
GOAL 2: Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively
within and beyond the classroom.
3 exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others.
4 present perceptions and ideas regarding works of the arts, humanities and sciences.
Communication Arts: In Communication Arts, students in Missouri public schools will acquire a solid
foundation which includes knowledge of and proficiency in:
2 reading and evaluating fiction, poetry and drama.
5 comprehending and evaluating the content and artistic aspects of oral and visual presentations (such as
story-telling, debates, lectures, multi-media productions).
6 participating in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas.
7 identifying and evaluating relationships between language and culture.
Fine Arts: In Fine Arts, students in Missouri public schools will acquire a solid foundation which includes
knowledge of:
1 process and techniques for the production, exhibition or performance of one or more of the visual or
performed arts.
2 the principles and elements of different art forms.
3 the vocabulary to explain perceptions about and evaluations of works in dance, music, theater and visual
arts.
4 interrelationships of visual and performing arts and the relationships of the arts to other disciplines.
5 visual and performing arts in historical and cultural contexts.
Social Studies: In Social Studies, students in Missouri public schools will acquire a solid foundation which
includes knowledge of:
2 continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States and the world
3 principles and processes of governance systems
4 economic concepts (including productivity and the market system) and principles (including the laws of
supply and demand)
5 the major elements of geographical study and analysis (such as location, place, movement, regions) and their
relationships to changes in society and environment.
6 relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions.
53

STATE AND NATIONAL STANDARDS
The Whipping Man meets the following state and national standards:
The Whipping Man
NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR ARTS EDUCATION
6 Comparing and integrating art forms by analyzing traditional theatre, dance, music, visual arts, and new
art forms.
7 Analyzing, critiquing, and constructing meanings from informal and formal theatre, film, television, and
electronic media productions.
8 Understanding context by analyzing the role of theatre, film, television, and electronic media in the past
and the present.
54

TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT
The Whipping Man
Where are you located?
Kansas City Repertory Theatre is located at the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, Spencer Theatre, 4949
Cherry, Kansas City, MO, 64110 on the UMKC Campus. (The building marked #23, under the star, on the map
above.)
When should we arrive?
Please arrive at the theatre between 9:20-9:40am. Performances begin promptly at 10:00am. We don’t want you
to miss anything!
Where should we go when we arrive?
Your bus should enter the parking area from Rockhill Road and merge into the drive in front of the Performing
Arts Center (marked Bixby Lane). When you arrive at the theatre, please stay on your buses! A staff member will
greet your bus and let you know how to proceed.
What if we are late?
If you have an emergency after 9:00am on the day you are scheduled for performance, please call Amy Tonyes,
Education Associate, on her personal cell phone at 816-204-1807. This is the best way to reach a staff person on
performance days. Please also ensure that Amy has your cell phone number prior to your visit in case of
emergency!
How long is the performance?
Approximately two hours, including intermission.
We want you to enjoy your time at
the theatre, so here are some tips to
make your experience at the Rep
successful.
Please review this page prior to
attending the performance.
Can we take photos or videos of the performance?
The use of cameras and other recording devices is a violation of the actors’ contracts. We ask that you refrain
from taking photos or videos during the production. However, you are welcome to take photos of students in the
lobby or in the theatre before the performance begins. It is also important to remember that electronic and
recording devices should not be brought inside the theatre. This includes pen lights, hand-held games, virtual
pets, cell phones, mp3 players, pagers, iPods and bright or noisy jewelry.
What about cell phones?
The use of cell phones (including text messaging), cameras or any other recording device is not allowed in the
theatre at any time! All cell phones should be completely turned off and put away during the performance.
Cell phones left on “vibrate” give off a glow that can distract actors and audience members.
55

TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT
The Whipping Man
Where are the restrooms located?
Restrooms are located at either end of the lobby. The best time to use the restroom is before the show. Once the
show starts, we request that audience members do not leave their seats. Water fountains are located near the
restrooms.
Can we take food or drinks into the theatre?
No. There is no food, drinks or gum allowed in the theatre during the performance.
Can we bring sack lunches?
Sack lunches can be stored by the House Management staff until after the performance. They cannot be
consumed in the lobby before or during the production. If lunches are to be stored, it would be helpful if they
were grouped together in a large box or tub.
What about backpacks?
Please do not have your students bring backpacks or large bags as they are not allowed in the theatre and there is
no room for storage.
Is there a concession stand?
Snacks will be sold at intermission but cannot be taken into the theatre. Please alert students to this policy so that
they will not buy more than they can enjoy during intermission. Please let your students know to bring one dollar
bills if they would like to purchase concessions. This will insure the line moves swiftly.
What nearby lunch options are available?
The UMKC University Center is typically open following student matinee performances. To make reservations at
the University Center, please call 816-235-1417 prior to your visit. There are also several fast food restaurants
near the theatre.
I have a student with special needs. What should I do?
We require a minimum of two weeks notice in order to accommodate your student’s needs. This includes
accommodations for students who use wheelchairs as well as for students with hearing or vision impairments.
Please note that tickets for para-professionals should be included in your ticket count. Everyone entering the
theatre will need a ticket.
How are we seated?
Theatre seating is assigned and based on sequence in which reservations and payments are received, talkback
attendance, disability considerations, and group size.
56

TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT
The Whipping Man
Where should teachers and chaperones sit?
We ask that the teacher/chaperones sit among their students in various areas in order to encourage positive
behavior. We ask that there be one adult seated between every ten students. You will be seated in the order you
are standing in line to enter the theatre; please ensure your chaperones are spaced accordingly. Actors appreciate
audience response that is appropriate to the play. By no means does the Rep want to discourage laughter or
applause during a performance. However, talking, whispering, shouting or any inappropriate responses which are
disruptive to the actors or to the rest of the audience is not tolerated. If behavior problems arise, we ask that a
teacher or chaperone accompany the student to the theatre lobby and remain with the student until the end
of the play.
What if there is bad weather?
Please note that Kansas City Repertory Theatre shall be under no liability for failure of the group to attend in the
event that such failure is caused by, or due to, inclement weather, interruption or delay of transportation services,
or any other similar or dissimilar cause beyond the control of the company. Due to the nature of live theater,
performances may be cancelled without notice. Should this occur, the Education Department will make every
effort to notify you and will attempt to move your group into another student matinee performance whenever
possible. Once final payment has been received, per the Rep's ticket policy, we are unable to refund
payment made for reservations.
Is it possible to talk with the cast?
There is a 20-minute Q. & A. discussion with the actors following the performance. If your group needs to leave
after the play, we understand, and need to know beforehand. However, we encourage you to stay for this unique
learning experience. .
My bus driver wants to see the show. Does she/he need a ticket?
Yes! Each person planning to see the play will need a ticket to give the ushers in order to enter the theatre. This
includes all students, chaperones, para-professionals and drivers. If your bus driver will be attending the
performance, please remember to give them their ticket prior to entering the theatre.
Are tickets available for purchase at the door?
Extra tickets will not be available on the day of performance. If you need to increase your seat count prior to the
performance day, please contact Amy Tonyes, Education Associate, at 816-235-2707 or tonyesal@kcrep.org, and
she can let you know if additional seats are available for purchase.
I have chaperones arriving by car. Where are they allowed to park?
Since we are on a university campus, we cannot control parking. If your group is arriving in cars, please be sure to
bring quarters for the metered lot on the east side of the theatre. The cost is $1.00 per hour. Please plan
accordingly. Please note that due to increased student enrollment, visitor parking may be limited.
57

TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT
The Whipping Man
What should we wear?
Dress for the weather. You may wear dress clothes in order to make the theatre field trip a special one, but it is not
required. Please be advised that, at times, it may be chilly in the theatre.
How can we let the performers and artists know what we thought?
After your visit, take time to discuss and reflect with your students and tell us about your experiences. We can
share your feedback with artists and funders who make these productions possible. Please send your letters to:
Melinda McCrary, Director of Education, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, 4825 Troost, #209, Kansas City, MO
64110 or mccrarym@kcrep.org.
58

EDUCATION & OUTREACH PROGRAMS: REP ON THE ROAD
Students from Schlagle High School participate in Rep on the Road. Photo: Charles Stonewall.
The Whipping Man
Our team of teaching artists will visit your school each day for one week leading your students in the discovery of
classic and contemporary plays through the process of rehearsal and performance. The team can teach all day for
numerous classes in various disciplines or for an abbreviated day of fewer classes.
For students approaching these texts for the first or repeated times, Rep on the Road introduces and immerses young
scholars and performers in the process and skills used to make the words and the literary terms they study in class
come to life. This workshop is an ideal way to enliven and enhance a Literature, Arts, Speech, English, History, or
Drama class. We can customize the program content based on what you are exploring in any class or discipline or you
can choose from the texts we have prepared. Daily schedule correspond to teachers’ schedules within each school—
whether on block or regular schedule (including daily planning time).
NOTE: Each residency is custom designed with educators to meet students’ needs on a school-specific basis and
includes 1-2 advance planning sessions.
Location: Your school
Grades: 6-8, 9-12
Availability: Fall and Winter semesters
Fee: Fee varies with schedule. Call for more information!
Opportunities: Mix and Match from these workshops or choose one.
Shakespeare in the Wings: King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. American Masterworks: The Crucible, The Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, To Kill A
Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Raisin in the Sun, Our Town. Discoveries and Techniques: Acting Techniques,
Improvisation, Audition Skills, Musical Theatre, Technical Theatre, and Arts Marketing.
TO BOOK REP ON THE ROAD:
Contact Melinda McCrary, Director of Education & Community Programs, at
816-235-5708 or mccrarym@kcrep.org
59

EDUCATION & OUTREACH PROGRAMS: IN-CLASS POST-SHOW DISCUSSION
Students from Wyandotte High School participate in an in-school arts residency program. Photo: David Riffel.
Let the learning continue after the curtain goes down. We are offering you the opportunity to have a
member of the Education staff lead a post-show discussion in your classroom after attending a student
matinee performance at the Rep. This guided discussion will enable students to delve deeper into the
context and themes of the play, giving them a chance for their thoughts and opinions to be heard.
Engaging and collaborative, this discussion encourages students to utilize higher levels of thinking to
connect the central issues in the play to their own lives.
Location: Your school
Availability: All season, as scheduled, after attending a student matinee performance.
Length: 45 minutes
Maximum number of students: 40
Fee: $1 per student.
To book an In Class Post-Show Discussion
Contact Melinda McCrary,
Director of Education & Community Programs, at
816-235-5708 or mccrarym@kcrep.org
The Whipping Man
60

EDUCATION PARTNER: UMKC
The Whipping Man
UMKC is a great place to get to start a new adventure and open your mind to knowledge, diverse people
and outstanding experiences. So what makes UMKC worth looking at?
· Over 120 degree programs including Art, Business, Biology, Education, Engineering, Medicine,
Music, Nursing, Pharmacy, Spanish, Theater and many more.
· Personal attention from faculty and staff. Average class size is 24 students and there is a 14:1 student
to faculty ratio.
· Affordable! UMKC has great scholarships ranging from $250 to full paid expenses per year based on
academic performance and leadership.
· Great location! Based in the heart of the city of Kansas City, opportunities for internships, jobs,
community service are at a student’s fingertips.
· Find your fit at UMKC. There are over 300 student organizations for students ranging from
academics, religion, multicultural, intramurals and more.
Check us out!
For more information, contact
UMKC Office of Admissions
admit@umkc.edu
816-235-UMKC
www.umkcgetalife.com
61

Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s production of The Whipping Man is
produced in partnership with
The Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust,
Daniel C. Weary and Bank of America, Trustees
The Louis and Frances Swinken
Supporting Foundation of
The Jewish Community Foundation of
Greater Kansas City
Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s educational programs receive generous support from the
following:
The ArtsKC Fund
Arvin Gottlieb Charitable Foundation
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Francis Family Foundation
Hall Family Foundation
Hallmark Corporate Foundation
The Jackson County Missouri Chapter of The Links, Inc.
Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation
Oppenstein Brothers Foundation
Theater League
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Conversation Series is sponsored by:
The Copaken Family Foundation
Financial assistance for this project has been
provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state
agency. Also, this project is supported in part
by an award from the National Endowment for
the Arts, which believes that a great nation
deserves great art.
Special thanks to Sarah Bellamy from Penumbra Theatre Company for use of some of the information found in
this guide. Lesson plans developed by high school teachers and curriculum consultants Kimberly Colbert and
Kaye Peters.
Special thanks to The Old Globe Education Department for some of the information found in this guide. Research
and activity designs by Teaching Artist, Radhika Rao and Education Intern, Maddie Shea Baldwin.
CONTACT US:
We invite you to email any comments, questions or ideas about The Whipping Man and/or this Learning Guide to Melinda
McCrary, Director of Education at: mccrarym@kcrep.org, 816-235-5708 or Amy Tonyes, Education Associate at:
tonyesal@kcrep.org, 816-235-2707.
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