Josie and Phil Hogan played by Erin Noel Grennan and Larry Neumann, Jr.A Moon For The Misbegotten opened this weekend at First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook.
A Moon For The Misbegotten is one of O'Neill's more heart-wrenching and also surprisingly funny plays.
Phil and Josie Hogan make quite the father-daughter pair, both are headstrong and quick witted, and few can get the best of them when they work together. T. Stedman Harder, the rich oil-man who has built up an estate adjacent to their tenant farm can barely keep his composure as Phil and Josie ridicule him for the "funny jockey's pants" he is wearing. Harder is the image of wealth and privileged in his riding outfit, and he starkly contrasts Hogan's rough appearance and soiled overalls and dingy shirt.
Phil Hogan's schemes seem only to be bested by their landlord and old friend, Jim Tyrone. Jim is an extremely likable Broadway gambler, womanizer, and alcoholic. Jim looks sharp in a summery brown three-piece suit. His dress looks as if he didn't belong on the farm, but his easy manner and familiarity with Josie and Phil mesh naturally. After having long promised to sell the farm to Phil and Josie, Jim gets the best of Phil by pretending that his promise doesn't "go north of ten thousand bucks," and that he would sell the farm to Harder without a second thought.
Always the schemer, Phil creates a web to bring Josie and Jim together- if only briefly. He used "everything [he] knew" about both Josie and Jim, as well as a few lies, to make them realize they loved each other. Each character has their own lies they tell others, and themselves. And in the end, Jim is already too far gone for Josie to save from drinking, and from himself.
I built two blue cotton calico dresses for Josie in the production. Blue is a beautiful color on actor Erin Noel Grennan, and a very fitting color for Josie - blue can be both very strong and also melancholy. I chose a subtle, light calico for the first dress we see Josie in. I liked the slight femininity that the gentle floral pattern gave her in a very utilitarian style work dress. Josie changes for a "moonlight date" with Jim, and I made this second dress out of a midnight blue calico with larger flowers in red and white scattered across it. This pattern was more boldly feminine that the dress that she was most comfortable in and highlighted her embarrassment at being so dressed up when Jim missed the date. I designed both dresses to button down the front so that Josie could show more of her "big, beautiful breasts" than may have been decent for most women of the period.
Phil and Josie Hogan make quite the father-daughter pair, both are headstrong and quick witted, and few can get the best of them when they work together. T. Stedman Harder, the rich oil-man who has built up an estate adjacent to their tenant farm can barely keep his composure as Phil and Josie ridicule him for the "funny jockey's pants" he is wearing. Harder is the image of wealth and privileged in his riding outfit, and he starkly contrasts Hogan's rough appearance and soiled overalls and dingy shirt.
Phil Hogan's schemes seem only to be bested by their landlord and old friend, Jim Tyrone. Jim is an extremely likable Broadway gambler, womanizer, and alcoholic. Jim looks sharp in a summery brown three-piece suit. His dress looks as if he didn't belong on the farm, but his easy manner and familiarity with Josie and Phil mesh naturally. After having long promised to sell the farm to Phil and Josie, Jim gets the best of Phil by pretending that his promise doesn't "go north of ten thousand bucks," and that he would sell the farm to Harder without a second thought.
Always the schemer, Phil creates a web to bring Josie and Jim together- if only briefly. He used "everything [he] knew" about both Josie and Jim, as well as a few lies, to make them realize they loved each other. Each character has their own lies they tell others, and themselves. And in the end, Jim is already too far gone for Josie to save from drinking, and from himself.
I built two blue cotton calico dresses for Josie in the production. Blue is a beautiful color on actor Erin Noel Grennan, and a very fitting color for Josie - blue can be both very strong and also melancholy. I chose a subtle, light calico for the first dress we see Josie in. I liked the slight femininity that the gentle floral pattern gave her in a very utilitarian style work dress. Josie changes for a "moonlight date" with Jim, and I made this second dress out of a midnight blue calico with larger flowers in red and white scattered across it. This pattern was more boldly feminine that the dress that she was most comfortable in and highlighted her embarrassment at being so dressed up when Jim missed the date. I designed both dresses to button down the front so that Josie could show more of her "big, beautiful breasts" than may have been decent for most women of the period.
Check out this video from The Stage Channel of one of the scenes from the play.
The production is Jeff Recommended, and here are some reviews!
Theatre Review: 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' by Kerry Reid for The Chicago Tribune
O'Neill's 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' gets better with age by Barbara Vitello for the Daily Herald
'A Moon for the Misbegotten' by Tom Williams for ChicagoCritic.com
