WHAT I DID LAST SUMMER by A.R. Gurney

CAST Charlie, fourteen* Ted, sixteen, Charlie’s friend* Grace, Charlie’s mother Elsie, nineteen, Charlie’s sister* Bonny, fourteen* Anna Trumbull

TIME: Summer, 1945

PLACE: A summer “colony” on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, near Buffalo, New York

SET: Simple and presentational. Wooden and wicker furniture, sun-bleached and sandworn, as indicated in ground-plan; a simple wooden glider might serve as a central element, becoming occasionally the front seat of a car. Plenty of sunlight, blue sky, and occasional green shade.

PROPS: As indicated. In other words, only when it seems simpler to use them than not. For example, the clay in Act I probably is helpful, but plates and glasses for the supper scene probably are not.

COSTUMES: To be changed or adjusted only when indicated.

*CASTING: The young people in this play may be played by actors older than these indicated ages. In this way, we will have more of the sense of actors enacting their roles. Indeed, throughout this play, we should be aware of things in the process of being fabricated or made: the characters by actors; the setting by the manipulation of simple scenic elements; the play itself by its obviously traditional and presentational form.