Notes From the Playwright

NOTES FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

      I remember the first time I encountered Anne of Green Gables.  Like many people I saw her first on the 1985 Canadian Broadcast Company’s splendid adaptation with Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Fallows.  For the first few moments I thought this character was just unbelievable and then I was charmed—totally charmed.  Anne Shirley is one of those characters does seems unbelievable, outrageous—well outrageous seems too strong of a word, incorrigible too mild.  In fact there just isn’t anyone quite like her which his why she's one of the great characters in what is now knows as young adult fiction.

            Mark Twain called Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne the “the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice".  One can see why Canadians take such pride in Anne just as we Americans take such pride in Twain's Huck Finn.  Actually, hese two characters have much in common. Both are orphans and both seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.  But Twain and Lucy Maude Montgomery didn’t stop with just two great characters, they surrounded them with a cast of unforgettable, whimsical and all too human supporting characters as well.  Mrs. Montgomery gives Anne the delightful Diana, the busybody Rachel Lynde, the dreamy Gilbert Blithe and the warm and tender-hearted Matthew. What great characters for a play!

            Some years after the CBC version I began to read the Avonlea books and was charmed once more.  I realized these books (like Twain's) are perfect for adaptation for much of the great dialogue is right there on the page for the taking. (Thanks to the public domain.)   I condensed the timeline somewhat and came up with this fun and spirited version in 1991.  We have produced the show three times at Charleston Stage, here at the Dock Street Theatre, each production a great success.  My friend Melissa Labberton has produced it twice in Yakima, Washington, setting box office records there as well.

            There are wonderful roles for almost every character in this show and it proved to be great fun to produce and perform.

Julian Wiles,
Playwright