*This show contains Adult Themes and Situations*

Director’s Note

Thank you for joining us for The Bridges of Madison County.

I have to say, it has been my absolute honor to direct a musical centered on a woman who is incredibly complex and deeply human. Francesca is a rarity in our literature, and I wish that more writers would take note of how much better a musical is when women characters are well fleshed out, have agency, and are deeply complicated. I turned forty last Fall, right at the time we were casting Bridges and am currently the age of Francesca in much of our story. I’ve always been told that this age – around the turn to forty – is when life gets real. The choices are harder, actions always have a cost, and we go from seeing everything in black and white to the world in a million shades of gray. Forty is also the age where I feel that I truly understand the different kinds of love in the world. The Greeks had multiple words for types of love: eros for “sexual passion”, philia for “deep friendship”, ludus for “playful love”, agape for “love for everyone”, pragma for “longstanding love”, and philautia as “love for the self”. English has just one word: love. How unimaginative and unsatisfying. It’s in shades of gray that we find Francesca and Robert’s story, and throughout Bridges each of the words for love can be found inside of the different relationships. As that word love comes up again and again, I hope you’ll be able to tell which kind of love our characters are referencing. I also hope you will try to understand why Francesca makes each of the choices she does along the journey.

Another theme we’ve explored heavily in this production is that of community. How community can surround and support a person, but also keep a watchful eye on them as we are truly “never alone”. This idea of community helps lift and carry our musical along, to define and expand the ensemble beyond their more limited use in the script. In support of this community theme, I have adapted numerous community-based dances in Bridges: a medieval French dance called the Farandole, an Italian folk dance called the Tarantella, a mid western square dance and even a popular line dance of the 1960s called the Madison. See if you can spot these dances and understand how we’ve used them to tell the story of our community.

This musical has been a deeply personal project for me, one that has caught me by surprise at every turn. Instead of forcing my vision upon Bridges, I’ve allowed it to unfurl before me. To show me what it wanted to become. That has led to a joyous and immensely creative rehearsal experience, the most deeply satisfying artistic experience I’ve had in many years. They say that you should do things that scare you, and whoever “they” are, they were correct. I am so very thankful to my designers, creative team and cast for supporting this vision, and engaging in this process with such enthusiasm, collaboration and trust. It means more than you know.

To my own landscape photographer, my husband and partner Jason, thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement. You represent the best of both Bud and Robert, and you are there on stage with us in so many ways tonight.

Finally, I wish to dedicate this project to the memory of three men, giants in my life, who have recently passed but whose memories live on in this musical. Darcy, Nik and Joe – you are loved, you are deeply missed, and you are never forgotten.

– Erin Farrell Speer, Director and Choreographer