Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning (1941)

Original Production -  Paired with Talking to You at The Belasco Theatre (renamed The Saroyan Theatre for the run), August 17 to August 22, 1942. 8 performances.

Producer - William Saroyan

Director - William Saroyan

Original Cast - 

 Lois Bannerman - Harpist

Canada Lee - Thomas Piper

Bill Challee - Jim, a bartender

Edward F. Nannary -John Callaghan

Irving Morrow - Harry Mallory

Jane Jeffries - Helen

June Hayford - Peggy

Carol Marcus - Lois

Arthur Griffin - R.J. Pinkerton

C. Gilbert Advincula - Pablo

Sam Sotelo - Pancho

Larry Bolton - Sammy

Lillian McGuinness - Rhinelander 2-8182

Lewis Charles - Fritz

Maxwell Bodenheim - A Poet

William Prince - Callaghan Mallory

 

Notes

Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning was not well-received on its premiere, though Canada Lee's performance was often praised.  Subsequent productions, such as an English Stage Company production at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962, at the Pasadena Playhouse, and a production in San Pedro, California, in 1976, received much better notices. 

It was published along with Sweeney in the Trees and The Beautiful People under the title The Beautiful People in 1941.

 The original production was one of the first times Carol Marcus, Saroyan's future wife, appeared in one of his plays. 

 

Associated Materials:

 

In the Forever Saroyan collection: 

Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning Curtain Preface, 1941, Western Reserve University, PB016