About the Director

James J. Christy

This season marks Dr. Christy's 39th year as a professor and director with Villanova's theatre department. Last season, he directed Twelfth Night at Villanova Theatre and Take Me Out at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Take Me Out received six Barrymore nominations, including Dr. Christy's seventh nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play. In 2004, he had the pleasure of directing a new play, Never Tell, written by his son, Jimmy, for the New York International Fringe Festival. In 2003, he directed fellow faculty member Michael Hollinger's Red Herring for Actor's Theatre of Louisville and received his sixth Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Merchant of Venice at The People's Light & Theatre Company. Other recent credits include Don Juan, The Trojan Women, and Passion of Christ at Villanova Theatre, Proof at Arden Theatre Company, and The Laramie Project at Philadelphia Theatre Company, which received 2001 Barrymore Awards for Overall Production of a Play, Direction of a Play, and Outstanding Ensemble. In recognition of his long career as a theatre artist and educator, Dr. Christy was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards ceremony on October 10, 2005.

About the Playwright

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder (Playwright) was born April 17, 1897, in Madison, Wisconsin. He studied at Oberlin College, Yale University (B.A. 1920), and Princeton University (M.A. 1925). Wilder began his career as a novelist, writing The Cabala (1926) and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) for which he would win his first Pulitzer Prize. His other novels include The Woman of Andros (1930), Heaven's My Destination (1934), The Ides of March (1948), The Eighth Day (1967), and Theophilus North (1973). Wilder also wrote a collection of three-minute plays, published under the title The Angel That Troubled the Waters (1928). His one-act plays include The Long Christmas Dinner, Pullman Car Hiawatha, and The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931). In 1938, Wilder wrote and received a second Pulitzer Prize for Our Town. His other plays include The Skin of Our Teeth (1942; third Pulitzer Prize), a translation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1938), The Merchant of Yonkers (1938), which was revised into The Matchmaker (1954) and later evolved into Hello, Dolly! (1963). He also wrote Plays for Bleeker Street (1962) and The Alcestiad; or A Life in the Sun. In 1965, Wilder received the first National Medal for Literature. Wilder died in his sleep in 1975.

Production Photos