Civic Theater Typed Own Scripts For Odets Play

Civic Theater Typed Own Scripts For Odets Play

Wednesday February 22, 1961

“The Flowering Peach, a play for which author Clifford Odets has not yet completed his final revisions, will be presented by the Ann Arbor Civic Theater tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday.

The play based on the Noah story and appeared on Broadway in 1954 and 1955 under Odets’ direction.

But when the local theater group decided to do the play they were told by the publisher it was not in final production form.

Could the Civic Theater have one copy of the script in its present state from which to make other copies?

Yes, was the reply, with the provision that all copies made from the one sent be destroyed subsequent to the performance.

So members last December duplicated enough copies to put on the show. It is believed that no other civic theater in the country has yet produced the play.

Starting time for the performances at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater will be 8 p.m. The group’s final show of the year is Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” to be presented March 30 and 31 and April 1.

FLOWERY SKUNK: Evy Eugene (left) rehearses her part as the Skunk in Clifford the Skunk in Clifford Odets' “The Flowering Peach,” as Lila Grau Arbor (center), playing Esther, and Fred Ouellette, playing Noah, listen aboard the Ark. Odets' story of Noah will be presented by the Ann Arbor Civic Theater tomorrow night through Saturday night at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater.