OUR CURRENT SHOW
We recently brought a full-length version of FAIR to The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville, NC for an East Coast Premiere!
Pictured: Andrew Bailes, Jessica Lynn Verdi, Daniel Moore, Kimberly Van Ness, Laurie Jones, Jeremiah Jones. Photography by Cheyenne Dancy.
“I could tell immediately that this work had been developed over a period of time: the fast pace and furious blocking, the actors’ physical agility and focus, the quick blackouts and scene changes, the clever use of minimal props, and the writing—witty, provocative, assured and meaningful...FAIR is a complicated tale woven into an entertaining melodramatic format.”
Certified Hollywood Fringe Audience Reviewers Said:
“Engaging, funny, inspired and compelling drama. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.”
“The ensemble acts as one working unit. With the continuous switching of characters in and out, the cast stays grounded in this carnival like ride.”
“The Wishbone Theatre Collective has seemingly come out of nowhere to create one of the great theatre pieces of this year’s Fringe festival. ”
The premise: a feisty, smart, successful proprietress in the Gold Rush years of California with a string of marriages and more than one dead husband attached to her name, is seduced by a charming lawyer. He proposes marriage and what begins as a passionate affair ends with murder at sunset aboard a passenger ferry. Drugs, scandal, suffragists, rumors, lies, promises made and broken...an evil doctor. Are you ready to meet Laura Fair?
Laura Fair (image credits: The Official Report of the Trial of Laura D. Fair for the murder of Alexander P. Crittenden, Andrew Jackson Marsh, Samuel Osborne, San Francisco Printing Company, 1871.)
Alexander P. Crittenden
Why tell this story? The trials of Laura Fair were a media sensation. The press played fast and loose with the facts while the prosecution turned the court proceedings into a morality play, casting Laura as the epitome of evil womanhood. The public vilification and aftermath of someone who challenged popular convention were of great interest to us and relevant to how we view outsiders to this day.
![Image Credit: A wolf in the fold, or a fair trial of Laura [D. Fair], Kock & Harnett (active 187-), American, printer, [ca. 1871], UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562bd49be4b0273764ef78f9/1490520370611-9OQFTIXXW2ZOPBR87P79/image-asset.jpeg)
Image Credit: A wolf in the fold, or a fair trial of Laura [D. Fair], Kock & Harnett (active 187-), American, printer, [ca. 1871], UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
It takes a village.
2015 & 2016 Development Workshop Sessions and FAIR premiere
Resources
Murder by Gaslight by Robert Wilhelm @Copyright 2009-2016
Murder and Turmoil: Honor and Crimes of Passion in Two 19th Century Murder Trials, Stephanie A. Pisko, 2012
SHADY LADIES by Suzann Ledbetter. Copyright @2006 by University of Oklahoma Press
THE TRIALS OF LAURA FAIR: SEX, MURDER, AND INSANITY IN THE VICTORIAN WEST by Carole Haber. Copyright © 2013 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu
Who Killed Mr. Crittenden?, The Laura D. Fair Case by Kenneth Lamott, Copyright 1963 by Kenneth Lamott
Much of the dialogue was devised from the recorded transcripts and letters printed in the Official report of the trial of Laura D. Fair, for the murder of Alex. P. Crittenden, From the short-hand notes of Marsh and Osbourne, official reporters of the courts, San Francisco, San Francisco Co-operative Printing Co., 1871
Special Thanks
Luke Berri and the University of Michigan Library for providing access to letters between Alexander and Clara Crittenden.