A Supplementary Study Guide
Prepared by David Mackay
and Shanna Tedeschi
Table of Contents
August: Osage County Summary
page 2
Theme Spotlight: Mothers and Daughters
page 6
Theme Spotlight: Addiction
page 9
Production History
page 11
Tracy Letts’ Biography
page 12
Discussion Questions
page 13
Dramatic Essay:
page 14
Tracy Letts and the American Dysfunctional Family Drama
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August: Osage County Summary
P r o l o g u e
Beverly, the patriarch of the Weston family in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, interviews
Johnna, a young Cheyenne Native American woman for a position to cook and
care for his wife, Violet Weston. Bev warns Johnna that Violet is addicted to several
prescription drugs and susceptible to extreme mood shifts. Violet, clearly under the
influence of her drugs, descends the stairs and briefly interrupts before retreating
again. Beverly, who as been drinking steadily during Johnna’s interview, hires Johnna
and ends the scene by ominously quoting T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men.
Elena Araoz as Johnna Monevata and David Howey as Beverly Weston
in Arden Theatre Company’s production of August: Osage County.
Photo by Mark Garvin.
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August: Osage County - Act I Summary
Kevin Bergen as Sheriff Deon Gilbeau and
Carla Belver as Violet Weston in Arden
Theatre Company’s production of August:
Osage County.
Photo by Mark Garvin.
A c t
O n e
Five days later, the
extended Weston family gathers to support Violet because Beverly Weston has gone
missing. Ivy, Violet and Bev’s middle daughter, lives nearby and is the first to arrive
soon followed by Violet’s younger sister, Mattie Fae, who has driven in from Tulsa
with her husband Charlie. While they try to give Violet some comfort, She viciously
dismisses them, instead waiting on eldest daughter Barbara. Barbara, enters with
husband, Bill, from whom she is separated, a fact being kept from the rest of the
family. . While trying to settle down for the night, Barbara chastises Bill for his
recent infidelity with one of his college students. Bill tries to placate Barbara, but she
refuses to be consoled and bitterly confides that she believes her father is dead. Their
fourteen-year-old, pot-smoking, daughter, Jean befriends Johnna in the bedroom
upstairs in the attic. Sleep for all is interrupted by the entrance of Sheriff Gilbeau.
He confirms the worst: Beverly’s body has been found in the lake. The, drowning is
presumed to be suicide. The Sheriff enlists Barbara to come identify the body. At the
act’s close, Violet emerges from her bedroom in the throes of a drug induced binge.
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August: Osage County - Act II Summary
A c t
T w o
The family returns home from Bev’s funeral. Karen Barbara and Ivy’s younger
sister persuades Barbara that her life is in order now that she is engaged to marry
Steve, a fifty-year-old entrepreneur. Meanwhile, upstairs, Violet and Mattie Fae
goad Ivy about her personal life, Ivy is only able to extricate herself by admitting
that she has a boyfriend. In the living room, Steve flirtatiously promises to restock Jean’s pot supply, which has run low. Charles and Mattie Fae’s ne’er-do-well
son, Little Charles shows up, distraught that he overslept and missed the funeral.
Ivy secretly greets Little Charles, her first cousin and lover, and they affirm their
plan to escape the family and move to New York together. As the Weston entire
clan proceed to the dinner table, arguments and family tensions escalate in
frustration., A drug-emboldened Violet flexes her vicious power over her family,
berating them collectively and individually. But Barbara violently jumps to
defend herself and the others, and confront her mother’s drug addiction. They
restrain Violet, and begin a hunt to collect the drugs and reclaim the house. Some of the cast of the Arden’s August: Osage County
photo by PlehalPhotography.com
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August: Osage County - Act III Summary
A c t
T h r e e
The following day and the Weston sisters must devise a health plan for Violet
who, according to the doctor, may have suffered brain damage. More lucid now
that she is off her drugs, Violet, remains incorrigible with her daughters, but
concedes that she will deal with her illness on their terms. While interrogating
Barbara about Little Charles and Ivy’s relationship, Mattie Fae confesses a dark
secret. Little Charles is the illegitimate son from a tryst between her and Beverly, her
brother-in-law. Little Charles and Ivy are half-brother and sister, The news stuns
Barbara. Late that night, Karen’s fiancé, Steve, and Jean, who is only fourteen years
old, get high on marijuana. Just as Steve begins to make sexual advances, Johnna
comes to the rescue, with a frying pan. The ruckus awakens the family. Barbara,
lashes out at Jean and confronts Karen over her fiancé’s deplorable behavior. Karen
justifies Steve’s actions and blames Jean for what happened. She and Steve depart
in a huff. Bill too,5leaves Barbara, taking Jean with him,. Later, Barbara hurt and
lost, seeks comfort in the arms of Sheriff Gilbeau and in drink. Ivy comes for a
final farewell before leaving for a new life in New York with Little Charles Violet,
selfishly determined to stop her, tells her the truth – Little Charles is her halfbrother. As a distraught Ivy runs from the house, Barbara on her mother. In
furious confrontation, Violet attacks Barbara, accusing her of having abdicated
her familial responsibilities. Violet boasts of her own strength and reveals she
herself knew of Beverely’s intentions, and might have prevented his death. Barbara,
devastated, leaves the house; Violet, desperate and alone, crawls up to the attic to
Johnna, who gently recites from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men:” “This is the
way the world ends, this is the way the world ends”.
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Theme Spotlight: Mothers and Daughters
The women of the Weston family have complicated relationships to their mother Beverly and among each other.
Read their profiles below and explore this theme with the discussion on the following page.
Violet Weston (Carla Belver): The devious matriarch. She has lost her husband. She is
addicted to painkillers (and any other pill she can pop). She suffers from cancer of the mouth. But that
doesn’t stop her from spewing her cynicism or her hilariously sinister insults.
Barbara Fordham (Grace Gonglewski): The eldest daughter. In many ways, Barbara is
the strongest and most sympathetic character. Throughout the play she tries to gain control of her chaotic
mother, her dilapidated marriage, and her pot-smoking 14 year old daughter.
Ivy Weston (Corninna Burns): The middle daughter. A quiet librarian, stereotypically mousy.
Ivy has stayed close to home, unlike the other errant Weston sisters. This means Ivy has had to endure the
acid tongue of her mother. She has been maintaining a secret love affair with her first cousin. (And if you
think that sounds like a Jerry Springer episode, just wait till you read Act Three!)
Karen Weston (Kathryn Peterson): The youngest daughter. She claims to have been
unhappy her entire adult life, prompting her to move away from the family and reside in Florida. However,
she returns to the Weston home bringing along a fiancé in tow – a successful 50 year old business man
who, unbeknownst to Karen, turns out to by the most loathsome character within the play.
Jean Fordham (Dylan Gelula): Barbara’s daugther and Violet’s granddaughter. An outspoken fourteen year old, who is wiser than her years, finds solace in old movies and marijuana. A
voice of reason in the unreasonable Weston household, she becomes the victim of her aunt Karen’s fiance who makes sexual advances towards her.
Johnna Monevata (Elena Aranoz): The Native-American live-in housekeeper. She is
hired by Beverly just days before his disappearance. She may not have many lines, but she is the most
compassionate and morally grounded of all the characters. She claims to stay in the caustic household
simply because she needs the job. Yet, there are times when she swoops in like a warrior-angel, saving
characters from despair and destruction.
Source: http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/augustosage.htm
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Theme Spotlight: Mothers and Daughters
In Tracy Letts’ play, mothers and daughters are more likely
to verbally and physically abuse one another
rather than exhibit kindness.
Eric Hissom as Bill Fordham and Grace Gonglewski as Barbara Fordham in Arden
Theatre Company’s production of August: Osage County.
Photo by Mark Garvin.
Grace Gonglewski as Barbara
Fordham and Carla Belver as
Violet Weston in Arden Theatre
Company’s production of August:
Osage County.
Photo by Mark Garvin.
Family Dinner
In Act One, Violet continually asks for her eldest daughter.
She depends on Barbara’s emotional strength during this family crisis.
Yet, at the same time, Violet cruelly points out Barbara’s advancing age,
her evaporated beauty, and her failed marriage
– all issues that Barbara wishes to be left unspoken.
Barbara responds by putting a stop to her mother’s pill addiction.
She rallies the rest of the family into intervention mode.
But this might be less of tough-love and more of a power-play. photo by Mark Garvin.
During Act Two’s climactic “family dinner from hell,” Barbara throttles her mother and then declares,
“You don’t get it, do you? I’M RUNNING THINGS NOW!”
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Theme Spotlight: Mothers and Daughters
These women and their relative men are part of a severe family dysfunction. Adults raised with family dysfunction
report a variety of long-term effects.
The following questions may help you assess your own family situation.
Answering “Yes” to these may indicate some effects from family dysfunction.
Most people could likely identify with some of them.
If you find yourself answering “Yes” to over half of them,
you likely have some long-term effects of living in a dysfunctional family.
Which of these attributes do you see in the play’s characters?
1. Do you find yourself needing approval from others to feel good about yourself? Yes_____ No_____
2. Do you agree to do more for others than you can comfortably accomplish? Yes_____ No_____
3. Are you perfectionistic? Yes_____ No_____
4. Or do you tend to avoid or ignore responsibilities? Yes_____ No_____
5. Do you find it difficult to identify what you’re feeling? Yes_____ No_____
6. Do you find it difficult to express feelings? Yes_____ No_____
7. Do you tend to think in all-or-nothing terms? Yes_____ No_____
8. Do you often feel lonely even in the presence of others? Yes_____ No_____
9. Is it difficult for you to ask for what you need from others? Yes_____ No_____
10. Is it difficult for you to maintain intimate relationships? Yes_____ No_____
11. Do you find it difficult to trust others? Yes_____ No_____
12. Do you tend to hang on to hurtful or destructive relationships? Yes_____ No_____
13. Are you more aware of others’ needs and feelings than your own? Yes_____ No_____
14. Do you find it particularly difficult to deal with anger or criticism? Yes_____ No_____
15. Is it hard for you to relax and enjoy yourself? Yes_____ No_____
16. Do you find yourself feeling like a “fake” in your academic or professional life? Yes_____ No_____
17. Do you find yourself waiting for disaster to strike even when things are going well in your life? Yes_____ No_____
18. Do you find yourself having difficulty with authority figures? Yes_____ No_____
Source: http://www.k-state.edu/counseling/topics/relationships/dysfunc.html
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Theme Spotlight: Addiction
Prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused category of drugs, behind marijuana
and ahead of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs. The National Institutes of
Health estimates that nearly 20 percent of people in the United States have used prescription
drugs for non-medical reasons.
The Cycle of Addiction
Some prescription drugs can become addictive, especially when they are used in a manner
inconsistent with their labeling or for reasons they were not prescribed. Those include narcotic
painkillers like OxyContin or Vicodin, sedatives and tranquilizers like Xanax or Valium, and
stimulants like Dexedrine, Adderall or Ritalin.
In 2000, about 43 percent of hospital emergency admissions for drug overdoses (nearly 500,000 people) happened because of misused
prescription drugs. This type of drug abuse is increasing partially because of the availability of drugs, including online pharmacies that
make it easier to get the drugs without a prescription, even for minors.
There may also be a perception, especially among younger people, that prescription drugs are safer than illegal street drugs. Most people
don’t lock up their prescription medications, nor do they discard them when they are no longer needed for their intended use, making them
vulnerable to theft or misuse.
Prescription drug abuse is generally the same between men and women, except among 12 to 17 year olds. In this age group, research
conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that females are more likely to use psychotherapeutic drugs for non-medical
purposes. Research has also shown that women in general are more likely to use narcotic pain relievers and tranquilizers for non-medical
purposes.
The number of teens and young adults (ages 12 to 25) who were new abusers of prescription painkillers grew from 400,000 in the mid-’80s
to 2 million in 2000, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. New misusers of tranquilizers,
which are normally used to treat anxiety or tension, increased nearly 50 percent between 1999 and 2000 alone.
In a study of students in Wisconsin and Minnesota, 34 percent of kids diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) said
they had been approached to sell or trade their Ritalin or Adderall, two drugs commonly used to treat symptoms of ADHD.
The growing population of aging Baby Boomers are also prime candidates for prescription drug abuse, intentional or not, as are the elderly.
Once someone begins taking a number of pills for things like managing blood pressure and cholesterol, it becomes easier to take narcotic
pain killers, prescription sleep aids and other, more addictive drugs. It also increases the risk of negative and possibly fatal interactions
between drugs, especially when they are not used as prescribed.
Drug addiction is a biological, pathological process that alters how the brain functions. Prolonged drug use changes the brain in
fundamental and long-lasting ways. These long-lasting changes are a major component of the addiction itself. It is as though there is a
figurative “switch” in the brain that “flips” at some point during an individual’s drug use. The point at which this “flip” occurs varies from
individual to individual, but the effect of this change is the transformation of a drug abuser to a drug addict.
Source: http://www.prescription-drug-abuse.org/
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Theme Spotlight: Addiction
Writing Activity: Acting Addiction
Actors playing characters struggling with drug addiction must learn how it feels emotionally and physically to be addicted
and accurately represent this to the audience. If you were playing a character that was addicted to prescription drugs, the
following activity could assist you in making the addiction appear “real” onstage.
Think of a time when your body was under a large amount of stress, for example because of illness, lack of sleep, over
exertion while playing a sport, etc. Describe the physical aspects of this stress:
How did various parts of your body react? Did you shake? Which eye twitched? What was the quality of the twitch?
How did you feel emotionally? Did you moods change rapidly? Did you cry or scream?
What thoughts did you have? Was your thinking normal or altered? Did you see, hear or smell anything that wasn’t there?
Did you have irrational thoughts?
How did people around you respond to your behavior? Did their response alter your feeling or behavior?
Try to be as vivid as possible in order to make your reader feel the physical pain, exhaustion, exertion, etc.
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Production History
The original production was produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, in Chicago, and
was performed in the Downstairs Theatre June 28, 2007 —August 26, 2007. The cast prominently featured members of the Steppenwolf Ensemble,
many of whom had been working together for decades.
The Broadway production opened December 4th 2007,
at the Imperial Theatre and ran for 648 performances.
In November 2008, August: Osage County made its UK debut at London’s National Theatre.
A US National Tour began in July 2009 at Denver’s Ellie Calukins Opera House.
This production went on to tour throughout the country.
Internationally the play made its Israeli debut at the Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv in
January 2009. In March 2009, the play made its Puerto Rican debut at the Rene Marquez
Theater Hall in San Juan. The Arts Centre Playhouse in Melbourne, Australia presented the
play in May 2009. Other international productions include, Mannheim , Germany, as at
the Nationaltheater under the title Eine Familie (German for “A family”) and in Vienna,
Austria at the Akademietheater.
The Steppenwolf Theatre Company, in conjunction with the Sydney Theatre Company,
opened a production in Sydney, Australia in August 2010.
Edward Sobel, Arden Theatre’s own Associate Artistic Director, served as dramaturg for the
premiere Steppenwolf and Broadway productions.
The play received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, the Drama
Desk , Outer Critics Circle, and New York Drama Critics Circle awards. It continues to be
produced throughout the United States, and worldwide.
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Tracy Letts’ Biography
Letts was born in 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was raised in a very academic household
in Durant, Oklahoma where both of his parents taught at Oklahoma Southeastern State
University. He has two siblings, Dana and Shawn, a jazz musician and composer. Letts
graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980’s. From there, he moved to Dallas,
Texas, waiting tables and working in telemarketing while he started as an actor.
At the age of 20, Letts moved to Chicago and worked for the next eleven years as a stage
actor, including work with Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He was a founding member of
Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the
play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC.
Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.
Letts’s previous Steppenwolf productions as an actor include American Buffalo,
Betrayal, The Pillowman, Last of the Boys, The Pain and the Itch, The Dresser, Homebody/
Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross (also Dublin and Toronto), Three Days of Rain,
many others. Other productions include: Orson’s Shadow (Barrow St., NY); Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf? (Alliance, Atlanta); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Red Orchid);
Conquest of the South Pole (Famous Door); Bouncers (the Next Lab). - TV and Film:
Guinevere, U.S. Marshals, Profiler, Prison Break, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, many
others. As a playwright, he is also the author, Bug (also screenplay), Man from Nebraska
(Pulitzer finalist), August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award for Best Play) and
Superior Donuts, produced at the Arden in March 2011.
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Tracy Letts’ Biography
His mother Billie Letts is a novelist, and her parents served as the model for the characters
Beverly and Violet Weston in August: Osage County. His father Dennis Letts was an English
professor turned actor who originated the role of Beverly Weston in August: Osage County at
the Steppenwolf. Dennis Letts died of cancer early into the Broadway run in February 2008.
Letts continues to work in Chicago as an Ensemble Member of the Steppenwolf Theatre,
and most recently appeared as George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which is currently
playing at the Arena Stage and headed to Broadway.
http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2007/04/featured_post_tracy_letts_is_p.html
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Discussion Questions
What the significance of the play’s title? How does the play’s location impact the storytelling? What role does the time of year play?
Compare and contrast the different generations in the play. How do the eras in which the
characters were raised affect their view of the world? Consider what other influences might
engender their perspective.
Violet declares by the play’s end, “Nothing is stronger than me.” In what ways does she exude her claim? In what ways does she contradict it? Whence does Violet derive her strength?
What universal truths about families does the play embody? To what degree is the
Weston family representative of American society in the 21st Century?
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photo by Mark Garvin
Dramatic Essay
Tracy Letts and the American Dysfunctional Family Drama
by David Mackay
O’Neill. Albee. Miller. Letts?
Tracy Letts’s induction into the pantheon of great American playwrights may take more
time than the mercurial pace with which August: Osage County arrived on the world theatre scene. Between August 2007 and November 2008, August: Osage County premiered in
Chicago, went to Broadway, and then traveled to London’s West End garnering rich praise
for the play, cast and production. Along the way of this frantic theatrical journey, Letts
received a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, all in recognition of his writing. Reviews began to include the byline ‘best new American play of the
century’. Heady stuff for a production that lacked 21st Century hyper-theatrical gadgetry
such as life-size horse puppets, flying men in spider costumes and movie stars-cum-stage
players. Instead, Letts, like many of the heavyweight dramatists of the last century, found
his muse in the American family closet, still haunted by a multitude of skeletons. August:
Osage County is not the return of family drama stage play. David Lyndsay-Abaire’s The
Rabbit Hole, which explores the harrowing ordeal of a family dealing with the death of
a child, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama only the year before Letts won. (Arden produced The Rabbit Hole in the 2009/10 season). Yet, Letts delivers us a large sprawling epic
family drama, which echoes characters, plot, and dialogue of Eugene O’Neill, Edward
Albee and Arthur Miller.
From O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, Letts conjures a vision of Mary Tyrone,
the morphine entranced mother, whose addiction wreaks guilt and humiliation upon her
children. But opposed to being waif-like in her stupor with occasional flares of malice,
Violet channels Albee’s corrosive-tongued Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Violet, like Martha, uses ruthless precision to mine sweep her family’s psyche and detonate
vulnerable soft spots. And akin to Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Lett’s roots the suffering
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Dramatic Essay (cont.)
tery, loses respect for his father, and by acquiring this knowledge; Biff is emptied of his ambition to succeed in life. Similarly, Violet’s life force is undermined by her husband’s affair
with her sister, Mattie Fae. However, August: Osage County is not merely paying homage
to the traditional three-act drama portraying the dysfunctional American family derailed
by secrets. The reveal of family taboos in a twentieth century drama still had the potential to reverberate with shock in the context of a well-structured drama. But in our age of
“Google it, and a picture appears of it” there appears to be little left to shock our collective
imagination. Letts embraces our expose-all culture, and rather than reveal the Weston
family taboos as secrets, he infuses his intergenerational-characters with different set of
skills in denying or tackling skeletons. Barbara, also hurt by her husband’s extramarital
affair, refuses to succumb to humiliating sense of defeat, but rather, she challenges her
mother’s totalitarian matriarchy with a kamikaze attack. Letts divulges the Weston family
secrets without drenching them in the curse of social scandal and/or individual guilt. But
rather, he uses humor and character’s decisive action in order to rehabilitate drug addicts, reprimand inappropriate sexual behavior, while simultaneously sanctioning a love
that society traditionally scorns. Ultimately, Barbara chooses not to inform her sister, Ivy
that her lover Little Charles is her biological stepbrother. She chooses to leave her abusive
mother. She may have helped rehabilitate her mother from the curse of addiction, but she
will not educate her in ways of human decency. What defines the laws of human decency is
a slippery and ever changing definition. However, early into a new century, August: Osage
County offers a delectable variation on the American dysfunctional family. Whether, Letts’s
will join the ranks of O’Neill, Milller and Albee, is too soon to tell. But like most potential
Hall of Fame inductees, time is the best judge as to whether August: Osage County will
resonate to future generations.
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