March 21, 2012 – March 31, 2012

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Biography of Dale Wasserman
Dale Wasserman, born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin on November 2,
1914, began his career in the theatre at nineteen. His formal education ended with one year of high school in Los Angeles. His theatrical career began in the same city, where he became a self-taught lighting designer, director, and producer. His lighting, particularly for dance companies, brought him the first of many awards; as Stage Director and Lighting Designer for the Katherine Dunham Company, he invented patterns much imitated later. For some years under contract to
Sol Hurok, he staged and lighted many of the impresario's exotic attractions, among them the Azuma Kabuki Company from Japan. As producer and director he worked in London, Paris, and many other cities and languages. It was in the middle of directing a Broadway musical - which, out of persistent revulsion, Mr. Wasserman refuses to name - that he abruptly walked out, abandoning his other talents to become a writer.
"Every other function was interpretive; only the writer was primary."
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In January 1979, Wasserman met Martha Nelly Garza, who became his wife, loyal partner, and loving companion, as he quoted in his book, The Impossible Musical (2003). More than once, he commented that Martha Nelly was the best thing that ever happened to him and that it was their
30-year partnership that was the greatest contribution to extending his life and his talents to age
94. Together, they worked on numerous musicals and several new plays.
Mr. Wasserman's first play, Elisha and the Long Knives , written for television, took the award as top TV play of the year, and he went on to write some thirty more dramas for television. His plays for stage include two which tend to dominate all others: Man of La Mancha and One Flew
Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
, these two placing him among the most produced American playwrights worldwide. Man of La Mancha ran for five years on Broadway, and its career continues without interruption in more than thirty languages. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest had a six-year run in San Francisco and has racked up marathon engagements in Chicago, New York, Boston and other cities. Paris has seen a production, as have Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, Belgium and
Japan. His extracurricular activities include active participation in The O'Neill Theatre Center of which he was a Founding Member and Trustee.
On December 21, 2008, Wasserman, with his loving wife at his side, passed away peacefully of natural causes at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Martha N. Wasserman is now the sole
Owner/Licensor of Wasserman's intellectual properties.
Taken fromDale Wasserman's Official Website (http://www.dalewasserman.com/index.htm) and the Alley Theatre's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Teacher's Guide .

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Biography of Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey was born in on September 17, 1935 in La
Junta, Colorado and in 1946 moved with his family to
Springfield, Oregon, where he spent several years on his family's farm. He was raised in a religious household where he developed a great appreciation for Christian fables and the Christian ethical system. Kesey was an unlikely candidate to become one of the most controversial figures of his age and one of the leading figures of the counterculture. After high school, Kesey eloped with Faye Haxby, his high school sweetheart, and they had three children together. Kesey attended the University of Oregon, earning a degree in Speech and Communications. He also received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to enroll in the Creative Writing program at Stanford.
Also at this time, Kesey took a job at a Veterans’ Administration hospital in Menlo Park,
California, where he was paid as a volunteer experimental subject to taking mind-altering drugs and reporting their effects. These experiences as a part-time aide at a psychiatric hospital and the
LSD experiments led to Kesey having a vision of a Native American silently sweeping the hospital floor. This image formed the background for
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
.
While at Stanford, Kesey lived at Perry Lane, a bohemian community in Palo Alto where he became notorious for throwing parties in which certain mysterious chemicals found their way into the punch. Kesey published One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success. Dale Wasserman adapted it into a successful stage play, which played on Broadway and starred Kirk Douglas as McMurphy, and Milos Forman directed a screen adaptation in 1975, which starred Jack Nicholson in the role. “This guy’s a scamp who knows he’s irresistible towomen and, in reality, he expects Nurse Ratched to beseduced by him
... This is his tragic flaw. This is whyhe ultimately fails. I discussed this with Louise—Idiscussed it only with her. That’s what I felt wasactually happening with that character. It was onelong, unsuccessful seduction which the guy wasso pathologically sure of.” (Jack Nicholson aboutMcMurphy in Jack Nicholson, the UnauthorizedBiography by Barbara & Scott Siegel,
1990).
The film was shot in a wing of the Oregon State Hospital,with actual hospital patients playing extras, and although it won five Oscars, Kesey was barely mentioned duringthe Academy Award ceremonies. He made knownhis unhappiness with the film. He did not like JackNicholson, or the script, and he filed a lawsuit demanding $869,000 in damages from the film's producers, owners and distributors. The alleged insult is a complicated one. Kesey sold the movie rights to
Cuckoo's Nest for $18,000 in 1962 to actor Kirk Douglas, who eventually turned the property over to his son, Michael. He and his co-producer, Saul Zaentz, offered Kesey $10,000 to do the

6 screenplay. Kesey wrote it—as he had the book—from the viewpoint of the schizophrenic Indian chief Bromden. The moviemakers wanted to tell the story, however, through another inmate,
Randle McMurphy. Kesey returned to the typewriter but says he was not paid for subsequent rewrites, and furthermore claims that he never consented to the use of his name in connection with the film which finally emerged. The case was eventually settled.
Kesey’s next novel, Sometimes a Great Notion (1964),appeared two years later and was also made into a film,this time directed by Paul Newman. The story is set in alogging community on the Oregon coast, and centers ontwo brothers and their bitter rivalry in the family. HankStamper is a raw and aggressive man of nature, and hisopponent is Draeger, a union official attempting to forcelocal loggers into conformity. Hank’s half-brother, theintrospective Lee, returns to Oregon after 12 years of EastCoast education, ostensibly to help with the strugglingfamily logging industry but secretly to settle a score withHank. Gradually the Stamper family becomes dividedagainst itself, which has profound ramifications for thebrothers and for their home town.
Although Sometimes a Great Notion is now consideredKesey’s undisputed masterpiece, it puzzled criticsat the time is was first published. After its relativelylukewarm reception, Kesey gave up publishing novels.Instead he poured his creative energies into a band of“Merry
Pranksters” (hippies who went around the U.S. “making mischief"), with whom he set up a communein La Honda, California. Kesey bought an old schoolbus, and toured America and
Mexico with his friends,among them Neal Casady, the travel companion who hadpreviously inspired Jack Kerouac’s landmark novel
Onthe Road
. Dressed in a jester’s outfit, Kesey was the chiefprankster.Kesey and his Merry Pranksters became notorious for their "Acid Tests" and use of LSD and other drugs.
In 1965, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana.He fled to Mexico, where he faked an unconvincingsuicide and then returned to the United States, serving afive-month prison sentence at the San Mateo County Jail.After this tumultuous period he bought a farm in Pleasant
Hill, Oregon, settled down with his wife to raise theirfour children, and taught a graduate writing seminarat the University of Oregon. In the early 1970s Keseyreturned to writing and published
Kesey’s Garage Sale (1973). His later works include the children’s book
LittleTrickster the
Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear (1990)and Sailor Song (1992), a futuristic tale about an
Alaskanfishing village and Hollywood film crew. Last Go Around
(1994), Kesey’s last book, was an account of a famousOregon rodeo written in the form of pulp fiction.Kesey died of complications after surgery for liver canceron November 10, 2001 in Eugene, Oregon.
Taken from The Alley Theatre's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Teacher's Guide , Portland
Center Stage's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Guide, A Theatergoer's Resource , and
John Riley, "Novelist Ken Kesey Has Flown the Cuckoo's Nest and Given Up Tripping for
Farming."

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Hatching "The Cuckoo’s Nest"
By Dale Wasserman (From The Dramatist , Sept/Oct 2001)
It's 1962, early Broadway-Pleistocene. My friend, agent-editor Hope Taylor phones to say,
"There's a new book. Itsounds like you." I read the galleys. My instincts light up like starbursts. I wish immediately to make a movie of it. So, Ilearn, does an old acquaintance, Issur Danielovitch, better known to the public as movie star Kirk Douglas.
We're old acquaintances; some years previously I had written a movie called "The Vikings," which Kirk made into abloody epic which bled astonishing profits. We are not dear friends but we are mutually respectful, so when Kirk calls tosay, "Why don't we get together on this one?" I listen, if we agree, I'll write it, he'll star. Then he drops the hammer: "Iwant to do it first on
Broadway."
Well. That is a different mess of pottage.
Okay, I'll write it first for Broadway. But, primero, Kesey's got to be convinced of this plan because his secret yearning isto be a playwright, himself. Kesey and I meet-the only meeting we'll ever have -at the fabled Chateau Marmont inHollywood. That big chip on Kesey's shoulder indicates that he thinks he’ll be encountering a New York esthete, but histruculence fades when he finds that I'm no more than a self-educated hobo. Actually, we never get around to discussionof intellectual matters. Instead, we compare lumber camps we've worked, the aura of small-town jails we have knownand, especially, the subject in which Kesey is already submerged, the effects of "psychoto-mimetic" drugs. (At least that'swhat he called them.)
But in order to write this play I need to know much more about asylums, treatments, and the socalled insane. Myresearch covers six institutions, starting with a posh mental clinic in New York where I watch sixty electroshocktreatments in one morning and encounter two other writers among the patients. Then down, down the scale to theabysmal cellar of Milledgeville, Georgia, a classic snake pit where the patients spend their days chained to radiators.
Climactically, still unsatisfied that I know my subject well enough, I arrange with the head psychiatrist of an Easterninstitution to have myself committed as a patient for a period of two weeks. (Of that, perhaps I'll write at another time.) Ican only say that there's no urge to escape an asylum; to the contrary, it's comfortable, it is seductive to abandon volitionand to live unstressed at no price other than merely obeying the rules:
I write the play in Spring of 1963 while sojourning under an alias in a disreputable hotel in the
Caribbean. By Fall theplay is in rehearsal and, almost immediately, in trouble. It's not the cast, they're generally splendid. William Danielsplays the effete Harding beautifully. Gene Wilder is the stammering mother-smothered boy, Billy. Joan Tetzel is NurseRatched, Ed Ames Chief
Bromden. They're fine. But trouble develops with the star. To the best of my observation Kirk is

uneasy about facing a live, breathing audience. His solution is to make the character consistently
8 lovable. But Randle P.McMurphy is not lovable. He's half-Christ, half con man, fascinating because of his ambiguity.
In New Haven and in Boston the pattern of reactions is established: a few critics are solidly for, most vehemently against.Simply, they are shocked. "How dare you make fun of the insane!"
Kirk blames it on the play, the playwright, even on the Dramatists Guild, and seeks the classic
Hollywood solution, whichis to hire more writers. In Boston I listen in dismay to lines I never wrote, and observe at least three submarinewordsmiths reworking my play. The producer, David
Merrick, indignantly demands to know what I'm going to do aboutit. In turnabout I inquire,
"What are you going to do about it?" The answer, of course, is "Nothing." One can no morestop
Kirk than one can stop a charging bull.
The play that opens at the Cort Theatre in the fall of 1963 is not my play. It's a dramatic goulash cooked by Hollywoodchefs. Walter Kerr writes the most intemperate review he has ever written in an otherwise temperate career. Most criticsconcur, if less violently. What causes pain, however, is the surprisingly personal attacks upon the playwright himself. There are words that burn, bruise and humiliate.
I'm in despair. There's no excuse I can make, no explanation that won't sound like whimpering self-interest, no way tosay, "It's not my play." So I do the self-preservative thing: I run. Actually,
I never see that original Broadwayproduction. On the night it opens I'm in California, following my own prescription of therapy by writing a musical basedon an original television play of mine.
The television play was called, "I, Don Quixote." The musical is titled, "Man ofLa Mancha," and it's playing worldwide today.
So is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." But it's now my own play, for which I take responsibility. It came into its ownwhen regional theatres began picking up on it, its timing exquisitely correct in the Vietnam era of revolutionary politicswhen the play's parable became only too clear. It ran for five years in San Francisco, approximately four years more inNew York, and thereafter visited and is still visiting world capitals in twenty-seven languages at the rate of a hundredfiftyproductions a year.
A sidelight. Ten years after his original review, Walter Kerr was again assigned to review the play; now an acclaimed hitin the second year of its off-Broadway run with a cast including
William Devane as Randle McMurphy, and DannyDeVito in the role of Martini the
Hallucinator. His re-review is a marvel of bewilderment. He confesses that he stilldoesn't "get it," but concedes that a youthful and wildly enthusiastic audience is "getting it" at every performance.
I am delighted that The Steppenwolf Company has given it an excellent, caring production, one of the finest ever, and thatGary Sinise and Terry Kinney confront ambiguity without fear. I have enjoyed every moment of our collaborative effort.
And I am pleased to say that, warts and all, it is my play, and not a stew cooked by a committee.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : Performance History
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has the distinction of being successful in three mediums: a novel, a play, and a movie. How the original novel was transformed into the other two forms is due in great part to the actor Kirk Douglas. The following is an article he wrote for
Entertainment Weekly about his role in the evolution of Cuckoo's Nest .
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Kirk Douglas remembers the author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
ByKirk Douglas| Jan 04, 2002
When I first read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , I fell in love with the book. Immediately, I bought the rights to it for a movie. And then I went to Oregon and met Ken Kesey. He was a husky, strong-looking individual, and we sized one another up. We had one thing in common— we had both been undefeated wrestlers in college. I don't know how I would have handled Ken on the mat. It would have been tough.
He was noncommittal as I heaped on praise for his book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . His father, a milk distributor, was a simple, pleasant guy, much more demonstrative than his son.
Our first attempts to make a movie of his book met with no success. I decided to transform the book into a play and produce it on Broadway. I hired Dale Wasserman to write the play, and assembled a good cast including William Daniels and Gene Wilder. I played the lead of
McMurphy.
We tried it out in Boston, with much success. During a week there, I received a letter from
Timothy Leary. He invited me to join his group in a ''mind-expansion program.'' It sounded very exciting to me, although I knew nothing about LSD or all the other so-called mind-expanding drugs. I was very interested in being a participant, but my schedule did not permit me to join the group. I always wondered how Dr. Leary came to invite me. Later I learned that Ken Kesey brought it about. He thought I would be a good candidate for the group.
When we were ready to open up on Broadway, I thought it was important that Ken Kesey see his brainchild performed on the stage. I invited him as my guest to come to New York and sit in the front row and watch what we had done to his book. Ken was very pleased with the results, congratulated me, and went off the next day to make plans for the famous trip with the Merry
Pranksters.
After 10 years of trying to make the movie, my son Michael asked to take it over. By that time, the director Milos Forman thought I was too old for McMurphy and Jack Nicholson played him.
Ken Kesey called to tell me that Jack was wrong for the part and I should play it. Even after the movie was released, he held to that opinion. I must admit I didn't agree. Jack was perfect.

During that time, Paul Newman made a successful picture of Kesey's book Sometimes a Great
Notion . But I always thought that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was Ken's favorite baby.
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When Ken died, I was very sad. I chastised myself for not having gone to visit him. I made so many plans to see him again in Oregon, but I never went.
From: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,252684,00.html
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest opened at the Cort Theatre on November 13, 1963. It starred
Kirk Douglas as McMurphy, Joan Tetzel as Nurse Ratched, Ed Ames as Chief Bromden, and
Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbit. It ran for a total of 82 performances. The play was revived in a
1971 off-Broadway production starting William Devane as McMurphy and Danny DeVito as
Martini. This successful revival ran for over2,000 performances and sparked interest in creating a movie version. On April 16, 2000, the play was once again revived at the Steppenwolf Theatre starring Gary Sinise as McMurphy and won a Tony in 2001 for Best Play Revival.
In 1975, the novel was adapted into a movie. The $4.4 million dollar effort was directed by Czech Milos Forman and starred Jack
Nicholson as McMurphy. The role of the sexually-repressed, domineering Nurse Ratched was turned down by five actresses -
Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, and Angela Lansbury - until Louise Fletcher accepted casting (in her debut film) only a week before filming began. And actor James
Caan was also originally offered the lead role of McMurphy, and
Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were considered as well.
It surprised everyone by becoming enormously profitable - the seventh-highest-grossing film ever (at its time), bringing in almost
$300 million worldwide. The independently-produced film also swept the Oscars; it was the first film to take all the major awards
(Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress) since Frank Capra's
It Happened One Night (1934). It was nominated for nine Academy Awards in total: Best Actor
(Jack Nicholson with his first win after losing the previous year for Chinatown (1974)), Best
Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Bill Butler and
Haskell Wexler), Best Director, Best Editing, Best Picture, Best Score (Jack Nitzsche) and Best
Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif).
From: http://www.filmsite.org/onef.html

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The History of the EasternOregon Insane Asylum
The unnamed psychiatric facility in
One Flew Overthe Cuckoo’s Nest was based on the Eastern OregonInsane Asylum (later renamed the Eastern
Oregon StateHospital). This institution opened in 1913 in
Pendleton,Oregon. In 1965, the Eastern Oregon Hospital beganproviding services to the developmentally disabled as wellas mentally ill patients, like in Kesey’s novel, and wasrenamed the Eastern Oregon Hospital and
TrainingCenter. In 1985, the hospital was reorganized andbecame two separate institutions. The Eastern OregonPsychiatric Center was to provide care and treatment formentally ill persons, and the Eastern Oregon TrainingCenter was to provide care, treatment, and training formentally disabled persons.
As early as 1862, Governor Addison Gibbs recommended to the Oregon Legislature the establishment in Salem of an asylum to provide for the care and medical treatment of "insane and idiotic persons." Completed in the summer of 1883, the main building of the hospital ("J" building) is a familiar sight to anyone traveling on Center Street east of downtown Salem. The street leading to the hospital was originally designated Asylum Avenue. To oversee the operations at the facility, Dr. Horace Carpenter, a local physician, was hired as first
Superintendent of the new facility and a staff was engaged to serve the 412 patients the hospital could accommodate. In the Morning Oregonian appeared an account of the transfer of 261 male patients from Portland's Hawthorne Asylum to their new home in Salem. The reporter characterized these patients as "representing almost every known stage or degree of insanity, idiocy, imbecility or helplessness". (Actually, records indicate that 268 patients made the trip to
Salem that day.) On October 24th, 1883, 102 female patients were transferred to Salem, including three girls, ages six to nine.
In 1913, a crematory was put into use on the hospital grounds, and all burials in the Asylum
Cemetery were disinterred and cremated. Following the enactment of S. B. 109, deaths at "any eleemosynary, penal, or corrective institution of the State of Oregon located at or near to the city of Salem," if unclaimed by a friend or relatives, would be subject to cremation. Their ashes now rest in the Memorial Circle on the western limits of the hospital grounds, "In Memory of Those
Who Have Passed Away at the Oregon State Hospital."
From: http://www.salemhistory.net/places/state_hospital.htm and Portland Center Stage's One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Guide, A Theatergoer's Resource

Electro convulsive (Shock) Therapy (ECT)

The knowledge that head trauma, convulsions, and high fever can be therapeutic in mental disturbances dates back to Hippocrates, who noted that a malaria-induced convulsion in insane patients appeared to cure them.
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In 1937, an Italian neurologist named Ugo Cerletti, who believed that convulsions were useful for the treatment of schizophrenia, convinced two colleagues, Lucio Bini and L.B.
Kalinowski to help him in developing a method and an apparatus to deliver brief electric shocks to human beings.They administered the shocks (10 to 20 ECT treatments) to a group of human subjects with acute-onsetschizophrenia. After 10 to 20 ECT shocks on alternate days, the improvement in most of the patients was startling.

It is not known how or why ECT works or what the electrically stimulated seizure does to the brain. In the U.S. during the 1940s and 50s, the treatment was administered mostly to people with severe mental illnesses. During the last few decades, researchers have been attempting to identify the effectiveness of ECT, to learn how and why it works, to understand its risks and adverse side effects, and to determine the best treatment technique.

Today, ECT is administered to an estimated 100,000 people a year, primarily in general hospital psychiatric units and in psychiatric hospitals. It is generally used in treating patients with severe depression, acute mania, and certain schizophrenic syndromes. ECT is also used with some suicidal patients who cannot wait for antidepressant medication to take effect.

ECT treatment is generally administered in the morning, before breakfast. Prior to the actual treatment, the patient is given general anesthesia and a muscle relaxant. Electrodes are then attached to the patient's scalp and an electric current is applied, which causes a brief convulsion. Minutes later, the patient awakens confused and without memory of events surrounding the treatment. This treatment is usually repeated three times a week for approximately one month. The number of treatments varies from six to twelve. It is often recommended that the patient maintain a regimen of medication, after the ECT treatments, to reduce the chance of relapse.

After 60 years of use, ECT is still the most controversial psychiatric treatment. Much of the controversy surrounding ECT revolves around its effectiveness vs. the side effects, the objectivity of ECT experts, and the recent increase in ECT as a quick and easy solution, instead of long-term psychotherapy or hospitalization.Because of the concern about permanent memory loss and confusion related to ECT treatment, some researchers recommend that the treatment only be used as a last resort.

From the Alley Theatre's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Teacher's Guide and the Mental
Health America website (http://www.nmha.org/go/information/getinfo/treatment/electroconvulsive-therapy-ect)
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Psychosurgery (Lobotomy)

There are nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the rest of the brain. The idea behind psychosurgery, later proven to be invalid, was that these nerves were somehow malformed or damaged, and if they were severed they might regenerate into new, healthy connections.

In 1894, a Swiss surgeon named Burkhardt performed an operation to destroy selectively the frontal lobes of several patients, which he thought would control their psychotic symptoms.
Scientists had observed the involvement of the frontal lobes in emotion from clinical cases of brain-injured patients or through animal experiments.
 Dr. Antônio Egas Moniz of Portugal developed the first consistent technique for psychosurgery. Monizdiscovered that cutting the nerve fibers connecting the prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain could decrease certain neurotic symptoms.His results were considered so good that lobotomy was used commonly in institutionalized patients who showedvarious neuroses such as chronic agitation or obsessive-compulsive behavior.

Moniz was awarded the Nobel in 1949 for his discovery. Two American surgeons, Freeman and Watts, adopted Moniz’ s procedure and improved it, developing a quick and easy surgical procedure called "trans-orbital leucotomy," which could be done in a few minutes under local anesthesia in a medical office.

The three common versions of psychosurgery were prefrontal leucotomy, prefrontal lobotomy, and transorbital lobotomy. Transorbital leucotomy was a “blind”operation in that the surgeon did not know for certainif he had severed the nerves or not, and it consisted of the insertion, with the slight blow of a hammer, of an ice pick-like instrument through the roof of the orbits, and a rapid sideways movement to sever the fibers.

Contrary to popular conception, the operation was not used only on psychiatric patients.
Many people were lobotomized for “intractable pain,” such as chronic, severe backaches or agonizing headaches.

Freeman operated, lectured and taught extensively in the United States, popularizing leucotomy as a tool to control undesirable behavior across the nation's insane asylums, hospitals, and psychiatric clinics.

Lobotomies are still being conducted today for affective or anxiety disorders, rather than cognitive disorders, and are reserved for patients who do not respond to pharmacologic,

psychotherapeutic, or electroconvulsive therapies. Lobotomies still remain a highly controversial procedure.
From The Alley Theatre's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Teacher's Guide and Portland
Center Stage's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Guide, A Theatergoer's Resource
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Brief Synopsis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The curtain rises on a large, sterile ward in a mental asylum, which is kept under control by the icy rule of Nurse Ratched. The ward is full of both Acute patients, those with temporary conditions, and Chronic patients, those with conditions that are persistent and long lasting. They are all kept in line through the use of tranquilizing drugs and the threat of electroconvulsive therapy and worse. When Randle P. McMurphy, an uncontrolled brash, self ‐ confident, fighter, gambler, lover and self ‐ confessed psychopath bursts into the ward, Nurse Ratched’s unchallenged rule is put into question. To avoid hard jail time at a prison farm, McMurphy has pretended to be crazy. Ironically, he soon finds that this mental asylum is far more harsh and oppressive than his previous prison ever was.
At first, McMurphy’s attitude and defiance towards Ratched and her rules serve as a source of humour and sport. However the ward’s dynamics quickly change to a no ‐ holds ‐ barred conflict between McMurphy’s irrepressible desire to express his free will and Nurse Ratched’s uncompromising commitment to maintain her control and authority.
Prior to McMurphy’s arrival, the patients had given up and given in to Nurse Ratched’s authority. They tolerate her arbitrary rules and have abandoned any desire to exercise any form of independence. McMurphy decides that he will make men out of the complacent “boys.”
Soon, much to the dismay of Nurse Ratched, the patients are resisting her authority and are verging on rebellion. McMurphy is threatened with electroconvulsive therapy if he does not conform to Ratched’s expectations. Predictably, McMurphy is unable to give in to the Big
Nurse’s authority and the threat becomes a reality.
Not content with merely inflicting humiliation and pain on McMurphy, Nurse Ratched manipulates events to show McMurphy who is in ultimate control and to ensure that all the patients learn a lesson about the consequences of defiant behavior such as McMurphy’s.
Much of the story is witnessed through the eyes of Chief Bromden and in the end, it is he who finds a way to free McMurphy (and himself) from Nurse Ratched.
FromThe John Hirsch Theatre's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Study Guide

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The Theorists: Freud, Jung, Jones, and Rorschach
Harding: So it's as simple as that. At stupidly simple as that. You're on our ward six hours and have already simplified the work on Freud, Jung and Maxwell Jones and summed it up in one analogy: it's a peckin' party.
Various theorists and their psychological theories serve as the underpinnings of the action of the play. Here are the four most prominent:
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. Working initially in close collaboration with Joseph Breuer, Freud elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system, the structural investigation of which is the proper province of psychology. He articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality, and repression, and he proposed a tripartite account of the mind’s structure (the id, the ego, and the superego)—all as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions. Notwithstanding the multiple manifestations of psychoanalysis as it exists today, it can in almost all fundamental respects be traced directly back to Freud’s original work.
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung is one of the most important, most complex, and most controversial psychological theorists. Jungian psychology focuses on establishing and fostering the relationship between conscious and unconscious processes. Dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious aspects of the psyche enriches the person, and Jung believed that without this dialogue, unconscious processes can weaken and even jeopardize the personality. One of Jung's central concepts is individuation , his term for a process of personal development that involves establishing a connection between the ego and the self. The ego is the center of consciousness; the self is the center of the total psyche, including both the conscious and the unconscious. For
Jung, there is constant interplay between the two. They are not separate but are two aspects of a single system. Individuation is the process of developing wholeness by integrating all the various parts of the psyche.
Maxwell Jones (1907-1990)
Maxwell Jones developed the idea of the therapeutic community both in Britain and in the
United States. He advocated removing the traditional hierarchies in order to create a democratic community where doctors, patients, and nurses were all equals. Treatments were also no longer relegated to a single therapeutic hour and were instead infused throughout the patient's day.
Jones is the father of modern-day "group therapy."

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Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922)
Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and neurologist. Born in Zurich, he studied at the university there, after deciding against a career in art. He devised a diagnostic procedure for mental disorders based upon the patient's interpretation of a series of standardized ink blots--the
Rorschach test. While working in a psychiatric hospital with adolescents, he noticed that certain children gave characteristically different answers to a popular game known as blotto
(Klecksographie). In his original publication he characterized the blots as a "Form Interpretation
Test, and cautioned that his findings were preliminary and stressed the importance of much more experimentation" (Exner, 1993, p. 6). Sadly, Rorschach died in 1922 at the age of 37. He had only invested just under four years in his inkblot test.
From:
Frager, R and Fadiman, J. Personality and Personal Growth. 6th ed.New York: Pearson
Prentice Hall, 2005.
Matthews, Mark W. "History of the Rorschach." Rorschach.org
. The Institute of Transpersonal
Psychology. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
"Rorschach, Hermann." Chambers Biographical Dictionary (Bio Ref Bank) (1997): Biography
Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson) . Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

Thornton, Stephen P. "Freud, Sigmund [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Sigmund Freud
19
(1856—1939) . Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 16 Apr. 2001. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Kafka and Twain
Sandra: (Giggling) Jeez, what a blast. Is this really happening?
Harding: No ma'am. The whole thing is collaboration between Franz Kafka and Mark Twain.
How weird would a collaboration between Kafka and Twain be? Very.
Franz Kafka (1883 ‐ 1924)
Franz Kafka was a writer who was born into a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family in
Prague. Many of Kafka's fables contain an inscrutable, baffling mixture of the normal and the fantastic, though occasionally the strangeness may be understood as the outcome of a literary or verbal device, as when the delusions of a pathological state are given the status of reality, or the metaphor of a common figure of speech is taken literally.In one of his best-known works, The
Metamorphosis, the son wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous and repulsive insect; he slowly dies, not only because of his family's shame and its neglect of him but because of his own guilty despair.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was an American writer and satirist. He was born in the small town of Florida, Missouri and is the author of over 40 works of fiction, non-fiction, and political essays. Through his biting sense of humor, Twain criticized social problems, racial relations, and political issues. His is also credited with creating a unique style of American writing--one that accurately reflected colloquial speech. His most famous novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , has been banned by libraries and condemned by critics because of its language and the portrayal of the relationship between a young white boy and a runaway slave.
From:
Nervi, Mauro. "Kafka's Life." The Kafka Project . 8 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
"The Official Web Site of Mark Twain." Mark Twain Biography . The Official Web Site of Mark
Twain. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

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The Characters
The Patients
Chief Bromden
Chief Bromden is the son of a chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. He suffers from paranoia andhallucinations, has received multiple electroshocktreatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years,longer than any other patient in the ward. He has also been pretending to be deaf and dumb up until McMurphy's arrival. Bromden seesmodern society as a huge, oppressive "machine" and thehospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform.Bromden narrates the story of the mental ward while regaininga sense of himself as an individual.
Randle PatrickMcMurphy
R. P. McMurphy is a big gambler, a con man, and a free spirit.He was sentenced to six months at a prison work farm, andwhen he was diagnosed as a psychopath he did not protest because he thoughtthe hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm.McMurphy serves as an unlikely Christ figure in the play —the dominant force challenging the establishment, and theultimate savior of the victimized patients.
Dale Harding
Harding is an acerbic, college-educated patient and president of thePatients’ Council. Harding helps McMurphy understand therealities of the hospital. He has a difficult time dealing withthe oppressive nature of society, so he hides in the hospitalvoluntarily. Harding’s development and the reemergence ofhis individual self signal the success of McMurphy’s battleagainst Ratched.
Billy Bibbit
Billy is a shy patient who has a bad stutter and who seems much youngerthan his thirty-one years. Billy Bibbit is dominated by hismother, one of Nurse Ratched’s close friends. Billy isvoluntarily in the hospital, as he is afraid of the outside world.
Charles Cheswick
Cheswick is the first patient to support McMurphy’s rebellion againstNurse Ratched’s power. He alternates between an aggressivetemper and childish giggles. His twitchy hands often suggesthis mental fragility.
Martini
Martini is another childlike hospital patient. He lives in a world ofdelusional hallucinations, but
McMurphy is sympathetic andincludes Martini in their antics and card games, which is asignificant boost for this volatile personality.
Scanlon
Scanlon is the only patient, besides McMurphy, who was involuntarilycommitted to the hospital.
Scanlon has fantasies of blowingthings up. Like most of the inmates, he is totallyunpredictable.

Ruckley
Ruckley was once an Acute, but he wastransformed into a Chronic due to a botched lobotomy.He alternates between being a figure of fun and mockery, although he is ultimately unnerving and a constantwarning to McMurphy.
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The Staff
Nurse Ratched
The head of the hospital ward, Nurse Ratched, the play’santagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rulesher ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity andfemininity behind a stiff, patronizing facade. She selects herstaff for their submissiveness, and she weakens herpatients through a psychologically manipulative regime designed to destroy their self-esteem.
Ratched’semasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces ofhumanity from her patients.
Doctor Spivey
Nurse Ratched chose Doctor Spivey as the doctor for her wardbecause he is as easily cowed and dominated as the patients.With McMurphy’s arrival, he, like the other patients, beginsto assert himself. He even supports McMurphy’s unusualplans for the ward, such as holding a carnival.
Aide Williams
Williams is the most aggressive orderly in Nurse Ratched’s team.Sarcastic with the patients but none too bright, he isconstantly wary of Ratched. He soon gets on McMurphy'scase.
Aide Warren
Warren is embittered and anti-everybody - including Nurse Ratched.He nevertheless competes with Williams to get in Ratched'sgood books. He enjoys baiting Chief Bromden.
Aide Turkle
Turkle is the nighttime orderly for Nurse Ratched’s ward. He is a potsmoker, likes a drink, and has an eye for the ladies. He helpsthe patients throw the after-hours party in the ward.
Nurse Flinn
Flinn is a strict Catholic nurse who works with Nurse Ratched.She is afraid of the patients’ sexuality. She isefficient but naive.
Other Characters
Candy Starr
Candy is a good friend of McMurphy's--a beautiful and carefree"tart with a heart."She makes the hearts of all the maleinmates beat significantly faster and is not bright but not a fool.
Sandra
Sandra is a "good time girl" who knows McMurphy and is friendswith Candy Starr. She is not bright and recently separated froma very odd husband.
From Fourblokes Theatre Company's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Education Pack.

Terms
Acute
– characterized by sharpness or severity; having a sudden onset; lasting a short time.
Ardent
– characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager support or activity; fiery, hot; shining, glowing.
Benevolent – marked by or disposed to doing good; organized for the purpose of doing good; marked by or suggestive of goodwill.
Chronic
– marked by a long duration or frequent recurrence; always present or encountered; constantly vexing, weakening, or troubling.
Consolation
– the act or an instance of consoling; the state of being consoled: comfort.
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Croupier --He who rakes in the money at a gaming-table.
Defunct – no longer living, existing, or functioning.
Disturbed
– showing symptoms of emotional illness.
Effete-Of persons in an intellectual sense, of systems, etc.: That has exhausted its vigour and energy; incapable of efficient action. Also, of persons: weak, ineffectual; degenerate. More recently, effeminate.
Ego – one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytical theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality.
Egomania – the quality or state of being extremelyconcerned with the individual rather than society; limited in outlook or concern to one’s own activities or needs.
Fiend
– devil; demon; a person of great wickedness or maliciousness; a person extremely devoted to a pursuit of study: fanatic; addict.
Geriatrics-The branch of medicine, or of social science, dealing with the health of old people.
Hallucination – perception of objects with no realityusually arising from disorder of the nervous systemor in response to drugs (LSD); an unfounded ormistaken impression or notion: delusion.
Id – one of three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energyderived from instinctual needs and drives.
Impotent
– not potent; lacking in power, strength, or vigor: helpless; unable to copulate: sterile.
Inferior – of low or lower degree or rank; of poor quality; of little or less importance, value, or merit.

Jurisdiction
– the power, right, or authority to interpret and apply the law; the authority of a sovereign power to govern or legislate; the authority or right to exercise authority: control; the limits or territory within which authority may be exercised.
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Latrine
– a receptacle for use as a toilet.
Lecher
– someone who indulges in sexual activity: lasciviousness.
Libido --Psychic drive or energy, particularly that associated with the sexual instinct, but also that inherent in other instinctive mental desires and drives.
Matriarchy –a system of social organization in which descent and inheritance are traced through the female line.
Matriarch
– a female who rules or dominates a family, group, or state; specifically a mother who is head and ruler of her family and descendants.
Neurotic – one affected by neurosis; an emotionally unstable individual.
Neurosis – a mental and emotional disorder that affects only part of the personality, is accompaniedby a less distorted perception of reality than apsychosis, does not result in disturbance of the use of language, and is accompanied by various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances (as visceral symptoms, anxieties, or phobias).
OccupationalTherapy – therapy by means of activity; creative activity prescribed for its effect in promoting recovery or rehabilitation.
Paranoia – a psychosis characterized by systemized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations; a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others.
Pinochle
– a card game played with a 48-card pack containing two each of A, K, Q, J 10, 9 in each suit with the object to score points by melding certain combinations of cards or by winning tricks that contain scoring cards; the meld of queen of spades and jack of diamonds scoring 40 points in this game.
Placate
– to soothe or mollify especially by concessions: appease.
Provocation
– the act of provoking: incitement; something that provokes. Arouses, or stimulates.
Psychosis – a type of illness that causes severemental disturbances that disrupt normal thought, speech, and behavior
Psychopath – a mentally ill or unstable person; aperson having a psychopathic personality.
PsychopathicPersonality – an emotionally and behaviorally disordered state characterized by clear perception of reality except for the individual’s social and moral obligations and often by

24 the pursuit of immediate personal gratification in criminal acts, drug addiction, or sexual perversion.
RorschachTest – a personality and intelligence test in which a subject interprets inkblot designs in terms that reveal intellectual and emotional factors;created by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss
Psychiatrist, in 1922.
Schizophrenia – a severe and chronic psychoticdisorder characterized by shocking or radical changes in behavior, the loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality
Super ego – one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is only partly conscious, represents internalization of parental conscience and the rules of society, and functions to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes, conscience and sense of guilt.
Tincture --A solution, usually in alcohol, of some principle used in medicine, chiefly vegetable, as tincture of opium (laudanum), but sometimes animal, as tincture of cantharides, or mineral, as tincture of ferric chloride.
Truculent --Characterized by or exhibiting ferocity or cruelty; fierce, cruel, savage, barbarous.
Unanimous – being of one mind: agreeing; formed with or indicating unanimity: having the agreement and consent of all.
Weaned --To detach or alienate (a person, his desires or affections) from some accustomed object of pursuit or enjoyment; to reconcile by degrees to the privation of something.

Themes
Rebellion
McMurphy: I am wagering that I can put a burr up that nurse's butt within a week. That I can bug her so she comes apart at them neat little seams and shows you guys she ain't unbeatable.
One week, boys -- and if I ain't got her where she don't know whether to shit or go blind the money is yours!
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Cuckoo's Nest takes place in the 1950s, which was an era when people (particularly the youth) began to rebel against authority, the established way of doing things, and the status quo. How is rebellion as a theme represented in the play?
Repressed Sexuality
Cheswick: Yeah, what happens in the sack?
Harding: Complete . . . complete psychic impotence -- oh, damn, why do I always cry?
Harding clearly has his issues with women, but he is not the only one with some sort of sexual dysfunction. Sexuality is a theme that runs throughout the play, with both the male and the female characters contributing to this theme. Who is sexually repressed, and how does that repression manifest itself?
"Sanity" and "Insanity"
McMurphy: Ah. No. This is my first trip. But I am crazy, Doc, I swear it. Here -- lemme show you -- that other doctor at the Work Farm. (Leans over Dr. Spivey's shoulder, thumbing through the file.) Yeah, here it is. "Repeated outbreaks of passion that suggest the possible diagnosis of psychopath."
As the play progresses, we learn about the various circumstances that brought the patients to the mental institution. Surprisingly, most of the men are there voluntarily. What issues does the play raise about what it means to be sane and what it means to be insane?
Religion
Harding: One moment! Shall we send them off with benefit of ceremony. Come, children -- here, before me (Mounts a chair as Billy and Candy link hands before him and the Group forms up in rough semblance of a wedding.) Mac, would you bring Ruckly? We need a centerpiece.
(McMurphy brings Ruckly, arranges him in a crucifixion pose.) Dearly beloved. We are gathered in the sight of Freud to celebrate the end of innocence and to cheer on its demise. Who stands to sponsor for the benedict?
Religion is peppered throughout the play, both in overt ways (like in the quote above) and in more covert ways. There is a direct reference to religion during theparty scene, but many critics argue that McMurphy can be seen as a Christ figure. How do you see religion being used as a theme in the play?

26
Study Questions and Activities
The title of the play comes from a Mother's Goose children's nursery rhyme called Vintery,
Mintery, Cutery, Corn :
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
Since one bird flies east and one flies west, they represent two characters in opposition with each other. Which two characters do you think are represented and why?Also, which character is the one that flew over the cuckoo's nest?
Chief Bromden is considered to be the narrator of the play. Why was he chosen to narrate the events and not McMurphy? How would the play change if McMurphy was the narrator?
The climax of the play revolves around two controversial modes of psychiatric treatment: electroconvulsive (shock) therapy and psychosurgery (lobotomy). Research these treatments and report on their histories, effectiveness, and controversies.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has been criticized for its representations of Native Americans and women. Are these criticisms deserved? Why or why not?
The tie that binds the characters together in the play is mental illness. How is mental illness portrayed in Cuckoo's Nest ? Are we meant to feel sympathy or antipathy for those afflicted?
Does this play have a clear protagonist and a clear antagonist? Does it have a clear hero or villain? Who might be contenders for these roles? Why?
Kesey's novel takes place in the 1950s. What elements of the time period do you see present in the play? Are there any vocabulary, situations, attitudes, or references that situates Cuckoo's Nest in the 1950s?

27

Further Readings
Brode, Douglas. “A Four-Letter-Word Star:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
”
The Films of
Jack Nicholson . New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1987.
28
Fick, Thomas H. "The Hipster, the Hero, and the Psychic Frontier in 'One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature . 43.1-2 (1989): 19-
32.
Kesey, Ken.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
. New York: Penguin,2002.
McCreadie, Marsha. " One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : Some Reasons for One Happy
Adaptation." Literature/Film Quarterly 5.1 (Spring 1977): 125-31.
Pratt, John Clark, Ed. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Text and Criticism .New York: Viking,
1976.
Safer, E.B. "'It's the Truth Even if It Didn't Happen': Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest ." Literature/Film Quarterly 5.2 (Spring 1977) 132-41.
Sodowsky, G.R., and R.E. Sodowsky. "Different Approaches to Psychopathology and
Symbolism in the Novel and Film One FlewOver the Cuckoo's Nest ." Literature and
Psychology 37.1/2 (1991): 34-42.
Zubizarreta, J. "The Disparity of Point of View in One Flew Over theCuckoo's Nest ."
Literature/Film Quarterly 22.1 (1994): 62-69.

References
The Alley Theatre.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Teacher's Guide . Houston: The Alley
Theatre, 2001/2002.
Bell, Sue. "Oregon State Hospital." Salem (Oregon) Online History - Home . Salem Public
Library. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
29
Douglas, Kirk. "Kirk Douglas Remembers the Author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest""
Entertainment Weekly's EW.com
. Entertainment Weekly, 04 Jan. 2002. Web. 12 Feb.
2012.
Fourblokes Theatre Company. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest:Education Pack . East
Midlands: Fourblokes Theatre Company, 2011.
Frager, R and Fadiman, J. Personality and Personal Growth. 6th ed.New York: Pearson
Prentice Hall, 2005.
The John Hirsch Theatre.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Study Guide . Manitoba: The John
Hirsch Theatre, 2010.
Matthews, Mark W. "History of the Rorschach." Rorschach.org
. The Institute of Transpersonal
Psychology. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
"Mental Health America: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)." Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) .
Mental Health America. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Nervi, Mauro. "Kafka's Life." The Kafka Project . 8 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
"The Official Web Site of Mark Twain." Mark Twain Biography . The Official Web Site of Mark
Twain. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Riley, John. "Novelist Ken Kesey Has Flown the Cuckoo's Nest and Given Up Tripping for
Farming." People.com
. People Magazine, 22 Mar. 1976. Web. 19 Feb 2012.
"Rorschach, Hermann." Chambers Biographical Dictionary (Bio Ref Bank) (1997): Biography
Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson) . Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Thornton, Stephen P. "Freud, Sigmund [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Sigmund Freud
(1856—1939) . Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 16 Apr. 2001. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Van Valkenburg, Ingrid. Ed.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Guide, A Theatergoer's
Resource . Portland Center Stage, 2010/2011.

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