Director’s Note

Henrik & Wes & Jeff
An annotated timeline of The Messenger by Wes Grantom and Jeff Talbott

1440-ish - The printing press is invented by Johannes Gutenberg
This doesn’t have a ton to do with us necessarily, but it has a great deal to do with the world of this play.

1609 - The first newspaper is printed
It took 160+ years; this play is much shorter.

1754 - Dr. Dorothea Erxleben is the first licensed female doctor
Jump ahead to 1874 below to see why this is important.

1762 - Ann (Smith) Franklin is the first female editor and publisher of a newspaper in America
If you’re seeing a trend here, you’re on the right track (hint: history or herstory?).

1828 - Henrik Ibsen is born in Norway Now let’s get into the play you’re here to see.

1874 - The London School of Medicine for Women is established
Therese Stockman (the central character in our play) studied here.

1882 - An Enemy of the People is published
Now we’re rolling - our play starts with Henrik’s play.

1906 - Henrik Ibsen dies
Not actually relevant. (Sorry, Henrik.).

1994 - Jeff Talbott does a scene from Ibsen’s Little Eyolf in grad school and falls deeply in love with Henrik Ibsen
It really started in undergrad, with an acting class scene from Ghosts, but Jeff started to write plays in grad school, and Ibsen became a major touchpoint then.

2005 - Wes Grantom sees his girlfriend (now wife) play Nora in A Doll’s House in grad school
Obviously, a lot of turning points happened for Wes seeing this production…

2007 - Jeff performs in Doubt at PTC
This is where Jeff fell in love with PTC and SLC. And where Jeff fell in love with Red Iguana.

2014 - Jeff’s play A Public Education is workshopped in Play-By-Play at PTC; Jeff and Wes meet.
Wes didn’t direct this workshop, but our friendship and collaboration started because of that workshop. It’s a long story. Ask us in the lobby.

2015 - Wes directs Speculator Spirits in Play-By-Play
This is where Wes fell in love with PTC and SLC. And where Wes also fell in love with Red Iguana.

2019 - Wes and Jeff propose an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People to PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg
At this point, it stops being about Henrik, and very much about us; _The Messenger is a brand-new play based on a very old play. We made our own thing._

2020 - The Messenger is workshopped in Play-By-Play
This was the week of March 9-14, 2020. Yes. That week. Again, ask us in the lobby. So. Many. Stories.

2020-2022 - The actual world starts to deeply resemble our play
We didn’t change any of the facts in the play after the workshop. They were already there in the play. It’s very, very weird, right? Don’t worry - we think so, too.

2022 - The Messenger opens at Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, Utah
We’re so glad you’re here. We’re very excited to share this play with you. And we hope we’ve made Henrik proud, too. Enjoy the show!