THE HARVEY GIRLS had an interesting beginning.

I was called by my publisher, Dramatic Publishing, asking me if I would be interested in a commission to write a play about the Harvey House employees, the Harvey Girls.  Harvey Houses were a chain of upscale restaurants built along the Santa Fe Railroad in the latter part of the 19th century.   They were staffed by young women from the East who were housed in dorms, supervised closely, and expected to present a picture of cultured refinement to the newly opening west.

I said yes.

Within a few weeks I got a call from Penn State University Theatre Department.  They were interested in commissioning me to work on a new play with their graduate acting class.  I could work on any project I chose, just as long as I worked with their students.

I said yes.

And I put the two projects together.

My first task was then to make a list of characters and their traits, their wants and needs.  Seven students were in the graduate acting class.  I decided that each student would be responsible for developing and playing two characters apiece.  There were five men and two women in the class, so that meant that some women in the play would be developed and played by men.  (We’ve heard of color blind casting; well, this was gender blind casting!)

The Penn State students and I worked for a week improvising these characters in this time period at this work place.  The process was gratifying and very productive.

Then I returned home and began scripting the play.  That process was much more difficult.  It was challenging to make a plot that would hold this many characters.

I had a rough draft when I returned to Penn State for another week with the students.  This visit was sobering.  The style of the play was not settled.  Certain characters did not seem to work.  Clearly I had much more to do on this play.

Back home again, I began to refine the piece, clarifying the style and making sure of the arc of the action.  I finished the play three or four different ways.  But I could not get the last scene to work right.  When it was time to return to Penn State for the last visit, I still did not have the last scene.  We decided that I would do a reading of the first two scenes and finish the play later.

But when I got back with the company of the actors, I quickly finished another version of the last scene, one that worked and accomplished what I wanted.

The upshot of the process was the last reading of the play at Penn State which was very successful.  In addition Dramatic Publishing loved the play and has put it on the fast track toward publication this fall.

And so that’s the experience with this play so far.  This reading at the Fearless Fringe at SLAC will be the first incarnation of the play that uses actors other than those who originated and developed the roles.  That prospect is very exciting.  In addition, I’m pleased  that David Mong is directing this reading.  He’s an old friend who has been very important to much of my other work.

--Julie Jensen, playwright

THE HARVEY GIRLS 

Sunday, August 29th @ 1pm, SLAC Chapel Theatre

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