NOON at the NATIONAL - The National Theatre of Washington DC

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NOON at the National

WATCH FOR ANNOUNCEMENT
OF OUR 2011 PRESENTATIONS

FREE - Thursday - October 21
Last 2010 Program

The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

ONE LUCKY ATTENDEE WILL WIN A FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE BOOK.
ANOTHER WILL WIN TWO TICKETS TO A FUTURE MAINSTAGE SHOW OF THEIR CHOICE AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE.

Admission is FREE. Seating is limited. Tickets are required, and are distributed one half-hour prior to the program, on a first-come-first-served policy. One ticket only to each person in line. Information available at 202-783-3372.

MEET THE AUTHOR: NORA TITONE
MY THOUGHTS BE BLOODY – The Bitter Rivalry Between
Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to An American Tragedy

A historian tells the story of John Wilkes and Edwin Booth and their theatrical dynasty, whose passions and divisions figured in America's greatest political tragedy.

Nora Titone spent five years working with the letters, papers and diaries of the Booth family and has uncovered their hidden history. With a foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin, My Thoughts Be Bloody – The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to An American Tragedy is a sweeping chronicle of this eccentric and dysfunctional clan, spanning the whole of the 19th century and unfolding across three continents, and involves a surprising cast of characters. Against this panoramic backdrop – based on original research – a new portrait of John Wilkes Booth emerges. The forces shaping Lincoln's killer are revealed to be more intricate than we ever imagined.

Itinerant players, the Booths were a family of actors. John Wilkes spent his formative years looking up to two extraordinary men: his father, Junius Brutus Booth, an alcoholic, scandal-plagued genius who was one of the greatest actors of his generation, and his brother Edwin, a meteoric talent who established himself as the biggest star of the 19th century stage just as the Civil War began. Junius and Edwin, both beloved by audiences, hobnobbed with American presidents and befriended some of the most influential figures of their day.

Instead of becoming a gentleman farmer, as his staunchly Union family hoped, or enlisting in the Confederate army, as his own politics inclined him to do, John Wilkes dedicated himself to following in his father and older brother's footsteps. Lacking the dramatic talent that Edwin and Junius possessed, and without any early training, John's years as a struggling actor were not easy ones. After Junius’s death, Edwin and John were locked in a battle to claim their father’s legacy of fame. John’s ambitions were thwarted by Edwin’s rise to stardom. The brothers’ divergent paths—Edwin’s an upward race to wealth and social prominence, and John’s a downward spiral into disappointment and obscurity—kept pace with the hardening of their opposite political views and the growth of their mutual dislike. Ultimately, in 1864, John Wilkes would abandon the stage for a brotherhood of conspiracy. My Thoughts Be Bloody shows how these Shakespearean actors—a father and his two very different sons—played their parts in bringing down a president.

THE AUTHOR

To recreate the world of Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, Titone leads readers on a tour of 19th century time and place, bringing forgotten landscapes to life. The action moves from the slums of 1840s Baltimore to the gold fields of California, and from the jungles of Panama to the riot-torn streets of Civil War New York. Titone’s narrative rests on a rich trove of primary source material from Booth collections and theatre history archives across the United States. She hunted through thousands of pages of family letters, diary entries, actors’ memoirs, newspaper articles, dramatic reviews, playbills, and even Booth family costumes and artifacts, as research for the book.

With this account of the Booth family’s remarkable history, John Wilkes Booth’s fraught relationship with his father and his lifelong rivalry with older brother Edwin, the full story of the motivation for President Lincoln’s assassination has finally been told. With this account of the Booth family’s remarkable history, John Wilkes Booth’s fraught relationship with his father and his lifelong rivalry with older brother Edwin, the full story of the motivation for President Lincoln’s assassination has finally been told.

Nora Titone studied history at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. For the past decade she has worked as a historical researcher specializing in nineteenth-century America for a range of academics, authors, and artists. She lives in Chicago. This is her first book.

THE SERIES
This salon-style series explores our heritage, culture and current events with an author reading and discussing a new book
in the intimate and elegant Helen Hayes Gallery of the historic National Theatre. The comfortable setting provides an ideal forum
for the public to engage in lively conversation with an author -- and perhaps acquire a book personally inscribed by its author
-- all at midday, on a weekday, at a convenient downtown location.

The program is supported by contributions from members of The National Theatre Circle.
175th Anniversary Campaign: Click here for information.