The Guinea Pig (play) (original) (raw)
The Guinea Pig is a 1929 comedy in three acts by Preston Sturges, his first play to appear on Broadway. The Broadway production was directed by Walter Greenough and produced by Sturges. It opened on January 7, 1929, at the President Theatre, and ran for 67 performances, closing in March of that year. Sturges was unable to find a producer who wanted to mount the play, even though a production at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts was a local hit, so he and his friends decided to produce it themselves, on a budget of $2,500, which was provided by a rich acquaintance.
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| dbo:abstract | The Guinea Pig is a 1929 comedy in three acts by Preston Sturges, his first play to appear on Broadway. The Broadway production was directed by Walter Greenough and produced by Sturges. It opened on January 7, 1929, at the President Theatre, and ran for 67 performances, closing in March of that year. Sturges conceived of the idea for the play from personal experience, after an actress he was dating explained her erratic behavior as the result of her trying out scenarios for the play she was writing. Sturges decided that if she could write a play, so could he, and began writing The Guinea Pig, completing the third act that night, although the rest took somewhat longer. When he showed the result to the actress, she let on that she had never been writing a play at all, but when Sturges insisted she read some of his writing, she complimented the dialogue, saying that it was "like champagne." Sturges was unable to find a producer who wanted to mount the play, even though a production at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts was a local hit, so he and his friends decided to produce it themselves, on a budget of 2,500,whichwasprovidedbyarichacquaintance.SturgeslaterwrotethatTheGuineaPigcontainedthebiggestlaughheeverreceivedinthetheatre,whentheingenueaskstheyoungleadingmanwhatamanwouldsaytoawomansothatshewouldinstantlygiveherselftohim,andtheyoungmanreplies,"IwishIknew."Anoriginalcopyofthe1929scriptwithacastphotosoldatauctionfor2,500, which was provided by a rich acquaintance. Sturges later wrote that The Guinea Pig contained the biggest laugh he ever received in the theatre, when the ingenue asks the young leading man what a man would say to a woman so that she would instantly give herself to him, and the young man replies, "I wish I knew." An original copy of the 1929 script with a cast photo sold at auction for 2,500,whichwasprovidedbyarichacquaintance.SturgeslaterwrotethatTheGuineaPigcontainedthebiggestlaughheeverreceivedinthetheatre,whentheingenueaskstheyoungleadingmanwhatamanwouldsaytoawomansothatshewouldinstantlygiveherselftohim,andtheyoungmanreplies,"IwishIknew."Anoriginalcopyofthe1929scriptwithacastphotosoldatauctionfor2,000 on July 30, 2012, at the Profiles in History auction house. (en) |
| dbo:author | dbr:Preston_Sturges |
| dbo:genre | dbr:Comedy |
| dbo:premiereDate | 1929-01-07 (xsd:date) |
| dbo:premierePlace | dbr:Manhattan dbr:Broadway_theatre dbr:New_York_City |
| dbo:premiereYear | 1929-01-01 (xsd:gYear) |
| dbo:settingOfPlay | Office of Sam Small; Mrs. Howard's Living room |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 18026594 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 2592 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1092814907 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:Preston_Sturges dbr:Profiles_in_History dbr:Provincetown,_Massachusetts dbc:1929_plays dbc:Comedy_plays dbr:Manhattan dbr:Comedy dbr:Broadway_theatre dbc:Plays_by_Preston_Sturges dbr:New_York_City |
| dbp:genre | dbr:Comedy |
| dbp:name | The Guinea Pig (en) |
| dbp:origLang | English (en) |
| dbp:place | dbr:Manhattan dbr:New_York_City President Theatre (en) |
| dbp:premiere | 1929-01-07 (xsd:date) |
| dbp:setting | Office of Sam Small; Mrs. Howard's Living room (en) |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Preston_Sturges dbt:IBDB_show dbt:IBDB_title dbt:Infobox_play dbt:Reflist dbt:Short_description dbt:IBDB_name |
| dbp:writer | dbr:Preston_Sturges |
| dct:subject | dbc:1929_plays dbc:Comedy_plays dbc:Plays_by_Preston_Sturges |
| gold:hypernym | dbr:Comedy |
| rdf:type | owl:Thing schema:CreativeWork dbo:Work wikidata:Q234460 wikidata:Q25379 wikidata:Q386724 yago:WikicatComedyPlays yago:Abstraction100002137 yago:Communication100033020 yago:DramaticComposition107007684 yago:Play107007945 yago:Writing106362953 yago:WrittenCommunication106349220 dbo:Film dbo:Play dbo:WrittenWork yago:Wikicat1929Plays yago:WikicatPlaysByPrestonSturges |
| rdfs:comment | The Guinea Pig is a 1929 comedy in three acts by Preston Sturges, his first play to appear on Broadway. The Broadway production was directed by Walter Greenough and produced by Sturges. It opened on January 7, 1929, at the President Theatre, and ran for 67 performances, closing in March of that year. Sturges was unable to find a producer who wanted to mount the play, even though a production at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts was a local hit, so he and his friends decided to produce it themselves, on a budget of $2,500, which was provided by a rich acquaintance. (en) |
| rdfs:label | The Guinea Pig (play) (en) |
| owl:sameAs | freebase:The Guinea Pig (play) yago-res:The Guinea Pig (play) wikidata:The Guinea Pig (play) https://global.dbpedia.org/id/4waEg |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:The_Guinea_Pig_(play)?oldid=1092814907&ns=0 |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:The_Guinea_Pig_(play) |
| foaf:name | The Guinea Pig (en) |
| is dbo:wikiPageDisambiguates of | dbr:Guinea_pig_(disambiguation) dbr:The_Guinea_Pig |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Preston_Sturges dbr:Sam_Locke dbr:Barbara_Angell dbr:Guinea_pig_(disambiguation) dbr:The_Guinea_Pig dbr:Stage_management |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:The_Guinea_Pig_(play) |