We Haven’t Come That Far, Baby

Bag&Baggage Presents A Special “Wage Gap” Performance of The Best of Everything, Sunday September 13

Hillsboro, OR – In the 1950s, newspapers published separate job listings for men and women; in fact, many of the ads had exactly the same job descriptions but listed separate pay scales for men than for women. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, women earned, on average, $.60 for every dollar their male counterparts earned doing the same job.

That was over 60 years ago, and still the gender pay gap remains. Recent research has found that women in 2015 make $.78 per every dollar their male counterparts earn doing the same job.

Bag&Baggage’s upcoming production of The Best of Everything, based on the iconic 1958 novel by Rona Jaffe, provides a powerful view of the beginnings of women’s struggles in the workplace. Discrimination, sexual harassment, pressures to conform to traditional gender roles and wage disparity are all woven into the fabric of this remarkably touching, funny and insightful play about “working girls in the typing pool” in 1950s New York City.

As a way of drawing attention to the ongoing gender pay gap experienced by women in the United States, Bag&Baggage is hosting a “Wage Gap Sunday” performance – all tickets for the Sunday September 13, 2:00pm matinee performance of The Best of Everything will be priced at 78% of the regular ticket prices. Immediately following the performance, the cast and crew of the show will hold a Talk Back where they will discuss their experiences of working on the play and their thoughts on how much…or how little…things have changed for working women in the United States.

Adult tickets in Section 1 will be priced at $23.40, with Student and Senior tickets in Section 1 at $19.50. Adult tickets in Section 2 will be $19.50, with Student and Senior tickets in Section 2 at $15.60. Ticket prices for the Sunday, September 13th performance will be set at this price and can be purchased online at www.bagnbaggage.org or by calling our box office at 503 345 9590.

About The Production: Rona Jaffe’s controversial 1958 novel about the lives and loves of “working girls” in the big city is considered a breakthrough work, an iconic story that unapologetically and with authentic tenderness explores the trials and tribulations of women’s lives in the late 1950s. The Best of Everything was so groundbreaking that it inspired and influenced dozens of subsequent stories about women in the big city, including a film of the same name starring Joan Crawford, a short-lived television series, and one of the most popular television shows in recent memory, Mad Men. So influential was the novel on the creators of Mad Men that, in one scene, anti-hero Don Draper is shown reading a copy of Jaffe’s work while the “girls in the typing pool” work outside his office.

Bag&Baggage Productions, Hillsboro’s resident professional theatre, presents the stage adaptation of Jaffe’s novel, adapted by Julie Kramer, from September 10 – 27, 2015 at The Venetian Theatre in downtown Hillsboro. The Best of Everything stars a number of B&B’s female Resident Actors and is directed by Guest Director Michelle Milne.

Bag&Baggage is the first company to produce the stage version of the script on the West Coast. The 2012 premiere, off-Broadway in New York, was hailed by The New York Times, who wrote, “This approach gently and divertingly reminds us that Jaffe’s novel focused a clear and abidingly useful gaze on women caught in a moment in time that isn’t as distant as you might suppose.” The New York theatre review website THEATREMANIA said, “This clever adaptation of Rona Jaffe’s novel about secretaries in the 1950s is an absolute treat…The Best of Everything nimbly lives up to its title.”

 

About The Author: Rona Jaffe (1931-2005) was the author of sixteen books, including the bestselling internationally acclaimed novels The Road Taken, The Cousins, Family Secrets, Mr. Right is Dead, Mazes and Monsters, The Last Chance, Five Women and The Room-Mating Season, as well as the classic best-sellers Class Reunion and The Best of Everything. She founded The Rona Jaffe Foundation, which presents annual awards to promising women writers of literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Ms. Jaffe was a lifelong New Yorker.

 

 

About Bag&Baggage Productions: Bag&Baggage is committed to provocative, innovative interpretations of classical works of American and English Drama. Through the use of major literary adaptations and inventive stagings, the company seeks to reconnect the great works of drama to new audiences. Bag&Baggage is the only professional theatre in Hillsboro and is the resident in-house performing arts group at the historic Venetian Theatre in downtown Hillsboro. www.bagnbaggage.org.

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Calendar Listings:

The Best of Everything based on the novel by Rona Jaffe, adapted by Julie Kramer
WAGE GAP PERFORMANCE: Sunday September 13, 2015 at 2:00pm
Regular Performance Run: September 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, and 27, 2015
Thur/Fri/Sat at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:00pm
The Venetian Theatre, Hillsboro
253 E Main Street, Hillsboro 97123
Tickets: $18 – $30 depending on date and seating section
www.bagnbaggage.org or 503 345 9590