THE SPITFIRE GRILL BACKSTAGE GUIDE 5 The Spitfire Grill began as a 1996 film written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff — a filmmaker best known as the creator of the TV series MacGyver. The idea for the film was conceived by Malcolm Roger Courts, long-time Director and CEO of Sacred Heart League, Inc., a Roman Catholic nonprofit fundraising and communications organization based in Mississippi. With private financing from Sacred Heart League, the film was shot in Vermont in 1995. It was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival and was accepted for screening at the 1996 festival. During one sold-out festival screening, a representative of Castle Rock Entertainment viewed the film and contacted her superiors, who offered $10 million for the film's rights. Profits from the sale of the film were used to construct a grade school for 450 children in Southaven, Mississippi. Long-time friends James Valcq and Fred Alley wanted to create a piece of populist theatre with elements of myth and folktale. Upon seeing the film The Spitfire Grill, they had found their vehicle. In November 2000, the musical adaption of The Spitfire Grill premiered at George Street Playhouse in New Jersey. Throughout the process, Arthur Laurents mentored the creative team, encouraging them to find their own emotional truth in the material. The Spitfire Grill began performances off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon on September 7, 2011. The musical went on to win the Richard Rodgers Production Award and received Best Musical nominations from the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League, as well as two Drama Desk nominations. It has gone on to be produced over 500 times worldwide in regional theatres, community theatres, and school productions. ABOUT THE SPITFIRE GRILL ABOUT THE MUSICAL’S WRITERS James Valcq (Composer/librettist) Prior to The Spitfire Grill, Valcq was the composer/author of Zombies from The Beyond, which opened Off-Broadway to critical acclaim in 1995. Other New York credits include Fallout Follies at the York Theatre, Songs I Never Sang For My Father at the Village Theatre, and The Last Leaf. He holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to musicals, Valcq has composed song cycles and choral pieces which have been performed in the U.S. and Europe. Fred Alley (Lyricist/librettist) was the co-founder and Artist in Residence at American Folklore Theatre (AFT) in Door County, Wisconsin. It was at AFT that he first collaborated with James Valcq on The Passage, a new musical. Alley was also the librettist and lyricist of the musicals Guys on Ice, Lumberjacks in Love, and The Bachelors, all of which set box office records at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Fred Alley died unexpectedly following a heart attack in May 2001. The poster for the film version of The Spitfire Grill (1996) Writers Fred Alley and James Valcq (edited from Wikipedia.org, PlaywrightsHorizons.org, and TheSpitfireGrill.com)