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September 26, 2008

In North Georgia, Franklin County's remount has now been cast, and they're set to start music rehearsal next week, while on the bottom side of the state, we're preparing to open Swamp Gravy's new show. Both of these shows, written months ago, and months before the big financial fallout, deal with the subject matter of the last great depression. Franklin County's play "The Last Hard Times" touches greatly on the issues of how a community and individuals in the community survive past such economic bleakness, shedding light on the tools used by the people who lived through the depression of the 30's-- and those tools are also, right now, being put back into use in the county. Things like partnering, sharing resources, pulling together locally because there wasn't help much help outside of the locality, and sharing fellowship. The Last Hard Times play happened because these very ideals were used in putting the project together. And they move forward with this project with full force, because the community leaders, church leaders, and individuals sense that this community-building project holds some answers for how to move forward in this very uncertain future. "It's been done before. It can be done again, we just need to remember how. Tha'ts what's so great about this project, because we find out from the very people who did it." I was told by a cast member during my trip there about a week ago. And she's right. There is such wisdom in each community. The wisdom of folks, just like me, who lived through extraordinary times and have so much to share, but so few of us think to even ask about. You can bet we'll be asking more and more, and that more of these stories will be feeding net year's play I write for them. More than any other reason, is that people really, desperately, want to know this information now. It's about survival now, as much as it is about storytelling.

Down further south in Colquitt, some other of the old ways are being brought back. The Stober family in our cast, as well as other cast members, have got chickens in their backyards now. (And sometimes on Main Street, which is quite funny.) Backyard gardens around town have made a resurgence. Even CMAC planted a community garden, and last week staked the peanuts and pulled the corn. A quote from that play goes something like this "I was poor before the thing on Wall Street Happened. It didn't make much difference here. We didn't have money before or after." But we had a farm. We didn't get new shoes, but we didn't starve, either. What's being talked about, the stories the old older generation is telling now are about self sufficiency. Bringing the garden back instead of paying astronomical prices for food that used to be grown in the region but was stopped.

Big keywords in these two projects are local food. Local economy. We're also giving more thought to the idea of time banking. We know we'll probably be incorporating time banking in our South Carolina project. BUt as these hard times are hitting especially hard in the rural South, I wouldn't be surprised if time banking became a part of all of our projects-- very akin to the barter system, which was also a tool used down here during the last great depression.

It always amazes me, the wisdom, insight, maybe even intuition of storytellers. How they can tell stories during an interview that lead me to write something about their lives from the past that become, in a few months time, a parable for right now. Sitting in a living room somewhere gathering a story about the last hard times, somehow, a year ago, led to these two plays. I don't know where it comes from or how it happens, but sometimes when the stars are lined up right, we just capture the essence of the moment, and it's always such a mystery. Stories from both of these plays are so clearly the past and the present at once. As I'm working on the current Swamp Gravy Play, and re-reading the remount of The Last Hard Times, I'm finding more and more in the stories, things that *I* didn't even realize were there as I wrote it, but are becoming so clear now, so that stories that told of "This is how we survived" are becoming "This is what we need to do now."

Those stories that tell us about past survival, and encourage us to take similar steps is just one of the ways Community Performance is used as a tool for strengthening community. It's a play. It's also a sharing of local wisdom. Both of these plays, to be sure, will be used as a "how to guide" as much as a piece of art. We're already starting to do some of those things in the stories. I'll try to format some pictures to illustrate the steps taken locally. Chicken coops in backyards, gardens, swap meets. I just need to figure out how to download images from my new camera, first. All for now.

September 22, 2008

It's been long days of rehearsals, from 5:00 until 10:00 or so, sometimes longer after a late production meeting, but the rehearsals have been sort of seamless. There's still a lot of work toward memorization, but the cast has really been working at developing their characters at a level I haven't seen in a while. You can see the "actor muscles" that this group has built over the years. They are the oldest of our Community Performance projects. Many of the young adults-- who have grown up in Swamp Gravy-- play lead roles this year. It's hard to believe that Tarah Sloan, Joanna Richardson and Drew Atkinson, as well as Matthew Tully, Preston Messer and Will Murdock are now old enough to be playing roles of young adults who decide to elope.

Preston, one of our teenagers, is also serving as the Assistant director for the show this year. I can't say how impressed we are with him. His notes are consistently good and solid. His staging ideas are clear and creative. He's at every rehearsal and stays until the end. We've been checking his notes, and for the most part, he's ready to start giving some of his actor notes on his own. He'll do more and more of that leading up to the opening. The intent is that after we open, and after Richard and I leave, that Preston will continue to give notes and watch the show to keep it solid through the entire run. He's a very talented person.

People are really invested in the play and working for it. I think it's because we've really incorporated co-production this year. Our script work, our direction, everything within the rehearsal room. And the council is now ready to move co-production out further, not just with the cast, but co-producing with the community for things that really make swamp gravy work here. For instance, we have two shows on Saturday, with a very brief break between shows. The council wants to feed the cast, as we've done for the past two years now. But instead of taking this on solely with the cast or the council, the Swamp Gravy council is going to find some folks good at nurturing and cooking out in the community to provide things like spaghetti dinners. Or, finding people good at doing hair to come in and help us with those intricate '30's hair styles. In this way, we're getting back to the roots of Swamp Gravy, really getting lots of people-- besides all of our great actors-- involved at a high level, doing things they enjoy doing, and doing things that are so vitally needed to make this not only a play, but a family experience. We've really been a happy family group this year. Is this due to co-production? Is it because we've got a strong script? Is it because we've got a strong Swamp Gravy Council? It's hard to pinpoint the reasons why, but I think we're all feeling like it's largely because we have really embraced co-production as a way to work.

September 11, 2008

I'm getting ready to hit the road again. And again, I'll be working on two projects at once. I'll be holding auditions for the remount of "Land of Spirit" Friday and Saturday, and then going on to rehearse the new Swamp Gravy show "Ain't No Tellin'"

Oh, and when I was writing last about our Swamp Gravy rehearsals, I failed to mention that we started those rehearsals immediately AFTER we made a primary trip to the Salkehatchie Stew project. I didn't write fro mtehre because there was no internet. It's in very rural South Carolina, on the Savannah River and Salkehatchie River. Interesting stuff there. A geological and archaeological dig is being done there that is proving human habitation in that part of the US going back 40,000 years, which is some 20,000 years earlier than most scientists believed, and oh, say, 36,000 years before Palin believes there were even humans on the planet. But I won't go there. The other interesting thing about this place was that part of the county was taken over by the military during the wonderful days of the cold war, to create what is known as the Savannah River Project. They made heavy water for the nuclear bombs. I was told that when the military took over the town, and started moving houses (or blowing them up) you could stand on the sidewalk on a Saturday night and watch a line of houses drive down the road to relocate somewhere else. Now that's some traffic you don't want to get behind. So, I wanted to mention that project, as it opens in April of '09 and i may begin blogging about the writing process for it. Yep, very soon.

Land of Spirit will be remounted in the fall, and I'll be holding auditions tomorrow and Saturday to fill in vacated roles. Land of Spirit already started selling tickets to the fall remount shortly after it closed this summer.

And Swamp Gravy is in high gear now with their rehearsals. I've been home for two weeks, getting my kids started back to school, but it hasn't been all relaxation. These shows are in rehearsal, butas usual for me, I've also got two more that I'm starting to write for. I like being busy with work. It sure beats the alternative. So after I finish casting the play for Land of Spirit in North Georgia, I'll drive five and a half hours south to Colquitt and start working on scene rehearsals with Richard for Swamp Gravy. Meanwhile, I'm looking through transcripts to write the new plays for Salkehatchie and Land of Spirit's next play. Wheee. Talk to you from the Land of Spirit Tomorrow.

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