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Southwest Playhouse P.O. Box 204 Clinton, OK 73601 (580) 323-4448
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Southwest Playhouse Fine Arts Center, Inc. Presents Chautauqua
Directors Corner
The three-day Clinton Centennial production of Chautauqua: The Clinton People will be presented at Southwest Playhouse on September 19-21. The historical play was written by Joanna Rober of Clinton. The Chautauqua will be performed at 8pm on Friday and Saturday, September 19 and 20, and at 2pm on Sunday, September 21. All performances are free and are on a first come, first seating basis. There are no reserved seats
THE CENTENNIAL PLAY AND HOW IT WAS WRITTEN by Joanna Thurston Roper One evening in December of 2000, Chris Crabtree said to me, “Why don’t we write a play together?” I said, “Okey,” and it dropped there. So we thought. Then early in 2001, talk of the Centennial began to float about, and Chris again suggested the play idea. He said, “You write a play about Clinton, and I’ll direct it.” I agreed again, without giving much thought to the immense task we were discussing so casually. I had several ideas but realized I needed to tell Clinton history. My research began in earnest. I spent days at the library, cruised the streets, and talked to people. I learned of many outstanding people—people who were dynamic leaders, people who were talented, people who were ordinary with a special story to tell. That was my day job; at night I wrote.Chris and I compared ideas, and we decided to tell the story in decades with the music of each era telling its own story. It occurred to me that someone from each decade could also tell his/her story. I remembered the Chautauqua that was sponsored here several years ago. Why couldn’t local actors re-enact the history of Clinton? That would work. Back to the drawing board (typewriter). For each decade I would write a brief overview of national history, move into Clinton history, and have a person from that decade tell his/her story. That was the format I followed, and it is the form of the finished play. One big problem emerged immediately. It would be much too taxing for me to jump from national history to local history, then to a character. The best way, I decided, would be to write all the history, then go back and write the characters. Chris, of course, would take care of the music. So I started again. Back to the library, back to the newspaper office, back to the historical society, back to the interviews. Incidentally, I wrote the first line that is still in the play on April 19, 2002. I told Chris about the historic event, and he said something like, “A long play begins with a single line.” I made myself a small promise to finish the play in one year. I missed my finish date by eleven days. The finished product has fifteen speakers, a narrator, music, and dancers. That year of research became a work of love. I became enamored of the people and the decade of history that each was part of. As I wrote about the individuals, I mentally looked over people in town to re-enact that person. Another thing that thrilled me is that almost every person I contacted responded by saying he/she would be honored to have a place in the Centennial Play. I, too, am honored to have had the opportunity to write about fifteen individuals who made Clinton history. I read about many, many successful Clintonites, but I had to make some choices. There is no doubt that another roster could be chosen. The people who will reenact those individuals are Pat Peters, Brent Evans, Terry Brooks, Robert Blakeburn, David Berrong, Karen Stamper, Marva Webb, Kristen Blakeburn, Bob Gauger, Carlos Newcomb, Henry Caldwell, Jim Hull, Rick Sandoval, Mark Conkling, Robert Malone, and Rod Serfoss. (Note: Don’t ask whom they are portraying. Don’t even go there.) Chris is the director, as he promised. Working with him on music are Lawrence Hart and Jessie Moreland. The show is free. There are no reserved seats. Just be there in time to get one! —Joanna Thurston Roper | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
