|
YEAR SIX BEGINS |
|
WITH US FROM YEAR TWO |
 |
 The real Strom Thurmond at the Democratic National Convention in 1948 |
ON STAGE |
AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
Seeing your play come
alive on stage is awesome
By DAVID ZINMAN
of TheColumnists.com
Spartanburg, S.C.—A rare experience—one that
comes once in a lifetime--happened to me in this upstate South
Carolina city.
I sat in the dark among 1,000 people hearing words I wrote. I
watched men and women I did not know listen and laugh and applaud.
Then, I saw them disappear into the night, discussing the play—the
issues it raised and the ending—as they left the theatre.
It all took place last month at the world premiere of my play
“Strom in Limbo” at the University of South Carolina
Upstate. A dark comedy, the play is about the late Sen. Strom
Thurmond facing Judgment Day.
Most play-goers came from this deep south city of 40,000 and
the neighboring city of Greenville. But a friend came all the
way from Florida. And three people drove from Thurmond’s
hometown of Edgefield, a four-hour roundtrip.
One of them, Suzanne Mims Derrick, the publisher of the Edgefield
Advertiser, ignited buzz around the state when she challenged
her town to do a local production. ”A life examined can
give groundwork for finding our way,” she said in an editorial.
“How much courage would this require? Is Edgefield willing?”
Her challenge was as unexpected as the feeling I got watching
the play.
An indescribible sensation jolts you as a fledgling playwright,
one you don't get from any other field of writing. When you write
a newspaper piece or a magazine article or even a book, you never
see people reading your work. They may tell you later that they
liked it. But you are never sure that they are just being polite.
That’s the virtue of the theatre--the chance it gives you
to see your play unfold. You see how people respond. The audiences
tells you the unvarnished truth. You know right away if your
words hit an unresponsive chord.
That issue gave me some restless nights. I, a Yankee, was writing
about the long and controversial career of a venerable politician--Thurmond
was 100 when he died last year--who has become almost a folk
hero in South Carolina. The play was being put on in his home
state.
"Strom" opens with Thurmond's death. He finds himself
in a place in Limbo where souls are told where they will spend
Eternity. Thurmond, who started as a staunch segregationist but
later became a racial moderate, is shocked to learn he is not
going to Heaven. He asks for a trial and gets one.
The action moves to the Celestial Supreme Court where Thurmond
and the Devil’s Advocate call their witnesses and argue
the case before the chief justice—Martin Luther King Jr.
The play asks this question: Did Thurmond change because he came
to believe supporting civil rights was the right thing to do?
Or did he do it because blacks were registering in record numbers
and he needed their votes to stay in office?
The play is also about personal redemption--how much responsibility
Southern whites bear for the unequal treatment blacks received.
I tried to write a balanced script, one that presented both the
good and the bad sides of Thurmond's career.
How would audiences react?
I gave the script to a black history professor to check for facts.
Later, he handed it back without a pencil mark. “I wouldn’t
want to dignify it by commenting,” he said. “It’s
way too pro-Thurmond.”
On the other hand, as opening night approached, the university
got scattered emails and phone calls objecting to a play they
thought attacked the state’s revered senator.
I mulled over those opposite reactions. As a newspaperman, my
experience was this: When you write about a controversial subject
and people from both sides dislike what you said, that's a good
sign. It's an indication you're telling it down the middle.
So maybe, I thought (and hoped) audiences would feel I was being
even-handed.
George Roberts, the professor who directed the play, said student
reaction was positive. They and people from the community gave
standing ovations at two of the four performances.
Then came the reviews.
“A riveting and realistic drama,” said the Columbia
State.
James Shannon, editor of Metrobeat, a weekly covering entertainment
in the upstate area, called the drama “provocative, funny,
outrageous, enlightening, and poignant…a work of real substance
that offers sensitivity and insight."
One thing is sure—Thurmond still triggers widespread interest.
The Associated Press did a story on the play that moved on its
regional South wire. And ABC Radio News sent a correspondent
whose backstage interview was broadcast nationally.
For me, the best news was that "Strom" is still alive.
It will to be performed again--in Conway (near Myrtle Beach)
where my wife, Sara, was born and where we now live half the
year. The Theatre of the Republic, the town’s community
theatre, will put it on from Jan. 6-9.
Hopefully, theatre groups in other states will want to do it,
too. "It will certainly see other productions," said
director Roberts.
But it may be some time before the senator's hometown is ready
for it. Despite publisher Derrick’s endorsement in the Edgefield
Advertiser, she didn't detect any groundswell for a local production.“I
think the community is just willing to let it lie,” she
said.
©2004 by David Zinman.
The Zinman caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel.
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or David Zinman. To send an
email, click here: talkback@thecolumnists.com
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |