The range of emotions on display this weekend at the Camden County High School Auditorium was pretty amazing – for both the players and the audiences of “Crooked Rivers’ Sisters Three.” Considering that some of the cast members have been working with this script and score for almost a year, calling it a wrap after Sunday’s show was a difficult experience.
After the final show on Sunday, they clung to each other for precious moments, hungry for just one more opportunity to celebrate their common achievement: that they had created a unique and historical occasion. They had been the first ones to tell the stories that are “Crooked Rivers.” They were the ones that initiated audiences to the humor, poignancy and pathos that resides in the “Crooked Rivers” experience. It was their “baby” and they were reluctant to let it leave the nest. One cast member said to me “I am going to miss all this,” ‘this’ the camaraderie, the applause and the meaningfulness of doing such a show. Others were suggesting other occasions and reasons why they could reprise the show again, some even sharing ideas about how “Crooked Rivers” would be a great educational program for students studying Georgia history in middle school.
For most of the “Crooked Rivers” cast, the emotions were happy ones, not being selfish enough to be sorry for themselves or to project sadness over the reality that their show has closed, at least for a while. For some audience members this weekend and cast members, however, this show brought both sorrow and closure to heaving chests and tear-stained faces.
At the close of “Crooked Rivers’ Sisters Three” on Saturday, during the ‘remembrances’ portion of the closing musical number (where cast members recall family members and friends that are still in their hearts, if not present in body), the actors noticed a middle-aged couple sitting near the stage who were obviously experiencing a great deal of emotional distress. The woman was sobbing noticeably and the man was choking back tears. A couple cast members found it so moving they had difficulty maintaining their presence to the end of the show. Afterward, producer Angie Bryant introduced herself to the couple and sought an explanation. The couple, still struggling to control their emotions, said they had lost their son about six weeks earlier. His death, an unexpected blow, had been difficult for them and their grief was mostly about anger at loosing him, and denial at his departure. They said their response to “Precious Memories” and the remembrances segment of the show was so strongly felt because it was at that moment they realized they could grieve differently; the song helped them realize that he wasn’t gone from them – that he was still present in their thoughts, their hearts and their memories, and they were released from all the pent up anger, strain and misgivings they had been living with for the past weeks.
If I ever doubted the power of artistic communication, of creative endeavor, to communicate to the souls and passions of others and to offer a solace and understanding of incredible depth and power, I know better now. Not to overstate the case, but these are regular people on that stage, enjoying themselves, telling our community’s story in a unique and influential manner. For them to connect with audience members in such a compelling way and to offer them such relief in a brief moment of creative staging and musicality has more meaning than I can explain here. Perhaps that is why we do it, and maybe that is why you should never miss such opportunities for yourself.
Opportunities for this week and the future: don’t miss local actress Dina Barrone in “Menopause the Musical” Wednesdays through Sundays at TUC until Dec. 17; Theatre Jacksonville offers Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” through Oct. 7; and Players by the Sea offers Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic “Pirates of Penzance” through Sept. 30; funny man and impressionist Frank Caliendo, Sept. 30 at the Florida Theatre; storyteller Garrison Keillor at the TUC, Oct. 10.
If you have ideas or events you want me to share with readers, send me a note at pkraack1@tds.net.
9.27.06
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