Vol. 14 No. 3/4 - June-August 1986

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Changing Scenes

• Southern News Roundup

  Southern super primary, Sessions not in Court, and more

  3

• The South Takes a Bow

  An Introduction, by Guest Editor Rebecca Ranson

  8

• Reclaiming People's Theater: A History

  by Ruby Lerner

  9

• Southern Theater and the Paradox of Progress

  by James Flannery

  12

• People's Theater

  18

• Staging a Good Time

  18

• Storytelling

  20

• The Revival

  by Joseph Sobol

  20

• The Soil of Faith

  by Michael Williams

  21

• The Healing Art: An Interview with Louise Anderson

  by Caroline Senter

  22

• Gathering Tales

  by Rachel Stein

  23

• The Last Song of John Proffitt

  an excerpt from a play about a blackface minstrel, by Tommy Thompson

  24

• Piedmont Voices: The Dramatic Power of Oral History

  Textile and tobacco workers tell their stories, by Amy Glass

  28

• When the Government Said, "Let's Put On a Play"

  The New Deal's Federal Theater Project took plays out of Broadway theaters and into barns, parks, and fields, by Beth Howard

  32

• Paul Green and His Legacy

  North Carolina's people's playwright created moving folk dramas in the 1920s and 1930s, by Larry Vellani

  37

• Acting on the Issues

  43

• Personal Effects

  A director and an actor discuss creating a play about rape, by Carol Schafer and David DeWitt

  43

• A Dramatic Alternative for Prisons

  Theater games behind bars, by Melinda Meschter

  47

• Warren

  an excerpt from a play about coming to terms with AIDS, by Rebecca Ranson

  48

• Theaters

  50

• Unexpected Drama Deep in the Interior: A Chronicle of the Road Company

  "Woo-woo" scenes and improvisation in East Tennessee, by Pat Arnow

  50

• The Bridge that Brung You Over

  Atlanta's Jomandi Productions explores black heritage, by Tom Boeker

  54

• Staying Behind

  Appalachian teenagers stage a play about not leaving home, by Nancy Carpenter and Jeff Davis

  56

• Accidental Angels

  A Texas theater company mocks the stereotypes in Richard Avedon's photos, by Joy Cunningham

  61

• Tried by Sorrow: Stonewall Jackson at Pock Kiln Ruin

  Virginia mountaineers develop a play about a Confederate general who owned slaves but taught them to read, by William French

  64

• You Do Me Better'n I Do: Cabbagetown's Oral History Play

  Actors recreate lives in Atlanta's cotton mill village, by William French

  66

• A Farewell Without Mourning: A Jazz Funeral for Free Southern Theater

  Born in the civil rights movement, an innovative black theater is put to rest, photos by Jackson Hill

  72

• Coming of Age in Atlanta: An Interview with Frank Wittow of Academy Theatre

  Starting from scratch in the 1950s, Academy has grown up but still knows where it lives, by Rebecca Ranson

  77

• Dark Cowgirls and Prairie Queens

  Black women demand dignity in the age of slavery, an excerpt from a play by Linda Parris-Bailey

  80

• Steven Stages

  Taking risks at Atlanta's Five Points

  82

• Playwrights

  83

• Placing the Playwrights

  The South isn't the only place in the hearts of Southern playwrights, by Beverly Trader

  83

• Religious Rite Theater: A Collaborative Process

  Congregating to partake in theater rituals

  86

• Preacher with a Horse to Ride

  Theodore Dreiser meets Aunt Mollie Jacson, an excerpt from a play by Jo Carson

  87

• That Serious He-Man Ball

  Shooting hoops and remembering the revolution that wasn't, an excerpt from a play by Alonzo D. Lamont, Jr.

  91

• Wasted

  How black marines in 'Nam reacted when Martin Luther King was killed, an excerpt from a play by Fred Gamel

  95

• A Shayna Maidel

  A Jewish war refugee meets her Americanized sister, an excerpt from a play by Barbara Lebow

  97

• Hospice

  A pregnant daughter confronts her dying mother, an excerpt from a play by Pearl Cleage

  99

• Spiritual Gifts

  The strains of love between two New Orleans men, an excerpt from a play by Dalt Wonk

  101

• Contest Winners

  103

• Mister Universe

  Two New Orleans drag queens fight over an injured muscle man, an excerpt from a play by Jim Grimsley

  103

• Potato Girl

  Warehouse workers sort potatoes and their lives, a play in one act by Christine Rusch

  106

• Organizations

  110

• Rooting for Alternatives

  Theater activists band together for a common cause, by Tom Boeker

  110

• Where to Find Dollars and Advice

  A how-to guide for playwrights and theaters, by Beth Howard

  114

• ShenanArts: A Playwright's Retreat

  by John A. Wells

  114

• Grassroots Theaters

  A directory of innovative Southern theaters

  116

• Bulletin Board of the South

  119

• Voices from the Past: A Letter to Workers' Art Groups

  In the 1920s, another progressive magazine looked at grassroots theater, by Michael Gold

  120

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