ONE WEEKEND ONLY
Friday & Saturday, February 20 & 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 22 at
2:00 p.m.
Bobby Johnson uncovers the real people of East Texas who tell their true stories on stage in this the fourth of his "East Texas Remembers" series that included East Texas Remembers (1991), East Texas Remembers World War II (1993), and A Texas Tragedy: The New London School Explosion (2005).
The setting for “East Texas Talks & Sings” will be a radio studio with a live audience. “My goal is to produce an interesting but probing treatment of East Texas,” Johnson added. Vignettes will feature comments from about twenty “characters” Johnson talked with in his research. They range from farmers to housewives and preachers to undertakers.
Musical offerings will vary from Sacred Harp singers to light classics, combined with a little folk music and an audience sing-a-long. Musicians will include Tom Nall, Ab Abernethy, Deborah Dalton, Pat Barnett, Jerry Lacky, Steve Josephsen, Charles Gardner, Debbie and Ric Berry, Charisse Glazener, the Robinson family of sacred harp singers, plus a barbershop quartet from the Timbretones Chorus.
Other cast members include Garland Buffalo, Bobby Johnson, Ron Hurst, Cynthia Ballew, Bryan Holt Davis, Jackie Vose, Katherine and Samantha Whitbeck, Scott Parrish, Rosie Fulks, Robert Adamson, Sarah McMullan, Richard Malloy, Erica Steed, Kent Johnson, Nancy Yarbrough, A.M. Smith, George Deckard, Ken Wood, Amy Maurer, Ken Untiedt, and 10 young actors.
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“East Texas Talks” is the culmination of something that started nearly 40 years ago. My first oral history project occurred in the summer of 1970. I was a relatively young assistant professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University, and my subsequent efforts ultimately resulted in more than 500 interviews about the region.
The characters you hear are the voices of East Texas: hard-working, honest people whose experiences unite us all in the common problems and joys of life regardless of where we faced them. Modeled after a popular radio program on NPR, the play is set in a radio studio where some twenty “characters” tell their stories. It is tied together by the Stage Manager’s narration and musical excerpts that amplify the message. It is my wish to provide an interesting but probing treatment of East Texas. |
About the author. . .
For those who might want to know more about me, I’m a native East Texan who later grew up in the Houston area. I went to college in West Texas and graduated from Abilene Christian College in 1958 with a B.A. in journalism, which is my first love because it taught me to tell stories. I worked in the newspaper world for a few years, including a short stint in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the civil rights problems that community faced. I then went to the University of Oklahoma, where I studied journalism and American history. I earned both M.A. (1962) and PhD (1967) degrees there. I came to SFA in 1966, and I’ve been here ever since. I rose to become a Regents Professor of History. Last Fall I received the life-time achievement award from the Texas Oral History Association.
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About oral history. . .
Tape recorded interviews have become an adjunct to the study of history over the past half century. As noted above, my involvement in oral history began in the early 1970s. Since then I have done projects on the East Texas oil boom, the impact of the great depression on East Texas, both world wars, the history of SFASU, and the Southland Paper mill. I have used these interviews to write four dramatic productions, all performed at the Lamp-Lite and in other sites around the region. The first, “East Texas Remembers,” occurred in 1991, followed in 1993 by “East Texas Remembers World War II.” Then, in 2005, I wrote “A Texas Tragedy: The New London School Explosion” which was later done in the state high school one-act play competition. Oral history has been an important part of my life for more than forty years. |
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