Virginia Stage Company Announces AMERICAN SOIL, A Multi-Year New Play Project

Virginia Stage Company (VSC) is proud to announce the launch of American Soil, a multi-year new play project that will dig into the cultural and historical foundations of Hampton Roads. The Company will commission and produce a wide range of plays that explore the rich layers of "earth" this community is built upon; layers that act as markers of our progress - spanning race and religion, commerce, democracy and beyond.

As America's first region, Hampton roads has given birth to many of the major issues this country has faced. The strongest forces of American life converged on this area first, leaving a cultural
landscape as distinct as the many inlets, rivers and peninsulas that comprise its geographic landscape. Just as waves have shaped our shores, the vibrant conversations between all citizens of Tidewater - be they whites and African Americans, fundamentalists and progressives, soldiers and pacifists - has added texture to the land on which our communities are built. The result of this continual dialogue can be felt in the tremors stretching across the country, like the aftershocks of continental plates shifting beneath us.

"Southeastern Virginia is one of the oldest and most history-rich areas of the country. American Soil will explore the subtle layers of life in Tidewater that have built up over the past 400 hundred years and how these same layers serve to inspire and lead the nation to this day," said Keith Stava, VSC's Managing Director. "Just like the rich soil of the Tidewater area that nurtured America's first colony, Virginia Stage Company's American Soil project reflects our Company's commitment to nurture new plays that will not only tell our area's stories, but will also add to the national repertoire of plays".

The inaugural play of the American Soil series, Line in the Sand: The Norfolk Battle of Massive Resistance, will premiere at VSC's performance home, the historic wells theatre in downtown Norfolk from February 24 through March 15, 2009. Written by Artistic Director Chris Hanna, the play explores one of the most significant struggles of the civil rights movement. When Norfolk citizens fought to reopen their public schools that had been shut in defiance to racial integration, Virginia's infamous policy of massive resistance made national headlines. Hanna's play weaves excerpts from original media coverage, court documents, and individual interviews with imagined scenes and characters to examine the legacy Massive Resistance provides our region - and the nation, today.

Line in the Sand received its first workshop in May of 2008. As will be unique to all of the plays in the American Soil project, VSC solicited community involvement and feedback throughout the creation and writing process. Hanna first put community dialogue and response on stage in creating the 2005 VSC production of King Lear: the Storm at Home, his successful retelling of Shakespeare's story through the lens of elder care in Hampton Roads. He believes the success of Line in the Sand and VSC's American Soil project will lie in the vibrancy and sincerity of that dialogue.

"The first community reaction to the development of Line in the Sand had been a loud unified cry
of, ‘Don't go digging there, please!'", said Artistic Director Chris Hanna. "It means so much that the
project has now been embraced so fully. It required hard work from our staff and tremendous
courage from our community, but it worked. These are the very qualities that earn this production its stage voice and will provide unusual power to all the plays created through the American Soil series."

The director of Line in the Sand will be the nationally renowned artist, timothy Douglas. Mr. Douglas
was an Associate Artistic Director at Actor's Theatre of Louisville and is a much sought after regional director. His work has been seen at Milwaukee Rep, South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theater among many others and was the director for the world premiere of August Wilson's final play, Radio Golf, at Yale Repertory Theatre. Playing the lead role of Vivian Carter Mason is Caroline Clay. Ms. Clay was the recipient of the 2008 Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mrs. Muller in John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt. She is a native Washingtonian and graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts and has been seen at many regional theaters including Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Woolly Mammoth, Yale Rep, and the Goodman Theatre.

The second play of the American Soil project is Kenny Finkle's play Alive and Well. Following the successful production of his comedy Indoor/Outdoor at VSC in 2005, Finkle was commissioned by VSC to write a play addressing the vast and often humorous differences between the Northern and Southern cultures. It received a developmental workshop in spring of 2008 and will premiere as the opening production in VSC's upcoming 2009-10 season. Alive and Well uses two characters to dramatize the impact of their collision and explore how little has changed in the nearly 150 years since the Civil War.

The third and fourth plays in the American Soil project are in the Early Stages of development and are planned to premiere in the Company's 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.

Virginia Stage Company is the Southeast Virginia's only fully professional resident theater company,
serving an audience of more than 90,000 annually. In the years since its founding, Virginia Stage
Company has made significant contributions to the quality of life in Hampton Roads: presenting more than 125 plays through more than 2500 performances; revitalizing and renovating the historic Wells Theatre; providing educational programs for students of all ages; and preserving the legacy of live theater for future generations.

 

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