Henry Thoreau and Emily Dickinson meet at Town Hall Theater 2/18-19

The Middlebury Community Players will present "Henry and Emily, The Muses in Massachusetts" at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. The play is an imagined encounter between the great American writers Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson. The two-person play was written by local playwright Jim Stapleton, who stars in the production with his wife, Diana Bigelow.

The drama centers on the two eccentric artists' conflicting needs for solitude and communion. The general tenor is serious but the play has comic moments, as these two witty hermits struggle to find something to say to each other over tea. They persevere and succeed in discovering their own kind of connection.

The play had its beginning in 1996 on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, where Jim and Diana were living. The pair was finishing a run of "The Gin Game." There was no assurance they would be again cast together in a theatrical project they loved. So Diana suggested to Jim that he write his own play, for the two of them. And why not have Henry Thoreau (one of Jim's favorite authors) meet Emily Dickinson (one of hers)?

Then came a couple of years of research into the lives of these American literary innovators. Though Dickinson and Thoreau lived only 75 miles apart for most of their lives, there is no evidence that they ever met. So Stapleton had a free hand in inventing the encounter, but he wanted as much as possible to use their own words. A good half of the play is in the language of these iconic New England writers, including a selection of Emily's poems and numerous passages from Henry's journals and Walden. Stapleton says he thinks he could perform this play for the rest of his life and still mine meaning from it, because of the richness of the poets' language and lives.

Bigelow and Stapleton first performed the play at the Community Theater in Port Angeles, Washington in July of 1998. Since then they have taken it to many venues in the Pacific Northwest. A few years later it was produced as a reading by an off-off-Broadway company in New York City. In 2009 the couple moved to Bristol, Vermont to be near their children and grandchildren. They also joined the Middlebury Community Players to be close to the other things they love.

"The play is the same and not the same as the one we performed years ago," Stapleton says. "Local resources have enriched it. Melissa Lourie, artistic director of the Middlebury Actors Workshop, generously advised us as we tightened the script, restaged scenes, and clarified the characters' intentions. Diana and I agree - it's a better play now."

Performances are Friday and Saturday, February 18 and 19 at 8:00 pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $17, and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Monday-Saturday, noon-5 pm), or at the door.
Photo caption: Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson meet in "Henry and Emily: The Muses in Massachusetts," a Middlebury Community Players production at Town Hall Theater, February 18 - 20. Tickets: www.townhalltheater.org, 802-382-9222.

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