Crimes in Desolation: Opening Night!

 

by Rocky Macy

We made it into Goldsboro, North Carolina, late yesterday after a very long second day on the road.  Unlike the constant rainy weather of the first day, day two was bright and sunny and much easier on Tim, our driver.  It also gave all of us a chance to enjoy the beautiful springtime greenery of the lush Great Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

Goldsboro is a relatively small community but with enough commercial activity to support a major military base.  I have lived and worked around several bases, and this community does not feel as dominated by the military as the others that I have known.  There is lots of greenery here, and a small-town vibe.

After checking into our hotel and washing away the road dirt, we headed to the base "Welcome Center" where we met the play director's husband who gave us our passes and led us onto the base and to the theatre where "Crimes in Desolation" was to have its world premier.  The base, Seymour Johnson AFB, was similar to Luke AFB in Arizona (where I worked for several years), but where Luke is dominated by desert browns and massive cacti, Seymour Johnson is deep in greens and tall, tall pines.

The play was being performed at the Sabre Cinema, the base movie theatre, a place equipped with a nice, large stage.  It was in sight of the base PX (post exchange) and commissary (grocery store), and next to the base headquarters where the commanding general and his staff have their offices.  Several historic jets were on display out in front of the base headquarters, and my grandson, Sully, enjoyed looking at those old planes.  The base theatre seemed very familiar and I soon realized that it was much like the one at Luke.  The play's director, Janelle Donovan, who several years ago managed a theatre group at Luke, informed me that the two facilities were, in fact, identical.   (Although, to my mind at least, the one here in North Carolina seemed to be in better condition.)

We had the opportunity to meet some of the crew before the production, and were shown to our reserved seating . . . and then the house lights went down and the stage lights came up!

It has been quite a few years since I had last seen characters that I created walk across a stage speaking dialogue that I had written, and to not admit a little vanity at this point would be exceedingly disingenuous.  It was a real thrill for me to be able to see Trent Clovis sitting in his jail cell in Desolation, Oklahoma, chatting with the town sheriff and promising not to do anything to mess up his own hanging later in the week - or Miss Roberta Willoughby snarling at the sheriff about the money that had been stolen from her home while almost completely ignoring the fact that her brother had been murdered on the porch of their home on the same night that the money was stolen.  It quickly became apparent that while Ralph, the former town banker, had been brutally murdered - three shots to the head - no one, not his sister, or his two sons, or his fiancee, or even the town sheriff or deputy, gave a rip about his demise.  Everyone had their own agenda, and most were focused on getting their hands on the $47,000 that had been stolen from Roberta's bedroom closet the night Ralph was murdered and most of the town burned down.

The Spotlight Theatre Group did a wonderful job of bringing this material to life!  It's a long show (nearly two hours) with substantial amounts of dialogue for most of the characters, and their performances were flawless.  I didn't notice any lines being dropped or flubbed throughout the entire performance, and there were several instances where lines had  even been enhanced to better reveal or define the characters.  Dalton Willoughby's drunkenness on stage, for instance, was far more convincing than it was in the script.  The overall effect was an amazing performance by one and all!

I was so pumped with pride that it's a wonder anyone sitting behind me could even see the stage!

The cast included Ben Sornyota as Trent Clovis, the charming grifter and murder suspect, Michael Southern as the stoic, but determined, Sheriff Tom Rogers, Drake Dougherty as Jerry Willoughby, the banker's clever younger son, and Sequilla Arita as the banker's spinster sister, Miss Roberta Willoughby.   Brandon Thomas played Eddie Clovis, one of the family of grifters and Trent's younger brother, Jennifer Henderson was the villainous Mama Clara, and Jennifer Pittman was the seductress, Calpurnia.  Jared Preston portrayed the banker's older son, Dalton a saxophone-playing drunk, Cindy Jones was Elsie, Dalton's girlfriend from high school and the current town waitress, and Janelle Donovan, the play's director, also played Deputy Sheriff Henrietta Brown.

The crew, in addition to Director Donovan, included Bree Dougherty as the assistant director, Amanda Arteaga who did props and costumes, James Donovan, the sound man, and Brandon Smeltzer and Spencer Denny who worked the lights.

Individually they were a mere and modest fifteen people, but the cast and crew came together to put on a wonderful production, one that made this tired old typist very proud!

Thank you, Spotlight Theatre, for a night I will always remember!  And, that said, I will see you again tonight for the second and final performance - and I'm really looking forward to it!

You guys rock - and I salute you!