Wednesday, July 17, 2002
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Wednesday, July 17, 2002 |
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Theatrical Outfit presents 'Cotton Patch Gospel' To open its 2002-2003 Bank of America series in July, Theatrical Outfit presents an Atlanta favorite, "Cotton Patch Gospel." Created by Producing Artistic Director Tom Key originally as a one-man show, it was later expanded into a musical with music and lyrics by the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin and book by Key and Russell Treyz. "Cotton Patch Gospel" was first produced in Atlanta in 1982 at the Alliance Theater Company. It was last produced by Theatrical Outfit in its inaugural season downtown, where it set all-time revenue and attendance records for the company, extending its initial four-week run to a total of seven weeks. This year's production of "Gospel" previews Tuesday, July 16, with opening night Wednesday, July 17, and running through Sunday, Aug. 4. Key will be joined on stage by Bernardine Mitchell and Eric Moore singing the gospel numbers and a four-person band. Key first began performing the work as a one-man show in 1980. Over time, he wanted to do something more with the script, so he enlisted Russell Treyz, as director and co-author. They in turn, attracted the attention of producer Philip Getter, who decided to stage the show in New York. Getter invited Harry Chapin to see the show and the songwriter was inspired to write music for it. The new musical opened in Boston before going back to New York with four bluegrass musicians performing Chapin's songs, along with Key's one-man performance. Tragically, these songs were Chapin's last compositions. He was killed in automobile accident a few months before the show's New York premiere at the Lamb's Theatre in Oct. 1981. Key performed this version of "Cotton Patch" about 1,000 times between its New York run and on tour. Touring performances include four runs at the Alliance Theatre Company. After a five-week run at the Alliance in 1989, Key again wanted to expand the production and did so in 1993 with several additions, including arrangements for a gospel choir and a second actor, in the role of a narrator. This production ran at the Alliance Theatre in 1995 and opened Theatrical Outfit's inaugural season at The Rialto Center in 1999. The history of "Cotton Patch Gospel" is closely tied to another Southern success story. In 1979, Key, an Atlanta-based young actor who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., was completing a tour of a one-man show, "C.S. Lewis on Stage." On a tour stop in the Midwest, he learned of a paraphrase of the New Testament by fellow Southerner Clarence Jordan. Set in the contemporary South, the work had been translated directly from Greek by Jordan, who had grown up in Talbotton, Ga., graduated with an agriculture degree from the University of Georgia and gone on to receive a master's degree and doctorate in the Greek New Testament at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Jordan and a Northern Baptist missionary, Martin England, created an interracial farming community that offered religious services and agricultural education for poor farmers. The Koinonia community was founded in Sumter County, near Americus, in 1941, where it still exists today, based in a commitment to the equality of humankind. Tom Key is not the only person to have been inspired by Clarence Jordan's work and beliefs. In 1965, a self-made millionaire named Millard Fuller visited Koinonia. He and his wife were so inspired by Jordan's community that they liquidated their fortune and joined with Jordan to begin a new venture, providing affordable housing to low-income families. Unfortunately, Jordan died suddenly of a heart attack in 1965, but the Fullers continued the housing partnership project in rural Georgia and then in Zaire. Their success led them to found Habitat for Humanity International, which is still based in Americus. This year's production of "Cotton Patch Gospel," although with a smaller cast, offers the expanded elements of the 1995 and 1999 productions, namely a narrator, strong gospel voices (Bernardine Mitchell & Eric Moore) and a band capable of exploring the true depths of Harry Chapin's music, rooted in jazz and blues, as well as bluegrass. Says Key, "I'm excited about this staging, but there are a lot of different ways to approach this script and Harry's music. That's the wonderful thing about the theater, it's a collaborative art form." Evening shows for all performances are at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Tickets and season subscriptions are on sale now. To purchase, call the Rialto Center box office 404 651-4727 or buy in person at the Rialto Box Office, 80 Forsyth Street (corner of Luckie and Forsyth Streets). Call 404 577-5257 ext. 13 for a season brochure. Show sponsored by AT&T. Season Sponsor Bank of America. |
