This past weekend, April 17-19, the creative team for Headwaters convened in Sautee Nacoochee to make significant progress on Headwaters: Birth, Death and Places In-Between.  So many accomplishments, which to name?  Taking the script apart and putting it back together again, yes.  Meeting one another and coming to know how we collaborate, yes.  Bringing as many of the acting company as possible (given schedules) into the production with games and mapping and a read-/talk-through of the text, can’t leave that out.  Eat, drink and be merry – most definitely.  We were phenomenally productive, all the Headwaters people, and the show is on track to be terrific.

The list of who was here was  quite remarkable: director Jerry Stropnicky, designer Lynn Jeffries, playwrights Jo Carson and Jerry Grillo, movement designer Celeste Miller, lighting designer Jessica Coale, costume designer Jeannie Crawford, stage manager Jessi Evans, and, of course, the stalwart SNCA producing team – me (Lisa Mount), Tommy Deadwyler and Terri Edgar.  Jo Carson and her trusty companion Al Bentz drove down from Johnson City, TN on Friday afternoon.   Lynn arrived Friday night from Ashland, OR, where she’s working with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on a new production of Don Quixote.  Jerry Stropnicky arrived Saturday morning fresh from a new community story play in Harlan, KY, his and Jo Carson’s second play for the "Higher Ground" project.  Saturday afternoon the work began in earnest, with a read-through of the script and discussion of what was working and what needed revision or re-envisioning.  We talked with Lynn about what might be portrayed by puppets – her design specialty, and a treat for the cast members who get to become puppeteers.  Those conversations continued right up until the 8 pm showtime for Cowboy Envy in concert at SNCA’s Center Theatre – a celebration of exquisite harmony and campy humor.  We hooted and hollered, and stood up to applaud Rodger French’s accordion solo of The William Tell Overture (Hi-ho Silver, away!).

On Sunday morning, we dug into the music for the show, and we now have a palette of songs to choose from as the play construction continues.  On Saturday we had done some serious editing and identified several places for re-writes; on Sunday, we confirmed those as we talked through each scene and what it (and the play overall) needed from the music we bring to the work.  We’re fortunate to have terrific musical resources in Sautee Nacoochee, and Walter Daves and Barbara Luhn have agreed to work together as conductor, with Walter constructing and directing the SNOrchestra and Barbara building a joyful noise of choral singing.

Sunday afternoon was the first company gathering: the great getting-to-know-you moment.  Jerry Stropnicky filled everyone in on the work that had been done to get to that moment, and asked everyone in the room to "check in" by introducing themselves and offering up why they were here -  answers ranged from  "because Courtney told me to" to "I did Headwaters the last two years, and it’s the most meaningful performance I’ve ever participated in" to "I want to find out more about this show, because I think I want to be a part of it."  We sang together – the original version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," which will likely be the show’s closing number.  We moved together, under the direction of Celeste Miller, for whom dance is "movement aware of itself" – something everyone can (and does) do.  And we mapped ourselves, finding out who was where in the birth order, how old we all are, where people’s grandmothers had been born, and who had the strictest mother. 

During the discussion about relative parental strictness, Jerry Stropnicky solicited some pieces of motherly advice from the company, to make up some of the performance at the very top of the show.  Some priceless gems include:

• always tell the truth, just don’t always be telling it
• remember not to burn your bridges because you’re definitely turning back later
• you can write the letter but wait 24 hours before you send it
• be sure your sins will find you out
• don’t do two stupid things at one time

My mother has two pieces of advice she gives out regularly: "if it moves, wash it; if it doesn’t move, vacuum it" and "if money can fix it, it’s not a problem."  That last one usually gives people pause, but if you think about it, it’s true, except, of course, when you ain’t got no money.  But even then, it’s a useful way to think about things.  The real problems are things money can’t solve.  But I digress.

 Jerry Stropnicky, left, talks with the company members who "mapped" their place as only and first-born children.

We read and sang through the play, or what of it was suitable to be read (in other words, not needing major revisions) and what had been chosen for singing.  The company responded very strongly to the play – they saw how the many stories are woven together, they really liked the way it was funny and then serious and then funny again, and they were comfortable with the fact that the play dodges in and out of what might be called "reality."  Jo, in trying to write one of the stories in the play, decided she would use a framing device featuring The Fates, of Greek mythology, Clotho, Atropos, and Lachesis. Their names aren’t as important as their archteypes: the spinner, who spins the thread of life; the weaver, who weaves us all together; and the cutter, who ends our lives (and, in the words of Marlon Geiger, gives us our "backstage pass to the universe").  The company members talked about who the fates are, in life and in this play, and how the stories we’re telling illustrate what they do.  And, then, there’s the title of the play: Birth, Death and Places In-Between.  (More names for the Fates, although Jo and I thought up the title before she had written that scene.)  

Sunday night was a final meeting among the out-of-town artists (Jo, Jerry Stropnicky, Lynn) and the local yokels (me, Terri, Tommy, Jerry Grillo) that was conducted over a sumptuous meal – the amazing culinary offerings of MK Wegmann.  Never let us forget how important food is as artistic and social glue; we all agreed to let MK practice her art any time she wants.  We talked through the play, talked more about the puppets, looked at the remarkable connections and interconnections in our lives, and made merry.  We also managed to talk through tech and production schedules, since this was the last time this group would be face-to-face before rehearsals begin at the end of May (and because we’re a bunch of indefatigable type-A personalities who have little separation between work and life – and that’s a good thing).

Monday morning Lynn, Jerry, Jerry, and I were interviewed by Candice Felice for the Community Life in Northeast Georgia program on WPPR 88.3 FM, which provided a lovely summing up of the weekend (the program will air in May).  Tommy took us on a tour of the Swanson Center at Piedmont College, which is a stunning facility for performance and communications.  Wow.  As we gathered in the parking lot for a final farewell, we all agreed that we’d done a lot of good, hard work over the weekend, that the play was stronger as a result, and that there was much more yet to do to make Headwaters: Birth, Death and Places In-Between flow freely by the time July 9 rolls around.

Stay tuned…

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