RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY - Casa Playhouse Press

JOHNNY SIMONS' idea for Raggedy Ann & Andy was to take the original children's stories and meld them with his own take on family and memory and regrets...a theme he still explores in his work 40 years later. The little girl, Marcella comes back to the farm after the death of her grandparents and ventures up into the attic where all her childhood memories have been lovingly, and in this case magically preserved. She falls asleep and wakes in her dreams  as she was in childhood with all her dolls as friends re-awakened.

JOHNNY wrote the script in longhand and we were given a few pages every few days to rehearse from. This became a kind of twisted tradition for some of us who were fortunate enough to hang on. Frustrating to be sure, but ultimately so rewarding for both the cast and the audience. I first met LINDA BOYDSTON ( now Whittington) on this production and we are still friends to this day.

I got positive critical notice from this show which led me to several independant jobs around Fort Worth, Texas. The gig at the 1849 VILLAGE being one of them. When the Trinity River Project raised the banks of the river to reduce the flooding that had occured for decades, it created a vast empty lot at the fork of the bridge at University Drive. The 1849 VIILLAGE project was built there in the early 1970's and I was one of the first artists to perform in the Gazebo that dominated it's center court. This led to my TV commercials for KING CHARLIE HILLIARD FORD which were taped at the old Channel 11 studios and were broadcast for many years afterward on local stations all over the Metroplex.

The 1849 VILLAGE is long gone now.... and King Charlie as well.... but I got my start there and am still going strong in 2014!