RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY _ Program & Review

It was a beautiful, sweet, sad and invigorating show. JOHNNY SIMONS has explored this territory many times since then, but I believe this may have been his first backward look at what "Family" really means. The HIP POCKET THEATRE, which would emerge just a few years later was steeped in that tradition and I had the honor to be a part of several more productions with that theme.

PERRY STEWART gave me my first positive review as an actor here, which meant the world to me at the time. Over the years He would become a great champion for our work as a theatre company.

RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY - Script

Here are 3 pages from JOHNNY SIMONS'  130 page handwritten script for RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY.

JOHNNY was in the unenviable position of creating these productions from whole cloth.

SHARON BENGE was the producer of the CASA MANANA PLAYHOUSE and her general operating procedure was to pick a series of Titles out of thin air and schedule a season with full publicity around them. It was up to us to come up with viable shows to fill the bill. This meant that JOHNNY had to write from scratch some of the shows. RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY being the first one I was involved with (He had culled the performance script for TREASURE ISLAND directly from the book by R. L. STEVENSON).

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!

RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY - Casa Playhouse 1973

I've mentioned before that I got my professional start as a designer at the CASA MANANA PLAYHOUSE Children's Theatre in 1972. I was introduced to JOHNNY SIMONS, who was the Director then and ended up filling in for an injured actor in his production of  TREASURE ISLAND. We got to know each other and he was taken with my passion for puppeteering.

The next season, JOHNNY offered me my first work as a professional designer; creating puppets to be used in his production of RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY.

I was 16 years old.

These sketches, which I offered to him at the time, seem very crude and naive today, and yet the finished doll-like puppets were perfectly suited to this simple production. I was even orffered a role in the show and secured my first critical review as an actor as well.....I was on my way!

THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY - Program and Review

The production of THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY  at the  KIMBELL ART MUSEUM  was an all around success and one of the shows I'm most proud to have been associated with. The Program above bears the names of many of the talented people I've had the privilege to work with and Perry Stewart's glowing review always makes me smile when I read it again after all these years.

This truly was a perfect Christmas production.

And now my thanks to those of you who have been kind enough to follow my little blog this year. As I place these memories online and then gently fold them and put them away for good, it warms my heart that perhaps someone out there will find my work interesting and maybe even enlightening on some level. It has always been all about the Audience for me. I'll be back in the New Year with more musings and some new posts, for there is so much more to share....

THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY - Photos

 As per my usual, I have no photographs taken during the production of THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY. These video screen captures will have to suffice. Above is the set showing the raked stage platform and the "Wagon" which the actors assembled before the audience's eyes as the play opened.

 The ANGEL puppet rising up above the wagon to proclaim in song the birth of the Messiah.

 Here the wagon curtains are pulled back and the Shepherds confront Mac, his Wife and their "baby", the stolen sheep.

And the truly memorable finale in which the band SUNGARDEN enact the Nativity before the assembled Shepherds. You can't create a moment like this, it just happens and so happens as to be unforgettably beautiful.

If you would like to see some scenes from this production the video is posted on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HipPocketMemories

is the link to this and other scenes and shows which I designed and appeared in.

THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY - Research

I had done minor study of Historical Drama at TEXAS WESLEYAN COLLEGE, which included the Medieval Cycle Plays. 14 individual plays covered everything from the Fall in Eden to the Crucifixion. Each was told from the point of view of the comman man and presented in a style designed to entertain the masses as well as enlighten them.

The method of performance has been the subject of much conjecture, although there is general agreement that certain Guilds or Unions of workers ( Millers, Weavers, Hostlers, etc.) were traditionally entrusted with both the writing and production of  a specific play. Large wagons were fitted with simple stage dressings and the plays were "rolled" from village to town in procession and performed during feastivals and fairs.

All of this was closely watched over and approved by the Church and it's friars to ensure strict accordance with the teachings of the Bible. In fact these plays were the only sanctioned form of entertainment during the Middle Ages, outside of the poetic plays which were performed privately for Nobles and Lords. 

Above are some examples of the research I did prior to designing THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY for the Hip Pocket Theatre. All references to the Wagon Stages are based on paintings from the 18th century, whose accuracy can't really be judged. I think the conjectured ideas on the left are probably fairly authentic, if perhaps a bit grander than the originals.