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Routt–Triopia Production (2011)

2011

This page gathers what survives of a 2011 Routt–Triopia stage project — not a finished script so much as the early thinking behind one. The surviving papers are a short journal entry, a note exchanged with a collaborator named Roger, and a scrap referencing a Jacksonville High School junior, Brian Coats.

The concept, as Roger put it, followed a "troupe" moving from the world of vaudeville into the era of the TV sitcom. Most of the songs and music would be the troupe performing their act, while the main story unfolded backstage — the interactions of the cast and how they coped with all the changes around them. Roger offered the idea modestly: "I know I'm not a writer. I was just hoping to inspire you. So throw all of this out — this is just thoughts."

The journal entry, written in the small hours after the Green Pastures cast party, catches the bittersweet end of one season and the hesitation before beginning another. The set had been torn down in quick time, stowed away in the Triopia shed, and the cast had finished praying and tearfully sharing a final circle. "Don't know if I've got the umph to do this all again," Ken wrote. "Such joy, but man, help gets shorter by the year. We'll see… we'll see." A working title surfaces in those same pages: Third Time's the Charm.

Production Notes

• Associated with the Routt–Triopia community of central Illinois, around Jacksonville.
• The papers reference an idea exchanged with a collaborator named Roger and a young performer, Brian Coats (a Jacksonville High School junior).
• A possible working title, Third Time's the Charm, appears in the journal.