New Salem Lincoln League
Feb 98 Baby Bull’s
Spoke this morning at Western Illinois University.. on a panel with a state representative. .. I shook his hand and urged him to support Governor Edgar’s plan for a new Lincoln Library and the improvements at New Salem and the Vachel Lindsay home… He didn’t know what I was talking about. I told him to read the paper.
Should be Bob Crowe and I but he goes to Florida in the winter while I do all the work. This is because he is older and needs the rest more.
Abraham!.. 14 performances including 3 in small theatre to over 5000 people. Wrote Abraham specifically for TIP and planned it to be the foundation for the summer season. The Lincoln League’s assistance has been vital to TIP. Bob tells me that TIP could not have made it without you folks.
ABRAHAM! My third Lincoln play.. Bob and my second play.
Not been to New Salem since my 8th-grade trip when Bob asked me to come up and look at the theatre two years ago. For the past two summers, I’ve practically lived up here.
One of the most beautiful theatre experiences of my life.
I know I’m writer and it’s my business to put things into words, but Every night when I drive up the hill …. I’m overcome with a spirit which I still can’t describe. I am not just being poetic here. I really mean this.
Instead of speaking, let me read to you. Journal since 1969. Bits a pieces from notes I’ve made over last Spring and Summer. I keep two sorts of journals… the official and the unofficial… thoughts, ideas, feelings…
Dear Journal: Dr. Bob has another idea for a show. Dear God, where am I going to get the time for this? But it’s a New Salem and how I do love that place.
First draft… hundreds of characters… about six hours long.
A singing Lincoln? Bob says “Don’t worry. They’ll be so busy noticing that our Lincoln isn’t homely, they won’t even notice he’s singing.”
Wrote a really nice opening song for Lincoln. Tonight I threw it away. It sounded too much like a future President and not a lonely, young man.
Dear Journal: Wrote an Abe song tonight… about Freedom and Wind, and who cares what others think?…I can hear it. I Like it. It’s passed its toughest judge. Bob wants a 45 minute show. I want three hours. We compromise at 2 hours.
Finding the cast.. Greg: HS. Asked him who’s the best.. He says Tony Thatcher. Bob Large.. best pro I’ve worked with.. Known Phyllis since her high school days. Had met this grade school girl years ago… Kristin. Marian L. .. had seen her in shows.. always wanted to work with her. Scott… In the army… call to Texas for him.. he’s gone to Korea. Dear Journal: I think we have a cast. Some have their doubts about us, surely. Don’t blame them. The die is cast. God, but I hope this works. Ok…I know… trust. Dear Journal: Met at Bob’s tonight with cast. I hope the script is as good as the personnel. They acted as if they enjoyed the script. Who can tell about these things? All were probably so nervous they didn’t even hear the script. Have forgotten Tony’s last name but remembered Marian’s. That’s Progress
Recording the music… cast barely knew each other.. barely knew music… many takes… The only one who did it in one take… the guy with no singing experience. Lord, you’d better have control of this because I don’t.
Rehearsals begin…. Nearly froze at beginning of summer in rehearsals.. coats in June. Dear Journal: First rehearsal of Abe tonight. Marian makes me nervous. She pays attention to everything I say. I’ve been in high school theatre too long. Throws me off….delightfully….. What a cast and what a place to do a show! I think I’m going to be blessed this summer
Thousands of little black flies. Bob meets with panel of Lincoln authorities.. I urge him not to.. he insists.. Thankfully few mistakes… Little things like we can’t say they walked over the fences to Petersburg when P’burg didn’t exist yet.
Dangers.. the voms… Scott does a scene with blood dripping out of his forehead… the tipping raft… the looks of terror were real all summer… the little kids on the road in Tallulah
Wireless microphones are always exciting and this show is no exception… moisture in the air… a sweaty cast… must wrap battery packs in prophylactics.
Speeding ticket Olympics results.. Jack Kelso 1 Ann Rutledge 1 Abraham Lincoln … innumerable ? Nice cop… former actor.. he showed up on the first week of the run.
Dear Governor Edgar: I know that school funding has been much on your mind along with naming Site M, the budget, the Democrats, fiscal foibles & the like. However, you continue to overlook an item of potentially greater import. I speak of the little black flies at New Salem. No Chicago Democrat could be as irritating. Tonight one of your little vermin flew into Lincoln’s eye. They have spent countless minutes in Greg’s mouth, Marian’s tights, Phyllis’ bonnet, and in places Bob can’t even reach. Tony & Kristin have yet to notice them but they’re in college and are thus a bit separated from the real world. I realize we should remove the log from our own eye before criticizing the speck in yours, but your highness, these damnedable bugs go far beyond the requirements of Speckdom. Please… send help. Write if you can. Your obedient servant, K. Bradbury
A short tussle with Scott to blacken his hair the first night…
Dear Journal: Summer arrived tonight. I could hear it in the swamp frogs as I drove home on the Virginia road. Each deep dip swelling with their noises of the night…and the lightening bugs…finally. .. finally… Summer arrived tonight.
Opening night…. two major battles.. the hornets under platform number 10 and a strange loud bird which keeps annoying us at the makeup shed.. I chase it down a path and it gets around me…
Opening Night is always a holy moment for me… There comes a time in theatre when no one knows what they’re doing, when pure instinct takes over, a certain numbness… not unlike jumping off a cliff with the insane hope that you’ll land in a truckload of tulips… It’s called the Opening Night Curtain.
Opening night… Scott’s mike goes out right before we begin.. the lights suddenly go out and Lincoln buys Slicky Bill’s store in the dark. Computer had come unplugged. The reviewer quickly scribbles notes in the darkness. Don’t do that, lady! Dave Hedrick and Ken Costa have worked their butts off. Don’t talk about the lights going out!
After opening night… lady at IGA.. “Ken, the show was wonderful! Where did you ever find music which fit the show so well.”
Great review from the Journal Register… reviewer came to several rehearsals, also. “It’s a hit in humble clothing.” “”engaging songs and a raft of self-effacing humor..” “..negotiated history’s tightrope.” “…Lincoln is hardly homely. Not even close.” “The visual distinction eliminates the familiarity, and as a result, any sacrilege at the thought of Lincoln carrying a tune.” Van Aken’s effusive performance… made Lincoln’s disappointment seem all the more poignant… Abraham! is entertaining for adults and tailor-made for kids. …carefully focused the show’s attention on virtues: honesty, freedom, courage, and education. …As he walks up the stairs and into the darkness, many a child’s head turns to see where Lincoln went…Abraham! restores a needed dramatic dimension to New Salem.” Then she mentions that the lights went out. Dern. Don’t take it personally, Dave.
High on life, I drive home conducting the William Tell Overture on my cassette deck. The Tallulah cop thinks I’m waving at him… waves back. Little does he know I was cueing the trombones. At Ashland I switch to Bob Dylan. Dylan plays well in Ashland. At Virginia I turn it all off to drive the final stretch of county road. From Rossini, to Dylan, to silence… the direction life should go. Even aging hippies have their day. Cold tonight but the smells of this summer tonight are too sweet to miss. I roll down the window full and listen to the frogs praise Him. Why am I hurrying? God gave me this night to enjoy. Summer is the time for stopping, for stopping to smell and listen…for stopping to feel the joy of being. Seven miles out of Arenzville, just before Musch’s pond, I stop the car, getting out to gaze up at tonight’s half moon. I lift my hands to God and cry a bit of thanks. Standing there in the oiled road… stars, moon, wisps of cloud… I am brought into loving perspective. I ask, “Why me?” He answers, “Why not?” Good enough for me. Let’s go home.
Half-way through season, found out that Phyllis had been wearing her dress backward all summer.. She kept it that way.. looked better.
Lincoln sprains his ankle as a counselor at Bible camp… basketball.
July 5th.. strange things start appearing on the upper level.. chairs… two rows! Bob begins to worry about what to do with the excess crowd. I tell him to get their money and let them find a seat.
Lady at Franklin Burgoo tells Greg that he should go see the Abraham! show at New Salem.. She saw it last night and just loved it.
Note from Arenzville men’s prayer group: “Ken, I know that God has blessed you with a summer without rain on your show, but we badly need rain on our crops. Would you mind having your cast pray for scattered showers?”
5,000 people later, we close for the summer. For the last time tonight I stopped the car beside Musch’s pond and raised my hands in thanks to God. I’d always been afraid to give my life to Him… I didn’t want to be a missionary to Africa … I hate bugs and latrines.. instead.. Instead He gave me theatre. He gave me New Salem for a season. And so ends the notes of last summer. One of the most beautiful experiences of my life, due in large part to the love you folks have given to New Salem and Lincoln.
I’m used to fighting my way to get theatre produced… instead, here.. I have Dave Hedrick, Ken Costa, nightwatchman Gene with his tails of bluegills.. the world’s most delightful night cleaning lady who loves to hear me play the bagpipes. I cannot thank you all enough for what you have given me … and our cast could tell similar stories.
My main job in writing was the music… A word about that before I close with a couple songs….
My challenge.. .music to fit the period, but not period music… a timeless quality… Roll up the Sangamon… old square dance chord progression Good to be free… a jerky song to portray harshness of Jack Armstrong and the Clarey’s Grove Boys… The Sangamon Volunteers.. needed a martial sound.. had to be played life because of the large sections of dialogue. Mud Blues… the only song with a slightly out-of-period sound.. but I kept it anyway.. it fit Kelso. Idea on the candlelight tour: “How would New Salem look different from what it is now?” Mother’s Lament… Needed a slow ballad in Act II.. needed a solo for Phyllis… needed something to speak to the plight of the women.. candlelight tour.. one interpreter… alone in a cabin.. You gotta dig deeper… needed the energy of two young boys Temperance Rally Rag … to use Marian’s natural humor … to help dispel the myth that our ancestors were all pious Puritans… That’s the Way to Get Ahead… the 11th Hour number… to set up the ending…
Scott and Kristen …. Lonely River … looked for a metaphor for a young person in early New Salem.. the Sangamon River… . Scott …. Freedom Wind …. wind as a metaphor…