Berry Theatre Delves Into History With "The Stick Wife"

Performers tackle tough subject of civil rights

The Berry College Theatre Company presented in November "The Stick Wife," a drama about the struggles of 1960s southern life.

The play, directed by John Countryman, an associate professor of Fine Arts and Theatre at Berry, focused on the wives of Ku Klux Klan members amidst the 1963 Birmingham, Ala., church bombing that killed four girls.

Daniela Cardenas portrayed Jessie Bliss, the wife of Ed Bliss, who was played by Keith Brooks. Bliss lives under the pressure of her husband's abuse and his involvement in the Ku Klux Klan and the bombing. Bliss's interaction with Marguerite Pullet, played by Erin Dubyak, and Betty Conner, played by Katy Reichert, and their husbands, shows the oppression and injustice in society at the time.

Daniela Cardenas (left) and Keith Brooks (right) deliver the hard-hitting drama that makes "The Stick Wife" a success.

Picture from www.berry.edu/AroundBerry/nov122007/

The women in the play go though a difficult time. explained Dubyak, a sophomore interdisciplinary major. "I mean these women are incredibly oppressed and each has their own ways of coping," Dubyak said. "Marguerite thinks she's nothing without her husband."

A Dream Come True

Sarah Countryman, a sophomore interdisciplinary major, stage manager and daughter of the director, explained that this play was a production that her father wanted to do since she was little.

"He wanted to do it mostly because of the message behind it for Berry College, Rome and the South in general," Countryman said. "I know he's really proud of it."

Not only was the play intensely acted, but Reichert says the production process was intense, as well.

"I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It was definitely more emotionally challenging than I thought it would be," Reichert said. "It's been a great experience, but it was difficult to get through it."

The company began work on the play following fall break and put in long hours, with the costume design department working up to 80 hours a week, while the actors had only a little more than two weeks to learn their lines on their own time, said Alice Bristow, costume designer and an assistant professor at Berry.

"We got a pretty good picture of that moment in time when the play was set in the time of the civil rights movement," Countryman said of all those involved in the production and research process for the play. "It really began to feel we had a play in our hands . . . that served as a warning to people not to forget the past."

Upcoming events from the Berry College Theatre Company:

*"My Funny Valentine: A Cabaret Evening"

Directed by Christian Boy

Musical Direction by Kris Carlisle

E. H. Young Theatre, Berry College

Feb. 14-16

*"Shades of Self"
Artistic Director: Jeanne Schul
Rome City Auditorium
March 6-8 at 8 p.m.
March 8 at 2 p.m.
Co-Sponsored by Berry College Theatre Company
and Rome Area Council for the Arts

*"Twelfth Night"
By William Shakespeare
Directed by John Countryman
E. H. Young Theatre, Berry College
April 17- 20 and April 24-27

{A. C.}