For The WordPlayers’ Staged Reading Series this year (2021), three new plays were chosen to be read from about two dozen worthy submissions. We had solicited plays with broadly defined themes of redemption and/or hope.
Last night, April 12, we read the first of the three “winners” – A FLY IN NOVEMBER, by Steve Sherman. It’s a play about a young, enslaved person whose dreams of freedom are inextricably tied to a family torn apart by brothers fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War. Specifically set in Knoxville just before and after the Battle of Fort Sanders in November of 1863, it had particular resonance for our local audience. Sherman skillfully weaves historical information about the wider conflict into the domestic strife within the small group of complicated, nuanced human beings.
Roughly two dozen of the audience members lingered after the performance to reflect with the cast, the director, and the playwright on what was resonating with them. The power of the play was demonstrated by the wide variety of responses and questions that it raised within this group. Can the human being be distinct from the cause he supports and defends? Or does the cause define him? Does family blood run deeper than societal values and tradition? Has the fundamentally rotten foundation of the Confederacy been eradicated from our society, or have variants of that “virus” mutated to continue the plague indefinitely? Can embracing small, innocent, human connections – such as singing a baby to sleep – ultimately provide the hope that will break the cycle of misunderstanding and hatred?
May God have mercy on this fallen world.
Many thanks to Steve Sherman for submitting his play. Thanks, too, to LoRen, the two Rachels, Billy Kyle, Matthew, and McKinley for a skillful and compassionate reading. Thanks to our masked audience for stepping out with courage to be among the first to help bring back live performance to downtown Knoxville.
Terry Weber, Artistic Director