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Director’s Notes
"Why have I chosen to stage the play in the very heart of Appalachia?" Many people have asked the question, and I believe they are all for the betterment of the region, my home. Our stories have been told by many over the years and more often in ways which are displeasing, disrespectful, and even degrading to our people. I believe we should have the opportunity to tell the stories and take the power in the telling of the stories. Any story, every story, but especially our story, and our stories should be told from our perspective, celebrating our strengths, owning our truths, learning from our mistakes and honoring our heritage.
I read The Kentucky Cycle in 1993 and fell in love with it. I was stunned by its representation of the beauty, the strength, and the raw power of our mountains and our people. These characters were people I knew, loved, honored, and had learned from in the process of becoming who I am. I read the script and see the beauty of the land through the eyes of Mary Ann from being a naïve, innocent youth to her being a mother, telling stories to her children. The love of the land is as inherent in Michael Rowen as it is in Joshua Rowen, seven generations later, as we cycle to the point when he needs to hear the voices of his people in order to know his role on this land, this earth. And he takes the first step in honoring the past and restoring for the future. The commitment to family is seen in very different veins as Zeke and Zach, young brothers, make their choices to honor their differing family values. Zeke chooses to remain true to his father as he stays to help recover the family land. Zach chooses to leave his father as a way to show honor for his newly discovered uncle (Patrick’s brother) the African American slave of the family whom the father was going to sell.
The strength of the mountain women is just as evident as they stand strong to demand a union, because they cannot and will not wait and watch their men, fathers, husbands, and sons die in the coal mines needlessly. The hard life of a coal miner and his family also demonstrates that strength and love of land as they work to make a life, not to merely survive, but one worthy of telling stories about for generations to come. As they worked to rise above an otherwise oppressive life and to reach a level of life as rich as the stories they told, the strength and the love of land is always evident and a part of their very being. I notice as I continue that I have strayed from referencing specific characters in the play, only because I find it easy to lose the line of where the play ends and reality begins. Were these characters or memories, or stories told me by my grandparents?
Granted there are some heavy representations in this script also. I, as a white person, am not proud of our means of acquiring the land from the Native Americans or our owning and selling of African Americans. But this truth in my heritage makes me the person I am today, one who is greatly aware of these facts and active in seeing an end of bigotry in our society today.
Should I be embarrassed or apologetic that my ancestors sold their mineral rights, not merely because of illiteracy, but more due to the fact we were a trusting people who believed in an honest word and the good of people? Or should I deny the back-breaking work ethic that my grandparents and great grandparents lived by every day for the good of the land or the mining company?
Are all the characters protagonists who make all positive choices as life hands them their path? Not necessarily, but neither are any of us. There are stories in every life and every family tree, some even on the darker side of humanity. We can choose to deny those stories or face them and grow. And, as individuals, we need not even identify with the characters; just because they are fictionally created and labeled Appalachia does not mean that they are truly representative of all or any Appalachians. However, there are and will always be characters in fictional drama with whom we may find an identity.
As I have been on this journey I have met and eagerly discussed the play with many of its critics and have found their disapproval to lie in the interpretation of the play. I could criticize their perspective as it is very different from mine, but isn’t this what art is supposed to be? Isn’t this what art is supposed to do? Scholars have debated for centuries about the questionable relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude. Even through their disagreements, the play has continued, allowing audiences and artists to think for themselves and make their own decisions. We all deserve this.
For me The Kentucky Cycle is about many things, but, primarily, it is mostly about survival – more specifically, the hope for survival. The survival of our mountain culture through our greatest resources: our land, our people, and our history is excavated, analyzed, and, in my opinion, ultimately celebrated. Survival; possibly the most powerful quest. What one must do to survive is largely dictated by the possibilities life presents and based on the magnitude of these choices, we find ourselves equipped to meet the demands within our own personal struggles. As a result, we become ‘necessary animals’. Until placed in that moment of decision, do we truly know how necessary is our own personal animal?
It is in my utmost interest to produce a well-informed, quality production of which we can all be proud. I am a responsible artist and director who is proud a proud and caring native of Appalachia. I have a great passion for this project and am committed to making it as good as I know it to be in my heart. And this heart is one of a strong mountain woman who has been raised to be proud of who she is. I do not merely cloak myself in Appalachia when it is convenient. I am an artist and a native of Eastern Kentucky,…Elkhorn City, Kentucky, I still have a home here – by choice.
-Stephanie Richards-
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