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Callie's Calling conveys family conflict with local impact
"Callie's Calling," written by Constance Frank, an SIUC doctoral student of playwriting, is the first of two plays by graduate playwriting students that will be presented by the Playwrights Workshop.
The workshop is an annual presentation offered by the Department of Theater and will run July 18-19 and 25-26.
Every summer, the department produces new scripts by students in the Master of Fine Arts or Ph.D. playwriting program.
The play, "Callie's Calling," is a family drama about two sisters who return to the site of their family's old homestead in Tennessee to face conflicts of the past and present.
According to Rebecca Fishel-Bright, assistant professor of theater at SIUC and the director of the play, "Callie's Calling" is a play about family and the relationships that people are born into and the relationships people make for themselves.
"It is also about the ways that the tragedies from before our birth can echo far into our lifetime and the ways we try to understand and make sense of those things so that we can live the best life we can," Bright said.
As the play unfurls, the sisters are visited by the husband of their daughter/niece. The husband is believed to have beaten her into a coma while she is pregnant and nearing the stage of delivery. During the night, the three struggle their way through a tangle of hopes, dreams, lies, disappointments and practical necessity.
Bright said not only does she relate to the play but believes that most anyone viewing it would also, because the play is about "the struggle to understand the life we are living and how much family can or should impact on our decisions in that life."
Through a total collaboration of director, playwright and actors, the play was transformed from a story on paper into a living work. In fact, Frank found a story that she didn't realize was there when she started two years ago.
The story began with the subject of how an abusive relationship within a family impacts all other relationships. But as Frank watched the actors add full dimension to her characters, she delved into layers she didn't know existed.
According to Frank, the play became more layered, both characteristically and thematically.
"The story that was uncovered by the work with the actors was much more complex and became about land and kin and the web of family and about the impact on our lives of things that happened long before we were born," Bright said.
Bright says she hopes that the audience enjoys the story and that they see a bit of themselves in it.
"After all, that's what theatre is all about - reflecting the world back to itself so we gain a deeper understanding of it, and ourselves," Bright said.
What viewers might not realize is that the events that set the foundation for the play are part of local history. The background only makes the story more intense. The homestead that was seized in the play refers to the seizure of land by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1944 and is known as Land Between the Lakes.
The events of that time, the displacement of thousands of people against their will, have had a lasting impression on the communities and people of the area. Even more land was seized in the 1960s and more were left homeless.
Now, according to Bright, the government is taking some of that land it seized and intends to sell it to developers.
"This is happening today, and the impact of the government's actions over the past 60 years is unimaginable in the small towns of the area ... the towns where the displaced people finally settled," Bright said.
Frank said she used this historical aspect and the influence of her Southern culture as part of her layered focus on the correlation of the two women trying to regain ownership of their lives and their family's land.
"I really feel the ties of the land and the earth to the women became a very important layer to me, in respect to the individual and society," Frank said.
The audience reaction is the vital and final crafting of the play, according to Bright, and she said she enjoys hearing the reactions.
"Knowing how what I was trying to do was actually perceived by the audience is fascinating to me as a director," she said.
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Christian H. Moe Laboratory Theatre in the SIUC Communications building. Tickets will be available at the door for $5.
