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Thursday and Friday, April 6 & 7, 2006, 8:00 P.M.
TALL TALES
Play #6 in The Kentucky Cycle by
Robert Schenkken
Directed by Martin Papazian
With: Tara Buck, Alexis Corey, Lee DeBroux, Steve Fite, Sheilah A. Grenham,
& Martin Papazian
As a "preview" to Coal Hollow: Photographs by Ken Light, Track 16 presents a reading of "Tall Tales," one of nine plays included in The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize. Schenkkan began the work that would become The Kentucky Cycle with the short play, "Tall Tales, focusing on a family's struggle with modernity and industry in the twentieth century. It is a simple tale set in 1890: a charming young man visits the family homestead and enthralls the daughter while charming her parents. Her father, signs off the mineral rights to his land for a paltry sum. Later in a spasm of guilt, the charming stranger warns the young daughter what the mining companies will do to the land, but she chooses not to believe him. Self-delusion in the face of impossible decisions becomes a motif of The Kentucky Cycle. Directed by Martin Papazian.
* A portion of the proceeds from these readings will be donated to
Mercer Health Right, a free clinic which is geared toward people who have been affected by the mechanization of coal, and to Coal River Mountain Watch, a community based group dedicated to stopping mountaintop removal and to improve the quality of community life.