This week at ASF, we began rehearsals for Ring of Fire. As the title implies, it's about legendary musician Johnny Cash. This play (not surprisingly a musical) is the story of Cash's legendary life and career, including his upbringing, meeting and falling in love with June Carter, and, of course, his music. The play uses Cash's own music to tell his story, images and action added, with surprisingly little dialogue. Perhaps appropriate for the fabled "Man in Black" whose life was, in large, about and expressed in music. We're only a few days into the process, so I'm anxious and excited to see where this show goes from here.

Working on this play has made me think about past productions I've worked on, or plays I've seen, or encountered that are biographical in nature. Many biographical plays focus on musicians, and the legacy of their music - something that I love and enjoy.

Also this year, as I've written about, we produced a new work, Ethel, a one woman show about Ethel Waters.

One of my favorite plays is Always Patsy Cline, is also a "jukebox musical." (A term I've decided I really dislike, even if it is in someway accurate.) This play, has a lot more dialogue, but also contains lots of music recorded and performed by Patsy Cline during her career.

A new work produced recently at ASF, a work entitled, Bear Country, is about the life and career of the enigmatic foot ball coach, Paul "Bear" Bryant, an Alabama legend.

A good friend worked on Lost Highway, the story of Hank Williams Senior, and right before coming to ASF, Idols of the King, a work about Elvis Presley was produced.

I find that biographic plays are often among my favorites, but a the same time, some of the most difficult productions to produce, and I've thought a lot about why that is. I think it may have a lot to do with the nature of their subjects. Each of these plays has an icon (or icons) as it's primary character(s) - individuals that people have strong feelings and ideas about. That immediately sets a high bar -not only the script, but each aspect of a production.

Particularly in the case of Bear Bryant, Hank, and Cash, these celebrities come with larger than life personalities - and no small share of demons. Couple that with the fact that these folks have passed on - and you add another level of complication. Sometimes talking about those demons - drug use, alcoholism, brushes with the law, legendary tempers, and other tragic events - becomes tender ground. To not talk about them would be brushing past or ignoring key pieces of the lives these men and women led. But talking too much about them, and for some, it becomes disrespecting the dead. Audience members often have adverse reactions to anything they may consider airing skeletons in the closet. On the other hand, other audience members think that ignoring the dark corners paints complicated individuals as "saintly" rather than the complex human beings they were.

In other words, you can't please everyone, all of the time.

And maybe that's why I find these productions both challenging and rewarding.

What do YOU think? What biographical plays have you seen, done? What do you love about them? What do you NOT love about them? What makes a production or play successful when telling someone's story? Post a comment with your thoughts!

Until next time cats and kittens,

Cheers,

~R