Nathan and Lacey Mae argue whether to move to Dallas while standing in his small Vicksburg apartment after a long shift at the mechanic shop.
“Am I supposed to just drop it all and take you to Dallas, leave everything behind?” Nathan asks. “Lacey, if we go, what are we? Am I your man? Are you my girl?”
“We can talk about that a little ways to Dallas, it’s a lot longer than just 300 miles,” she replies
“I’m not going to Dallas with you,” he says.
So went the story of “The Lead Locket,” a ten-minute play by Jackon-based writer Joseph Frost. The play was one of three to win the annual 10:4 TENN playwriting contest, culminating in a reading event on Friday at the Mississippi University for Women, kicking off the Tennessee Williams Tribute, a festival celebrating the late playwright from Columbus.
“This was about trying to get that feeling that you can get a new start if you get somewhere else,” Frost said. “In the process of the play, (Nathan) comes back at (Lacey) saying, ‘Do you think that just because you’re in a new place, you’re going to be a different human being? It doesn’t work like that.'”
Elyzabeth Wilder won first place in the competition for her play, “All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go.” She said she was delighted to participate in the festival with her work since it surrounds her chosen study area. Wilder is the Tennessee Williams playwright-in-residence at Sewanee: The University of the South.
Her play features a couple, Meredith and John, embroiled in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic during lockdown with their children. Through the midst of frustration being in such close quarters, the couple meet away from home to argue about the situation. Eventually, they reconcile, holding hands while sitting against the hood of their car.
“Tennessee Williams holds a special place in my heart,” Wilder said. “When I was a kid, our library in Mobile had very few plays in their collection, but they did have the complete collection of Tennessee Williams and those were some of the first plays I read.”
Wilder said her friends inspired her play during the initial pandemic when lockdowns were in effect and that she wrote it to reflect those relationships.
“So many people I knew were stuck at home with their college-aged children, and everyone was trying to figure out how to live together again as adults,” Wilder said.
Mary Johnson, a Knoxville playwright, won third place for her “Love is Alive in the Old Folks Home.”
Her play featured the relationship between a dementia-stricken lesbian, Maggie, and a caretaker, the nurse, that she can never seem to remember. Through their interactions, Maggie remembers stories of her lover, who died long ago. Though she cares for Maggie, the nurse can only continue to remind her who she is as she tends to her.
Johnson said she felt her play was inspired by the complicated nature of life and the many ways people interact with each other, often with different perspectives and memories they carry with them.
“Whether it’s something weird that happened to me, or something that I’m afraid of, often that will inspire my work,” Johnson said. “I find that if I explore things, that fear goes away, and familiarity, and examining and exploring characters and their motivations and why they do things are powerful for me.”
Tennessee Williams Tribute
As the winners, Wilder, Frost and Johnson had their plays read aloud Friday as part of the Tennessee Williams Tribute, and their work will be featured in the university’s literary magazine, The Ponder Review, contest organizer Kris Lee said.
Lee told The Dispatch he has been helping to run the competition since 2020 to bring Tennessee Williams or Southern-themed plays to MUW so that the City of Columbus can partner with the University on the annual festival.
“You fast forward to today, and these collaborations have led to very rewarding experiences for both parties involved,” Lee said. “Working with (the Tennessee Williams Tribute), too, has given me a front-row sense of respect on how nonprofits like it operate and survive.”
Each year, more than 20 writers from across the country submit 10-minute plays from October through December. Starting in the spring, several judges pick the best three works based on the quality and relation to the theme.
“I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at how we have ended up with this cycle (of winners) this
year,” Lee said. “… We have high caliber people submitting across the board of professionals and people who are just writing for the fun of it, but good quality scripts are coming out of it. So I’m always happy with what we get.”
Payton Bellew, a senior theater major who played the character of Nathan in “The Lead Locket,” said he thought the event was an excellent way for young actors like him to perform and for playwrights to receive more exposure for their work.
“I’m very excited that I was asked to be here and I was excited to participate in (the Tennessee Williams Tribute),” Bellew said. “I think that it’s important that young and new writers get to hear their work read aloud and performed in front of them. Especially with an audience, too.”
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