Nashville Arts Magazine

The Love of the Theater | It’s All in the Family

I’ve always felt lucky that at a very young age, my parents instilled in me a love for theater that I would carry with me throughout my life. I’m here today because my parents met during a 1983 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. From that fateful day until now, my life has been filled with dazzling stage productions that I have either enjoyed from the theater or as a cast member onstage. My parents have kept their love of theater alive since day one, and now I have the chance to see my own father’s works performed right here in Nashville.

Jamie Farmer and Mark Cabus star in ARTICLE 4

My father, Jim Reyland, who put his acting ambitions aside many years ago in order to focus on his writing, has become one of Nashville’s most prolific playwrights. For more than a decade, he has passionately pursued the life of a playwright—an endeavor that has taught him plenty about fortitude and resilience. Never more determined, my dad now drew on his own experiences as a dramatist to found Writer’s Stage, a new, nonprofit theater company whose main goal is to serve as an advocacy organization for Tennessee-based playwrights. Writer’s Stage is about the playwright. Dad knows the downside of the lonely playwright’s life, having pounded his head against the literary theatrical gatekeepers and having received his share of polite, if only occasionally helpful, rejection letters. It occurred to him that there must be other writers in Tennessee who are in the same boat—looking for that developmental vehicle that allows them to get their pieces read, workshopped, and maybe eventually produced. That’s the lifeblood of a playwright. If you can’t hear your play out loud, then it’s just a stack of papers.

New play workshops don’t happen often in Nashville. If you’ve never experienced one, it’s a great opportunity to see the creative process at work.

In April of 2009, Writer’s Stage produced readings of two of my dad’s new plays, the promising Further Than We’ve Ever Been and Article 4:. The idea was to determine which play was ready to be taken to the all-important workshop level. What is a workshop, you might ask? A workshop is an opportunity to see a new play in a staged environment and continue to shape it. The actors are off-book, and there are sets, lighting, and costumes. So which show made the final cut?

November 4–14, 2009, Writer’s Stage will present Article 4: featuring an all-star cast including Evelyn Blythe, Mark Cabus, Jamie Farmer, Chris Goodrich, Ted Welch, and Greg Wilson, directed by Barry Scott. In the play, reclusive millionaire Jonathan Forty wants to give away his fortune, and Faith Lockhart is willing to pay the price for that gift. From the playwright’s perspective, this show contains “a healthy amount of the seven deadly sins, but amongst the chaos lies virtue and forgiveness. Lives are spinning out of control, and while some will crash, others are saved in a most unexpected way.”

“Most of the workshopping really takes place before the audience gets there,” says director Barry Scott. “We’ll have three intense weeks of adding and subtracting and figuring out how to tell Jim’s story in the most effective way on stage. It’s humbling for all of us but especially for the writer.”

My dad, too, is looking forward to the adventure. “New play workshops don’t happen often in Nashville. If you’ve never experienced one, it’s a great opportunity to see the creative process at work. I’m thrilled to bring Article 4: to life with such a wonderful director and cast. This will be the fourth play I’ve had the good fortune to workshop, and I learn a great deal about writing for the theater with each one.”

The workshop runs November 4–14 at Writer’s Stage, 1008 Charlotte Avenue. If you’d like to support this workshop production by purchasing a ticket or any of the other creative sponsorship opportunities available on the Writer’s Stage website, please visit www.writersstage.com.

Some of my first memories as a little girl included spending Friday nights attending dazzling stage productions filled with song and dance. Someday, I’ll give my children the same gift. I love theater; it’s all in the family. And thanks to Steve Armistead and the Crosland Company for the kind donation that made Writer’s Stage possible.

by Maggie Reyland | Photography by Dan Kellerby